How to Find the Best Client Relationship Management Database System

There are a few key considerations when choosing the best online CRM for your company: Cost, relevant features, ease of use, and integration. CRM software should make your day-to-day operations much easier and free up time to make sure you’re providing personalized service to your customer base.

There are a number of options available with varying levels of user-friendly integrations and features.

Finding the best CRM database management system: Start identifying what tools your team needs to better serve your clientele

Before you start shopping for CRM software, look at what you already know about your organization right now. What do your customers request the most often? What products are more often in stock and which are consistently running out and slowing progress? What struggles do your staff regularly pose? How often do your customers tend to want to hear from you?

When you have clear understanding of these aspects of your company’s day-to-day operations, choosing from the many varieties of features available through an online CRM system will be an easier task. Make a list of these key gaps in your workflow and then start surveying who has the features your company needs to optimize efficiencies.

For example, if you have a business which requires service providers in the field, you may want to make sure you find a CRM which tells you the location of your staff in order to quickly answer a waiting customer rather than having to call your employee to see where he or she is. If your service involves installation equipment and products, you may want to find a CRM with inventory controls and reports to help you identify which products are in demand and which can be removed from the shelf due to lack of interest.

Among the critical criteria for choosing the best CRM system is ease of use.

One look at a complex, high volume business CRM like Salesforce may send a small to medium business owner running back to Google contacts, spreadsheets, and longer hours. You want a CRM software which is designed with the user in mind.

It will take time for your team to grow accustomed to using the software for reports, contact information, and so on. You want an online CRM tool which makes this process as smooth as possible. It may be beneficial to have a conversation with a sales representative to discuss how well a CRM tool may or may not fit the particular needs and operations of your business.

Verify if there is training or support included to assist you and your team with the transition to the CRM software. This one service could make all the difference in whether or not a tool with high functioning features is right for your business, but, requires training to use correctly.

An important criteria of a CRM tool is the ease of integration.

Do you want your CRM tool to integrate with a system on which you already rely to manage information? There are a few CRM tools which have an integration feature with reliable and common business tools such as Outlook or QuickBooks.

Discuss with a sales representative the process and support provided for integration to your current business software. Not all CRM tools are equal in this way and you will need to decide if it’s worth your time to incorporate by hand all of your contacts, reports, notes, leads, etc., if assistance for the integration process is neither available nor the software simple to use.

As important as integrating into systems you already use, is the ability for your new CRM to integrate into the day of your employees.  A CRM system that doesn’t easily fit into the routines of managers and staff will become something that doesn’t get completed as regularly as you’d like and then eventually not at all.  Making sure your employees can easily integrate the new CRM into their routines and the systems they currently use is an important part of which CRM is right for your business.

Finding the best CRM database management system which fits your budget.

There is currently no industry standard of what to expect when purchasing CRM software. One common trend among the top performing CRM apps is to divide what a CRM tool offers into packages. This helps companies avoid paying for services they won’t use. Take a look at the yearly and monthly costs of the CRM tools of interest and see what fits into your budget given all the other criteria of CRM you’ve identified above.

Be aware there are a few “free” CRM tools on the market which may seem to offer quite a few useful functions without providing vital information such as work progress reports or a track record of customer communication.

Try out the CRM Runner for a 30-day free trial to identify the features and packages which work best for your business and your clients.

CRM Runner features span across the board of business priorities with communication functions between staff, management, and customers, permissions settings to establish parameters of who can view what information, inventory reports and tracking, GPS employee status monitoring, leads reports, scheduler, work progress reports and work orders, contractor information, QuickBooks integration, and much more in one all-inclusive app. Have the information you need at your fingertips without rustling through paper, searching through old e-mails, or feeling the need to call your staff to verify their whereabouts.

Sign up for the 30-day free trial here or call a sales representative to learn how CRM Runner is the best CRM database management system for your company at (877) 590-0040.