Evaluating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software - Increase Productivity Database
Evaluating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software - Increase Productivity Database
As I work with clients this tool is becoming increasingly important. To try to track your correspondence, email, documents, phone calls and appointments with your customers and prospects is nearly impossible to do on paper. I have yet to find someone who has done it successfully. Even those people who are not computer savvy need to understand and learn this powerful tool. Why? Because it can increase your productivity and bottom line.
Before you even evaluate a CRM you need to be very clear and concise about what you are interested in tracking. Sit down, take out a piece of paper, yes paper, and make columns. Now put the name of your hats/roles at the top of each column. For example, administrative personnel, customer service, sales person, etc. Think about what you have to do for that hat and list those duties. Now ask yourself, "What would I need to track on that list?" The reason you do this is so you have very clearly defined needs. This will help you develop your criteria.
Below is some of the criteria that a client and I developed with the method above. Your criteria may have some of these same needs along with ones specific to you and your business.
- Manage all email accounts all in one place.
- Have access to your history of phone calls, emails, etc under that specific person you are establishing or continuing a relationship with (clients, potential, leads, strategic partners, etc.)
- Manage a schedule with the ability to move appointments around with your mouse. (drop and drag)
- Manage workflow with the ability to set up a schedule for automated tasks and workflow for specific hats/roles.
- Create a custom newsletter with the ability to personalize it and mirrors the website for consistency.
- The ability to save documents in the software so you do not have to keep them in my documents on your computer.
- To be able to email and forward those documents from within the system to other individuals or email recipients.
- Have multiple users so there is a separate log in for each person to control access and security.
- Sync with phone.
- Grow with your company so you can upgrade services as you need them. (Long-term expansion and growth.)
- Export not only the contact data but the history also so if you choose to stop using the service you have all the information that has been entered and tracked. That it be exported in a form that another program can read. What is so powerful about this list is the amount of time you will save researching options. If you do a Google search on web based CRMs for example, you will get multiple programs to choose from.
However, all of them will not do what you need. Start by visiting the site and doing their overview demo. See if you like the way the program looks, is laid out and if it looks easy to use. Once the program fulfills those criteria, you can contact customer service or technical support with your list of specific criteria you developed while examining the workflow. If the software comes back with 90 percent of what you are looking for, great. But a deal breaker could be what is not included. Make sure you know what you must have and what you would like to have. If the program can not do the must haves, they are not even in the running.
Once you get your answers back and you narrow it down to the programs that meet all your must haves and most of your wants, schedule a demo for those programs with a live person. Have them show you not only an overview but how you would perform the tasks on the criteria list. This will allow you to narrow down the options further.
Finally, when you have narrowed it down to two or three software packages, do the free trial for each. Put test information into the programs to take them for a test drive yourself. Pull out your list of criteria and try doing all of those items on the list. Also, use the program just as if you were doing utilizing it in your everyday workflow. This final step will eliminate any contenders and leave you with your CRM champion for your needs and business.
Lastly, make sure that you purchase a program that is well supported, easy to get data in and out of and the company will assist you in setting up the system for your needs. If it is not easy to use... well you know the story. Your CRM will be just like the treadmill that is a clothes hanger.
