Choosing your CRM is not an easy task and this article aims to help you identify the key points to make the right choice!
CRM represents the acronym for the English expression “Customer Relationship Management”, translated into French as customer relationship management (CRM). Thus, as its name indicates, this software ensures and organizes all interactions between the company and its various customers or prospects.
What is CRM software?
CRM or GRC software is a tool that aims to manage the work of the company’s sales team. This tool was created around the 1990s, being adopted by several organizations.
The purpose of a CRM solution is to optimize the work of each team with a view to efficient organization. It improves the interactions and relationships of a company with its various prospects and customers , by adopting a loyalty vision.
By capitalizing on the data collected on the latter via a CRM tool, you are able to adjust your commercial approach to better target your actions , capture qualified leads and retain your existing customer base.
In other words, CRM software helps ensure that businesses can continuously interact and communicate with customers. To streamline their processes and improve their business relationship throughout the customer lifecycle, and this by encompassing different poles, including: sales, e-commerce, marketing and communication with customer service.
Therefore, a CRM solution represents not only a customer relationship management tool , but through its ultimate function, the latter is supposed to be considered as a powerful software that allows improving the internal processes of the company and increasing its profitability as well as productivity.
Why use CRM software?
As we have just announced in the previous parts, CRM software offers a range of advantages, which we can group into five, citing the most important ones in the following:
Easy sharing of useful information
This first advantage consists in its capacity to keep all the interactions issued with your customers during their various communications with your company, in all the different possible forms (calls, e-mails, meeting reports, etc.), in the same place.
Furthermore, it should be noted that this solution allows you to collect and gather additional information, which could be useful to you. In particular: the events they attended, the offers they viewed or downloaded by accessing your website.
Indeed, the more precise and relevant information you have about customers, the better you will respond to their requests and expectations.
An improvement in the service provided to the customer
After a customer contacts your business, your team members can access a wealth of information about them through CRM software.
This involves collecting data about past purchases, previous interactions, preferences and any information that may be useful.
Furthermore, in order to further improve the service, the relevant manager creates a company-wide shared inbox that makes it easy to answer and store all customer questions and their answers provided by the company.
Automation of hard daily tasks
This advantage allows, through the CRM software, to automate several tasks, in particular those related to the creation and sending of quotes, by mobilizing ready-to-use models.
Thus, this software allows the team to focus on closing sales and developing the company’s relationship with its customers.
Improved communication and collaboration
Despite its advantage of simplifying information , the CRM application also plays an important role in relation to internal processes which are positively impacted.
Indeed, if all the information is shared and clear, an employee who is on leave can be easily replaced by another and understand his tasks and responsibilities. Because he could work with the same information, present in the CRM software .
Improved analysis and reporting:
This advantage provides the ability to have a single location for data. This helps to make data analysis more efficient and simple. This has a positive impact on the foundation and decision-making of the business.
What steps to choose the right CRM software?
Choosing a CRM requires both work on yourself and on the available offer. The best CRM software for an SME with fewer than 50 employees will probably not meet the specifications of a large company.
Define your short and medium term needs
When choosing CRM software , the first question to ask yourself is: “What are my real needs?”
Indeed, the latter must come from a rational choice according to your own needs. Furthermore, it is essential to link these needs to concrete objectives, in particular: customer loyalty , participation in the digitalization of exchanges, etc.
The type of business
It is undeniable that you should choose a CRM taking into account the size of your business, so that the functionalities are suitable.
So, if you are a VSE or SME, choose a simple and lightweight CRM like: Monday CRM, PipeDrive, etc.
Conversely, if you are a large company and you have to manage heavy processes and databases, rely instead on software that is more complex to configure but which will better meet the needs of your structure: Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.
Putting CRM software at the heart of the project
Once purchased, CRM will become an integral part of the company’s daily life. In the same sense, its implementation requires planning and programming, beforehand, by putting it at the center of the project through the following steps:
- Plan a budget with an overrun, in case of unforeseen or hidden costs.
- Determine the software implementation date.
- Designate someone to be responsible for this project internally.
- Establish a census of company members who have already used a CRM, with a view to designating them as internal promoters.
Monitoring the different types of CRM software
This involves sorting through all the CRM tools available on the market, with a view to making a decision based on the following two methods:
- Outsourced or SaaS CRM :
This is a system that focuses on cloud computing , that is, remote recording (SaaS mode). It is a highly recommended system, since it allows different collaborators to access it wherever they are in the world, just by having access to an internet connection.
This is a system that requires the purchase of a downloadable license , in order to access the different functionalities of the CRM software.
This type of system allows you to save your data on your server or your hard drive, depending on your choice.
Request demos for multiple CRM software
In order to be able to handle it easily and to be able to work comfortably with the CRM software, it is essential to request demos for several software, before making the choice.
Additionally, care should be taken to verify the ability of CRM systems to align with your process and meet your pre-established objectives.
The budget
This is a key element to consider when choosing CRM software . Since this software represents a collaborator who will be part of the company’s daily life, the latter must include all the members of the team. Thus, it is recommended to shop around the market in order to compare prices. Indeed, in terms of price, there are many disparities depending on the online tools chosen. Similarly, depending on the number of users, prices can quickly increase.
What criteria should you take into account when choosing your CRM?
Like any other software choice, choosing CRM software should not be done randomly, in order to properly meet the expected functionalities and the strategy of a team.
If you are not being helped by a CRM agency, it is imperative to consider the following:
Intuitive use
In order to make the task easier for its users, the tool must be based on simple and intuitive use.
In the same sense, the latter must ensure numerous functionalities, in particular: ease of use , quality of dashboards, centralization of data, availability of regular updates which offer improvements and added values…
Compatibility of CRM software with the company’s IT system
This point assumes that the online CRM tool must be compatible with the type of processor as well as the operating system that you have within your company.
The type of companies
Yes! Choosing a CRM does not respond to recent trends or new models.
In fact, the latter must be chosen according to the type of your business.
Therefore, choosing CRM software is not done on the same basis when you are a large company or an SME/VSE.
So, if you have a large company, you still have a range of CRMs to choose from, including: Microsoft Dynamic CRM, Salesforce…
Furthermore, if you are a VSE or SME, choose suitable CRM solutions such as: Zoho CRM or PipeDrive.
GDPR Software
This involves learning about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) software, with a view to ensuring reliable storage and high security of customer and prospect data, while avoiding all tools that may be unsecured, in particular: Excel or Google Drive, etc.
Quality of technical support
Technical support is one of the most important points to consider when choosing your CRM .
Indeed, in order to be able to benefit from all the functionalities of this software (marketing actions, automation of commercial management processes, collection of useful data, management of prospects and different contacts with customers, etc.), quality technical support could easily implement this software within your company.
In other words, well-qualified CRM consultants could well train team members, and consequently, positively impact the work within the company, up to the increase of its profits.
FAQ – Choosing your CRM
What are the different CRMs?
There are different CRM solutions. Depending on your business, strategy or organization, here are the different models.
Operational CRM:
This type of CRM software allows you to automate your sales, marketing and customer service processes, ensuring that you automatically retrieve all useful information from contacts as well as generating leads.
Analytical CRM:
As the name suggests, this type of CRM helps you analyze your customer data, while ensuring that you provide detailed information about your business in order to improve your activity. This feature aims at targeted decision-making, since it is based on precise data.
Collaborative or strategic CRM:
This type of software ensures the sharing of customer information between different teams. Particularly those related to customer service, sales and marketing in order to improve the customer experience and loyalty. This has a positive impact on the sales rate, stimulating and increasing it.
How to evaluate the profitability of a CRM?
After implementing CRM software within your company for a good period of time, it becomes important to evaluate its profitability.
Thus, it is a question of focusing on three essential points which are as follows: increasing turnover and reducing costs, optimizing employee efficiency, as well as improving knowledge of its customers.
1 – Increasing turnover and reducing costs:
Firstly, it is a question of looking at the turnover
generated, by establishing numerous measures, in particular:
• Knowing the number of new contracts won.
• Analyzing the turnover achieved following new contracts.
• Increasing the average basket.
Then, it is a question of achieving a reduction in the administrative and commercial costs of the company, by measuring the impact of these points by the turnover achieved.
2 – Optimizing employee efficiency:
This involves quantifying the performance gain of the various optimized processes and measuring its impact on time savings as well as on the company’s personnel costs.
3 – Improving customer knowledge:
This axis is mainly based on listening to and understanding customers and prospects.
Indeed, the information collected by the CRM software, about customers and prospects, contributes to a better knowledge of them.
What are the services involved in the daily use of a CRM?
CRM solutions involve a large number of services in their daily use, including:
• Marketing operations.
• Management of company data – customers or prospects.
• Administration of business portfolios.