Did you know that in 2015 CRM software totaled over $26 billion?
It’s no surprise that more businesses continue to adopt CRM software to help their own business grow.
Do you currently use CRM software for small business? Do you take your time when choosing the perfect CRM software?
Keep reading to learn the key features to look out for when choosing the perfect CRM software
7 Key Features Every CRM Software for Small Business Should Have
Although every business has their own requirement when it comes to customer relationship management software (CRM) there are key features that every business should make sure is included. Trying to keep up with customers, their problems, and their interactions become too much to handle as a business grows.
CRM has grown so much in recent years that even WordPress offers plugins to integrate your CRM so that you can follow up with site visitors that fill out your contact form.
1. Manage Contacts
This feature will help you have your contacts organized. Having everyone organized will help you serve them best. Knowing which customer likes what will also help you improve making customers feel like you’re catering to them.
You will have the ability to personalize certain offers and emails when you’re promoting your brand to your own contacts. When your customers feel like you’re talking to them because you have the ability to personalize campaigns they will feel more special and, in turn, it will raise your customer satisfaction. When customers are satisfied it means your business will continue to grow.
Certain CRM software will give you the ability to search for a customer based on a specific category. If this feature will make things easier for your business make sure to look for one that allows you to search and categorize your contacts.
2. Leads
It’s important for the CRM software you choose to have the ability to track all your leads and create campaigns to send out. Without having a feature to target leads you will lose out on the opportunity to grow your business faster.
Targeting leads instead of forgetting about them because you don’t have an organized system in place will make all the difference in your business. You will have the ability to focus on the best leads for a specific campaign that you’re putting together. You can organize leads by demographics and other features to determine who to target depending on the campaign you’re running.
3. Project Management
Thanks to technology now you can find a CRM software that will keep everything more organized for your employees when it comes to their projects, tasks, and workflow. You can choose a CRM software that will help them keep track of their active projects to help them stay on track.
When employees understand where they are in a project in relation to where they should be will help them stay accountable.
4. Reports
Having the option to view customized reports means that you will have the power to make a decision based on data. Being able to make a decision based on data instead of guessing means better results. When you have reports that have real-time updates your campaigns have a better chance of giving you higher campaign results.
The great thing is that with the right CRM software you or your employees pulling up reports don’t have to be in the same place. You can both access reports from different locations and compare notes to choose the next campaign you will run.
5. Invoices
Choosing a CRM software that allows you or your sales team to create invoices and track billing from the same place will make everyone’s life easier. Instead of having one program from invoicing, one program to send out quotes and a different one to track paid invoices you can instead choose a CRM that gives you the capability of taking care of everything under the same roof.
When you look up a specific client you will be able to see their entire billing history and have the capability to see their value to date. Newer CRM software has seen the value of integrating everything under one system and this has become a common feature you will find.
6. Mobile Capabilities
With practically everyone owning a smartphone nowadays it’s smart to have a CRM software that has a user-friendly app to help manage campaigns on the go. Small businesses are being run more remotely than from an office which makes having mobile capabilities more important than ever. This blog goes into more details on why choosing a CRM that’s mobile friendly is important.
How great is it for you to be able to view data and information even if you’re not at the office and for your staff to also see valuable campaign information when they’re not physically in the office either.
7. Analytics
Having a feature to keep track of sales will help you understand what sales campaigns were best for your business. Knowing this information means you can create better sales campaigns in the future based on the analytics of what worked and what didn’t.
You’re able to collect data from website traffic, social media, and polls and then analyze it.
Ready to Choose the Perfect CRM?
Now that you know the 7 key features when choosing CRM software for small business, you can narrow down your choices. Make sure when you choose a CRM software it’s the want that will be the most efficient for your specific needs.
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