Essential Criterion for choosing the best CRM
A CRM system typically covers all the customer information in one place. Its functionality ranges from setting up appointments to tracking customer data from a single navigation screen. A CRM system tracks data from various communication channels including a company’s website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials, and more recently, social media. Its primary use is to analyze and understand the needs of the target audience and how best to cater to it. However, choosing the best CRM system for a company depends upon a number of factors. If these factors are not considered, then a company may significantly be at loss after adopting a poor CRM. In this blog some of the important criteria for choosing the best CRM will be discussed:
Purpose: It is very important to consider what you want to do with your CRM. Definite goals should be set in order to get the best out of your CRM and be ready to capitalize on the area your CRM will prove to be the most effective.
- Track customer base
- Track leads and lead activity
- Offer Connectivity between teams
- Track opportunities and closing rates
- Manage relationships
- Organize business operations
- Generate customized reporting
- Increase productivity
- Increase profitability
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Implementation: Whenever a new software is introduced in the company it undergoes the implementation phase. This is very important to capitalize because you may be needing a third party who will handle the roll-out. During the process, a period of training and testing is undertaken to educate the employees and to work out the system bugs if any are present. So even if you think there are no external implementation costs, the training and testing process will demand a substantial amount of money from you and this may lead to your team’s failure to keep up the promises. So don’t undermine this step.
User Adoption: Adoption of a new CRM system is always viewed with suspicion and cynicism by the salespeople. They are not comfortable sharing their customer information with others. In this scenario, it is important to assure the salespeople that they are not at risk for losing or sharing their customers with others. You should try to engage and involve your salespeople in the CRM selection process so that they feel at ease with the introduction of the new system. The more you empower the salespeople to choose the CRM the more likely they will adopt it easily.
Mobility: Most of the salespeople prefer to use mobile devices for their work. If they have access to a tool that uses a variety of web-enabled devices, they will be delighted. It is also important to remember that the salespeople are early adopters of technology, so selecting a system that remains updated with the current technology is very important.
Customization: CRM tools have the capability of handling multitude of processes. Each section has a different process associated with it. This is not a bad thing as it gives you the opportunity to make a difference with your competitors. Keeping this in mind, your CRM should be flexible enough to handle the different processes and evolve with your business adapting to the changing needs without the need to be replaced.
Compatibility: While compatibility is not a major issue these days as more and more applications are connected through APIs, it’s still advisable to find a CRM that is compatible with the other applications you already have in place.
Product Demo: It is highly recommended that you tear down the product demonstration and try out various ways of testing the product. This will reveal its strength and weaknesses and help you in the long run of setting up of your CRM according to your business needs.
Reporting: Reporting is a very important aspect of a CRM because it shows you the actual fact-based insights of your undertakings. You may think all your processes are effective, but the report can prove otherwise. Thus you must ensure that your sales team inserts the correct data of customers without apprehension that would result in the proper product delivery, pricing, and requirements for your business.