 CRM
for the Small Business
By Dr. Shahid Izhar
CRM tools were traditionally used by large corporations to manage sales and customer
service. The cost of implementing such tools is very high, anywhere from $50,000
to millions of dollars, outside the range of most small companies. There are some
cost-effective tools available for small businesses that I am going to talk about,
but first let me talk about the kind of tools that you may need to improve your
business. Then I am going to discuss how to select, acquire, and use such tools.
The most basic functions of a CRM are to log and track the leads, opportunities,
companies, and contacts; and also your schedules, appointments, and follow-up.
Now, you can use CRM software for one user, in which case each employee has to
install the contact manager on his or her computer, and maintain the personal
information.
ACT! by Best Software is primarily used for single users. On the other hand, eDigiPlace
by Princeton Information Technology Center, and GoldMine by Front Range Solutions
can be used to network and share the information among other employees.
eCRM is Web based CRM software, which provides all the CRM functionality using
a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape (eCRM application is also
called Web Portal). With Web-based CRM, information is available within the office,
or from outside the office, just by connecting to the Web and logging on to the
CRM home page.
The eCRM solution is most useful if you have people working from different locations,
and have several offices around the nation or around the globe, and need access
to information from outside the office. One of the main advantages of eCRM is
that you do not need telephone dialup connection to login to your office machine.
Setting up the dialup login server gives additional networking headache that a
company can avoid by using eCRM solution.
If you think that eCRM would be the most suitable solution for your company, you
need to consider other features that extend your reach. Here are some of them
to consider:
1. Marketing using the Web: Look for the two tools to automate email marketing:
the email harvesting, and custom email sending. If you know a set of companies
you need to market, you can input their web addresses, and the software is going
to get you the email addresses of people who work there. You can then send the
targeted marketing email to them.
2. Customer service: You improve the customer loyalty by providing timely customer
service. It is much more cost-effective to retain a customer than to acquire a
customer. The customer can login to the eCRM portal at any time and log a trouble
ticket, which flows to the right person in your company. A prompt answer can be
sent back to the customer to resolve the problem. Further, the customer can go
through a knowledgebase consisting of other similar questions, to get a ready
answer, and may not need to login the question.
3. Group Collaboration: You can collaborate with your employees, partners, and
customers. You can send personal messages, access company files, chat, and route
a document for comments, all within the secure environment of eCRM. Make sure
that the eCRM is implemented with the same security as the credit card transactions
(128 bit SSL security).
4. Project Management: You can manage any projects remotely among people who are
working in different locations. It will be nice if a timesheet is also automatically
generated based on the hours charged by each person on the allocated tasks.
The costs of some of the CRM or eCRM software for small businesses are reasonable.
eCRM software can be implemented at a license fee of as little as $200 to $400
per user, with prices rising to $600 to $1000 per user with added modules.
You also need expert help and additional software to make ACT! or GoldMine Web-enabled;
e.g., you will need Microsoft Internet Information Server, and may also need Microsoft
SQL Server database for GoldMine. The Web server (Tomcat) and database (mySQL)
is already provided with the eDigiPlace software as default.
Other than the cost of the license fee, also look for the customer service cost,
upgrade or maintenance cost, training cost, and any consulting cost that may be
required.
After the installation of the CRM or eCRM software, here are some ways to convince
everyone to use the software.
Make it clear that the purpose of the software is to make life easier for them,
not harder. They need to be convinced that they get significantly more out of
the software than they put in. They would be able to get the information they
need to get the work done. In the case of eCRM, the information is accessible
easily from anywhere using the Web connection.
They can access network folders, sales collaterals, project information, there
schedules, and presentations on the fly. They will have available information
about the customer they need to prospect, including who contacted the customer
and when, and the history of the customer. Once the employees know the great benefits
of software, and get used to it, they will stick to it. And you will benefit from
the tremendous advantages you gain from the technology.
With CRM or eCRM solution for small business, you can make it simple, if you ask
this question: How many incremental sales do I need to exactly get back all the
money I invested? Let’s say you invested a total of $5,000 on an eCRM product.
Then you need to assess the number of incremental new customers (or customers
retained) you would have because of the software, to offset the investment. If
you need to acquire or retain one to five customers within a quarter, the investment
is definitely worth it.
About the Author:
Dr. Shahid Izhar is the President
of eDigiPlace. EDigiPlace creates an instant website that provides business solutions
for your company. Visit www.edigiplace.com
for more details, or call (215) 576-7377. |
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