Guide Drive your business: how CRM could make your business world class

Transcription

1 Guide Drive your business: how CRM could make your business world class

2 Contents Introduction... 3 What is a CRM?... 4 CRM or ERP?... 6 Why use a CRM in your business?... 7 Understanding CRM systems... 9 How to choose the right CRM system for your business Leading CRM systems to consider Training, support and help with your CRM How to grow your business with your CRM The future of CRM Further information Page 2 of 19

3 Introduction Introducing a CRM into your business could form the foundation onto which you can build the future sustainability and profitability of your enterprise. And for small to medium sized businesses in particular, CRM could become a critical component of your company and enable it to compete with every business large or small across your market sector. Also, many CRM systems take advantage of what is the single most useful technical advance in decades: the cloud. In essence the cloud is a network of servers. Some servers offer specific services, with others used to store data that is then served to applications. If your business uses Gmail for instance, this is a cloud-based application. Using DropBox, Google Drive or icloud are cloud services that store your data so that you can then access it with any device connected to the Internet. In the context of CRMs, the cloud is used to deliver the CRMs features to your business, and also to store the customer data your CRM generates. The power that the cloud delivers to CRMs is that anyone can use the CRM no matter their location. All they need is a compatible device and a connection to the Internet. Page 3 of 19

4 What is a CRM? In essence your CRM system is a database that contains detailed information about each of your business s customers. Today s CRM systems can trace their heritage back to the days of paper-based filing and the famous Rolodex system. One of the most useful and effective aspects of today s CRM systems is their ability to integrate what have previously been separate systems across your business. If your sales team rely on extensive spreadsheets to track their activities. Your customer services team may use a separate system to manage customer service communications. Your buyers will likely use a different system to liaise with suppliers, and your accounts yet another system. CRM enables your business to potentially bring all the threads that make up your business into one platform that everyone can access. The CRM market has also matured enough to offer CRMs aimed at specific industries. Often, it is preferable to install a CRM that has been developed for your business sector, as using a general CRM could mean you have to spend a great deal of time and resource customising the CRM for your business s needs. Consulting with other businesses in your market sector may reveal which CRMs are suitable. SmallBizCRM [ has a handy assessment tool that can help you produce a shortlist of potential CRMs for your particular needs. Data is now your business s most precious asset. CRM could help your business to control that data, but more importantly, CRM has the potential to allow your business to improve every aspect of the experience you provide to your customers and commercial partners whether you are in B2B or B2C markets. CRMs succeed or fail on the information they contain. Your business may already collect and store information about your customers and commercial partners so you will already have to comply with the Data Protection Act (DPA) but, when using a CRM that could contain much more personal information, it is vital to review your compliance with the DPA. Page 4 of 19

5 The introduction of cloud computing and its application to CRM services could mean you will need to assess your business s compliance with the DPA to ensure the data controller is fully aware of how personal information is being collected, where it is stored and who has access to this data. The Information Commissioner s Office states: The DPA applies to personal data that is processed. Processing has a very broad definition and is likely to include most of the operations that are likely to occur in the cloud, including simply storage of data. The DPA defines personal data as data which relate to a living individual who can be identified from that data or from that data and other information which is in the possession of, or likely to be in the possession of, the data controller. For more information on what constitutes personal data see the ICO s guidance on determining what is personal data. If you are currently a data controller, this will continue to be the case if you move that processing to the cloud. Two guides have been produced by the Information Commissioner s Office that your business should review when choosing and then implementing your CRM. Links to these guides can be found in the more information section. Page 5 of 19

6 CRM or ERP? Often when businesses go looking for a CRM they will also see information about ERP (Enterprise Resource Management). What s the difference? CRMs and ERPs are both systems that can help your business become more efficient and profitable. There is a great deal of overlap with CRMs and ERPs especially when industry-specific CRMs and ERPs are considered. Generally, you can think of ERPs as systems that could help your business improve its internal processes such as purchasing, as an ERP s central feature is to reveal ways your business could reduce overheads and cut costs. A CRM on the other hand offers features to potentially increase profits via more sales. These additional sales could be achieved with better insights into customer buying patterns, improved customer service, which leads to customer loyalty and the ability to exploit new sales channels such as mobile phones. CRM Switch says: Deciding which system is more important is like deciding between having an engine or having a steering wheel in a car. CRM is the engine that drives a business. It improves sales and increases profits. ERP is the steering wheel it allows a business to be guided with precision, and to steer around obstacles well in advance. ERP and CRM working together make it much easier for a business to increase profits while reducing costs. Should your business choose CRM or ERP, or install both? The answer lies in how complex your business processes are at the moment, and how you manage your customer interactions. Assessing your business processes and how you handle sales and customer services will guide you to whether a CRM or ERP is needed by your business. Page 6 of 19

7 Why use a CRM in your business? Gone are the days where businesses could treat all your customers as a homogenous whole. Today your customers demand to be treated as individuals. According to research from Bain & Company, an increase in customer retention by 10% results in a 30% increase in the value of the business. The last UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) found: a consistent relationship between superior customer satisfaction and high levels of trust, reputation, loyalty and recommendation. One business that has used a CRM to great effect is CitySprint. Naomi Ward, chief customer officer at CitySprint who use the SugarCRM system said: Sugar has helped us vastly improve the customer experience. We re not going back to the customer now trying to fill in the gaps, because Sugar has all that information. Clearly for today s consumer the level of loyalty they give to a business will be directly linked to the level, quality and efficiency of the service they receive. If you have been thinking about whether a CRM is right for your business, ask yourself the following questions: Page 7 of 19

8 1. Does your business use several different systems for sales, customer service and ordering? Bringing what can be very different systems under one platform could deliver cost and time savings. Closer collaboration across your business is then possible, which gives a single view of each customer s profile. 2. Is it possible to see the entire sales and customer service history of a single customer? It is vital to develop a 360-degree view of each customer. The detailed information that a CRM gives your business could reveal new sales opportunities. 3. Does it take time and resources to generate even basic reports? Tracking the sales of a new product or service can become more straightforward with a CRM. As the system has much more than simply sales data, you can see who is buying, where they are located, when they are buying and by which sales channel all in easy to understand reports. 4. How many sales is your business losing? If it takes substantial amounts of time to follow up a sales enquiry, every hour you lose could result in a lost sale. Customers want fast and efficient responses especially to a sales enquiry. A CRM could help ensure your business doesn t lose sales. 5. Is your sales team fully connected? Sales today are done on the move. With what can often be geographically dispersed sales teams, a CRM that can be accessed remotely gives sales teams a powerful tool to not only stay in touch with customers, but also every other area of your business as well. 6. Could your business cope with expansion? Your business will grow, but do you have the systems in place to manage that growth and still maintain great levels of sales and superb customer service? A CRM could become vital to achieve these goals. Page 8 of 19

9 Understanding CRM systems Wouldn t it be great if a member of your sales team could look up all the customers that bought a specific product from you last month, in a certain region, and see the price they paid? Now what if that sales person could then develop a new campaign to contact just these people with a special offer to upsell one of your business s other products? Delivering that level of detailed information is what CRM is all about. Dan Fine, sales manager at Hive Healthcare a leading supplier of business services to the dentistry industry in the UK said: We see Insightly as not just the 7th member of our team, but also the most organised, helpful, and polite. We love Insightly! Using Insightly, Hive s sales and marketing team can manage and communicate with clients and prospects simply, speedily and with transparency. The efficiency of the company s sales process has developed from an unknown to a constantly improving figure that allows the team to have confidence that no opportunity is being left behind. Hive also makes good use of Insightly s integration with Gmail and has come to rely on it for speed and tracking purposes. Likewise, the Hive team also leverages the MailChimp integration, which allows the company to keep an open line of communication with its client base and prospects. 1 It is also vital to understand how important high quality data is to the success of the CRM your business installs. Your business is likely to have data stored in a number of different applications, all accessed by different groups of people. It s important to perform a data audit to gain insight into how accurate your data is. Duplicate data, missing information and inaccurate data can all undermine the effectiveness of the CRM you choose. Cleaning your data before it is imported into your new CRM will ensure your new systems are based on information you can trust. 1 Taken from article Insightly s Small Business Design Puts The Buzz In Hive s Sales: Page 9 of 19

10 To make sure your CRM has accurate data to work with it s crucial to develop a data policy across your company. This will ensure everyone inputs high quality accurate data that your CRM then manages. Your policy should set out how records on your CRM should be updated. Enforcing this policy will maintain the high quality data your business needs to make the most of its CRM. A well-developed CRM could offer many advantages including: The data your business collects about each customer and commercial partner becomes an asset. The opportunity to access new sales channels could open, when your CRM reporting is used to highlight unexplored opportunities. Customer queries could be responded to faster developing loyalty. Understanding where a customer is in the sales process is invaluable, as this insight can enable sales teams to focus on customers that need additional help to complete their purchases. Customers now use a plethora of different communications channels. A CRM ensures your business is using the right channel with the right customers. Revenue could increase, as your CRM enables you to upsell goods and services to highly focused and receptive customers. Costs could be reduced, as your CRM enables you to locate cost centres that can be reviewed. Marketing campaigns could have a higher conversion rate, as messages can be more highly targeted High levels of personalisation are possible with a CRM. Marketing campaigns can be tailored to specific groups of customers making them potentially more effective from a cost and sales perspective. For instance, you could use your customers names in s to increase opening rates or communicate an event to clients within a certain radius of the event location. Page 10 of 19

11 Loyalty and brand advocacy could be developed via your CRM. Your customers then become your sales team. You could offer your best customers early previews of new products or services. They will then communicate these to their readers. Social media network integration is a component of many CRMs to create a complete customer support service across your business. Ultimately your CRM is about taking more control of your business. With the data you collect about every aspect of your operations easily to hand, you have a clear picture of how your business is performing but more importantly, how it could be improved. How to choose the right CRM system for your business Even a quick search online reveals that there now dozens of CRM systems to choose from. To ensure you pick the right system for your business, follow these steps to develop your CRM strategy: What do you want your CRM to help your business achieve? This is the most important question to ask, as it will define the core goal of why you are investing in a CRM. A CRM isn t a panacea that can cure all business ills, but it could help you rapidly evolve some aspects of your enterprise, most notably, how data is used to drive sales and better customer experiences. Define your business objectives Objectives can be to increase sales and margin, geographical reach or reduce costs. It s important to not simply duplicate your existing processes using your CRM, as this won t develop your business, and you won t meet your goals. Your CRM gives you a chance to change and optimise your business. Locate industry specific CRMs The number of CRMs that are now available can be overwhelming. However, if your business trades within a highly specific market sector, there is likely to be a CRM that has been especially developed for your market. From automotive to travel, highly focused CRMs are now available. Installing one of these CRMs could dramatically cut set-up times, and also offer more ease of use. Page 11 of 19

12 Get everyone on-board As implementing a CRM means impacting on the duties of everyone in your business, it s vital that they are all kept up-to-date with what is happening, and how their jobs might change. Ensuring high levels of training and consultation will ensure your CRM is installed with the least disruption. Measure your CRM Look at the metrics you use to assess core aspects of your business at the moment. You likely use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to do this. Think about what you want to measure before and after your CRM is installed. This will instantly tell you whether the CRM is delivering on your stated objectives. Develop a clear roadmap Installing a CRM for the first time can be a daunting prospect. This is why you should create an implementation roadmap. This should be broken down into stages so your CRM is installed without massively disrupting your business. Debbie Scott, marketing and research consultant, SeeLogic advises: A major consideration is integration with other systems. If you are growing to the point you need CRM it is worthwhile making sure it will be single source of truth. A common issue we see is having separate CRM and financial systems. Then manual workarounds are needed to merge data which undoes productivity benefits gained through having a CRM. Page 12 of 19

13 Leading CRM systems to consider Insightly Ideal for small businesses new to CRMs, Insightly offers a great interface and just enough reporting to give your business the insights its needs. You can start with the basic packaging and expand with more features, as you need them. Zoho CRM If your business already uses any of the Zoho products, adding CRM features can be easy and gives you complete integration with your business services. The low price does mean you won t have the detailed reporting of other more sophisticated systems, but for smaller enterprises, this is a sound choice of CRM. SugarCRM As one of the longest standing CRMs on the market, the features on offer here are vast, but do need fairly high levels of technical skill to set up, especially if you want to run this CRM on your own servers. The level of customisability on offer is a major plus, but watch the costs when you move to the Professional version, which can be very high for large numbers of users. Really Simple Systems Enabling your business to take control of the trinity of sales, marketing and customer services, this easy to use CRM is highly popular in the B2B marketplace. The simple interface has won this CRM a large following, with modules easily added when new features are needed such as integration for your marketing campaigns. SuperOffice The modular approach that SuperOffice takes means you can build just the CRM your business needs. You can focus on sales, marketing or customer services. There s a great services calculator on their website where you can enter the number of users you have and see what your tailored CRM will cost you each month. Page 13 of 19

14 Infusionsoft Ideal for medium sized enterprises, this CRM offers automated sales and ing marketing, but costs can become high when you need to manage large numbers of contacts. However, if you have dismissed Salesforce as too complex, this CRM could offer the more advanced features you are looking for. These leading general CRM applications can be applied to any market sector or industry. However, your business could benefit from using a specialised CRM. Here, the particular needs of a market sector have been taken into account when developing the features these CRMs contain. They are also more easily integrated with other established applications your business may already use. SmallBizCRM [ maintains a list of CRMs in a wide range of industries. The advantage of these industry-specific CRMs is your set-up and training time should be shorter. CRMs such as Salesforce use a modular approach to the features they have. You can choose which features your business needs to build a bespoke CRM just for your business sector or industry. It can be preferable to consider a CRM that is aimed at your business sector if one exists to test. You may find that this approach is highly cost effective. Page 14 of 19

15 Training, support and help with your CRM Taking your time to assess the CRMs on your shortlist is an important first step. And as many of the CRMs aimed at smaller enterprises have free trials available, you can in most cases try before you buy. Levels of training and support are a vitally important component of the success of any CRM installation. Talk to the vendors and get them to put you in touch with existing businesses of a similar size. You can then see how these systems are working for them, and relate their experiences to your proposed CRM installation. Training with your CRM also extends to your existing business practices. Your staff will need to ensure they understand how data needs to be entered into the CRM to ensure it is accurate. Don t forget, the CRM is only as good as the data it contains. Inevitably things will go wrong with your CRM, which is why spending time looking closely at the SLA (Service Level Agreement) is critical. This should detail the level of support you will get. This should include high levels of customer services support when you need to ask specific questions. And often overlooked with CRMs that are hosted online in the cloud is the network that the service uses. Don t forget with a hosted service if you can t access the Internet you can t use your CRM. So, look closely at whether your business s existing connection to the Internet is robust enough to cope with what could be huge quantities of traffic you will be moving across the network when your CRM goes live. Also look at the contingency plans for outages and how your CRM supplier manages its data backups. Page 15 of 19

16 How to grow your business with your CRM The power of a CRM within your business is its ability to connect what were disjointed teams and data together. Your business could grow with a CRM simply because it can see new opportunities from the information that comes into focus. In essence your business could benefit from a CRM in a number of key areas including: Better decision making When your business is connected together with a CRM you could have all the information you need to make better decisions when purchasing, developing marketing campaigns, improving overall productivity and reducing your costs. Improved customer satisfaction Your CRM enables your business to instantly expand its use of social media, which is increasingly being used as the main contact point by consumers seeking service support. Research from JD Power revealed that 67 per cent of consumers now use Twitter and Facebook for customer service queries. Don t underestimate the commercial value of great customer service, as it is often used as a differentiator when consumers and businesses choose who to buy goods and services from. New customer relationships The CRM you choose for your business could also open new channels of communication. Consumers are re-writing the rules when it comes to the commercial relationships they have with businesses and brands. As your CRM could give you a 360-degree view of each customer, you can interact with them across many channels. This could lead to more loyalty and a potential increase in their spending with your business. New revenue streams Your business needs to constantly evolve. One new battleground is smart phones, which look set to eclipse the success of Internet retailing. Your CRM ensures your business is ready to take advantage of every mobile channel. Using your CRM to manage your business s mobile channels ensures you have the systems in place to exploit mobile platforms not only from a service point of view, but more importantly, as a new sales channel. Page 16 of 19

17 Forward planning A CRM with excellent reporting features enables you to use the information you already have, and with reporting, view how your business has been performing in a number of areas. More importantly, this information gives you the insight to develop your forward planning strategies without having to base this on guesswork. Your CRM also gives you the tools to act on these new opportunities with targeted marketing campaigns. And your business will also massively benefit from the improvements in its customer service that a CRM can deliver. The future of CRM The future for business is likely to be more customer insights that lead to increased personalisation of services and products. In the future CRM could reveal new opportunities and revenue streams for your business. SeeLogic s Debbie Scott says: Perhaps the biggest impact we will see with the future of CRM is the continued sophistication of AI [artificial intelligence] and machine learning in CRM, where the CRM itself learns about your business and its customers potentially suggesting new services or products. "Salesforce released Einstein in 2016, this was quickly followed by inbuilt business intelligence in Microsoft Dynamics 365. These clever systems learn about your users and customers to create predictions and suggestions. "The CRM will tell a sales rep about upsell opportunities that suit the customer and are more likely to convert. Service teams will be shown by the CRM where potential service issues might take place. Page 17 of 19

18 Your business is collecting increasing quantities of information. Being able to make sense of this data is vital to the profitability of your business. Used in the right way a good CRM gives you the analysis you need to ensure your products or services are the ones customers want to buy. What motivates your customers to buy or more importantly not to buy can be revealed in detail by CRMs as they evolve. But CRMs will also do more than this: They could gather your customers into groups or tribes with similar profiles and desires enabling your business to customise and personalise the services or goods you sell to just these people. This is a powerful tool to ensure a sale is made each time your business touches your customers across multiple sales channels. Page 18 of 19

19 Further information Top 40 CRM Software Report 2016: A Comparison of Leading CRM Software Vendors How to Choose the Best CRM Software: 7 Tips for Your Small Business: Infographic tips-for-your-small-business/ Driving Business Growth Using CRM The State of the Connected Customer From Social Media to Social CRM CRM Daily Information Commissioner s Office Information Commissioner s Office Guidance on the Use of Cloud Computing Determining what information is data for the purposes of the DPA Page 19 of 19