CRM Implementation : 9 tips for CRM software selection for small business

CRM Implementation : Choosing the right CRM software for your business

What is CRM Implementation?

CRM implementation is a process that involves setting up a CRM software application to automate customer service, sales and other interactions. CRM Implementation is a critical task and can make or break the productivity levels. A good CRM choice can go a long way in helping your customer/sales experience. Therefore you must make a very careful analysis of available options before making a final call on CRM software selection.

Here are a few points that you must ponder over before choosing a particular CRM software:

1. Your Requirement: What are you looking your CRM for ? Are you looking for marketing automation ? Are you looking for sales force automation ? are you looking for customer support ? A clarity on all your requirements is really the starting point in your search of an online cloud crm software.
2. CRM Implementation: Once your requirement is settled down, you will need to analyze whether the given CRM solution will be able to fit your workflow well or whether it is flexible enough to be fit to your workflow quickly.
3. Scalability: An online cloud crm solution is mostly bought on per user per month basis. We will need to analysis how the CRM scales as the organization grows. The scalability needs to be studied on the basis of number of users as well as how pricing goes as the number of users increase. A CRM which breaks the bank on the later stages is a big no-no.
4. Vendor Capability: The capability of the vendor in the implementation of CRM in your domain is very important factor while buying into a particular CRM system. Its important to see how long vendor has been in business and if the vendor has implemented the CRM specifically within your industry and possibly with your workflow.
5. Mobility: Mobile is an important device in today’s business environment. You and users of your CRMs(possibly your employees) can use the CRM much productively if the CRM is accessible over mobile as well. Mobility is also one of the essential components while deciding on a CRM solution.
6. Reporting: The best productivity our of a CRM comes online when its reporting is exhaustive. A CRM without exhaustive reporting is nothing but a database representing some data online. A CRM therefore should have extensive reporting capabilities.
7. Integrations: A good online cloud CRM software should integrate well with other day to day business solutions like Google Apps, Calendar, Microsoft outlook, mail sending softwares like mailchimp etc. Free movement of data across the softwares through CRM is an essential part in automating the sales/support pipeline.
8. Customization and Usability: Last but not the least, you will require changes in the system as your business moves, the CRM should be easily customizable. Also, CRM is a complex softwares, getting your employees on the CRM system is going to be a tedious task as people generally hesitate to adopt new processes. A good CRM software is the one that is easy to use so that its easy for the implementer to onboard the users.
9. Pricing: Pricing ofcourse is an important factor before implementing CRM in your organization. You will be able to get quite a lot of Open Source CRM softwares which you can setup on your own servers and they are available for free of cost. The cost however can be in terms of setting up the software and maintaining your own server. On the other hand, you can get up and running quickly with online cloud based CRM software which will have some monthly cost associated with it. Its upto you to finally decide your budget and evaluate the software accordingly.

We hope that the tips will come in handy for you when you are looking for the CRM software for your business. We have also written a couple of posts to shortlist some CRM softwares that you must evaluate once you are going to implement the CRM software in your organization.

If you are looking for free open source solution, please head over to this post, Best Free And Open Source CRM

If you are looking to get started quickly and dont mind paying a bit for the online cloud based CRM solution, please head over to this post, Online Cloud Based CRM Software.