Ronaldo (1)What is CRM and Why Your Business Needs One
If you are engaged in a business – either as owner, partner or employee, chances are you are dependent on your “Customers” to generate revenue, pay the bills and make a profit. Haven’t heard of any single successful business with no Customers anyway – unless you’re in for some really serious “monkey business”.
So, we are talking about Customers, and how to get more Customers for your business. And it’s not just about getting more Customers, it’s also about taking good care of your Customers – or definitely somebody else will. Thus, one needs to completely manage all aspects of Customer Management, from getting those potential leads, making that first call/visit, taking notes of vital Customer information like address, contacts, revenue, and yeah – include birthdates, not just email, and phone numbers.
In these times of stiff competition on a shrinking global marketplace where goods and services are available even in the internet, you cannot afford to miss any single opportunity to add a Customer to your list of accounts and in driving or fulfilling their demands and requirements. This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System is really helpful. Implementing a CRM system for your business – big or small significantly increase your awareness regarding how you generate new leads, and how your customers do business with you – their buying patterns and behaviour, revenue share, and many more analytics and information. It also give you an opportunity to adopt a globally accepted standard or best practices in managing your active and potential accounts.
So what is CRM?
We better get the definitions from two of the most well-known sources:
From Wikipedia.com.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers. CRM software is used to support these processes, storing information on current and prospective customers. Information in the system can be accessed and entered by employees in different departments, such as sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation. Details on any customer contacts can also be stored in the system. The rationale behind this approach is to improve services provided directly to customers and to use the information in the system for targeted marketing and sales purposes.
From CRMTutorial.com
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a process or methodology used to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.
What types of Business will need a CRM System?
As long as you need to store Customer Information for Marketing efforts and future reference, or you have repeat Customers and you would want to track their important information so you could service them better – you need a CRM system.
If you’re business is doing transactions with one-time Customers (or end-users) as in the case of a drug store or a hardware store or a grocery – you don’t need CRM, unless you are supplying other drug stores, hardwares or groceries with products/services.
You especially need CRM if your business involves a cycle of Account Management – from leads generation, to determining and following potential Customer Leads, giving quotations and proposals, and winning the Account. If you are into Affiliate Marketing, the more that you need a CRM system, believe me.
How much does a CRM System and Implementation Costs?
Traditional CRM systems generally cost a lot – from paying for the license, lengthy implementations and yearly maintenance and support. These can cost from hundreds of thousands of dollars even to millions. And you need to hire IT specialists to manage your servers and databases – which happen to cost thousands of dollars more.
Only recently with the Open Source applications and softwares gaining popularity and trust among many individuals that the cost of business softwares like a CRM System are really low – if not free to use. An example of these Open Source CRM Systems is vTiger Open Source CRM. It is gaining popularity lately and is easy to use. There is no license fee to pay – you only need to spend money if you need professional implementation services and support.
ERPBiz has been appointed as the reseller of the vTiger Open CRM in the Philippines – although anybody from any part of the world can be an ERPBiz customer as the service can be acquired online using the Software As A Service (SaaS) concept – meaning you pay per use of the system. ERPBiz will help your run and implement vTiger CRM and will provide product and technical Support as long as you need it.
Check out the ERPBiz vTiger page for more details about the vTiger Open Source CRM – the Customer Relationship Management System perfect for small to medium businesses who need a reliable CRM System without spending lots of money in the process. You can also download the product brochure at the Downloads section. Shoot me a message if you need to see a Demo Site of vTiger Open CRM.
Hmmm Any industry that deals with people needs CRM and there is no exception to that rule.
In order to also understand the relationship between services, products and clients one should also check out the Kano Analysis – this talks about how clients (consumers) can reach a particular saturation point in terms of satisfaction where in one who gets used to exceptional service gets so used to getting it that it becomes an expectation and thus feel unsatisfied with it anymore and will be looking for more. It also talks about how one should learn to over underpromise but over deliver to keep this Kano effect from happening
Metz – Empty Streets´s last blog post..CPA Board Exam Results Now In: Info courtesy of Bloggista.org
These guys seem like a good CRM resource. They are about CRM in Outlook.
would be interested in your thoughts on using blist for crm:
http://www.blist.com/
feel free to email me ***
thanks
–> reply: Thanks Matthew. Blist is certainly a cool thing to try. Will check it out. Btw, i deleted your email so as to avoid spammers from harvesting it.
The success of a CRM system is dependent upon the business defining processes that can be followed consistently that lead to consistent data entry into the system.
Craig Klein´s last blog post..Top Sales Experts’ New eBook
I’ve been reading up lately on vTiger… I installed it locally and just might try it for my team’s use. We’re a small team but it helps that we run this on a server environment since we don’t really get to physically meet everyday.
It’s a good thing you went ahead and gone all the way open source on your projects.
archondigital´s last blog post..The Tokyo Connection
@Metz – Empty Streets: Way to go Metz thats a good one.
@Craig Klein: I agree Craig. Most CRM implementations fail because Management fails to properly define the processes to follow, and fail to communicate and make key people/employees understand its value and benefits for them.
@archondigital: that;s great to know archon – vTiger seemed to be getting more popular these days. I have used it, I have also seen SugarCRM, but personally I prefer vTiger. It’s intuitive, easy to use and there’s a reliable support. My guys have been at it for a while now and we can already support implementation and regular trouble tickets from Clients. The best thing is – license is free.
I do agree with Craig that consistent data entry leads to CRM success. Data management is important to every business and failure to do so still leads to failure to come up with a good CRM.
Snow of The Budget Shopper´s last blog post..Miss Teen Louisiana USA 2008 Stripped of Title
yeah, CRM costs a lot so it should be utilized into its fullest potential too.
Snow of The Budget Shopper´s last blog post..Dear Bloggery Wins A Domain In Bloggista
You will have some startup costs associated with setting up a CRM, but your business will suffer without it. You can’t expect to grow very quickly without an efficient way to track your leads and follow up with them.
Bill Treat´s last blog post..Top Sales Experts’ New eBook
erp methodology…
Maybe, but I’m not sure it’for everyone….
You must understand the needs of your company TODAY and where do you see your company in the next 5 years for CRM to be cost effrective.