CRM’s promise to make your business life so much easier.
Having all of your customer information in one place can really improve your
sales and business efficiency, but that information won’t just appear. Whether
your information is manually entered or uploaded from a comma separated value
(CSV) file, it’s not always easy to get started in your CRM. Here are some cons
(and pros) to really starting to use your CRM.
Contact Manager and Data Entry
To start in your CRM, you have to have the patience to enter
all of your contacts.
As mentioned before, there are
multiple options for uploading information into your CRM. You may choose to
manually enter all of your contacts from your paper and pencil customer
management method, or you can upload your information from Excel using a CSV
file.
If you have been using the pencil and paper method to keep
track of all of your contacts, this can be a very timely process. Opening a
business now a days, it is very important that you see the benefits of starting
in a simple CRM system early because using technology like this will be
beneficial from the start. This will avoid having to manually transfer data.
But since there is no going back in time to the beginning of your business
without your DeLorean handy, it is important to take the time to transfer this
data**. As a note, when adding contacts into your system one must
simply add all of the information they know about each contact. Getting yourself
into this habit will keep you from having to use your very full memory banks to
recall information about these customers later.
CSV files must be properly cleaned and organized before they
can be uploaded into a CRM like AddressTwo. This method is riskier due to the
nature of transferring data. Before you upload your CSV, you have to clean the
file, this is called data cleaning or data scrubbing. Column headers, filled in
values, and other important features of this file will affect how well it
uploads into the CRM system.
For more on how to add comma separated customer information, click the link to view
the AddressTwo tutorial video on uploading CSV data.
Old Habits Die Hard
It’s easy to write up a sticky note to remind yourself to call Frank back, but that isn’t
how you’re going to get used to using your CRM. Your CRM will remind you to call Frank next month,
but a sticky note can end up in the trashcan before then. Getting
yourself into the habit of entering everything you do or need to do into your CRM will help you immensely; these features are called history and tasks in AddressTwo. After a week of forcing yourself to use these features, it will start to come as second nature. Additionally, with AddressTwo as shortcut on your phone's home screen, you can have all of your business reminders and upcoming dates in
one place- your CRM.
The Facts
Starting to use a CRM can most certainly be a tedious task,
but there are so many benefits to forcing new user repetition. CRM software
helps to:
- Increase sales
- Increase leads and quantity of customers
- Monitor and maintain business success
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Improve quality of staff to customer interactions
It is important to get into the habit of using your CRM
before you allow yourself to miss another customer opportunity. With small
businesses, one opportunity can be all you need to get your business off the
ground.
