CRM For Small Business
Learn about CRM for Small Businesses

Differences between CRM implementation and CRM adoption (Part 2)

My second example goes like this: I meet with the Director of Sales for one of the companies that have implemented a project aimed at improving the productivity of the sales force. One aspect that is discovered is that users of a group of sales (institutional sales) do not make frequent use of the tools supplied. Another group of sales (sales to retail customers) make excellent use of the tools and the management of this area has all the information up to date commercial, managerial and business productivity. In this same organization, the customer service area, which through a call center, maintains contact with customers, indicates that customer information is outdated institutional segment and commercial force not help with the updating of this information. Well, here are two simple examples of situations that are evident when analyzing the process of adoption of the elements in a CRM initiative. In most [...]

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CRM for small business and open source solutions

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become a necessary component to service existing customers and follow up new sales leads. Even before the global business slowdown was evident began investigating the benefits of implementing CRM solutions for open source. CRM Open Source Software is usually available free of charge and is generally available as an Internet download. Today, small and medium size business owners are using the software open source CRM to help streamline their business processes with the expectation of generating more sales opportunities. Open source CRM solutions must be able to manage existing clients, facilitate exploration, generate online sales leads, launch and monitor marketing campaigns, analyze needs and preferences, integration with existing applications and provide secure access to enterprise data from any computer with internet connection and a browser. There are several ways to join to several CRM projects for small businesses that can lead you to the top [...]

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The authentic meaning of CRM for small business (Part 2)

“This is the continuation of our previous edition of this article. We encourage you to read it for a better understanding of the meaning of CRM for small business.” With the implementation of CRM system, the company must be able to anticipate customer desires. The system should be a means of getting information without reaching the level of customer harassment. The response rate must be high, since the user will not wait forever, and offer several options to enable it to establish contact with the company. A “one stop call” service and 24 hours would be ideal for the user. Finally the real meaning of CRM for the company is: to increase sales, increase profits, increase margins, enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs of sales and marketing. What is the future of this popular market trend? If for CRM for small business (Customer Relationship Management) means the area of software [...]

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The authentic meaning of CRM for small business (Part 1)

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is understood as the Management on the relationship with consumers, but it’s as generic as any phrase in English translated into Spanish. But for a better understanding it basically refers to a strategy of customer-centric business. According to Don Alfredo De Goyeneche, in its publication in the journal Economics and Management, University of Chile, which refers to “CRM’ at a business model whose strategy is aimed at achieving identify and manage those relationships in more accounts valuable to a company, working differently in each of them in a way that can improve the effectiveness of customers. In short be more effective when interacting with customers. Under this concept, it would be good depth, as these three words include much more. The CRM for small business as defined by Barton Goldenberg consists of 10 components:

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Differences between CRM for small business, implementation and CRM adoption (Part 1)

An interesting title, I’ve taken from an article in the latest issue (May) from CRM Magazine. In these days analyzed with some of our project leaders to the fact as demonstrated success in implementing various projects of CRM and SFA to manage jointly with our customers, but also the concerns about that in some of these projects, the level of adoption by the user community of some functions of the system has not been as deep as planned and desired. Therefore, it is interesting to analyze in greater detail which can be the causes of one project to another, with relatively similar objectives, present large differences in the final results of a CRM implementation and even within the same organization, presented significant differences in the achievements of two or three roles within the company that have adopted the use of a CRM for small business system.

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How avoid common mistakes implementing CRM for small business

There are many SMEs that relied on fast implementation of CRM solutions to transform their customer relationships. But this rapid adoption of the software is doomed to failure if not accompanied by a change of mentality among the members of the organization, because CRM is not a magic tool, but one that must be implemented properly and requires a trained group, which devoted exclusively to it. Consider that small and medium enterprises have an average of 50 employees, making it impractical to devote some of them to process data exclusivity. Normally, this responsibility lies with the marketing manager or sales that gathers information semi processed by the heads of departments to take some determination. Otherwise, all the useful information can be obtained through it becomes unfruitful.

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What about CRM on demand for small business

When the CRM on demand was being introduced, many voices were raised to denounce its drawbacks: the difficult customization, integration with other applications, technical support, data storage by third parties, control over data and control over the reports of the effectiveness of the service , not to mention the ever-important issue of data security. The main drawback with the CRM for small business on demand systems is that the most important of our company are in the hands of a third. Although the model makes time Application Server Provider (ASP) is well known, is not as difficult and expensive to install your own server solutions within the enterprise. It requires infrastructure, both human and technical resources of the computer area, and time to develop. Integration with other applications has been one of the workhorses of the demand CRM. From the point of view that companies offering on-demand software update the [...]

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How managers should support CRM implementation

While executives of large companies share the view that technology has helped them strengthen relationships with customers, 55% say that some shortcomings of the Management of Customer Relationship (CRM) are motivated by the lack of attention of the leadership of the company, according to a study by Accenture. The report’s findings coincide with the opinion of Accenture that, despite the benefits of such techniques, CRM has failed to develop its full potential yet. About 74% of executives believe that you do not have adequate strategic planning for the management of customer relationships. “Too many CRM projects focus on the mechanics, tools and specific technologies rather than on the last end of it: increase the value of customer relationships. CEOs now face the challenge of not only provide sales and service function more complex, but also to deliver and manage these functions more quickly and in a more profitable, “said Alfonso [...]

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Implementing CRM in your Small Business

There are many small businesses that relied on fast implementation of CRM solutions to transform their customer relationships. But this rapid adoption of the software is doomed to failure if not accompanied by a change of mentality among the members of the organization, because CRM for small business,  is not a magic tool, but one that must be implemented properly and requires a trained group, which devoted exclusively to it. Consider that small and medium enterprises have an average of 50 employees, making it impractical to devote some of them to process data exclusivity. Normally, this responsibility lies with the marketing manager or sales that gathers information semi processed by the heads of departments to take some determination. Otherwise, all the useful information can be obtained through it becomes unfruitful. The most common mistakes when purchasing CRM for small business are two: 1) Many times the CRM implementation is limited [...]

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Are you aware of the CRM impact in your small business?

Lately we have been immersed in a sea of acronyms and initials as ERP, MRP, B2B or B2C, almost all associated with technological developments applied to business. One of the most talked about is CRM and though I’m sure almost all know that means Customer Relationship Management, well I’m sure many associate it with an administrative software package, which is a justified error in the information we receive daily. So to get rid of doubts, consider what is and is not CRM. First, the concept of CRM itself is not directly related to technology. CRM is a corporate philosophy which seeks to understand and anticipate the needs of existing clients and also the potential that currently rests on technological solutions that facilitate their implementation, development and utilization. In short, this is a business strategy focused on the customer and their needs. CRM is a strategy of customer-centric business is not [...]

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