Year: 2020

Not Customer Experience — Customer Care Is The New Mantra To Move Ahead Now

As the business world is desperately searching for the answer to the key question raised in every industry: “How can brands exceed ever-increasing customer expectations?” the growing appetite of the customers are now taking a toll on every enterprise irrespective of its business model, right from retail to healthcare, banking, telecommunications, and more. Therefore to solve this ever-heightening challenges, even though companies use time and efforts on customer experience as the final competitive differentiator, but now standing in the middle of a Pandemic, customer experience is not of much help anymore for business growth, since now it is mostly regarded as dealing with the outcome of bad service or reflective learning from mistakes that have occurred in the past.

As the business world is desperately searching for the answer to the key question raised in every industry: “How can brands exceed ever-increasing customer expectations?” the growing appetite of the customers are now taking a toll on every enterprise irrespective of its business model, right from retail to healthcare, banking, telecommunications, and more.
Therefore to solve this ever-heightening challenges, even though companies use time and efforts on customer experience as the final competitive differentiator, but now standing in the middle of a Pandemic, customer experience is not of much help anymore for business growth, since now it is mostly regarded as dealing with the outcome of bad service or reflective learning from mistakes that have occurred in the past.

Because CRM software greatly improves data accessibility, sales reps at companies using a CRM can shorten their sales cycles by 8-14% - Nucleus Research Click To Tweet

Hence if you want to reap visible results now in the form of customer loyalty, customer retention, and ultimately sales for business growth, Customer Experience or CX has to be replaced with Customer Care as it more human-like and proactive version in these present times.

We say this as one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative   CRM in the SMB domain as customer care not only is capable of decreasing the customer’s efforts at every touchpoint but it even aids in targeting each individual customer instead of focusing on a particular segment or the entire customer base at a time.

Apart from it, care for the customers also is about predicting the requirements of the customers even before they articulate it themselves.

Now do all these sounds difficult?
In fact, it is.

Hence it is the reason why customer intent prediction is a hot topic today, with a fair share of AI (Artificial Intelligence) deliberation added to the mix.

Care Does Not Mean Customer Service

While this might seem obvious to many, nevertheless this distinction must be highlighted.

Now, customer service is a different element and function altogether in businesses, which is mostly carried out by dedicated departments in an organization, the scope of which encompasses complaints and customer requests as well as guidance for the usage of any products or services.

Even though customer service makes a part of the customer’s journey with any brand, there are several improvements that can be applied to this area in business to deliver customer care promises for business growth.

For example, this can include demolishing departmental silos and letting reps working in customer service into a pool customer data in their easy to use CRM as when service representatives can grasp the context of the customer requests, they can personalize communication for every particular case individually.

Care Is for New Customers- too

In the past customer experience management traditionally was only reserved for the existing customers in any company.

However, the idea of customer care can be well extended even too the new customers helping you in boosting business growth.

As one of the best CRM for small and medium businesses, we can assure the readers that doing this primarily makes the new customers feel welcomed, which in return help earn your brand a few points on its own as a result of this endeavor.

Secondly, care for the customers when done proactively can even propel the relationship with your new customers and turn them into regular purchasers of your brand.

Now although it is easier said than done, with nearly zero information on each new customer’s intent and needs, it might be extremely difficult to deliver personalization, consistency, responsiveness, and continuity of your customer care programs.

Nevertheless, with the latest business growth technology solutions that are there in the present marketplace it might offer some way outs, and so let us look at the customer care strategies, approaches, and technologies from here on in this blog.

Customer Journey Mapping, Revisited

We are all aware that in the present time one-size-fits-all approach is no longer effective for both traditional and digital businesses. Rather modern business strategies educate us that companies need to serve each customer individually which is where full-scale customization and personalization enter the scene.

Additionally, customer journeys are also unpredictable as they vary from one customer to another, and so advanced approaches to customer experience which is customer care call for revisiting classic customer journeys, whereby in its “Micro-Moments Guide” tech giants like Google has come up with the phrase “customer decision journey” where the purchasing decision is made through an almost inexhaustible string of sessions across screens and channels in their digital journey.

Micro-Moment Marketing

This term “Micro-Moment Marketing” was coined and became popular in 2014 when it was found that device usage has started increasing, whereby this term stands for the consumer’s deliberate intent to look up for more information about their desired purchases online.

Now according to the tech giant Google these intents falls into four key categories, which are:

• I want to know…
• I want to go…
• I want to buy…
• I want to do…

Now one of the main characteristics of micro-moments is that they can hardly be owned by any brand or company.

Therefore, only targeted advertisements make brands visible to all major search engines, and in this context, every primary encounter happens for both the brand and the buyers in an exceedingly competitive marketplace, which cannot be controlled even by the business or the brand itself.

Hence nowadays once any prospective customer has landed on your business page, as a brand you need to show you are a company that truly cares for its customers by providing proactive help, delivering useful and pertinent information on the spot, and thereafter entice visitors with tempting intent-based offers on your products and services for business growth.

Now all this is impossible without any technological foundation and so this where the major battle is happing right now.

What Are the New Battlefields?

Even though it weird to think that tasks like making relationship building more human-like are often entrusted to machines, nevertheless in the absence of face-to-face interaction in the digital world, technology is the only possible answer and solution to this issue.

But over here the problem lies that dispersing budgets and efforts on every technology solution will do no good. Rather, businesses should only focus on areas that have a truly significant impact on building customer relationships, which more precisely implies technologies like easy to use CRM tools that support mobile and also at present business intelligence.
This is because today consumers favor mobile over all other channels, and so catering to that recognizes the fact that your business is taking one step forward in your customer care efforts.

Irrespective of whether you are an owner of a brick-and-mortar store or is involved in doing business absolutely digitally, mobile will allow the majority of your customer interactions, forcing your business to focus on mobile-first experience for your brand’s business growth.
For this, you can use mobile apps to complement your online website or even provide mobile-exclusive offers, like mobile-only branded mobile wallets, loyalty cards, or mobile extensions which can be used for engaging customers to come to your brick-and-mortar store.

Now the main areas of customer care, namely, personalization, customer intent prediction, and relevance are impossible to find and cater to without scooping up the essential details of your customers that you want to engage in.

This is where BI (business Intelligence) comes into play.

In this market-of-one, it is all about dealing and catering to micro-data on each particular customer.

Hence this is where personalization applies in the game, not through trends applied on broad segments of the customer base, but with little facts about real people that are found in one customer at a time.

For this businesses are even going further and bumping into cognitive analytics which is an amalgamation of cognitive computing and data analytics which helps in making real-time decisions in customer service and of course personalization.

Finally, when your business is dealing with BI technologies, always remember about ethical data collection policies, since be it micro-data or Big Data, security is the key.

This is because, customers appreciate being in control over what information they provide to businesses, whereby they expect transparency and clear privacy rules in exchange for agreeing to provide their personal data for tailored personalization that they expect from their brands and companies.

Conclusion

In the present times, there are several forward-looking businesses and brands that have already taken some big steps and as one of the best CRM for small business and startups in the CRM space, we can assure, that doing so, it is paying off their brands with higher website traffic and ultimately better ROI for business growth.

Nevertheless, after reading this article if plunging into the unknown seem too risky for your brand, try out the customer care approach by conducting a pilot project.

We are sure that brings together marketing thinking, imagination, determination, and powerful business growth technology can surely make your brand bring incredible results in the days to come.

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4 Ways To Prepare For Ad Hoc Easy To Use CRM Training In Disturbed Times

The of late rapid outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe implies that the human race is now faced with living in an uncertain, undeniable, scary and distracted time. Now, while the far-fetching impact of this new challenge on both society and economy is still unknown and so sales and business do not have to immediately succumb to the pressure. As a matter of fact, with the right easy to use CRM software and business growth technology solutions many businesses do not have to close down or reduce their outputs at all. Rather CRM is a cutting-edge tool that can empower businesses to support their teams with remote working facilities which implies businesses can conduct their operations as close to usual as possible even during this COVID-19 Pandemic times.

The of late rapid outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe implies that the human race is now faced with living in an uncertain, undeniable, scary and distracted time.
Now, while the far-fetching impact of this new challenge on both society and economy is still unknown and so sales and business do not have to immediately succumb to the pressure.
As a matter of fact, with the right easy to use CRM software and business growth technology solutions many businesses do not have to close down or reduce their outputs at all.

Rather CRM is a cutting-edge tool that can empower businesses to support their teams with remote working facilities which implies businesses can conduct their operations as close to usual as possible even during this COVID-19 Pandemic times.

From customer service and email marketing to personalization, companies now expect to be able to connect platforms and technologies with customer data, in order to provide a more personalized experience. - SuperOffice Click To Tweet

Nevertheless, this technology does not take into account what personal trials your team members and employees might be going through, and therefore training any team in this time will be a challenging task. This is because it really makes sense with a constant cascade of news practically spelling out economic meltdown, not to mention the concerns people are having over one’s own health and the well-being of their loved ones.

Even though all said and done, time is the only element that will gradually diffuse the latter concerns, sales-oriented businesses can help to ensure that their sales teams about stability in their jobs by allowing remote working, which is not only true for enterprises but even effective for small organizations and startups by implementing an effective easy to use CRM training.

So where should brands, companies and businesses start for training their teams?

As one of the most popular vendors of award-winning Salesforce Alternative CRM software solutions to help your team get acclimatized with a new remote easy to use CRM or sales tools, the ideal place to begin is by uniting your teams and getting them onboard and enthusiastic about the innovative changes in these trying times.

1. Rallying Your Team

The golden key to success in any business is having a passionate team of employees that is enthusiastic about the work they are doing, and the key to achieving this is usually through excited leaders who are able to inspire.
Now, while finding this source of inspiration at these present times, with frightening distractions by the over flooding Coronavirus news, can be a problem, nonetheless, it is possible through honest and open discussions with your teams.

Hence, for this those that are conducting training of the easy to use CRM should consider asking questions around the best possible ways to communicate with their teams.

Some of these questions might include:
• What are your biggest issues of concern right now?
• How can your role in your organization address these concerns and issues?
• How can you best communicate with your team members right now?
• What are the aspects of processes and tools that you are struggling to understand today?

These above-stated questions will enable managers and leaders to perceive the scope of distraction and the amount of work thereby necessary for training, even before finding engaging and creative ways to communicate with their teams, based on which those conducting the CRM software’s training will be able to communicate the benefits of the chosen easy to use CRM tool more efficiently.

Doing this will not only get their teams excited about using the software but also understand the benefits of using an easy to use CRM, since if it is not done rightly teams may not opt to use the new software or even make use of it begrudgingly which can result in decreasing the adoption rate of the tool.

2. Make Easy To Use CRM Training Profoundly Appealing

While it is of utmost necessity to recognize the present stressful impact current global and regional events about Coronavirus Pandemic are having on your employees, nevertheless it does not mean that training should not be conducted.

Rather, it implies that the training of the CRM software needs to be as strategic as possible.

Therefore conduct the training by taking a step back and viewing the scopes of what you are asking your team to be familiar with.

For this some of these questions you can ask yourself might include:
• Are you try to train your team on multiple platforms and tools at once?
• Are you trying to totally change the way your team is working and overwhelming them with unnecessary and boring materials?
• Is there any way you can simplify and make their training easy?

Finding the answers to these questions are important since if remote working has not been a part of a company’s culture until now, it can be considered that the team is likely passing through a period of adjustment or facing a learning curve trying to grasp a whole new way of working.

Now as such CRM training materials will add to their burden if they are not engaging. Therefore, those conducting the training need to simplify all training materials so that they are concise, quick and reliable.

For this one of the most successful ways to train teams is to make them understand the core basics of what is CRM and provide them with post-training guides that they can learn later on at their convenience.

3. Plan For Remote CRM Implementation

Relating to the aforesaid point, those conducting the training of the software need to also make sure that the easy to use solution can be impeccably implemented offsite.

Hence, leaders need to think not only the complexity found in the CRM solution itself but even the capability of their teams to accept certain aspects of the CRM training by themselves, more so during these Pandemic times.

This right now, when the world is observing social-distancing norms can be done by using a plethora of different technologies like video conferencing which can educate in depth several aspects of the software by those conducting the training exercise, before your teams end the call and try doing certain additional exercises on their own.

Therefore, if you are the one buying the software, you must make sure that the onboarding process within the software is also simple to follow, which in return will help in considerably reducing the cost, as implementation and training of even an easy to use CRM often use up valuable time that can be easily saved by choosing the right solution once you buy CRM during these trying times.

4. Consider Existing Platforms and Their Integration Capabilities

When buying a CRM software solution, it extremely necessary that you must look at its integrational capabilities with all your existing business platforms.

For this some of the questions you can ask yourself might include:
• Will your selected CRM platform integrates seamlessly with any platform?
• Will the CRM solution present any serious issues in migrating data from your existing infrastructure or other often-uses business growth platforms?
• Is your company looking for introducing any other additional solutions in the future that you need to integrate with a CRM?

Now, looking into these factors are important since integration capabilities will undeniably add to your team’s and businesses’ capabilities in the future, since if the CRM database cannot be imported or exported between diverse platforms, it will surely spell disaster and a lot of additional work for not only the IT personnel employed in your company but even for people who manage these solutions and also your team that needs this information to do their job efficiently.

Takeaway

Hence while humanity at large is currently faced with a lot of societal and economic uncertainties, it does not mean that sales-oriented businesses need to give up as through engaging and effective communications, streamlined and simplified training processes, inspirational leadership, and lastly with the help of an easy to use CRM, sales teams can make a transition to remote working and continue on with business as usual.

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How Creating The Right Lead Nurturing Program Can Act As A Game Changer For Businesses

It is hard to reject the point the process of lead nurturing can be considered the most important process that all businesses require for developing their sales funnel. We say this since it is only a very trifling percentage of good leads that organizations capture by using their lead generation strategies ultimately become “ready for sales” if they fail to be nurtured properly. Therefore nurturing prospective leads for finding results for your business is a critical process that calls for applying an effective and efficient lead nurturing strategy to find business growth. Therefore, here are a few most essential lead nurturing best practices that can guide you on how you can use technology to fuel massive business growth.

It is hard to reject the point the process of lead nurturing can be considered the most important process that all businesses require for developing their sales funnel.
We say this since it is only a very trifling percentage of good leads that organizations capture by using their lead generation strategies ultimately become “ready for sales” if they fail to be nurtured properly. Therefore nurturing prospective leads for finding results for your business is a critical process that calls for applying an effective and efficient lead nurturing strategy to find business growth.
Therefore, here are a few most essential lead nurturing best practices that can guide you on how you can use technology to fuel massive business growth :

1. Use Email Messages

When you are sending emails to your prospective customers always ensure that your emails contain something that can be of value and interest to them. Else why would they waste their time reading the contents in your email?

For example, if you are into Merchant Cash Advance or alternative financing business you first lead nurturing emails might focus on a topic like “Difference between a Merchant Cash Advance and a Loan”.

Therefore, when you are using MCA CRM software to create an automated lead nurturing email campaign for your Cash Advance leads and prospects in your CRM database dish out something engaging and new and you can be sure that your prospects will be more than eager to receive your emails.

Ideally, for nurturing campaigns, your emails should contain one central topic and also just one predominant CTA (Call-to-Action).

It is important that you must necessarily remain focused on your subject or you may run the risk of putting your audience off with boring and irrelevant content.

Try to address directly to the problem that your lead is trying to solve, so that that you can get them to go through your email and understand your proposition clearly.

Like many other vital aspects of Inbound Marketing, efficient lead nurturing programs can be assessed and measured by evaluating certain parameters that can be found is most easy to use CRM software platforms.

Here are the three metrics that you must track regularly while conducting your lead nurturing programs to gauge the efficiency of your email campaigns:

• Email Open Rate- The percentage of people who opened your lead nurturing emails.

• Click Through Rate- The percent of people who clicked the CTA or any other link in the email.

• Unsubscribe Rate- The number of people who stopped receiving your emails.

11: 51% of email marketers say email list segmentation is the most effective way to personalise lead nurturing. - Ascend2 Click To Tweet

2. Use Telemarketing

Employing inside sales representatives who are specially trained in your offerings or appointing a telemarketing service vendor that specializes in B2B lead nurturing is another way for winning your leads.

Now, do not expect your telemarketing representatives to close the deals by making these calls since in most cases your prospects will not be ready to make a purchase yet.

Hence, always remember these calls are most essentially meant to provide additional information and extra educational resources that will assist in moving the leads and prospects for conversion through the sales funnel.

Moreover, you can even use these conversations to gather more lead qualifying information in your CRM database, such as a particular organization’s size and its business needs or a possible time-frame for closing the deal.

3. Evaluate Quality Of The Leads

In lead nurturing it is an extremely crucial element to judge whether the leads in your CRM database are good enough to be passed along to the sales team, which is a way that can help you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Therefore you can implement a lead scoring system in your easy to use CRM software which can help you to find and segregate the sales-ready leads in your database.

However, before implementing your lead scoring parameters always consult with your sales teams before setting the criteria for scoring your leads.

Wrap Up

Lead nurturing with the help of easy to use CRM ought to be the priority for every company especially in the B2B landscape.

This the reason as to which with inbound marketing proving its salt and becoming extremely effectual in delivering pre-qualified leads to the sales teams, lead nurturing has become the magic pill for businesses that are ready to leave the world of mediocre growth, low sales and missed quotas behind and take a quantum leap in their business leadership to build a high growth sales engine that promises stellar revenue growth.

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Understanding The Four Segments Of Lock-Down Consumers And Their Behaviors (With Strategies For Revenue Growth)

As we all know that these are unprecedented times and even though it is tough to contemplate anything else other than devastation which this Novel Coronavirus Pandemic is inflicting across the world- life strangely still goes on! Now those among us that have not yet got affected by this deadly malady (or have recovered from this disease) still have to work, eat, sleep and socialize (albeit digitally) and thereby keep ourselves occupied during this lockdown. It is interesting to know in this present circumstance one very popular language learning app has claimed an increased usage of 200%, while sales of home gardening equipment have skyrocketed and the number of home décor Pinterest boards has multiplied by a factor of more than 50%. As the old adage goes “where there is chaos there is an opportunity” for certain brands and businesses Coronavirus has spearheaded business growth,while for the other it has brought unending misfortune and hardship as they have never seen before.

As we all know that these are unprecedented times and even though it is tough to contemplate anything else other than devastation which this Novel Coronavirus Pandemic is inflicting across the world- life strangely still goes on!
Now those among us that have not yet got affected by this deadly malady (or have recovered from this disease) still have to work, eat, sleep and socialize (albeit digitally) and thereby keep ourselves occupied during this lockdown.
It is interesting to know in this present circumstance one very popular language learning app has claimed an increased usage of 200%, while sales of home gardening equipment have skyrocketed and the number of home décor Pinterest boards has multiplied by a factor of more than 50%.
As the old adage goes “where there is chaos there is an opportunity” for certain brands and businesses Coronavirus has spearheaded their business growth, while for the other it has brought unending misfortune and hardship as they have never seen before.

The average return on investment for CRM is $8.71 for every dollar spent. - Nucleus Research Click To Tweet

Hence, whichever side of the fence that your business falls, an understanding of the present behaviors of your customers can help you to navigate these fast-moving and turbulent times and so as one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM we can show you how predictably consumers behave even during this troubled Pandemic as these four segments emerge from the researches we did with the help of our easy to use CRM software, that mostly caters to hundreds of small and medium businesses spread across the globe.

THE FOUR SEGMENTS OF LOCKED-DOWN CONSUMERS

1. Cost Cutters

This segment of the consumers feels that they are the most vulnerable and the hardest hit financially. Hence this segment of the consumers will literally slam on their brakes and discontinue spending on unnecessary items immediately.

Moreover, they may even decrease the usage of what they consider as their essential purchases and are likely to move wherever it is possible for cheaper alternatives.

It is most likely that during socio-political turmoil ‘cost-cutters’ will be high-income consumers with investments, those that have lost their jobs or those that are worried about their economic stability over the coming months, despite the government’s intervention to control and restore a falling economy.

# Strategy

The primary thing that brands must do with a high percentage of cost-cutting customers in this Pandemic times, is to keep the relationships going and use an easy to use CRM or any other business growth tools during this COVID-19 crisis to perceive what customers are interested in just beyond their company’ offerings.

Now, while the most tempting response in this situation is to cut prices (which we are even seeing with many brands now) nevertheless this can only even be a race to the bottom.

Since the customers are in a financial lockdown and so irrespective of how low are the prices these cost-cutter segment of the customers will not spend.

Hence by lowering prices, all you will be doing is to devalue your brand’s equity.

2. Watchers

Typically this type of consumer will keep on hedging on their bets. Watchers will be worried about short-term and the ability to maintain their standard of living and so even though they will put a reign in their spendings, nevertheless, they will remain optimistic about the future days to come.

In a research done by Populas Inc., it shows that this is the segment where the majority of the citizens in every nation falls into, whereby 78% of the respondents in the survey said that by the week (beginning of April 2020) they are going to cut down on what they usually spend every month until this crisis and Pandemic is over.

Nonetheless, 77% of the same respondents even said that when the crisis gets over it will also be important for them to go out again and start spending once more.

In fact, this group of consumers represents a wide range of income groups.
But the sad news today is that once this COVID-19 Pandemic gets worse and if this lockdown continues Watchers will increasingly migrate to Cost Cutters.

# Strategy

Because of the optimistic outlook of the Watchers, high-involving brands should capitalize on this buyer’s psychology by finding convenient ways for their consumers to buy.

For example, businesses might introduce a more favorable financial deal accompanied by payment holidays until later in the year or for less pricy products and services spread their cost over a number of months, which are a very successful strategy for sustaining consistent business growth.

3. Cautiously Comfortable

These consumers are those that feel secured about their present financial situations in both short and long term scales.

Cautiously comfortable consumers tend to be retired citizens who have their investments spread over several low-risk portfolios.

Even though cautiously comfortable consumers also include the most well-off and high-earning consumers such as media barons, reputed sportsmen, celebrities, and more.

Therefore, this segment of the consumers continues to spend almost with the same spree as they have always done even before.

Nevertheless, during this financial unrest and economic slowdown they might become over selective with their brands and swap their choices from premium to slightly cheaper alternatives.

In this current market scenario, alternatively, these cautious comfortable consumers will also attempt to maintain their present lifestyle and stick to their favored brands but might decrease their consumptions.

Cautious consumers are such that they might even pay a premium to avail their brand’s offerings since now there are several BOGOF (Buy One, Get One Free ) and FMCGs that have curtailed on their conditions to buying on offers and have now switched to accepting payments in full RRP (Recommended Retail Price) instead.

Moreover, cautious comfortable(s) tend to be good planners and so might use this lockdown as a golden opportunity to plan for their future purchases in arenas like large home improvements or future holidays after the lift of this Pandemic.

# Strategy

Businesses should continue to send inspirational content to these consumers using drip marketing strategies which can provide them the right ammunition to plan.

Already we are seeing there are some holiday companies and automotive brands who are encouraging their targeted consumers to find comfort, excitement and fun on the other side of this Pandemic that is affecting all of us across the world now.

4. The Indifferent

Finally, this segment of the consumers will obviously remain anxious about the wellbeing and health of their family and friends during this Pandemic, but when it boils down to their finances you will find that they are pretty unconcerned.

Now, this segment of the customers tends to be made up of urban, and young entrants in the marketplace with no or little savings. For example the Millennial(s).

Many of these consumers will also be students or first jobbers and are so still supported by their guardians and family.

The indifferent(s) in other words will keep on spending, as usual, especially buy online products like clothes, technology gadgets, beauty products, and more.

Nevertheless, they will put a break on their major purchases, even though it is most likely they will already be thinking about their future spending even in these dark times.

Hence this segment for brands will remain as the most optimistic segment of consumers and can be considered as long-term prospects, since the indifferent(s) will only stop spending if their financial status changes all of a sudden drastically, like unforeseen death of a relevant earning members in their family.

# Strategy

This segment of the consumers presents a unique opportunity for businesses to test if they are brave enough to try their innovations in satisfying their customers by accomplishing the rapid delivery of their offerings within hours in metropolitan areas, whereby adding new channels for communication can also enhance the omnichannel experience of their consumers in the long run.

Takeaway
In addition to all these segments of customers, there is another type of behavior found among the customers that are emerging in nations like China, now that their lockdown and social distancing measures have been relaxed, those can be termed as Revenge Shoppers.

Now revenge shopping can be explained as an act of retaliation against natural or man-made circumstances, which resulted in queues of consumer clamoring for goods outside the stores in luxury Chinese malls, seeking retribution for enforced lockdown by spending.

Apparently, the same phenomenon was also witnessed in the aftermath of the 9/11 economic meltdown where consumers in the U.S dealt with their trauma by getting them engaged in ‘normal activities’ which to a large extent included shopping.

Hence the key for brands and businesses to sustain growth now in this COVID-19 times is to understand the customer journey of each individual and create marketing campaigns using an easy to use CRM software and other tools that can ease the anxieties faced by the customers and thereafter build long-term relationships, encouraging them to spend where it is appropriate for finding their present and future business growth.

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Leveraging Easy To Use CRM Technology In The Face of COVID-19 Pandemic 2020

It is needless to say that all of us have woke up today in a very much different situation than we were when we started the year 2020.
Back in January we were booking hotels, flights and meeting our prospects and customers like nothing can stop our business growth.
Most people were realigning their territories, holding kickoff meetings, busy executing their marketing campaigns and planning conferences and events…
AND THEN CAME COVID-19.
And now as we sit here this Coronavirus which ushered a global Pandemic is having a seismic impact on our way of life and how businesses get done during these crises.
Nevertheless, even with social-distancing rules and global economic meltdowns let us talk about how easy to use CRM and related business growth technology platforms are having a positive effect on businesses and the people they serve, as explained below.

The average CRM user adoption among sales professionals is 73% and the average ROI period is 13 months. Click To Tweet

Now even though we have had seen many other crises in the age of CRM, such as Y2K and the great 2008 financial crisis, nevertheless this Coronavirus Pandemic along with its associated problems and challenges is completely unique- something that none of us had perceived before.

Fortunately, CRM platforms like Salesforce that is used mostly by enterprise-level companies and Salesforce Alternative CRM software solutions used by small and medium businesses have evolved to address some of these scenarios and so if we look at the winners and losers in business today, many businesses will credit their CRM investments for sustaining their show.

Therefore, in this article let us breakdown the acronym “CRM” and discuss how companies are leveraging this business growth technology as it relates to Customer, Relationship, and Management:

CUSTOMER

Now in any business, there are typically three types of customers that any brand will deal with, on a day-to-day basis:

• The internal customers
• The external customers
• The prospective customers

The internal customers which fall first, are teams of people that rely on each other in any organization, while the external customers are the distribution or sales channels that help to keep the metaphorical lights on in any business and lastly prospective customers those that need nurturing for finding new revenue.

Irrespective of what types of customers for which you are responsible, it takes human resources to serve and sell your offerings and easy to use CRM is exactly what empowers your employees like never before.

One way easy to use CRM helps internal customers (your staffs and employees) is by providing them that important information that enables collaboration, the right workflow to make sure that nothing falls through the crack and also audit trail for tracking and measuring how well your business is doing follow-through on your customer’s needs.

We say this because, when people are working remotely these capabilities found in a CRM are needed more than ever along with tools that are embedded in an easy to use CRM which enables centralizing streams of discussions in a way that can make people work more productively.

Additionally CRM also enables people to connect virtually using online communities in a meaningful way that can supplement or boost the traditional interactions done through phone and emails.

Now when in the present time many businesses have been forced to operate with skeleton staffs, these online community portals can help customers to support each other and also provide brands the ability to communicate and share information between distributers and your sales teams.

Finally, easy to use CRM is also providing a valuable assist to employees working remotely in customer support teams by providing access to critical information needed to resolve customer issues since the current business environment has created openings for several innovations using AI and internal and external bots that can handle a very high volume of self-service requests (and get better with time) which is freeing up overworked staffs to focus on more complicated and important things.

RELATIONSHIP

One of the original and central themes of creating CRM software is to leverage the ability to understand the company’s relationship and use them to create new business opportunities.

Now in a time when in-person and face-to-face interactions have all but disappeared most businesses are now looking at their CRM software platforms as mission-critical business growth applications that have the ability to get business done remotely.

For example, as one of the most popular CRM for small and medium business organizations, we have observed that even though many organizations have had CRM solutions for many years but it is during this COVID-19 that they are now realizing the importance of having a CRM to take care of their needs.

Nevertheless, there are also organizations that in the past have not realized that the accuracy and depth of their contact details in their CRM database are highly degraded. In fact, many contacts are simply missing from the CRM systems or those contacts that were entered in the CRM are unreliable making it hard to gauge the relationships.

We know these challenges can be daunting.

Therefore in the present times we are seeing several organizations that are shifting their priorities and budgets to double down on easy to use CRM tools and shifting funds allocated for face-to-face events and travels to buying tools that will automate and improve the data in their CRM database.

In fact, AI platforms are providing some of these much-needed reliefs, which are aiding CRM tools to automate contact creation, clean existing contacts, measure relationships, and provide customer sentiment data and next best actions for sales teams which are now extremely critical aids for businesses that want to distinguish themselves in a virtual world, since in uncertain times most brands will steer their business only in the direction of people they know and trust.

MANAGEMENT

One of the biggest challenges that leaders and employers are facing now is- how to manage their business remotely.

This is because management can only be effective when it has visibility into operations, since without visibility (especially considering the challenges inherent with a new remote workforce) executives and managers could be forced to allocate resources or create strategies without being able to view the effects of their judgments.

Now easy to use CRM system provides managers and leaders with three big advantages.

Primarily as CRM can bring together and centralize information and present it in a way that improves customer service, and drive new business, hence it empowers management with a strategic weapon to reduce spending on disparate silo software systems for business growth.

Secondly, CRM can be accessed from any location via most devices like laptop, smartphones, tablets and others and so it provides the management with a unique capability to find insights wherever they may be, that even includes looking into the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

Finally, implementing easy to use CRM software enables leaders to adjust to a quickly changing business environments, as most CRM platforms have a wide-ranging ecosystem of extensible business growth solutions that can be implemented remotely, which is the need of the hour during these

Pandemic days while working with a remote workforce spread across the different global territories.

TAKEAWAY

Since we have realized now, more than ever before that people are a most valuable asset for any organization and so while the way we engage and work with each other has evolved a lot since the onset of this Coronavirus Pandemic 2020, to help businesses overcome these challenging times, CRM has become mission-critical to businesses, as it is really making a difference in the way we find and keep our customers, till we (hopefully) meet better days in the months to come.

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Better Use Your Sales Time With These Hacks For Quick Revenue Growth

Are you aware that only 35 percent of a sales rep’s time is actually spent in selling? Well, we know these stats can be absolutely frustrating for the members of any sales team and for sales managers alike. Hence, to remain successful, sales reps have to not only become an expert at organizing their time but also needs to maximize it. Hence, as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM over here we have compiled some of the most simple, tried, and common hacking tips that you and your sales reps can utilize to maximize their selling time.

Are you aware that only 35 percent of a sales rep’s time is actually spent in selling?

Well, we know these stats can be absolutely frustrating for the members of any sales team and for sales managers alike. Hence, to remain successful, sales reps have to not only become an expert at organizing their time but also needs to maximize it.

The average return on investment for CRM is $8.71 for every dollar spent. Click To Tweet

Hence, as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM over here we have compiled some of the most simple, tried, and common hacking tips that you and your sales reps can utilize to maximize their selling time.

Simplify Your Easy To Use CRM Data

As a manager looking after your sales teams, look for ways to streamline the quantum of information that you need your sales reps to collect and enter in the CRM database.

Now, it might seem absolutely alluring to evaluate and track every bit of information about the deals made by your sales reps. However, in reality, as you go on doing this it will steal precious time from your sales reps and moreover, too much of data feed into your CRM can prove detrimental for your sales teams if that information is incapable of providing any additional info that can help in revolutionizing your businesses’ sales process.

Automate As Many Activities As You Can

Regardless of whether you are using a CRM like Salesforce which is used by enterprise-level companies or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM predominantly used by small and medium businesses in either case sales automation is becoming more and more sophisticated every day.

However when we talk about data fidelity it can still feel like a gamble, and so your sales teams must identify activities in sales that are not heavily tied to AI (Artificial Intelligence) and so can be automated easily.
For example, if you are using a separate software tool like accounting software to create proposals for your prospective customers, make sure that you are leveraging integration like QuickBooks CRM , which helps to automatically pull data from your accounting software into your CRM database.

This is because automating tasks using Sales Force Automation (SFA) in a CRM means reducing errors that in the end save your sales teams countless hours of overtime.

Make Contents Easier To Find

It is hard to believe, but it is true that 60-70 percent of the contents created by B2B marketing teams, especially in small businesses are never used by sales.

Here is a solution:

Instead of your sales reps squandering their valuable time searching for contents, use a smart folder in your easy to use CRM that provides discoverability or use dedicated content distribution applications like DropBox™ or OneDrive™ that helps in sharing assets by integrating it with your CRM database.

Avoid The Back-And-Forth Scheduling

There are several business application tools available in the marketplace these days that permit your sales reps to schedule meetings by sharing a link to your calendar rather than exchanging several emails and messages to verify each other’s availability and thereafter suggesting a time for the meeting.

Integrating online appointment schedules with your easy to use CRM aids in easily avoiding this time suck and therefore provides more time for doing sales for your sales teams.

Use Data To Your Advantage

Leverage applications like PandaDoc™ and others for document management and automation provide really pertinent data and information like document viewing report, document forwarding report, and eSignature notifications that leverages the sales rep’s power to understand when to follow up.

Moreover, integrating document management software with the best small business CRM software provides instant access to this type of data that helps in completely eliminating the questions of whether or not contact or a proposal has been reviewed or received by the customers that boost the likelihood of winning the deals quickly.

Conclusion

Therefore irrespective of whether you are a team of 10 or 50, it is always beneficial and smart to dedicate some energy and time to leverage your sales operations and use sales enablement tools that help in dramatically reducing the time spent by your sales reps on routine admin works, so that your sales teams can find more time to sell, which directly translates to rapid business growth.

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