What Is CRM And How Can It Benefit Your Business?

Without CRM software tools, it is nearly impossible to streamline operations and automate repetitive tasks. Find out what advantages there are for your business and why you should have incorporated this solution into your workflow a long time ago.

Table of Contents

CRM Explained
Benefits CRMs Offer to Small Businesses
3 Types of CRM Solutions
How CRM Improves Small Businesses’ Everyday Lives
Steps to Get Started with CRM
Final Thoughts

CRM Explained

CRM (customer relationship management) is an invaluable tool for any business, regardless of size. It provides important insights into the customers you are doing business with and what level of customer retention you have in your company. You will also get data on how your target audience responds to specific business strategies to know what works for your company and what doesn’t.

Benefits CRMs Offer to Small Businesses

Often, entrepreneurs and managers of small businesses feel overwhelmed and spread thin. There are many moving pieces and people they need to keep track of, and they're often looking for ways to optimize their time and efficiency. Do you recognize yourself? If yes, it’s time to change the way you work. Just look at these benefits of a CRM solution:

• A unified database to keep track of customers and all interactions with them.
• Performance analytics to ensure you're spending time on the clients who provide the most revenue and those who need the most attention.
• Automated lead management to increase conversion of potential customers into loyal ones. A CRM automatically sends emails and reminders to prospects who haven't responded to the company's outreach and offers, shortening sales cycles and increasing sales productivity.
• Multiple communication channels are integrated into a single platform. Requests from your website, marketplaces, messengers, and VoIP calls get to CRM automatically for further processing by your sales team.
• Producing and delivering accurate quotes in a few clicks to speed up communication and payment.
• Dynamic data to increase customer success and loyalty
• Tracking your marketing campaigns’ effectiveness to optimize budgets and win more sales leads.

Impressive? And these are just a few. If you are ready for such a solution, let’s find out what different CRM tools are.

3 Types of CRM Solutions

You can find various types of CRM software on the market. Depending on your business needs, company size, and complexity of internal processes, you should consider one of the following options:

1. On-premise. It is hosted and managed by the company using an in-house server.
2. Cloud. It is hosted and managed by a third party and delivered as a service to the company.
3. SaaS. This is software as a service, also hosted by a third party but delivered as a subscription via the internet.

The most affordable CRM software for small businesses is a SaaS solution. It doesn’t require a big investment initially and offers flexible subscription plans based on the company's size and industry. It is also accessible not only from PCs but mobile devices and tablets. There are other pleasant advantages: mobile applications for field teams and managers, free trials, onboarding assistance, pre-installed service lists, directories, and templates of documents and forms.

How CRM Improves Small Businesses’ Everyday Lives

For SMBs, CRMs can be especially helpful regarding scalability and efficiency. They also often lack the manpower and resources to streamline operations in every business area. A software program will smooth out processes, making it easier to handle day-to-day tasks and plan for the future. CRMs can help save money by boosting productivity and allowing you to use your time and resources better. Using it in sales, marketing, administration, and other departments will benefit you as an owner, your sales reps, your marketing team, and your customers.

How CRM Tools Help with Sales

A CRM's most visible and helpful roles are in sales. The process of closing a sale can be lengthy and complicated. Especially for a small company, it can be challenging to keep tabs on all the information involved. A CRM for a service business help SMB owners track and organize everything from contacts, lead status, progress to the customer, and more to increase lead conversion rates and avoid confusion and frustration in sales conversations.

How Customer Relationship Software Helps with Marketing

It simply collects all the data you need to know about your customers to understand their behavior and customer journey. This includes contact information, buying habits, demographics, and customers’ wants. By providing visibility into customer interactions and intent, the tool will help you customize your marketing messages, offerings, and services to meet your target audience's needs, retain more customers, build long-lasting customer relationships, and develop a marketing strategy that truly works for your business.

Business Organizing Software Increases Workplace Productivity

CRMs keep employees organized and on task, enabling them to focus on customer satisfaction. It also makes it easier to track interactions with customers, such as the status of a work order, their complaints, and requests, so your customer service representatives can better communicate with clients and make them feel valued.

As a tool that demands accuracy, consistency, and discipline, a CRM is designed to offer clients reliable, comprehensive customer service. With automated features, it schedules appointments, alerts people of upcoming deadlines, sends reminders, resolves issues, tracks payments, and more.

CRM Improves Financial Management

With a handy digital solution, you can monitor amounts from clients received with each work order and sale, control payment settlements with customers and suppliers, and handle product returns and warranty claims. And if you integrate your CRM with an accounting program like QuickBooks or Xero, your invoicing and payment data will be automatically synchronized between the systems, saving you so much time and effort in keeping track of your finances.

No Loyalty and Repeat Business without CRM

As each client has an individual profile in the system, you can set up discounts, track the history of provided services and sold goods, view associated assets, and read feedback and reviews. This information helps you understand your customers and generate ideas for promotion campaigns, special offers, and loyalty programs.

Consistently Accurate and Up-To-Date Data

Keeping your database clean and organized requires much manual work and attention when you do everything old-fashioned. In a CRM solution, you can merge duplicates, update client information, autofill fields in forms, and customize and automate sending of messages — all in a few clicks. 

You’ll See Where Results Are Coming From

With an all-in-one CRM, you will get the most valuable tool for running a small business — predictive analytics. These are all about determining what your customers are likely to buy next, what they need the most, and what they think about your company. You’ll be able to track opportunities for business growth, measure return on investment, and make smarter decisions based on accurate data and not guesswork.

Screenshot of the Company Insights Report in RemOnline

Steps to Get Started with CRM

The most convenient way to see all the benefits of a CRM solution for your business is by evaluating its functions during a free trial. You don’t have to commit right away to the software you’ve selected and you can see the solution in action in your everyday context. In addition, it is also possible to involve your employees in the evaluation process to get their feedback. 

Let’s see what you need to do to start managing your business processes in RemOnline:

1. Sign up for a 7-day free trial or book a demo first to see how RemOnline can help you achieve your business objectives.
2. Select your niche during signing up to simplify the further configuration of your account. When your registration is completed, you will get industry-specific directories, service lists, and document templates already uploaded to your account.
3. Specify your company information and upload a brand logo. RemOnline will use this data to autofill your document templates.
4. Import your customer database if you already have one.
5. Invite your employees to join RemOnline and set up their profiles. Next, ask them to install the Work Orders app after registering in the web version.
6. Complete work order settings: statuses, forms, document templates, and notifications.
7. Create your first work order, update statuses until completion, and close it when everything is done.

RemOnline is an intuitive tool that you can use without any technical knowledge. Initially, turn on a training mode in the program to get guided through the full functionality. Find also step-by-step instructions in the Help Center and on YouTube. Alternatively, you can request onboarding assistance from RemOnline specialists to get your account up and running in no time.

Final Thoughts

A CRM for small businesses allows the owners to save time and money by running smoothly and efficiently. There are many reasons for this, such as the CRM could be used to create workflows, track deadlines, and job listings, and measure statistics such as the number of customers, leads contacted, and sales amount. This data can be tracked and monitored to see how the business is doing and what areas need improvement. The small business can then determine how it can reach its goals and make changes to improve efficiency. When choosing a solution for your business, look for an all-in-one SaaS platform because they cover the most needs of small companies: customer management, work order processing, appointment scheduling, financial accounting, payroll, inventory, and analytics.