Gone are the days when just one person (unless, or course, you are a one person shop) might speak with clients. ‘Customer facing’ now involves everyone in the company. Because the channels of contact don’t have clear boundaries anymore, everyone in the company needs to be using the same CRM so that no matter who the customer interacts with, their concerns and questions will be answered consistently and accurately. So not only does everyone need to be using the same CRM -- everyone also needs to be able to access any and all information on the prospect or customer.
The expansion of CRM throughout an office cannot come as a surprise to those involved. There must be a strategic implementation of the CRM, and enough financial stamina to buy everyone a seat. As a small business you are probably pinching your pennies, so you need to make sure you find the most affordable CRM with the best features for your business. So how do you find the right CRM for your business?
These days, finding that golden “CRM in the sky” does not have to be a daunting task as there are plenty of reviews online. For example, many of the online tech magazines have published lists like this one from PC World. In addition many blogs also review CRMs. The New York Times just wrote an article reviewing CRMs for small businesses. So in many cases the initial research is done by someone else. This enables you to easily whittle the choices down to 2 or 3. Today most CRMs have either a free account or at least a free trial so during this testing phase, all you have commit is time.
Insightly offers a free account for up to 3 users, and also offers affordable paying plans beginning at $29/month for 4-6 users – that’s an average of $6/user/month. Insightly also has a variety of reports so you can see all the customer interaction automatically delivered in a chart or easy to read table. And, since mobile access is key for real estate folks, Insightly has a free iOS application, and a site designed for mobile access that supports all types of devices. In addition, Insightly has an Android app in development that should be available in the next 30 days.
Bottom line? Get a CRM that works for you because neither you nor your company wants to be scrambling for answers when everyone could be making customers happy.
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