A new form of CRM, Social CRM often referred to as CRM 2.0, has grown from social networking and web 2.0.
Are you maximising the tools available to you to communicate with your customers?
S3 CRM is working with networking platforms such as twitter, linkedin and facebook to integrate its customer relationship management tools with social media offering a new branch of communications with your customers.
CRM (customer relationship management) tools are fast becoming one of the most valuable applications that a business can use. One of the problems that many businesses encounter when they are looking for a CRM solution is that there is just so much choice on the market. This can lead to indecision when it comes to choosing the right one.
Businesses need an effective CRM solution that will meet their needs and continue to do so into the future. To ensure this here are some tips which will help:
To be effective a CRM solution must first be easy to use and access. A CRM solution that is difficult for end users to integrate into their working day should be avoided at all costs. It is also useful to opt for a CRM solution that can be easily mastered within a few hours. Business owners simply do not have the time to spend sending their employees on courses to learn how to work new applications. As far as accessibility is concerned it is wise to opt for a CRM solution that is web based. Having a web based solution means that users can access it from anywhere that has an internet connection. So in effect home working becomes possible with this type of CRM solution – something that is becoming more popular at the moment as it means flexible shifts and lower costs.
Cost is also important for an effective CRM solution. If a business is paying for a CRM solution that is not delivering it is not effective. Make sure that what you pay for a CRM is vastly outweighed by what you get out of it for it to be cost effective
Does the CRM solution enable a good customer experience? If it allows users to easily access customer information, attach documents to customer details and create quotes and invoices quickly it all goes to creating good customer experiences. CRM solutions should help you to add value to your customer’s experiences and enable accurate and fast communication. It should not slow these transactions down or make them overly complex.
CRM solutions should also provide effective reporting. If a businesses owner can see their best customers at the click of a button it is effective. Similarly if the CRM solution enables users to see which customers have outstanding payments or missing information it is effective. If users are able to quickly access important information at the click of a button then the CRM solution that they are using is effective.
An effective CRM solution should also allow for users to be added without any fuss and with minimal charge. Too many solutions charge a small fortune for extra users and this is not practical if you are a small to medium sized business that is growing. CRM solutions need to enhance your business and not drain its resources so this is one tip that you do not want to overlook.
Retaining customers as well as gaining new ones is a crucial aspect of a successful business. To achieve this there are various applications and techniques that can be used to increase sales figures and retain customers. S3 CRM is a customer relationship management application that can help any business to retain their customers through careful customer management.
With so many businesses competing in all areas retaining customers becomes even more vital. Here are a few ways in which S3 CRM can help you to retain customers and give them excellent customer service.
Think about giving discounts to your best customers. When you use the reporting tools you can see which customers have paid your business the most money. This will then show you which of your customers have spent the most money with you. Then you can use this information to send out offers to these customers which can give them discounts or extra products with their next order. By giving out these types of offers you can retain customers as people like to be rewarded for loyalty.
Give your customers excellent customer service – be knowledgeable about previous calls and have all documentation to hand. This can be done by attaching documents to customer records and utilising the recording contacts feature on customer records. By ensuring that every time an employee that speaks to a customer they can see all information relating to that customer the business will provide a first class service. Customers want to feel recognised and this method will ensure that and will, in turn help to retain customers.
Make sure that when you give a customer a quote they receive it in a timely manner and it is saved with their contact details. S3 CRM enables users to create quotes and invoices in real time and send them out straight away. Providing this level of customer service will also help you to retain customers as quotes which are late to be produced or which go missing do not help to retain customers. Make sure that your quoting and invoicing is done correctly with S3 CRM.
Make good use of the email marketing feature on S3 CRM. This enables even a novice to plan and send email marketing campaigns with ease. By sending out quality emails to your customer which are informative and interesting can help to retain them. One good idea is to make sure that your newsletter or information sheet goes out at the same time each week and is always worth reading. Do this and your customers will come to expect it.
By thinking about some of the ways in which S3 CRM can help you to retain customers it is clear that it can be done without too much fuss. Make sure that all of your staff get the very best from the application and it will pay dividends. Customers will be retained and they will return to your business as you provide an excellent service.
Expenditure is always important in a business and with this in mind it pays to have a CRM solution that will enable you to do more for less, such as S3 CRM. S3 CRM is not just a customer relationship management tool, it is a whole lot more. In fact it is possible to run the majority of your business through S3 CRM. For one monthly payment you can do the following with S3 CRM:
Create a business wide calendar that is fully integrated.
Use the project planning feature to create new projects and assign them to employees. You can also use this feature along with the calendar to see which of your employees is free to take on additional projects.
Project monitoring in real time by setting deadline alerts in the form of emails, SMS and calendar alerts. Utilising this feature means that you will never have to chase up deadlines again as anyone working on a project will get an alert when the project deadline is up to three days away.
Create customer contacts and attach any documents relating to that customer to them. No more missing paperwork or lost quotes. S3 CRM also has the ability to tell users which of the customer contact details are missing information, so the next time someone speaks to that customer they can fill in the blanks.
Use the financial planning features to chase up outstanding payments, see who are your best customers and more.
Quoting and invoicing is made easy with S3 CRM. All quotes can be created in minutes and users are able to split quotes into items on various lines. The quoting tool will even add the VAT onto the quote for you. Once this has been done you can then save the quote with the customer’s contact details for easy retrieval at a later date.
Document storage. Wave goodbye to missing documents, with the document storage feature on S3 CRM you can save all documents and access them wherever you are.
Use the route optimisation tool to plan routes and work out their cost. This helps anyone who regularly travels as part of their working week. Not only can you plan and save routes, you can also get an estimate of how long the journey will take and get an indication of how much the petrol will cost.
The email marketing tool can be a massive help to any business owner who wants to start creating email marketing campaigns. These are easy to create and send and by using the reporting tool after a campaign has been sent you can check the success of each campaign. It is even possible to create campaigns and schedule them for release at a future date.
There is even a recycle bin, so if any documents are deleted by mistake they can be retrieved.
S3 CRM is also web based, meaning that it can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. With this in mind you can see how you can do more for less with S3 CRM.
In business there are always going to be ups and downs – but what would happen if the unthinkable happened? To really be able to answer this question it is a good idea to firstly decide what this unthinkable event is – so let’s say that it is severe economic crisis, even more so than the current credit crunch. So how would a business function?
Firstly, a business would need to make sure that they had some sort of strategy in place to be able to weather the economic storm. Without this a business simply would be able to stay afloat. So if you are the owner of a business make sure that you plan for the bad times as well as the good times or you could finds yourself in a very difficult position should the economic climate turn cold.
Secondly, it pays for a business to get the very best deal when it comes to the CRM (customer relationship management) software that it uses. Doing this will help to keep costs low so that should the unthinkable happen the business would still be able to function and not have to lose any software. Too many businesses spend vast amounts of money each year on keeping up costly software licenses and this can run into thousands of pounds, especially if the business has many employees.
Thirdly, a business owner needs to be on top of the businesses cash flow and know exactly what is being spent and where. Having this kind of knowledge will enable a business owner to quickly and accurately identify where money could be saved within the business. If you are a business owner who cannot say that they know exactly where money is spent it is time that you found out. Whilst you are doing this consider giving your business a financial makeover and see if you can highlight any areas where money can be saved or better spent.
Fourth, find which areas of the business are the most profitable and concentrate on those. Doing this will focus attention on more profitable areas of the business which will help to keep money rolling in, something which is crucial during a financial crisis. Forget about any ventures which were on the backburner, they can be looked at when things start to look brighter. Similarly, look at any areas which require a great deal of work and are not very profitable. When they have been identified consider dropping them as they are not working for the business.
No business owner wants to think about the unthinkable – but planning for it is essential as it can sometimes happen. Having strategies and procedures in place to deal with it should it happen is what every business needs. Failure to do this will result in the business folding and folding fast. So if you value your business and want it to survive should the unthinkable happen start to put measures in place to deal with it, should it happen, right now.
During times of crisis it can be difficult for anyone to see anything positive and it is very easy to focus the negatives, particularly when you are in business. When negativity strikes, in the form of a recession, falling sales and so on finding anything to be positive about can be a real struggle. However it is possible to turn negativity into positive action, you just need to know how this can be done effectively.
Turning negativity into positive action is not about ignoring bad times when they occur it is about not letting them decide how things are going to continue in the business for the next 12 months or more. Whilst it can be incredibly hard to find anything to feel positive about when sales have dropped, a business can use this as an opportunity to be positive and think about their sales process, their costings and their CRM solution. It can be easy to panic when sales start to fall (especially during a recession) and this can lead to business owners to think that they soon be out of business – but this is jumping the gun somewhat. Negativity happens in life and in business and it needs to be dealt with without panicking and making hasty decisions.
Instead of seeing falling sales figures as a sign of imminent doom for a business it should instead be a sign for a business to revue their internal processes. When this happens turn the negativity into positive action by finding out the reason behind the falling figures. Many might argue that during a recession there is little point in doing this as the recession is to blame but it there is every chance that this is not the real reason. Sure, a recession will alter customer’s spending patterns and habits – but there could be an underlying reason for the drop in sales. So do a little probing and find out why your customers are not returning to you. You could find that your customer relationship management is letting the business down, or that your sales team are not following up on quotes in a timely manner and losing sales. Perhaps your customers no longer feel engaged with you due to something that the business has done – make use of all the options that are open to your business and find out what is going on.
Negativity will always be an issue in business, but it is up to business owners to decide how to handle it. By remaining calm and finding a way through negative and trying times positive action can occur and this will benefit the business in the long run. So the next time that negativity strikes your business spend some time thinking how this has happened and how it can successfully be avoided in the future. Doing this will help business owners to focus on the processes and practises of their business and will play a large part in turning negativity into positive action.
A recession can devastate a country, it leaves people out of work and struggling to make ends meet and it can ruin businesses. Over the past 12 months the UK has seen many large household name businesses go bust and innumerable small to medium sized businesses fold under the strain. Today, anyone talking a walk down a city’s high street cannot fail to notice the sheer number of boarded up shops and empty business space going to waste. Previous to this high streets up and down the country were filled with consumers spending and shops jostling for space.
Now, thanks to the recession the UKs shops and city centres are a very different place – but it is not all doom and gloom. Many businesses have weathered the worst of what the recession had to throw at them and they have come out of the other side. In other words for some businesses the recession has actually made them stronger. So how can the recession make some businesses stronger than before but cause others to buckle and collapse under the economic pressure?
Smart businesses always try to have some kind of contingency plan in place should the worst happen, and sensible business owners knew this. By making small but significant changes businesses could protect themselves for the recession. These could include implementing methods that would save the business money or looking into new ways to retain customers. Doing away with old and outdated methods of customer contact or recording information is one good way of doing this as it saves money and time within the business. Taking notice of customer spending patterns is also useful as this can help a business to predict spending patterns for the next 12 months or so.
Many businesses who are still in business after the recession could be seen in a way as being ‘recession proof’ and while there is no guarantee for this it certainly gives business owners a greater degree of confidence. Customers too gain confidence in businesses that can stay afloat during a recession which is good news for those businesses.
It can be easy to assume that a recession will weaken all businesses – but this is not the case at all. Recessions do change customer spending habits and can make people think more before they spend money – but they do not prevent people from spending money. Consumers still need to buy products and services even during a recession and continue to do so, so businesses should stand their ground and they will reap the rewards. Rather than crumbling at the first sign of economic crisis business owners should implement strategies to help them deal with a recession and see it out to succeed.
Recession does make our businesses stronger, but only if there is a firm base to start with. Having a poor infrastructure will cause a business to fail regardless of a recession. The only difference is a recession sorts the wheat from the chaff and strong businesses will get even stronger.
One of the main reasons that businesses fail today is that they do not stay in touch with what their customers want and begin to appear dated in the way that they advertise, conduct business and contact their customers. What might have worked well for a business 20 or so years ago will not cut it in the consumer world of today and businesses are realising they need to reinvent themselves to keep up to date. Initially it can seem like a costly venture for any business owner to reinvent their business, but thanks to S3 CRM it is much more cost effective than you might think.
S3 CRM can help businesses to reinvent themselves by streamlining their procedures and process through:
1. Providing the means to create easy to access and add to customer and employee contact databases.
Creating invoices and quotes quickly and easily and attaching them to customer contact details.
Plan projects and assign them to employees using S3 CRM, business owners are also able to see who has the most projects, which projects are open and which are approaching their deadlines.
Set alerts for when projects and tasks are nearing completion dates.
2. Create email marketing campaigns using an easy to follow structure which means that even a novice can successfully create email marketing campaigns in minutes. Email marketing is one area that many business owners are wary of as they believe that it takes certain expertise to do so and as a result shy away from attempting to produce them. With S3 CRM a business can move forward and reinvent themselves adding email marketing to their methods of contacting customers. Once an email marketing campaign has been sent users can check on its effectiveness using the reporting tools available through S3 CRM.
3. Send SMS messages using S3 CRM – this is another great way for businesses to stay in touch with customers.
4. S3 CRM also has additional reporting tools which can allow business owners to see the conversion rate for quotes, which customers have the most outstanding invoices, which customers have the placed the most orders and so on. In fact using S3 CRM can help a business to get the best from reporting so that it can increase profits and reduce outstanding invoices.
5. Each individual user is able to customise their own dashboard upon which they can place widgets of the features they use most often, this helps to cut down on the time spent opening different features and scrolling through screens.
6. As S3 CRM is web based users can access their account from anywhere in the world with internet access, this allows a business to provide the same service from anywhere – a total reinvention if users previously all had to be based in the same office.
These are just a few of the ways that S3 CRM can help businesses to reinvent themselves and there are many more to choose from.
When your business is doing well it is all too easy to rest on your laurels and believe that this will continue indefinitely, but this is not the case, particularly in light of the recent recession that has hit the UK. Business owners are now facing the fact that they need to compete or get beat and as a result they are looking for ways in which to do this. Here are a few suggestions on how you can compete and beat your competitors:
1. Do away with old and outdated ways of recording customer contacts, using complicated and ineffectual methods to record customer contacts creates confusion and vital information is sometimes missed. Without streamlined way to record contacts conversions can be missed and customers lost.
2. Cut down on the number of software applications your business uses – spending thousands each year on software licenses eats away at money that could be spent on other areas of your business, such as advertising.
3. Check out what your competitors are doing – if you have no idea what your main competitors are doing you need to find out, and fast! In order to compete you need to know and understand your competition or your business is out of the running and is already beaten.
4. Use email marketing to reach more customers – more and more businesses are seeing the value of email marketing as it is a fast and effective way of sending advertising directly to their customers. S3 CRM offers email marketing as one of its features and this can help any business to instantly compete with its rivals by enabling users to plan, create and send email campaigns in minutes.
5. Create a business website if you don’t already have one. The internet is an amazing way of generating business and the chances are that your competitors are already doing all they can to increase their internet presence.
6. Think about using other internet methods to further spread the word about your business brand. This can be done in many different ways including blogging – these are massively popular right now and a great way to engage with your customers and keep them interested in your business, social networking sites – create a profile for your business and spread the word, or you might want to take out advertisements on these sites as they get huge amounts of traffic. Not only are these types of methods effective, they are also cheap and they encourage customers to visit your business’s website more often.
As you can see there are a variety of ways in which you can start to actively change the way that your business competes with your competitors if you are not already doing so. Customers are becoming more and more fickle when it comes to choosing who and where the purchase good and services from so it is essential to engage with them and make them feel valued to retain their custom.
Hi,
Tonight we will be rolling out great new functionality.
Our new email dropbox functionality, which is available under “My Account” allows you to forward emails from customers, contacts, suppliers and new contacts to your S3 CRM account.
Basically the application generates a “fake” email address for your account, you then forward emails to this address. The emails get logged as comments against existing contact entry however if the email is from a new contact a new entry is automatically created.
The functionality will be rolled out tonight - please try it and let me know what you think.
Thanks
Sarah