Small Business CRM Systems Move from Tracking Solo Customers to Client Groups

In a recent column on CustomerThink, Graham Hill delivers his manifesto for social business. It's an evolution in the way that sales professionals think about their clients and their markets--a societal move that actually implies more than the name suggests. Until now, CRM applications focused on the management of relationships between sales professionals and customers. In an atmosphere of social business, as Hill describes it, CRM software must become capable of so much more:

• Shifting CRM software from personal relationships to group networking. Although nothing will ever replace the direct vendor-client relationship, small business CRM now requires an understanding of maintaining relationship with a prospect's ecosystem, as well. Have a great interaction, and a prospect may become a client. Have a bad interaction, and hundreds of their Twitter followers may hear about it. A new generation of CRM software helps sales professionals maintain transparency, so they can prepare more effectively for interactions and enjoy more productive follow-ups.

• Using CRM applications to understand a customer's real value proposition. As Hill points out, customers don't just expect our products and services to deliver value. They expect our products and services to allow us to co-create even more value by helping us do our jobs more effectively than ever. It's no longer about what's in the box, but what the contents of that box enable us to do. Strong CRM software helps sales professionals measure and celebrate that creation.

• CRM software can help sales professionals respond more intuitively. Whether tracking Twitter streams or reviewing a client's direct e-mail, CRM software can help companies respond more effectively to customer needs. Understanding the real urgency and importance of a situation--even when a customer does not reach out directly--can help vendors maintain customer relationships through challenges and setbacks.

CRM systems will continue to evolve to meet these needs, even as our own needs as customers keep changing. Customer relationship management has little to do with keeping lists of addresses and phone numbers, and everything to do with cataloguing our most important wants.

Use CRM Software to "Get Back to Selling"

Software designers railed this month over Intuit's acquisition of personal finance startup Mint. Functionally, Mint fills some gaps in Intuit's product lineup. The maker of Quicken and Quickbooks paid $170 million to acquire both the budget management software and the team that brought it to light. While this might not seem relevant right now to the world of CRM software, the potential impact of Mint's design team taking over Quicken's online services could ripple out to users of hosted CRM tools.

To understand why requires a quick lesson in the challenges of designing effective hosted CRM systems. A few months ago, at the CRM Evolution 2009 conference, Accenture's Kevin Bandy identified five tasks that pull sales professionals away from interacting with customers:

• opportunity management
• pricing/quote management;
• order management;
• contract management; and
• incentive compensation management.

All five of these tasks are crucial, and can be thoroughly automated using CRM systems. However, many professionals find themselves spending more time struggling with these tasks instead of calling on accounts. Truly effective CRM software puts usability on the same plane as task requirements, allowing even novice computer users to get back to the business of developing relationships and closing deals.

Critics of Intuit's current software lineup note that Quickbooks' dominant position in small business CRM and accounting software gives the company little reason to innovate, leaving users few options to increase productivity. In fact, some vocal opponents of the "Mintuit" mashup worry that Intuit bought Mint simply to sideline it. However, as more details emerge about the deal and its implications for Intuit's overall product strategy, some analysts see a window of opportunity for the Mint design team to "infect" Intuit with fresh sensibilities. A hosted CRM platform with the feature set of Quickbooks and the ease of use of Mint.com could be a game changer for small business.

CRM Software Helps Companies Navigate the Expectation Economy

For the past year or so, marketers have buzzed about a phenomenon that the editors of Trendwatching have dubbed "The Expectation Economy." According to their description of the trend, easy access to the Internet has accelerated consumers' expectations of companies, regardless of the size of their purchases or the depth of their relationship. Until recently, CRM software thrived mainly in offices where sales professionals relied on relationship marketing to land "big fish." In the Expectation Economy, CRM software has become essential—even for mom and pop operations.

Consumers are better connected to each other than ever before, and purchasing decisions no longer hinge on the quality of a product alone. The story behind the product and the story about purchasing and using a product have become essential to a consumer's overall experience. Well-informed consumers use magazines, blogs, and bulletin boards to learn as much as possible about what to expect from a vendor before making a purchase. Likewise, the same consumers use blogs, e-mail, and social media to share their experiences with others, helping to set expectations for other prospective customers. Companies that plug their CRM software into this firehose of information can learn how to reshape their offerings to fit the enhanced expectations of informed, highly critical audiences.

Using CRM software to reset expectations goes beyond responding to the kind of product failure that sends customers into an online rampage. Effectively managing customer expectations requires companies to know:

• where they get their information about purchasing decisions,
• how advertising and marketing shape their opinions,
• how past experiences with products and services shape future expectations,
• how likely customers are to share both positive and negative experiences with their social network.

Loyalty programs, feedback surveys, and social media monitoring are just the beginning for companies that commit CRM software and other resources to matching consumers' expectations. While "having conversations with customers" might sound too simplistic, many of today's most successful companies share the ultimate goal of using CRM software to recreate the intimate relationships between buyers and sellers from a century ago.

Doorbell Small Business CRM Suite Leaves Beta

Using the tagline, "sales software for non-sales people," Smibs released its small business CRM service Doorbell to the general public this week. The web-based CRM application addresses a few of the hot button issues on the minds of small business software users:

• scalability,
• security, and
• functionality for new users.

As Jason Kincaid points out in his feature on TechCrunch, Doorbell shares a development and marketing mindset with 37signals' Highrise application. Both hosted CRM systems allow users to work from anywhere by leveraging existing e-mail threads to customers and among team members. Using the "bcc:" field and a custom e-mail address allows teams to benefit from the knowledge generated from users that don't fail to log in to their companies' CRM systems. Implementation tends to be easier using platforms like these, since individual users have the ability to customize their own versions of the CRM software without restricting other users' actions.

Like other hosted CRM platforms, Doorbell offers its customers the ability to grow quickly. However, its pricing plans will appeal to small business CRM users more accustomed to paying one-time fees for desktop applications. Many businesses can qualify for pricing tiers under $50 per month, with one-or-two person shops permitted to use the service for free while their organizations grow.

Using a hosted CRM system like Doorbell also reduces some of the risk inherent in running desktop CRM applications. Since customer details are stored "on the cloud," only files on a user's hard drive are susceptible to identity theft in the event of a lost or stolen machine.

End users unaccustomed to CRM software will appreciate Doorbell's simplicity, especially compared to complex, legacy CRM applications. Tasks and events stream down the center of the user's window in a format familiar to Facebook users. Adding new events or attaching details to accounts and opportunities is as simple as sending an e-mail to the system.

As affordable, hosted CRM systems gain even more traction among small business owners, look for heightened competition to keep prices low and functionality high.

Small Business CRM Advice Roundup

There's lots of great advice for small business CRM users this month:

• First, envision the end result of your small business CRM implementation. As Stephen Covey would say, begin with the end in mind. Are you buying CRM software just because you feel you need to, or are there specific customer challenges that you hope you can solve with technology.

• Second, choose expandable CRM systems. CRM applications designed for enterprise organizations might be too big or too expensive to justify in a small business. Many of today's most popular CRM applications offer modular options, like seat licenses for web-based apps or feature-based pricing that allows you to enable more functionality as needed.

• Third, select CRM applications that invite customers to engage with you on their terms. Lead generation tools that offer interaction on websites as well as through mobile phone applications can cultivate relationships effectively -- even when you're not directly involved.

• Fourth, focus on CRM comparisons that build on the strengths of your current team. Most failed small business CRM implementations involve techniques or technology that existing sales professionals find painful to integrate into their workflows. A fantastic automated funneling lead generator won't do much for your organization if your team has their own way of doing things. Either invest in successful teams -- or build new teams.

• Finally, don't let your small business CRM project hide you from your customer. Many small business owners get so lost in the bells and whistles of new CRM systems that they forget what attracted customers to the relationship in the first place. Small businesses that leverage personal service and prompt attention won't get far if CRM tools get in the way of human interaction.

With more companies rolling out small business CRM products every quarter, entrepreneurs can leverage their size and flexibility to attract clients -- as long as they don't let the wrong CRM software lock them in to an ineffective process.

Positioning Hosted CRM Software as a Network

Software as a Service (SaaN) offerings have grown in popularity among small business owners, especially since web-based services often cost far less per month to maintain than typical boxed small business CRM packages. For instance, a popular accounting and invoicing solution that costs $199 per year to keep current results in a monthly spend of over $16 for a single user. Competing web services that cost $12 or less per seat per month enjoy an advantage, both from a cash flow standpoint as well as from the perspective of delivering overall value to a growing business.

Mike McDerment, the CEO of Toronto-based FreshBooks, has even bigger ideas for his small business CRM suite. In a recent video and blog post, McDerment challenged customers to ask for more from their small business CRM software by integrating more of their business operations into networked web applications. Using FreshBooks as an example, McDerment illustrated how users can enjoy the convenience of invoicing on a hosted CRM platform while receiving invoices and tracking tasks from contractors or vendors from within the same system.

For small business CRM users, the power to integrate accounts payable into the same systems can unlock many of the same benefits as enterprise-level business intelligence software. Users can make more accurate cost projections, while enjoying more visibility into contractors' task progress. Integrated credit card processing improves cash flow, since users who rebill subcontractor work can connect invoices to specific tasks and jobs. A networked small business CRM solution can also evolve into a job referral platform, since users become more likely to select vendors already using the same hosted CRM tools.

McDerment calls this new way of thinking about hosted CRM a move toward "Software as a Network." Instead of viewing CRM applications and other web tools as silos, he uses Facebook as a model for what can happen when multiple software tools within the same shared destination site. While comments at TechCrunch and other blogs suggest that SaaN may not replace SaaS as a buzzword anytime soon, users of competing hosted CRM applications may find themselves craving the same kind of streamlined functionality as FreshBooks integrated business management suite.

Lessons of Open Source CRM Applications from the Nonprofit World

Few industry segments have embraced CRM applications in the way that charities have. Nonprofit organizations were among the first to automate customer relationship management (often called DRM, or donor relationship management systems).

With a head start on integrating advanced technology into their operations, nonprofits can actually teach for-profit corporations a few things about using CRM software to build loyalty. Cynthia Edwards posted a few of her own top tips from charities using CRM applications:

• Keep donors (customers) supplied with rich content that adds meaning to their lives. Strong storytelling reinforces your position in a customer's life. From a practical perspective, it also makes sure that they will open your e-mail.
• Use e-mail as a personalized orientation to kick start new relationships. The few moments after a new customer has completed a form or made a purchase represent the biggest chance to make a lasting impact.
• Offer strong incentives to share personal information. A relationship can't start until a prospect takes the step of signing up for a newsletter, creating a comment profile, or making a donation (or purchase).

Likewise, non-profits have had more time to deal with the relative explosion of CRM application vendors vying for their business. Common suggestions include:

• Learn the difference between "free CRM software" and "open source CRM software." Budget-conscious charities gravitate toward free or cheap solutions. However, many "free" CRM applications require setup and ongoing maintenance from expensive consultants or vendors.
• Emphasize the need to track referrals and personal relationships when selecting CRM software. Donors often recommend each other, as do customers. Rewarding those introductions plays a pivotal role in developing trust.

Finally, long-time advocates of CRM software in the nonprofit sector often like to remind their for-profit cousins that being not-for-profit doesn't always mean that they don't know how to grow revenue. They simply reinvest it more quickly, directly into mission-based activities, instead of distributing profit to shareholders. Smart marketers can learn a lot from experienced non-profit relationship experts.

Counting Pennies with Small Business CRM Tools

The phrase, "in an economy like this one" has already become so overused in the mainstream media that it's reached cliche status. Still, hearing about the global economic crisis on a seemingly endless loop has made some small business owners nervous about implementing CRM software. After all, large companies are putting off spending on new software implementations, so why shouldn't small business owners redirect some of their budgets someplace else?

In reality, a strong small business CRM system may be exactly the investment that your company needs to make. Firms that have experienced layoffs in the past few months need tools to help remaining staff increase workload. Strong CRM software tools can automate tasks like reporting and compliance tracking, allowing staff to focus more attention on growing sales. And connecting a CRM system to a lead generating website can shorten the gap between first contact and final contract.

Hosted CRM systems really shine in troubling economic times. CRM software platforms that allow companies to pay per-seat license fees offer fiscally sound alternatives to flat-fee systems that require dedicated hardware or hosting. Zoho, an upstart provider of low-cost small business CRM, has even made this one of their strongest selling points. By allowing small companies to host their first three users for free, marketers at Zoho hope to attract growing companies that will evolve into paying clients. Meanwhile, the company encourages its users to utilize its CRM software to filter leads more effectively and to prioritize sales calls.

Small Business CRM Tools Help You Focus on the Customer

Clare Dorrian offers some fantastic insight over at Inside CRM this week. As I wrote a little while back, economic pressure forces many CIOs to make sure that CRM software projects are not just totally justified, but are implemented flawlessly. Otherwise, they're likely to be among the first projects chopped by a CFO.

Dorrian offers a few key tips for CIOs to help justify CRM software purchases to CFOs. Among them:

• Build the case by focusing on clear business needs. Companies subject to SOX have little excuse not to document customer interactions.
• Emphasize a customer-centric approach. CRM software shouldn't just be about making life easier for managers or for marketers. There should be a tangible, measurable improvement in service delivery that makes your company more attractive to repeat customers.
• Use CRM software to respond to customer needs and requests. If you use your inbound communications tools to understand which customers have requested which products and features, you can more easily connect with them after you hustle their dream offerings to market.

The best news is that you don't have to be a big business to but Dorrian's ideas to work. Since many small business CRM systems offer pay-as-you-go pricing, you can easily implement these ideas in your mom-and-pop shop. This is especially important if mom is the CFO and pop is the CIO.

Read the rest of Dorrian's advice here...

How Can Your CRM Software's E-Mail Marketing Tools Impact Customer Retention

In this economy, small business owners need all the help they can get when it comes to encouraging repeat business from loyal customers. A quick check of your inbox bears this out: how many of your favorite online stores are using their own CRM systems to generate special offers right to your inbox?

However, an inbox crammed with very special holiday appeals spotlights the problem that many small business CRM administrators are facing. In an environment where large companies have the ability to send lots of glossy, carefully timed e-mails to customers, how can small businesses stand out?

The answer, according to a few recent studies, is by going low-tech.

Simple e-mail messages that come directly from company staff members receive far more attention from customers than regular newsletters or highly polished special offers.

Small business CRM systems can take two approaches to leveraging this strategy. First, CRM tools can be programmed to "ping" account representatives to send simple notes to customers at appropriate stages for followups. Writing a simple template with just a few lines of text -- no images and no Flash -- can help build rapport with customers and encourage replies.

A second strategy is to enable full e-mail automation within a small business CRM system. This tool may reduce the burden on account executives, but it also removes the chance of a more human interaction.

Either way, small business CRM systems must be able to track the response to these small messages. They shouldn't be sent from do_not_reply@yourcompany.com. When customers can simply hit reply and feel that they are reaching a dedicated service professional, you'll have hit the motherlode of modern marketing.

Small Business CRM Helps B&B Owners Compete Against Hotel Chains

As large hotel chains have centralized reservations and feedback systems, it's often difficult to tell whether you're speaking to a reservations agent in Cleveland or Chattanooga, even though you're trying to book a room in Chicago. However, CRM systems have become so sophisticated that reservations agents can access your entire history with a chain, no matter who you're calling. For many travelers, CRM applications populate reservation preferences at online booking sites, making it unnecessary to even speak to someone on the phone.

That may be fine for business travel, but what about for romantic getaways? Many vacationers love the idea of the scaled-down delights of a small bed and breakfast. At the same time, seasoned travelers often bristle, on ratings sites like TripAdvisor, about the challenges of tracking down a property owner to make a booking or to enquire about special services.

Small business CRM packages appeal to entrepreneurial B&B owners who want to provide the same level of customer service as a fully-staffed hotel without having to hire extra team members. Because many hospitality industry CRM systems connect to web lead forms, B&B owners can make it easy for prospective guests to request information online. By tracking leads through a small business CRM system, owners can follow up with prospects quickly, making sure they have enough information to make their decisions and secure bookings.

CRM software can help B&B owners organize guest information more effectively, as well. As guests select breakfast entrees or make special requests for their stay, CRM tools can flag reservations that require special attention. Best of all, hosted CRM tools can be linked to outside appointment-setting or telemarketing firms. There, flexible operators can answer calls around the clock to confirm reservations, accept credit cards, or make adjustments to travel plans.

Best of all, with the information collected about guests during their stay, innkeepers can follow up with satisfaction surveys and special offers that build top of mind awareness and generate additional bookings.

Of course, most B&B owners and innkeepers still encourage guests to sign a quaint registry book upon check-in. However, the real work of a savvy B&B is happening inside a small business CRM system.

Skydeck and Freshbooks blend cell phone records with CRM and billing.

When I was consulting full-time, I would have paid someone a ton of money for this new CRM software plug-in from Skydeck and Freshbooks.

Skydeck is a free service that can pull your cell phone records from your wireless provider's website. By building APIs into the service, developers at Skydeck have made it easy for the data to be sliced and diced in some interesting ways.

One of the first mashups for Skydeck is a tool that imports the records of calls made to or from clients into Freshbooks, one of my favorite hosted CRM and billing applications. If you bill your clients by the hour, you can seamlessly create invoices based on the exact amount of time spent on the phone with clients. You can even use Skydeck to measure the exact cost of speaking to your most frequent clients or customers.

Even without a connection to a third-party system, Skydeck offers some interesting CRM software features. You can sync your call records to your Windows or Mac address book, making it easy to stay organized regardless of whether you have a BlackBerry or an iPhone. You can even rank your contacts by the number of times you have called them, or vice versa. I can see folks using this as a small business CRM tool to measure the ROI of calling out to customers -- did those 300 minutes of calls result in a big sale?

This is a great, free small business CRM application, especially useful for consultants, coaches, and other time-billed professionals. Although the current offering is quite robust, Skydeck promises even more advanced functionality when they roll out their paid memberships over the coming months.

Hosted CRM Can Protect Your Customers from Identity Theft

As someone who spends a great deal of time on the road, I always get nervous when I hear about a stolen laptop or a missing hard drive containing thousands of customer records. Where I grew up, anything stolen from a car just ended up at a pawn shop. You could safely assume that any data on a hard drive would either get wiped out, or just ignored by some future user.

Not anymore. Clever thieves now realize that they can extract more value from a hard drive's CRM data than from the equipment itself. Up until a few years ago, that could easily have been my laptop, with my customer data on it. I would hate to have to call up my clients and give them that kind of bad news.

That's one of the reasons I switched to hosted CRM for my own business, and why I often recommend it to my consulting clients. If someone breaks into my car while I'm running a roadside errand, the worst thing I have to deal with is borrowing or buying another laptop for the rest of the trip. All of my hard drive data is backed up at the office, and all of my customer data lives on the cloud. In the ultimate worst case scenario, I can stop by a Kinko's and rent a machine to get my work done.

If you're working at a company that doesn't use hosted CRM (and there are plenty of performance-related reasons why you might want to do that), you can still protect your customer data using encryption, hardware locks, or even by connecting remotely to your desktop computer using VNC, GoToMyPC, or LogMeIn. Still, with VPN, Wi-Fi, and 3G laptop connections, it's easier than ever to let your data live on a hosted CRM solution.

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Find Other Ways to Connect with Clients

CRM software helps you strengthen relationships with your customers. It is utilized and shared by customer service departments, sales representatives, and managers and executives alike.

Companies need to form solid relationships with their customers. Clients have many sources to choose from, so knowing the client's needs and satisfying those needs is imperative.

Besides the application of CRM software, what are other ways a company can connect to clients?

- Check out professional social sites such as LinkedIn. Many professionals use the service to network, find information, and get referrals.

- Clients appreciate both formal and informal contact with companies they engage in business with. Social sites such as Facebook and MySpace present the opportunity for your company to construct an account and share information with customers.

- Writing a blog helps your executives connect with their customers. What better way to have contact with clients than addressing their questions and comments directly from your corporate blog? You can create a blog with ease at the Blogger Web site.

- Host a charity event. Whether it be a race, contest, gala, etc., create a chance to socialize with clients for a good cause.

Sales Advantages of Using CRM Software

CRM software benefits many people in a business. Salespeople enjoy several advantages as a result of the system.

- The sales cycle gets shortened. All steps in the sales process becomes more efficient thus promoting its alacrity.

- Customer needs are better identified. CRM software aids in a business' attempt to personalize a consumer's account. Businesses can cater their services to their customers on a case-by-case basis.

- Customers can be analyzed in depth. Salespeople can see support, sales, and purchase history of each consumer.

- Salespeople can share information with others on their team in order to compare notes, share ideas, and give suggestions.

- CRM software enables salespeople to integrate cohorts from other departments into the sales cycle. This results in better efficiency and great communication throughout varying departments.

Use CRM Software to Find More Customers

CRM Software is highly celebrated for improving a business' relationship with current clients. In addition to this benefit, business CRM software also aids in finding new clients.

The findings show many characteristics about clientele. With this information, a company can make assumptions about similarities between existing and potential clients.

For instance, if a current client subscribes to a particular magazine, a business can deduce that other subscribers to the magazine may also be interested in their products or services.

View other news about CRM:

Do Your Customers Love You? - CNNMoney.com

Message for Electronics Retailers: Customer Service Sells - CRM Buyer

CRM Software Helps Create Loyal Customers

Customers are the most important element of your business; without them, you have no business at all. CRM software gives you the insight to create lasting customers. How does CRM software achieve this?

It creates an impact in four major areas of your business:

Customer service - Representatives will know more personal information about individual customers to create a 'personalized' rapport.

Sales - Your sales department will have more information to draw from when speaking with potential and existing customers.

Marketing - The department will understand how to develop current and future campaigns based on data elicited.

Management - Executives will receive a steady stream of information in order to make better decisions and allocate immediate resources.

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