Finding a CRM That Works for Your Business (Today and Tomorrow)

​Customer relationships are the lifeblood of any business, whether you’re selling directly to consumers or other businesses. While maintaining those relationships may seem relatively straightforward, many businesses struggle to keep on top of customer engagement as their database grows. The spreadsheets or manual systems that once worked for a small business of two with 50 customers, won’t work once you reach 50 employees and 2000 customers. In fact, sticking to these same systems can hinder growth.
 
That’s where an automated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes in. 
 
An automated CRM is an important tool for fostering and growing relationships, and making sure you’re working with one that is not only right for your business right now, but in the future, is imperative to your ongoing success. That means understanding a couple of different things:
 
1.   Customization for your present and future needsIncluding a CRM in your business plan may not be the first thing that pops into your mind, but it can make a huge difference. When planning for your future, you want to make sure to consider how you’re going to build, maintain, and grow your relationships with customers. Having a sense of what kind of growth you’re aiming for, what new markets you may want to expand into, and the ways in which you want to engage with clients will help you pick the right CRM. For example, maybe your initial CRM only allows for a set number of users or funnels. Once you hit that barrier, finding a new CRM that works and transferring your database can be costly and time-consuming. 
 
2.   Enhances overall productivity It can be hard to know what exactly makes a good CRM stick out from a mediocre or bad one. When it comes to finding a good CRM that’s scalable, is how it impacts productivity. Roughly 1/3 of corporate activities could be automated. In fact, a ton of productive time is lost every day to menial, repetitive tasks. You don’t want activities around your CRM to become a time-suck that impedes your ability to scale and grow. Pick a CRM that provides useful analytic data to help with decision making, enhance productivity by centralizing customer information, and improve overall customer service by quickly delegating tasks to the right people. If a CRM doesn’t have these features, it will impede the ultimate scalability of your service.
 
3.   Ease of use and trainabilityMaking sure the system you use is easy to train on is imperative for success and growth. If you have to spend weeks training people to use a system, whether it’s a new system for old employees or a fresh hire you’re onboarding, your system isn’t that scalable. A scalable system should be streamlined, easy to use, understandable, and centralized. That way you can train employees how to use it, integrate it seamlessly into their workflow, and give them the tools they need to succeed.
 
If you’re still struggling to know which CRMs will work best for your business or how to integrate customer management into your workflow, comment below or reach out. As a sales and business development consultant over 40 years of experience in customer service management, I’m happy to help you find the tools you need to make your business a success. Please click here to setup a 30-minute meeting or send us an email at pdavis@nx-step.com.