The Value of a CRM

I thought I write about something different today, in that this could be potentially something we can help with.  CRM’s – what are they and how do they help.

We build websites, but that said increasingly our website are based on a Platform of some sort, there is nothing we prefer more than to hand code a website from scratch, exercising our skills and creating something truly innovative out of essentially nothing.  But even then we use our knowledge to make something that works, has the right bits, looks good on Mobile and all that sort of thing.

The rest of the time we use a Platform, the obvious being WordPress, but increasingly for us Shopify, Magento, Wix, Squarespace and all those sorts of websites that offer cheap and easy ways to build you a website, but don’t quite make it intuitive enough for you to do it yourself.  One of our catchphrases is – there is nothing we can do that you cannot do – but perhaps I should leave that for another Article.

So, the fact we have such extensive experience of platforms got me thinking… we can almost deal with any platform, of any sort.  These days there are so many, be it a Staff tool, a Todo List tool, a Calendar tool, something for Sales, let’s not forget Accounting… there are so many tools.

But the one thing we have learned is that all these tools are only as good as the Data people put into them.  That’s all nice and dandy if you are just starting a new business, it is a bit like getting the business cards and letterhead printed.  you can start from scratch and it should be OK.  But really we can help.

Whether you are starting up a new business or not, we can help advise, implement and populate your Business needs into one of these tools, a good example is a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager).  You might think you don’t need a tool like a CRM, but maybe it could help you and a very big way.

On the bases that any system is only as good as the data you put into it, here are some ways we can help.

• Initial research – what is actually going to be most beneficial to your company, it’s easy to browse a few Reviews or comparison websites, but this is the future of your business and perhaps you need to have proper guidance.
• Setting up – it’s all very well signing up, but unless you configure and go through the option available to you – what’s the point the CRM or system you think will benefit you will just be a pain as it will never quite do what you want.
• Data Importing – often we recommend to clients – do to manually, it’s so much easier, but data importing for clean good quality data can be a massive time saver for everyone.
• Ongoing Maintenance – you’re happy, but want to tweak – again the CRM or platform you have chosen does not quite do what you want, can it be tweaked into shape?
• Optimisation – keep things clean, working a most of all beneficial to your Business.
• Training – bringing staff up to speed on the best way to use the system and also how to get the most Value out of a CRM

I hope these points help you, getting value out of a CRM is not easy, requires thinking about and also requires comany wide adpotion and promotion.  All things we can help with.