It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of using a good CRM tool for your business. Anything you can do to make it easier to stay in touch with your customers, as well as connect with new customers, is worth while. Customer relationship management software can give you the added edge you need, by bringing together information about your customers as well as helping you track when you’ve communicated with them. These days, there are plenty of different options including robust CRM options like Salesforce or ACT! But a few tools can help more than others, especially if you have specialized needs when it comes to contacting your customers.
- Gist: In addition to standard CRM features, Gist can go out and find more information about your contacts. It can automatically important information from your email and online networks, as well as conduct searches to help you find news about your customers.
- Highrise: If you have a few other people in your business, Highrise can help you coordinate your communications. It’s got a shared company-wide address book, along with task management features that allow you to delegate and follow up on communications.
- Relenta: Email marketing is crucial to small businesses and there are CRM tools built with your business newsletter in mind. Relenta can pull in contacts from Aweber, Constant Contact and a variety of other sources to make sure that you can market your product or service effectively.
- Aplicor: Need some analysis done on your customer list? Aplicor provides a suite of tools that will help you get a clearer picture of who your customers are and what they want. This tool can also integrate your informationwith productivity and accounting tools.
- PlaybookIQ: If your biggest concern is identifying leads and following up on them, PlaybookIQ can help you organize your contacts. Built with leads in mind, this toolgets your sales team all on the same page.
While it seems like cost should be the first consideration for a small business owner choosing a CRM solution, this can be one of those situations when spending a little money now will pay off down the road. It’s more important to choose a tool that will not only allow you to communicate with your customers and earn repeat business, but will also help you grow in the future. Switching to a new CRM system can require re-entering the whole database of contacts you’ve built up over the years if you choose an option that doesn’t have an easy import or export option — not something you’re going to want to do every time your business gets bigger.
It’s also worthwhile to check what tools can be integrated with the software and hardware you’re already using. For instance, Gist offer an iPhone application, as well as an Outlook plugin to help you stick with the tools you’re already using. Not all CRM tools offer such features, of course, but the more steps in your process that your tool can automate, the more time you have to spend on marketing.
Image by Flickr user Macinate
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