CRM is an essential solution for businesses that want to keep their customers engaged and increase their profits. Nowadays, customers are more aware of the options available to them and they don’t only rely on the name and reputation of a brand. They also take into consideration their experience and the feedback from other people regarding a product. It is likely that before making a purchase, customers will carry out their own research and will compare different options available. Customer service is a very important aspect for any business, no matter how big. In order to ensure that your customer service is operating at its best, CRM is worth considering. For small businesses, it is important to check different CRMs, keeping in mind their price and effectiveness, before making a decision. To help you choose the most convenient option for your needs, we have gathered a list of the best CRM software platforms for small business. Before going through the options available, let’s talk about what makes CRM a key tool for your business.
Why do you need CRM for your business?
CRM stands for customer relationship management software and it is designed to help small businesses to manage different aspects of their business, including corporate revenue targets, high client attrition, commission policies and declining sales. There are different scenarios in which CRM becomes crucial. For instance, every business needs a calendar to keep track of events and tasks. Scheduling and following up events accurately is what will help an organization to remain efficient. This is possible to do with the help of a stable CRM as it lets you include a calendar to get insight into the tasks within your team.
With a good CRM software, you can get support for calendar, task management and calendar systems. This is important because each of these solutions work independently and usually, they don’t align as they should. However, a CRM can integrate them into a single system, facilitating access, management and maintenance. In fact, a high quality CRM software is so detailed and useful, that in the end, you will be able to discover new things about your business. A large percentage of businesses use CRM for email marketing, with great results.
Keeping track of your business’ math can be challenging and as much as you think that you are on top of things, it is likely that there are certain things that you miss or forget about. Thankfully, CRM software can offer real-time metrics on every aspect of your business, including data that is not essential. With the reports created, you will be able to implement strategies to improve your business’ operations, particularly in regards to customer retention. Another point to consider is that it is very difficult to keep track of an extensive customer base. Thankfully, a CRM system is there to help and it will allow you to store, manage and recover information about your customers with just one click.
How to choose the best CRM software for your business
There are different aspects to consider in order to select a CRM software for your business. Scalability is one of the things that you need to keep in mind since it is important that the CRM that you select, grows with your enterprise. The best CRM for businesses, even those used by companies that are just getting started, has to be able to evolve and include new solutions. Choosing a solution that can support your business as it expands, will save you having to spend additional time and resources at a later stage.
In addition, it is necessary to choose a software that can support multiple platforms. CRMs are designed to offer optimal performance with computers, but since mobile devices are widely used, it is important to make sure that the CRM you choose also works on your smartphone and tablet. This will allow you to maintain and increase productivity, even when you are on the go. In general, businesses can choose between on-demand SaaS (a cloud base solution) and on-site alternatives. While SaaS offers limited control and customization than on-site solutions, it can be easily integrated with infrastructures that are already in place and it is not as expensive. For small businesses, SaaS is the most affordable and practical solution thanks to the flexibility, reasonable price and support for remote access that it offers.
Another aspect to consider is ease of use since it will save you time and resources. A solution that is easy to use requires less time training employees to manage the tool. The best option is to go for a software that is easy to use and that offers a straightforward interface. Last, but not least, you should consider the cost of the CRM software that you want to use. Although it is important to keep in mind your business’ budget, choosing a service only based in its low cost, without keeping in mind other aspects, could have negative consequences in the long term.
Best CRMs for small busineses
Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM solutions available and it is used by thousands of businesses in a variety of industries and sizes. This cloud-based CRM and sales automation system is enabled for a variety of sectors that include Retail, Healthcare, Communications, Higher education, Media, Financial services and Life Sciences. What makes Salesforce stand out from other options available is the fact that it supports advanced security features like multi-factor authentication and data-at-rest encryption. With Salesforce, you also get analytics, real-time visibility, contact manager, chatter, remote customer engagement, approvals and workflow, social accounts and contacts, as well as workflow organization.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is very popular among small businesses thanks to its great set of features and the solid customer support that it offers. SMS marketing, custom forms for landing pages, contact location tracking, social media monitoring and automation, customer automation workflows, social media monitoring and automation, campaign, contact and list reporting, free email templates and advanced segmenting and targeting are some of the features supported. Although it doesn’t come with advanced security features such as multi-factor authentication, ActiveCampaign is ideal for creating and designed multi-dimensional marketing campaigns.
Ontraport
This CRM integration tool is part of a marketing software package. The features include social media integration, marketing automation, split testing, file sharing, lead capture tools and powerful task management. Ontraport allows businesses to manage sales, marketing, information management and more, easily. This comprehensive solution gives small and large companies the necessary tools to deal with all the hard work including lead management and customer relationships. It focuses on sales, marketing, publishing and organization. In order to offer assistance in organization, working with your company, the system offers a variety of options including metrics dashboard, a secure open API, Ontraport mobile and Ontraport projects.
Insightly
Insightly brings CRM and project management together. It works well for small and medium-sized businesses and it supports integration with Google Apps. There is also a web version available and mobile apps for Android and iOS. The main features include Open API, reports, file sharing, custom fields, pipelines/opportunities tracking, milestones and tasks, notification and flow system and automatic address book. It can be integrated with OneDrive, Box and Dropbox. One of the best things about Insightly is that it offers convenient pricing plans. There is even a free trial that gives you the possibility of trying the service for 14 days.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is ideal for small and large business that want a solution to manage customer support, marketing, sales and inventory. Apart from offering a solution to manage customer data, it allows you to keep track of business opportunities, leads and prospects. The features supported include CRM with email, role based security, CRM analytics, customer support and service, workflow analytics, developer API for third-party integration and Sales force automation. Thanks to security features such as multi-factor authentication, data-at-rest encryption, HTTPS for all pages and multi-location data backup, Zoho CRM keeps your data protected.
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