CRM Benefits for Small Businesses

The concept of customer relationship management (CRM) has been around for a long time. Businesses have always worked to create and maintain good relations with their patrons. In the past, information about clients and their preferences were stored in the minds of businessmen or in manual records. Now, such files have become more automated and organised. Storage has come under the purview of new technologies, collectively known as CRM solutions.
Although the list of CRM benefits for small businesses is substantial, most of them can be clustered under five main headings: profitability, customer service, relationships, compliance and reporting.

1. Simplify Tracking
Access to comprehensive and integrated data is really essential when you want to determine where your best margins occur. Expand profitable segments and discard those that are merely a drag on an otherwise blossoming business.

2. Simplify and Enhance Customer Service
Comprehensive information about every customer is critical. CRM software allows talented executives to strategically share their expertise with the sales force in precise ways. It allows a growing business to organize and leverage accumulated knowledge about customer preferences, which often leads to the development of new products and services.

3. Simplify Customer Relationships
Salespeople that do a great deal of cold calling especially benefit from CRM. Automated emailing allows for timely, targeted communication that, ideally, maximizes sales prospects. With the right CRM software, it is also possible to automate lead generation.

4. Simplify Regulatory Compliance
Compliance with applicable rules, regulations and laws is a necessary in every business. The more you can automate the record keeping, the better you'll sleep at night. CRM software can take care of the demands of federal and state requirements in the background, allowing your team to focus on growth.

5. Simplify Reporting
Once data input is consistent across the board, CRM software will organize it and deliver it in myriad ways through real-time reports, which offer many benefits. The ability to take a snapshot of any part of the company-customer interface at any time leads to better decision making, particularly in critical situations.

In short, CRM software can help you:

• Store customer details

• Share data efficiently

• Add information specific to each customer using built-in calendars
• Create a log of customer interactions
• Send emails and newsletters
• Create lists for potential clients
• Track your progress regularly
• Analyze data and charter future strategy

Business gift giving etiquettes and mistakes to avoid

“The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value”

The best gifts make an impression, but it's the worst ones that really stick with us. They're the presents you talk about at dinner parties, laughing at their awfulness or tackiness. And while they might make good conversation, you never want to be the person who gave one.

If you purchase a gift that is too expensive or not aligned with the recipient’s interests, your good intentions may be overshadowed by the gaffe. In the business environment, first impressions are crucial. You cannot afford to slip up as it may cost you your reputation. So before you start shopping for your next round of gifts for clients, colleagues or employees, consider the following business gift giving etiquette tips.

1.     Avoid promotional gifts

Corporate gifts all too often become marketing opportunities and most of those end up in the trash. The main goal of a corporate gift is to advertise the sender’s business or start-up. However customized gifts with your logo are not always a good idea. It’s tough to win over clients, so rather than making a bad first impression, come up with an original idea and stand out from the crowd with an ingenious gift.

2.     Give a personal touch

It’s always nice, whenever possible, to personalize each gift to each recipient. Your clients and colleagues want to know that you appreciate them. So giving an item that is specifically aligned with their interests can mean more than a generic token or promotional item from your company.

3.     Watch your spending

Gifts are not a tit-for-tat exchange. Just because someone spent a certain amount on a present for you doesn't mean you have to spend the same on theirs. Too often, shoppers overspend in hopes of not being seen as a cheapskate. This can actually be the worst move to make.

4.     Pay attention to gift presentation

Your gift, regardless of its nature, has to be wrapped nicely. It must look good and draw attention otherwise nobody will want to know what’s inside. The packaging is equally important. Make sure the wrapper looks professional too.

5.     Don’t make assumptions

There's a saying, "There's two things you should never talk about... Religion and Politics." This also applies to gift giving with clients and business associates. Avoid gifts related to religion or politics unless you are confident of their beliefs or the recipient/group is part of an organization affiliated with this topic. You don't want to take any chance of offending the recipient.

Business gift giving is excellent for business. Offering corporate gifts to clients can be an opportunity for you to make your start-up stand out. It could mean a lot for your productivity levels providing that you can master the art of corporate gift giving. Choose to be original and people will notice you; choose to offer trivial gifts and people will ignore you. Regardless, you are the one to decide which way you want to go.

Evolution of CRM

CRM may not be very old but the importance of Customer Relationship antecedes back many centuries.

In the past -

In the old days of barter system, vendors used to give local specialties to the international merchants as an added gesture to ensure the revival of their client. Humans have always understood the importance of repeat business in an enterprise. Therefore, businesses have always been cautious when it comes to client relations.

The evolution -

With the increase in technology and business complexity, CRM software was introduced. Over the period CRM has gradually evolved as an indispensable part of the organization. From Microsoft CRM to Sugar CRM, Salesforce, SAP and Oracle everyone is doing it. Customer relationship management (CRM) is nothing new, but the ways in which sales teams can utilize the platform has evolved significantly. In the past, it was one-way data. Today, data is social and sharable. It enables collaboration between teams for better results.

CRM and you -

One may not realize but we are surrounded by CRM activity everywhere. The emails, SMS, newsletters, feedback calls, loyalty cards, etc are all an integrated part of CRM. You knowingly or unknowingly have affinity to a certain company thanks to their constant and powerful CRM system.

CRM and its methods -

CRM can be implemented in a number of ways. It can be automated, integrated and extended as a separated department within a company. Irrespective of the size and genre of the company, CRM can be fruitful to every company using it.

The innovation -

Although lately CRM has spawned into an entity that is all about technology and the big game. Keep In Touch procreated joint, why not merge the old and new CRM concepts together! So here was the big innovation. Keep In Touch merged the traditional concept of gifting with the modern agility of technology. In short, CRM evolved from being an emotional essence to technical subsistence to an amalgamation of both.

The concept – Businesses can send Cakes, Chocolates, Greeting, SMS, Emails to colleagues, business associates and employees all with a single click on an application.

To be a part of this ever growing and evolving CRM industry, Keep In Touch with us!

Benefits of CRM systems for businesses

In today's ultra-competitive markets, the companies that manage customer relationships the best are more likely to win hearts than those that don't. While the technology surrounding customer relationship management may have changed, the goal of making a sale and keeping a customer has not.

At its core, CRM is all about merging marketing efforts with business processes to be able to identify, pursue and manage valuable customer relationships. For companies that are still on the fence about CRM, it's worth considering the benefits CRM systems offer.

Here are few of the biggest advantages.

1)    Efficiency- A well-implemented CRM system can replace manual processes that create significant organizational inefficiencies. Thanks to the ability of CRM platforms, the efficiencies of CRM can enable companies to interact with customers in ways that they wouldn't have the resources to otherwise.

2)    Improved Customer Experience- Today’s customers expect a customized, streamlined experience from beginning to end. They want you to know who they are and to have what they need— without transferring the call and without keeping them waiting.  A customer relationship management system will enable you to quickly identify your customers, address their initial needs and subsequently recommend additional products or services that match their profile.

3)    Increased accountability - When companies lack the tools to manage their customer relationships, customers are bound to fall through the cracks. CRM systems can help ensure that this doesn't happen by adding a layer of accountability to the customer relationship management process.

4)    Focused Marketing Efforts- Rather than taking the mass marketing approach, CRM allows you to focus and fine-tune your marketing efforts to make those efforts more productive. That saves you money, because you aren’t expending resources on individuals who ultimately won’t become customers.

5)    Automated Analytics and Reporting - Whether your business is large or small, chances are you don’t have time to track and analyze the buying habits of every last customer.  The beauty of customer relationship management applications is that they handle that piece of the marketing puzzle for you.

6)    Better Coordination and Cooperation When sales, marketing and customer service share a common CRM platform, they are able to speak the same language with one another. Rather than being separated by systems functionality or access to key information, departments across the organization are able to function more cohesively.

7)    Effective time management - CRM prompts users to follow up on activities and automates alerts when important events occur, or if actions are missed.

8)    Increase Customer Loyalty - Understand your customer needs and expectations by gaining more customer visibility. Keep your customers happy and coming back with repeat purchases, increased renewal rates, and customer retention.

9)    CRM gives a professional image to your business. All businesses want their customers to regard them as professional and it can be the little things such as knowing what your customers usually buy that will help to project this image. Knowing the service or products your customers have purchased also enables you to cross-sell or up-sell any additional services/products that you offer to gain additional value.

10) Customer details are stored in an easy to access place - No more searching for customer information on various databases. Customer relationship software enables all customer details to be stored in the same place which can then be accessed by anyone within the business