S3 Blog

Today more and more people are adopting a Green lifestyle, they will recycle items, use energy efficient appliances, think about the type of car they have based on their carbon emissions and much more. Businesses too are beginning to realise that they must adopt Green behaviours in order to contribute to the wellbeing of the environment. This can be anything from ensuring that all waste paper from the business is recycled to signing up to other Green initiatives such as only using certain products from certain sources within the business.

It is not only the products and services that a business uses that can be seen as Green – technology can also play a large and vital role in helping a business to be Green and here’s how they can do it:-

1. Turn your office into a paperless office – this can easily be done now due to the storage capabilities offered by new computers and storage devices. By storing all information, documentation, files and so on electronically paper is saved in great quantities, which helps your business be Green by saving paper which saves trees.

2. Use video interviews whenever possible for first round interviews – this is one of the newest advances in technology as more businesses now are using video interviews rather than having face to face interviews with candidates in the first round. This not only saves time for the candidates and businesses but it is a very Green way of conducting interviews as there is no travel involved to the interviews which cuts down on carbon emissions.

3. Use webcams as a form of communication between businesses – this is a very useful way of having meetings as each person can stay in their own office and by using a webcam they can have meetings or conferences with others without having to travel, once again saving carbon emissions.

4. Choose new energy efficient computer hardware and peripherals – doing this will help your business to save energy which can also lead to money being saved also which is an added bonus.

5. Have ink cartridges refilled – doing so will not only be another money saving option for a business as refilling cartridges is much cheaper than buying brand new ones but it also reduces the amount of old empty cartridges that are being thrown away each week.

6. VoiP calls (Voice over Internet Protocol) do not use regular telephony technology as calls are made over the Internet, in this way technology helps businesses to be Green as VoiP shares Ethernet copper which is actually toxic and is already in place to complete an Internet connection.

As shown using such new technologies can seriously help businesses to be more Green and as more businesses are making positive changes towards being Green it is a very good sign for the environment. Being Green was once quite difficult for businesses but today it is commonplace and technology supports this, so if you want your business to help improve the environment try a few of the methods mentioned.

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Regards

Dean

Reason No. 7

“Project planning tools – If your business undertakes several projects at once and has various employees working on them deadlines can sometimes be missed. By using the project planning tools on S3 CRM you can see at a glance how many projects are open, which are approaching their deadlines and who is working on them. You can also set alerts to warn you or the employees working on projects that a deadline is looming so one is never missed again. This will put an end to missed deadlines and frustrated customers as you turn them into customers who rely on you as they know deadlines are met.”

Dont get de-focused when you have multiple projects / customers all expecting service in the same time period. Use best practise project management tools which link directly into your calendar and send out email / SMS alerts when you require the information.

Getting a customers is harder than keeping a customer - so focus on delivering that project on time every time and maintain that customer forever!

Regards

Dean

When a business has been trading for some time certain practices and software become second place and everyone from the business owner to the employees plod along without thinking where changes could be made to improve the day to day running of that business. Often making changes to the way in which a business and its employees works could make that business more efficient, more streamlined, more profitable – in other words changes need to be made to the way you work from time to time to maximise revenue.

If you are a business owner who is looking for a new and fresh way to improve customer relations, build a sound database of information relating to your business and ensure that employees are being utilised correctly S3 CRM is the way forward. S3 CRM is a new type of web based software application that is designed to be fully integrated into any small to medium sized business and can change the way that you work in many ways:-

1. See your business at a glance – this is an invaluable way to change the way you work as you will save a great deal of time and effort by not having to access various applications and screens to find out basic information. Not only that but as S3 CRM has alerts to warn you of approaching deadlines you will never miss anything again as you can see everything that is outstanding as soon as you go into your dashboard.

2. Fully utilise employees – too many businesses are losing revenue due to having too many employees on one project or not managing time properly, you can say goodbye to this with S3 CRM as by using the fully integrated business wide calendar you are able to see which employees are doing what and divert resources if needed. This means that not only will you be assigning the right number of employees to each task but you will also be able to run more projects simultaneously knowing that you have everything covered.

3. Chase outstanding invoices sooner – how do you find out which invoices are outstanding in your business? Many businesses don’t have a streamlined way of identifying outstanding invoices easily so that they can be chased by your debt collection department or team. With S3 CRM you can see, at a glance how many invoices are outstanding, how long they have been outstanding for and how much they are worth. By being able to see every invoice that has not been paid you will have a clearer idea as to how much money your business is owed.

4. See the Average Revenue Per Customer – this is a fantastic tool to help business owners identify who are their best customers and this can then be used as basis for loyalty schemes and other types of reward program for good customers. It is has been proved that these types of incentives are a useful way to increase revenue and increase customer loyalty

the tough get emailing!

Have you had chance to check out our email marketing tool?

Keep in touch with all your customers, update them on your latest offers, products & services, also contact new customers - all of these functions are possible using S3 CRM’s email marketing tool.

Let us know what you think?

Sarah

Reason No. 6

“S3 CRM has total accessibility for authorised persons from anywhere in the world – Many business owners take trips overseas or to other parts of the country and many feel as though they take their finger off the pulse of their business whilst they are away. As S3 CRM is a web based application it can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, so you are never more than a click away from your business or your employees.”

You no longer need to be tethered to your computer or desk. You can get access to information from any internet connected computer (including the Apple iPhone) and read, add and update your business records immediatly.

Consumers expect quick turnaround and quality replies - and there is no better way of doing this than ensuring all of your activity is administered online - thereby removing unecessary duplication of work and ensuring timely responses.

Regards

Dean

As anyone with their own business knows it is important to keep up to date with the market they are in both in terms of products and competition. Failing to do this means that ultimately your business will not be as forward thinking as it could be which will result in losing out to competitors – something that no business ever wants to do. So what is the answer to staying ahead of your competition today? A good CRM or Customer Relationship Management application, that’s what.

There are various CRM software applications that are available at the moment but the best one of these by far is S3 CRM which is not only easy to set up and use but it also grows with your business.  S3 CRM can help you to stay ahead of your competition in the following ways:-

1. Keep detailed records of your customers – S3 CRM has unique features which allow all information that is relevant to a particular customer to be saved in that customers record. This can range from contact details to quotes and invoices to documents and even photographs of your customers if you or your reps meet with them on a regular basis. This will improve the customer service that your business provides, which is often lacking in many businesses today and this will give you the edge over your competition who might still be using outdated methods to store and retrieve customer information. Stay professional – use S3 CRM.

2. Quote and invoice with ease – quoting and invoicing often takes up a great deal of time within a business and this can frustrate your customers and lead to them going to your competition for a faster, more efficient service. Stop them in their tracks by using S3 CRM to streamline and centralise all quoting and invoicing. S3 CRM even takes the strain out of adding VAT to invoices as it will automatically add it and make the calculation for you, giving you and staff more time to spend in other areas of the business. Similarly invoices are easily produced using the same feature within the application.

3. See your business at a glance – by using the dashboard feature you can place all the areas of your business that you need to see an overview of on one screen. This cuts down the endless searching through screens to find the information that you need, meaning that you can make decisions faster and more efficiently whilst reducing wasted time – can you say the same for your competition? We hope not!

As you can see these are just a few of the features that S3 CRM provides businesses with that will help them to stay ahead of their competition and provide an efficient, customer focused and streamlined service to be proud of. S3 CRM really does make all difference to a business and after using it for a few weeks it will be apparent why as time is saved and profits are increased.

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Regards

Dean

Reason No. 5

“It can help a businesses financial planning – by using the information on which are your best customers and see their re-ordering patterns you can make any financial projections more accurate.”

If your currently using a manual process consisting of excel spreadsheets and / or pieces of paper to do your quotes and invoicing then you may notice its taking a lot of unecessary time and effort to get right. Are you able to quote quickly and efficiently? Do your customer pay on time? Do you spend unecessary time chasing for payment?

If you do, then using simple best practise and automated tools to alert you when things “need” to get done - with be both cash flow positive and consume less time and effort.

Regards

Dean

Reason No. 9

“S3 CRM allows you to see your business at a glance – Simply log into your dashboard and see everything that is going on in your business on one screen from the number of outstanding invoices to projects that are drawing to a close. Say goodbye to opening endless screens just to find out what the total of paid invoices are that week.”

1 login, 1 dashboard screen, all of your information how you want to see it.

Couldn’t be simpler and couldn’t be more useful.

Regards

Dean