Customer Relationship Management For Small Budget Startups- Business.com Guide
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Transcript of Customer Relationship Management For Small Budget Startups- Business.com Guide
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
CRM
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Table Of Contents
• Introduction: What is CRM for Startups? – Page 1
• CRM Adoption Statistics. – Page 2
• Principles for Working CRM in Small Business. – Page 3
• Small Business Success with CRM. – Page 4
• Summary. – Page 5
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Getting and Using CRM Tools for Startups
In today’s tech business world,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is
getting a lot of attention from executives looking to
motivate sales teams, consultants trying to boost
business outcomes, and even those out in the
business journalism sphere.
Recent news about CRM shows how
enterprises in diverse industries, including a
large number of small businesses, are using
these types of tools to boost market share, to
get good return on investment for business
processes, and to reach other general business
goals.
What is CRM?
The kinds of tools and services characterized as
Customer Relationship Management products are
typically IT setups that provide an interface that
pulls in customer information. Some call them
“Customer Intelligence” tools.
Generally, CRM tools help businesses to compile
details about customers. This may include
identities and contact information, as well as
purchase histories and other bits of data that may
help the business connect with customers and
make sales. Many CRM tools also have a visual
interface – for example, a multi-media CRM
resource might pop up on a computer screen or
Voice-over-IP telephone screen when a call is
established between a customer and a
salesperson. The sales professional can use the
visual details from the CRM to communicate better
with the customer.
There is also a kind of spinoff of this category of tools
called CXM or Customer eXperience Management
tools: here, these tools often focus on micro-
managing what a customer encounters within a
business’s physical or virtual territory, including over
the phone and online.
Some experts also distinguish between CRM options
that either have, or don’t have, a social media
component. With so many customers using platforms
like Facebook and Twitter, CRM tools can
incorporate these platforms in their functionality in
order to help businesses migrate data in and out of
these social media worlds.
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
For small businesses that service lower numbers of
individual clients, why are CRM resources
important? One reason is that, regardless of the
size of a customer base, CRM helps a business to
react to customers better and quicker, in those
moments when “inside information” is key in
negotiating over products and services, or making
a deal.
More recently, some experts have bemoaned the
disconnect between CRM adoption and actual
usability or integration, especially in smaller
operations where business owners may not be able
to rely on a big or sophisticated IT department.
Columns like this one in ITBusinessEdge show that
the majority of businesses have not fully integrated
their CRM solutions, and that an astounding one
third of them still have workers entering data by
hand, rather than relying on automated, modern
systems.
“35% of businesses still
process customer data
manually”
This staggering statistic sheds light on many
customer data processing inefficiencies small
businesses are falling victim to. Manual processing
and a lack of automated CRM tools leaves room for
error, wastes time, and fails to make use of available
data.
But what can you do as a small business owner, with
a tight wallet? Luckily, there are various small,
budget-friendly options for those without a lot of
capital.
CRM Adoption Statistics
A Gartner study for 2012 showed an increase of
over 12% for CRM vendors, where companies
reported revenues of $18 billion. A lot of this growth
is expected to go on through the next few years .
Small businesses are likely to use differently
scalable options over Salesforce, which is popular
among the ‘big players,’ but with the availability of
different branded CRM options, there’s something
for everyone.
CRM Market Share by Vendor
SalesforceSAPOracleMicrosoftIBMAdobeOther
Source: Forbes
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Principles for Working CRM in Small Business
While automation is essential
to prevent redundant hand coding of customer
information, there are also other top-level principles
that help small businesses to really use CRM the
right way. These include the following:
• Make Sure CRM ‘Interferes’ the Right Way
• Make Sure CRM Captures the Right Data
• Build a ‘People Plus Tech’ Solution
Make Sure That CRM ‘Interferes’ the Right Way
It’s important that CRM tools are accessible in the
specific ways that will help salespeople or any
other business employees.
This means they need to be linked to the most
common methods of communication with
customers, whether that’s on the telephone,
through social network platforms like Facebook, or
through other kinds of media. Employees also need
to use these tools in order to make them effective.
Make Sure That CRM Captures the Right Data
CRM solutions are generally useless to businesses
unless they really provide the information that will
help drive sales or enhance relationships with
customers. Small business leaders need to make
the tough decisions about which types of data will
be collected, and how they will be used.
Build a ‘People Plus Tech’ Solution
People need to be involved. Companies can often do
better by providing more in-depth ‘show and tell’ of a
CRM interface, and building robust training
schedules that will support an experienced and
knowledgeable staff. Some of the best businesses
micromanage training according to specific
techniques like those used in agile programming, for
example, quick ‘scrum’ meetings where individuals
can ask questions and give input. This aspect of
CRM use is very important for small businesses
where a smaller and more tenured workforce may
need specific guidance on adoption.
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Small Business Success with CRM
With the right systems in place, many small
companies have reported dramatic growth and
return on investment with CRM. But how does a
centralized customer information system translate
into an increase in sales and revenue? According
to Forrester, here are 3 reasons why CRM can
increase small business sales:
In addition to amplifying your sales potential with
additional insight into customers’ wants and needs,
an integrated CRM platform will ultimately cut costs.
You’ll be able to reduce direct selling costs, remove
unproductive administrative tasks and slim down on
ineffective marketing expenditures by exposing
unresponsive customers.
A newly streamlined CRM system can also improve
IT efficiencies. You can lower software licensing,
maintenance and customization costs, while also
introducing easier training and adoption techniques
for end users.
In assessing the best ways to build a better IT
support structure, startup or small business
leaders can think about how others are using
scalable CRM to promote quicker growth, a more
capable small office and an agile set of business
processes.
Companies like Zoho and Batchbook are affordably
great for entrepreneurs and startups on a small
budget.
The cost of adopting an efficient CRM tool can not
only cut costs and wasteful processes, an integrated
customer management system can also take your
small business to the next level.
• Access to customer information and
requirements allows for instant action
• Reps can make targeted new sales by
knowing more about customers.
• Able to target existing customers with
more relevant offers
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Startups need to manage
customer relationships too.
Thanks and come back soon.
Getting your hands on an updated CRM system and utilizing its
various features will help you develop and maintain the most
crucial customer relationships.