Customer Relation Management (CRM) is a system that manages a company’s interactions with customers. You probably knew that already. Excellent! You’re one step ahead, so pat yourself on the back. Now, stop patting yourself because there is work to be done! Let’s get down to the nitty gritty details. How many CRMs are available on the market? Well, quite a few actually. Obviously, everybody’s needs are different, so the CRM has to be right for you.
Anyway, my point is that you want to have a CRM software that has flexibility to change. Companies are always evolving. We all have to change to keep pace with all the competition out there. If you don’t have the technology to keep you moving forward, then you’ll be in trouble later on. The CRM you use should have customizable module of some sort that can change later if needs be, or brand new modules can be added altogether. You don’t want to have a stock product that just sits there and can’t be modified.
Let’s talk user interface (UI). The UI should be flawless. There is no excuse for the UI to be broken in this day and age. There are too many products out there, and CRMs have been around for far too long. The UI should also be intuitive. You should be able to navigate through the menus with ease. The UI shouldn’t be clunky or confusing. The menus should be fairly self-explanatory. If this doesn’t sound like the CRM that you are using, then I suggest looking at switching it up. The UI should also be responsive. As a culture now, we have a severe case of ADD. We all want things now. That means when you click something you don’t want to take a coffee break to wait for the page to load.
What about the capability of your CRM ? What can it actually do for you? Some systems are very limited in capabilities, leaving you with no other option then to use multiple systems. That can be very awkward and confusing to bounce back and forth between multiple systems. Imagine that you have a pretty hectic day where you’re trying to put together an e-mail, reviewing reports, taking a call from a customer, and looking up a product. Now, think about needing to jump between different systems for each one of those tasks. Oh boy! That sounds like a party doesn’t it? I’ll pass, thank you very much. There are products that combine all of those tasks.
Now, let’s talk about a support portal. No matter how clever you are, at some point you’re going to need help on some topic. Having suitable documentation for each topic is necessary. If there isn’t any respectable documentation, then there better be a good customer service center that you can reach.
Sandip
