Why your Small Business NEEDS a CRM
Don't know what a CRM is? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. No, I don't mean Excel (haha!) but an actual tool you can use to track and improve your customer management. Interested? Keep reading to find out why having a CRM is important and how it can help grow your business.
When we talk about CRMs with our clients, we usually get one of two reactions:
They have no idea what we’re talking about. CRM? What is that? I might have one? I don’t really know…
They’ve had a brief experience with a large, complicated CRM system in the past and they feel like implementing one in their own business would be time-consuming and difficult without much ROI.
Both of these reactions are completely valid. Whether you’ve never heard of a CRM before or you’ve only had bad experiences with them in the past, I’m here to shed some light on why they are important for your business and how they can be a tool for growth, rather than another piece of “headache-software”.
Top Reasons Why Your Business Should Use a CRM
Here are my top 5 reasons why your small business should be using a CRM:
Improve Your Contact Management
Use Data to Help Make Key Business Decisions
Your Data Can Lead To Business Growth Insights
Save Time AND Money
Improve Customer Loyalty and Retention
1. Use a CRM for Easier Contact Management
Raise your hand if you currently use an excel sheet to manage your customer’s information? Or, perhaps you’re even more old-school and use actual paper files for each of your clients. PSA: If this is you - please call me today because I guarantee I can help make life easier for you!
It’s not entirely uncommon to see businesses, even large successful businesses, without a functioning CRM. Typically companies have processes in place to manage their client’s information, but not having this in a CRM is such a missed opportunity.
Having your customer’s data in a CRM will help you manage and organize your entire customer base. You’ll be able to have all phone numbers, email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, and social media accounts in one easy-to-manage system.
Imagine how much easier it would be to contact someone without having to search through an excel doc or thumb through a stack of papers!
2. Use Your Customer Data to Help Make Key Business Decisions
We all think that we “know” our customers. But the reality is that if we do not have a clear view of key data points on our clients, we are only seeing part of the picture. Once you have customer data in a CRM, we can use this data for a number of business decisions.
Maybe you have a plethora of customer email addresses but you’ve never tried email marketing.
Or, you notice that a large number of your customers live in a certain area of the city and this is a great opportunity to try geo-marketing around this area to help grow your business!
There are endless ways on how we can use customer data to help drive key business decisions; but, if you’re not capturing their data effectively, you’re missing out!
3. Data means Reports. Reports mean analytics. And Analytics means Insights!
With me?
Having customer data, purchase data, etc. allows us to pull reports on any number of criteria so we can look at the analytics and gain insights into your customers and your business. With a successfully implemented CRM, we have the potential to track purchase history, marketing attribution, behavioural patterns, and so much more!
Think of the advantage you would have over your competitors if you were able to quickly and easily look into your CRM to help decide where to invest your marketing dollars or grow your product line.
Trust me, it’s possible!
4. Save Time (Which Boils Down to Saving Money $$)
As a business owner, have you ever felt like you didn’t have enough time? (Ha - this is a dumb question. The answer is obviously yes).
Simply put, having a CRM can (and will) save you time. (Have I sold you already?)
A CRM can help alleviate time-draining admin tasks, help track activities, and improve customer support. All of these things take time away from you focusing on your business.
Having a CRM is meant to be an asset to your business that will take some items off of your plate and make it easier to run your business. And because your time is money, saving time with a properly implemented CRM means you can look forward to generating more revenue for your business.
5. Improve Customer Loyalty and Retention
Having a CRM can help automatically connect with your customers for occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, sales, promotions, or VIP events. Connecting with your customers in a timely and personalized manner, helps them feel valued and appreciated.
This timely and personalized communication tends to improve their loyalty to your business and has them coming back time and again. It’s possible, but SO much harder to do this without a CRM in place, and aren't you tired of making your life harder?!
There are so many ways that having a CRM can help your business, no matter what size of business. If you have customers, I guarantee you a CRM can help. Not sure where to start to set up a CRM? Book a Discovery Call or explore our Business Development Services and see how we can help take your business to the next level!