CRM for the small business

The Small Business CRM

If you are the owner of a small business, customer relationship management (CRM) has likely been on your mind at some point. Small business CRM's have shown themselves to be an effective tool in marketing and increasing business and profitability for many small businesses, wherever they are based.

Even though personalised attention and customer care are easier within a small organisation, small business CRM platforms can streamline the process and make customer satisfaction within your business grow ever higher. Let's take a look at what it takes to install a CRM software solution for a small business and investigate some of the benefits it can have for your particular business. You will soon see just how profitable small business CRM software can be for your company.

Small business CRM is a combination of tools and programs that are used to enhance the customer relationship and expand the profitability of your business. Small business CRM simplifies the recording of customer information, sales records, employee tracking and management accountability. It can also provide enhanced marketing solutions, greater customer satisfaction, and help to increase your sales revenue.

Improve Customer Experience

If you want to build your business by enhancing your customer experience and seizing lost sales opportunities, then a small business CRM can help. Any company that is using more than one program to track their customer files, sales, and employee information can easily benefit from the installation of a small business CRM.

Take a look at the efficiency of your company’s record keeping and see where a small business CRM can improve things. If your sales are suffering and your customer records are hard to decipher, a small business CRM could be your perfect solution.

The Many Uses of a Small Business CRM

At the employee level, customer information can be entered and sales or service details can be tracked within a small business CRM program. At the management level, quotas and sales data can be tracked and analysed to assess employee performance, requests can be sent to employees, tasks can be delegated and reports can be gathered from the information within the small business CRM database. In the marketing department, the reports and data taken from the small business CRM program can allow for more directed marketing and advertising campaigns.

The effectiveness of previous campaigns can be analysed and stronger campaigns can be developed using the updated customer information from the small business CRM. Additionally, many tasks, such as mass mailings and follow up emails can be automated through the small business CRM interface, freeing up employee time and saving payroll. Depending on your company’s needs, there are simply dozens of things that a small business CRM can accomplish if it is properly set up and managed.

Choosing a Small Business CRM

Choosing a small business CRM program is as simple as looking at the tasks that you need to achieve and the information that you need to store within the program. If you use a program such as Microsoft Outlook already, finding a small business CRM that integrates within Outlook will save many man-hours and tedious re-entry of customer information. Lastly, but most importantly, you want to find a cost effective small business CRM that can grow along with your business. Comparing a variety of small business CRM options will help you to make your final decision on the type of CRM you need.

The best Outlook CRM solutions

Here are some of the best Outlook CRM solutions for you to consider as part of your search for the ideal CRM.

Microsoft Business Contact Manager

Office Outlook 2010 with Business Contact Manager enables you to organise and manage all contact, prospect, and customer information in a single location so you can spend less time looking for information and be more responsive to your customers.

It includes all the usual small business CRM tools including managing opportunities and sales leads, creating and tracking marketing campaigns, working on projects and setting tasks etc.

Business Contact Manager is included in MS Office Small Business Edition 2010 and MS Office Professional Edition 2010.

The Prophet Small Business CRM

The Prophet small business CRM is one of the most complete and affordable choices for small businesses. This software has a few different versions, with various features allowing you to choose the least expensive small business CRM to fit your current needs.

Prophet software also fully integrates with Outlook 2003 or 2007, allowing you to use what you already know, while adding greater accessibility to your small business CRM needs.

Prophet also have online tutorials to teach you how to make the most of your small business CRM and even offer more in depth, yet affordable, training options for you and your staff. Prophet may just be the perfect solution to your small business CRM needs.

BizAutomation CRM

BizAutomation offers an integrated suite of CRM, Accounting, ERP, and Ecommerce software. It is a web based CRM for users of Outlook, MS Exchange and QuickBooks.