Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help your sales teams get more leads, improve customer engagement, close larger deals, and more. However, CRMs are very complex systems that present a lot of potential challenges when it comes to implementing and maintaining them. In this guide, we’ll talk about why CRMs fail and discuss how to tackle some of the most common CRM challenges.

What are the challenges of CRM?

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Teams implementing and maintaining a customer relationship management system may run into five main CRM challenges: high cost, too little time, bad data quality, lack of communication, and limited technology and IT capabilities.

Cost

One of the major barriers to CRM success is the budget, or lack thereof. CRM themselves can be very expensive, and the implementation costs can add up quickly. Some companies try to save money by skimping on implementation support, which can backfire on them and make it difficult to get the CRM up and running. Downtime to complete training and get up to speed on the new system also eats into company profits.

Solution: In order to make the most of your CRM, your company will need to invest the necessary money to fund the implementation upfront, with the knowledge that it will pay off in the long run as the CRM improves sales over time.

Time

Choosing and implementing a CRM takes time. Your teams need to research, test, onboard, deploy, and train, which can result in downtime for the business and for employees. Sometimes companies try to save on this “lost” time by rushing through these steps or even skipping them entirely, which often results in a CRM failure.

SOLUTION: Switching CRMs can’t be done both quickly and successfully, so companies need to set their expectations accordingly and embrace the process.

Data quality

Following the “garbage in, garbage out” principle, if you put poor data into a CRM, then the output will be poor quality, too. This poor or incomplete data can come from many different sources, including a faulty import from the previous CRM or incomplete data entry by sales reps.

SOLUTION: To prevent this from happening, your company will need to carefully import existing CRM data in order to ensure data integrity. Teams should also incentivize the CRM users to input new data into the system correctly to maintain the overall quality of the data pool.

Communication

If your employees have been kept in the dark about the CRM transition — either intentionally or unintentionally — that can lead to a lack of adoption and training and result in a CRM failure. Conflicting information about the migration can also confuse employees and make it difficult to determine what is true and what is false, further hindering their use of the CRM.

SOLUTION: Appoint a committee comprised of a representative from each department affected as part of the adoption process. You hired your staff because you trust their judgment, so taking it into account could save you a lot of headaches.

Technology

Both the technology itself as well as your IT staff can contribute to a CRM failure. Your IT staff might not have the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully implement the new CRM or to maintain it. The CRM itself might also lack necessary integrations with the rest of your company software stack and may not offer the ability to build custom connections with an open API.

SOLUTION: Even if it does have the right integrations, if they are set up incorrectly the CRM will fail anyways. If you’re not confident in your IT staff’s capabilities, you might need to hire outside professionals to assist with the CRM deployment process.

Why does CRM fail?

CRM typically fails for four main reasons: lack of clear goals or strategy, absence of buy-in, failure to adopt the technology, or not enough employee training. It’s also possible a company can simply choose the wrong CRM for its needs.

No clear goals or strategy

When choosing and implementing a CRM, both the company at large and each individual team or department need to have a handful of goals for what they want to accomplish with the software. If they don’t have a very clear vision in mind, then it will be difficult to succeed with the CRM even if all the other pieces are in place. Also watch out for too many competing goals, which muddies the waters and is just as confusing as no goals at all.

Not enough leadership buy-in

Another CRM problem occurs when top-level leadership doesn’t buy into the software change; this can also happen with rank-and-file employees as well. The entire leadership team needs to be on board before making a company-wide change on the scale of replacing your CRM. Appointing one ambassador or super-user per team can help get the rest of the team motivated to adopt the CRM and improve buy-in across the organization.

Failure to adopt

Failure to adopt a new CRM can occur for many reasons, including resistance to change, lack of training, and bad data quality. Employees may not want to learn a whole new platform or they may resist the new accountability that the CRM platform will create. Identifying the root causes underneath the failure to adopt is key for addressing the issues and improving adoption rates. The story linked immediately below illustrates this well.

ALSO READ: The Technology Adoption Curve: A Guide to the 5 Stages

Not enough training

Sometimes, your employees simply haven’t been given enough training or guidance to learn how to use the CRM. Thankfully, this problem is often relatively simple to remedy, and most reputable CRMs provide lots of training resources. Help forums, training videos, and webinar demonstrations can give employees the education they need to take full advantage of the CRM and make sure that your company is getting a return on its investment.

Software doesn’t meet needs

In some cases, your CRM problems might not fit into any of the above categories. If this situation arises, consider whether or not you may have chosen the wrong CRM, or if your company has scaled beyond the capabilities of your current CRM and marketing automation software. In both of these situations, the ultimate solution is often to seek out a new CRM that can meet the needs of your company and scale with it in the future, instead of trying to make the current subpar tech work.

Read more: What the Evolution of CRM Can Teach Us About the Future of Project Management Software

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

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The post Top CRM Challenges & Strategies for Overcoming Them appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Microsoft Outlook is a prominent and valuable email client — quite possibly the most prominent. Still, it’s not the best for helping you to organize and manage your meaningful customer relationships. A customer relationship manager, or a CRM, will help you and your entire team manage and track your contacts so you can create and grow deeper relationships. It’s only logical a CRM for Outlook could be the bridge you need.

Why You Need a CRM for Outlook

CRMs help your team with critical sales information. Client details such as job titles, phone numbers, budgets, locations, and uses of social media platforms are easily accessible. 

Additionally, adding a CRM for Outlook allows automation of the data entry process and can auto-fill contact records. This can save a substantial amount of time and allow you the freedom to better manage the most critical people on your contact list. 

Furthermore, a CRM can help organize Outlook and keep your inbox in line so you and your team can stay on track of top priorities. You also have the ability to streamline communications by syncing contacts and calendars — an often underutilized feature. 

What Makes a Top CRM Solution?

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When looking for a top CRM solution that will integrate well with Microsoft Outlook, we looked for a few things. First, we sought those CRM solutions that include most or all of the features we look for in a CRM. We then factored in other considerations, such as pricing and customer reviews. Lastly, we looked at how easy the solutions are to implement and use. With that, let’s take a look at the top CRMs for Outlook. 

10 CRMs that Integrate with Microsoft Outlook

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HubSpot CRM

HubSpot’s purpose is to make marketing automation better. Founded in 2005, HubSpot is an all-in-one solution offering marketing, services, operations, and sales. HubSpot is an excellent CRM solution for those who aren’t using other apps and integrations. It’s best for companies of all sizes. 

Pipedrive

If you are looking for a CRM solution that is easily set up and easy to use, look no further. Founded in 2011, Pipedrive launched as an alternative to large enterprise solutions like Salesforce. Pipedrive focuses more on sales teams. However, its relatively low integration abilities make it a better choice for small companies and mobile-ready platforms — but it does have the necessities.

Insightly

Insightly combines sales, project management, and marketing in one place. For example, you can use Insightly to leverage leads to ensure your team delivers on time. In addition, Insightly has a sidebar that will appear in your Outlook, making it easy to access features. Insightly was founded in 2009 and is best for account and project managers. 

eWay-CRM

You can upgrade the potential of Microsoft Outlook using eWay-CRM. This solution offers project and task tracking as well as advanced admin settings. Founded in 2008, eWay-CRM is an excellent solution for sales and project management teams. Its embedded mass email feature is also a handy tool. When you convert an email into a lead, eWay-CRM automatically captures relevant information, such as contact info, and files the email.

Salesflare

Salesflare is optimized to make following up on leads easier by bringing 100% CRM functionality into Outlook. With this functionality, you’ll never need to switch between Outlook and your browser because everything you need will be right there at your fingertips. Founded in 2014, Salesflare is a great choice for small and growing B2B companies. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an excellent choice if you already use a full Microsoft suite of products. Founded in 2016, Microsoft Dynamics fully integrates with the desktop and online versions of Outlook. In addition, Microsoft Relationship Sales allows sales representatives to customize their engagements with prospects. This solution is best for large teams already using Microsoft Outlook. 

Keap

Keap makes maintaining client data, invoicing, payments, and all messaging easy. It connects directly to your Microsoft Outlook inbox. Founded in 2001, Keap is a solid choice for small businesses looking for a turnkey solution. 

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM offers multiple tiers and products and has two Outlook integration features available. It also provides email templates and live-syncing of Outlook emails and Microsoft Office 365 calendar meetings. These features make Zoho the best for marketing companies focused on lead tracking. 

InLoox

InLook’s Outlook integration makes it a formidable CRM solution. InLoox has been on the scene since 2011 and is great for project managers looking to plan, create, and assign tasks. Managers and teams can assign and view tasks, then track progress updates while a job is being completed. In addition, Microsoft integration allows you to add new items from an email without having to leave Outlook. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform, or CXA. ActiveCampaign added the CRM offering in 2014, and the integration between email automation and CRM is what makes this solution so popular. Offering transactional email, email marketing, marketing automation, and sales automation, ActiveCampaign can be a good solution for small companies with an IT team, as setup can be a challenge. 

What Features are Included in an Outlook CRM?

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Deciding between CRM options can be intimidating while sifting through different solutions and features. We’ve curated a list of features to keep in mind while looking for a CRM that integrates with Outlook. Let’s take a look at some top features you should be looking for in a CRM. 

Workflow automation: One way a CRM can make your life easier is by automating your workflow. It would be best if you look for software solutions that allow for custom rules that can help with productivity. Using rules, you can set your CRM to auto-perform specific actions based on certain triggers. Some of these triggers include automatically directing messages to the correct department, sending an automated response to messages, and sending follow-up messages after a specific time has passed.

Customization: The best CRMs will have features you can customize to meet your specific business needs. Look for solutions that allow the customization of areas such as your dashboard, plugins, add-ons, and contact fields. Some CRMs go even further, allowing more advanced options through APIs. With APIs, developers can access all technical specs and codes, allowing them full software customization abilities. 

Third-party integration: If you’re already using additional software and features, getting a CRM which offers lots of third-party integrations makes sense. HubSpot CRM does this well. Choose one that is compatible with other software you use and implement. For example, you can automatically sync sales and order information with your point of sale system to manually cut down or eliminate entering data. You can also back up and sync data with cloud storage systems. 

Customer service: Acquiring and retaining customers is key to any business. Looking for CRM features that allow your sales and customer support teams to provide excellent customer service is a great way to get and keep those customers. Going that extra mile can be the difference in client retention and contraction.

Employee tracking: Keeping track of employee hours, meetings, performance goals, and other similar tasks can be easily tracked and managed with CRM software. Upper management is allowed access to employee dashboards, where they can measure productivity. This can help save time on employee reviews and determine a need for incentives and rewards. 

Social media monitoring: Monitoring your company’s social media accounts can be time-consuming. However, a CRM with built-in social media monitoring can save your marketing team hours by performing actions like gaining insight into the number of shares, likes, and comments. With a CRM solution that monitors your social media, you can also check multiple social media sites and gain strategic insights into how to strategize postings. In addition, you can also gain insights into who your customers are based on age, location, and other analytics. 

Lead management: If you need a feature that will help you identify leads and their actions throughout the sales journey, consider a CRM with lead management features. With this feature, you can acquire leads and convert them into customers. In addition, a sales manager can keep on top of leads and redistribute them to different teams for conversion.

Analytics: CRM analytics offer valuable insights into customer data. This data can help you make better decisions about service, marketing, and other communications you send to customers. For example, with an analytics feature, you can learn about profit and loss data and use web analytics that shows customer website behavior. 

Real-time data: Getting real-time data helps you make informed marketing decisions. A real-time data functionality can help you figure out where and when to place ads. You’ll get an instant idea of market demand and identity which products and services generate the most revenue. 

Reporting: Reporting features bring results from all of your marketing and sales efforts and help you identify opportunities to close leads quickly. Reporting gives you insights into which sales agents close which sales, the number of outbound calls made, and the effectiveness of your marketing emails. 

While these are quality options for a business searching for a CRM for Outlook, the list is not complete. Still looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

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The post CRM For Outlook: Integrate & Manage Customer Data appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• Customer engagement software is essential for ensuring that your current customers are satisfied with the level of your company’s attentiveness and willingness to problem solve.
• Often, customer engagement tools are features that already exist in a variety of CRMs that you may currently be using.

When it comes to reaching your business’s full potential, it’s important to take notice of how well your company engages with its current clientele. 

Customer engagement software removes a lot of the guesswork from the equation and enables your team to stay focused on your customers’ needs. Providing clearer communication and being able to listen to your clients’ concerns will help boost customer engagement and offer higher retention rates. 

What is customer engagement software & how can it help your business?

Customer engagement software manages and tracks how well your business interacts with its existing clientele and makes it easier to convert leads into new clients. A customer engagement tool is a vital component for your business and can often be found baked into many CRM platforms that are on today’s market.

Good customer engagement can yield several benefits for your business, such as converting more leads and ensuring your current customers’ needs are being met. It’s also important these customers are being actively communicated with to help improve customer retention. 

Businesses currently using CRMs may not be using these platforms to their fullest potential as customer engagement tools may already be included in software you use. 

Top customer engagement software

Our top six customer engagement software picks offer a wide range of benefits for businesses with different customer engagement software needs:

Monday Sales CRM best for no-code automations, which allows for better time management and a stronger focus on customer satisfaction

Creatio CRM best omnichannel platform to automate customer service workflows 

Shape best cloud-based solution offering tools designed for online marketing and promotions and connecting directly with customers

Vivantio best for customer service automation for B2B service teams 

Zoho CRM best integration with third-party systems designed for the discerning needs of current clientele

Freshdesk best for customer conversations across email, phone, chat, social media and instant messaging

Monday Sales CRM: Best for no-code automation

Monday Sales CRM is best for using easy-to-understand automations that give sales teams more time to work on client solutions and promote healthy customer relationships. Users can customize robust email templates to autofill existing client information, personalize email and track email responses, this all promotes a steadier flow of communication. Thanks in large part to no-code automation, your team is allotted more time to work on other tasks.

Monday Sales CRM allows sales teams to create no-code automation solutions, which reduce repetitive or otherwise taxing tasks. Instead, this leaves them free to focus their time and energy on better customer engagement through good time management. 

Monday Sales CRM pros and cons

Monday Sales CRM key features

Quick implementation: Monday Sales CRM is very intuitive, and setup doesn’t involve having to hire an IT specialist or developer to get started. Importing all existing company data is a quick and smooth process thanks to the ready-made templates provided by monday sales and takes a few hours to complete as opposed to days or even months.

Cross-department collaboration: Monday Sales CRM makes it possible for team members to automate repetitive tasks and cut down on manual work in order to better serve customers and capture new leads. Naturally, all of this data is stored within the CRM platform in a centralized location. Managers can create custom dashboards with provided templates to keep abreast of progress being made across all departments. Because the dashboard interface is designed to be simple, it can be easily adopted by managers and team members alike. This incentivizes a smoother workflow and more seamless cross-departmental communication and collaboration.

Creatio CRM: Best for automating customer service workflows

Creatio CRM offers a comprehensive platform that automates your company’s workflow. This CRM is designed to be simple to use while offering users a good deal of freedom to pick and choose which features work best for their company’s needs. 

Creatio CRM is best for companies who are interested in giving their teams the tools necessary to streamline their workflows through automation and in doing so, enhance customer engagement and retention. This CRM Is capable of offering support across various departments, including marketing, sales and service and in doing so allows for a more comprehensive approach to collaboration. 

Creatio CRM pros and cons

Creatio CRM key features

No-code Tools for system and UI customization: Creatio CRM makes a strong push for no-code tools that are easy to use and allow for less technologically-inclined team members to grasp and navigate the platform’s UI.

Flexible Dashboards: Creatio CRM allows for managers to create dashboards that suit the needs of their teams and make it easier for them to view client information, as well as important analytics. This saves them time and allows them to focus on customer engagement.

Shape: Best cloud-based solution

Shape offers cloud-based solutions and tools to manage marketing and promotions and aids in connecting with existing customers and converting prospects. 

Shape makes it easier for your teams to share project information across departments in the cloud. By including a centralized spot that stores pertinent information about all of your accounts, contacts, documents and prospects it will enable you to track team performance and business-related trends. 

Shape CRM pros and cons

Shape CRM key features

Customizable dashboard: Shape’s customizable dashboard keeps track of performance indicators and allows for a better understanding of current trends that are relevant to your business.  

Excellent collaboration tools: The tools that Shape includes in its portfolio allows your company to easily collaborate across departments by using the same source of data that is easily updatable and viewable from anywhere.

Vivantio CRM: Best for customer service automation for B2B service teams

Vivantio CRM is an excellent platform for optimizing your company’s customer service potential. By offering software solutions to better deal with the demand of B2B service teams, Vivantio promises flexibility and enables teams to build a strong service management platform.

Vivantio CRM is ideal for larger companies who want to simplify their workflow across multiple departments in order to promote better customer service practices. Service automation helps B2B teams save time and focus on tasks that strengthen their connections and communication with company leaders they associate with. 

Vivantio CRM pros and cons

Vivantio CRM key features

Good management capabilities: Vivantio offers problem and incident management along with workflow tracking. This allows teams to solve internal issues quickly and efficiently and makes tracking these issues simple by putting clients first.

Zoho CRM: Best for integrations

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based management software solution that is perfect for adoption by companies large or small. The CRM is able to offer tools for automating sales and marketing tasks to promote better customer engagement. 

Zoho uses AI to perform tasks like predicting what time is best to contact customers and sifting through emails to locate relevant information when users search the CRM. Best of all, Zoho is among the best at integrating third-party software like WordPress, G Suite, MailChimp and Evernote to make for a more familiar user experience.

Zoho CRM pros and cons

Zoho CRM key features

Productivity: Zoho allows team members to personalize content and send automated messages or follow-ups that are easily tracked and logged. This increases efficiency and puts an emphasis on keeping customers happy. 

Good Analytics: Zoho has an analytics function that helps managers and team members fully understand the impact of their work and converts the raw data into graphs and charts, which are far easier to digest and manage.

Freshdesk: Best for customer conversations

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software and allows businesses to provide nearly effortless customer service.   

Freshdesk makes it easy for businesses to monitor customer contact across correspondences, which include email, phone, chat, social media and instant messages. This software enhances and promotes excellent customer engagement. Through automation, team members can easily track performance metrics with strong analytics. 

Freshdesk pros and cons

Freshdesk key features

Customer satisfaction: Since Freshdesk gives your team the ability to contact customers in a multitude of available channels, customer engagement is easier and feels more personal. This can help customer retention and converting leads.

Choosing the best customer engagement software solution

Customer engagement software is essential for ensuring that your current customers are satisfied with the level of your company’s attentiveness and willingness to problem solve. Often, customer engagement tools are features that already exist in a variety of CRMs that you may currently be using, so it’s important that your company realizes this and utilizes customer engagement tools to their fullest.

Monday CRM utilizes no-code automations which are easy to customize and learn and allow for better time management overall. This is similar to Creatio CRM, which is a simplified platform that, like Monday Sales, offers automation to improve customer service workflows.

Customer satisfaction is often prioritized by companies that have the desire to retain their current client base and gain new customers in the process. Shape offers tools that are built for online marketing and promotions meant to connect directly with clients and puts them first. Not to be outdone, Zoho CRM has the benefit of being able to integrate third-party software solutions like G Suite and MailChimp. Your teams may already use these pieces of software, so the integration Zoho can achieve allows team members to continue working comfortably with third-party software that they love.

Vivantio is an excellent option for B2B service automation, which builds relationships between businesses. Lastly, Freshdesk can benefit just about any company that wishes to track and monitor customer conversations across email, phone, social media and instant messaging.

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

The post Easy-to-Use Customer Engagement Software & Tools appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• With the ultimate goal of improving business and customer relations, an optimized CRM workflow can help your company save time and money.
• With a CRM, there is one source of truth, a dashboard accessible to everyone that outlines tasks and assignments.

A CRM workflow spans marketing, sales, commerce, and service communications. It gives everyone on your team, from sales to business developers, a better way to manage external and internal interactions. Better communication can help drive success, identify issues and needs, and manage campaigns – all in one place. 

It can also be a giant time vacuum, if not used properly. 

A CRM system in place can help a company connect to customers, streamline processes, and save money. For example, while utilizing a CRM workflow, important data and metrics are available in a collated and organized manner, making it that much easier to interpret data from multiple sources. 

Because this data is shown visually, any professional with credentials can have a personalized dashboard. A customized dashboard makes streamlining workflows throughout an organization easy and lets workers focus more on their duties and less on interpreting data.

With the ultimate goal of improving business and customer relations, an optimized CRM workflow can help your company save time and money.

Also Read: Buyer’s Guide to Workflow Management Software

1. Automate communications

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Sales teams spend a large portion of their day on data entry. However, setting up CRM automation will prove to be a huge time saver for these employees, eliminating major pain points. 

Not to be confused with marketing automation, CRM automation serves as the bottom of the funnel and involves a broad approach to how employees communicate with customers. 

Ways you can use CRM to automate communications and other efforts: 

• Implement data automation.
• Set up personalized email sequences for contacting leads.
• Automatically log all customer interactions.
• Automate customer service.

Also Read: 10 of the Best Options for Workflow Automation Software

2. Reduce time spent in meetings

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Implementing a CRM can help reduce the time employees spend in meetings. It’s a common complaint in today’s offices that there are too many meetings. Between daily standups, meetings to share updates or findings, and general team syncs, it’s easy to let meetings take over an entire day or week of work. With a CRM in place, some regular or shorter meetings can be eliminated or at least reduced on employees’ calendars.

How to reduce meeting time with CRM: 

• Set up a team dashboard as well as individual dashboards.
• Make these dashboards visible to anyone who may need access.
• Allow employees to update their progress as you would in daily standups.
• Encourage teams to update the dashboard regularly so that everyone can see progress in real-time.

This brings us to how to gain accountability with tasks while reducing the time spent in meetings.

Also Read: Workflow Management vs BPM vs RPA

3. Gain accountability with tasks

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Sometimes, especially in offices with a lot of employees, who does what needs to be clarified. That is notably true with day-to-day jobs or when more than one client is involved. With a CRM, there is one source of truth, a dashboard accessible to everyone that outlines tasks and assignments.

There are several ways to break down tasks, and here are a few ideas to get you started:

• View and assign tasks by responsibility.
• View and assign tasks by date, time, or order of importance.
• View tasks by their trigger.
• View tasks by status, such as completed, in progress, or blocked.

A CRM can help you create a workflow that automatically builds your daily task list based on the stage in each task, along with automatic reminders and alerts. This will help save time as employees only need to reference one database and checklist.

4. Minimize duplicates

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When you’re working with many clients, it’s entirely possible you’ll encounter duplicate records in your system. Of course, being human, you and your team are also likely to enter information that has errors. Manually updating and removing these duplicates and mistakes can be a costly timesink.

However, automated workflows within a CRM can help eliminate errors and duplicates with an integrated platform that allows employees to track and manage a business more effectively. 

How to reduce duplicates within a CRM:

• Set up a duplication rule.
• View any duplications by criteria and delete as needed.
• Download third-party software that can detect, merge, and automatically delete duplicate entries.

5. Organize data

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As we already know, a CRM is a database that contains a lot of information. This information includes marketing and sales tools, information collected and shared across the organization, and any insights gained from clients. With such large amounts of data, it’s essential to keep it organized in a way that helps your team streamline their processes.

How CRM can help organize large amounts of data:

• Set guidelines, definitions, & naming conventions with accountability measures.
• Limit user permissions.
• Be strategic about customizations.
• Delete data that are no longer useful.

Why your company needs a CRM 

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Through automated workflows, CRM is a tool that helps digital enterprises enhance productivity and increase revenue simply by improving the way teams work. Therefore, a CRM is a valuable tool for any digital company as they grow and learn more about its customers and how to serve them better.

Whether you’re building out your existing CRM workflow or buying your first CRM, the tips above should help improve your teams’ workflow by automating communications, reducing meeting times, gaining accountability for assignments, and minimizing duplicates in your data. 

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

The post What is CRM Workflow? Top Workflows to Save Time & Money appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• CRM automation lets users save time by processing information and completing sales tasks automatically without the need to enter data, assign tasks or transfer information manually.
• Automating CRM tasks enables salespeople to be more productive because they don’t have to complete time-consuming and repetitive tasks manually — allowing them to close deals more efficiently and increase revenue.

Companies use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to organize business processes and make it easier for users, including sales representatives, to perform complex activities. CRM systems help organizations support the efforts of marketing teams, manage customer data, deliver insights leaders can use to make better business decisions, help with customer support, and integrate with sales to boost customer satisfaction. The right CRM automation can make that job even easier.

Sales representatives use CRM systems, in part, to schedule their daily activities and manage their tasks to ensure they’re paying attention to important customers and contacting prospects on time. Typically, they perform these and other time-consuming and repetitive tasks, such as entering data as well as updating contacts, leads and opportunities, manually.

However, they don’t have to handle these tasks manually. Rather, sales people can facilitate and/or complete them through CRM automation.

ALSO READ: How to Use a CRM for Business: A Complete Guide (2023)

What is CRM automation and what are its benefits?

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CRM automation is the process of automating manual, repetitive tasks so sales reps can better track and manage their efforts to engage with prospects as well as current customers. There are a number of other benefits to CRM automation, including:

Increased productivity

In addition to automating these repetitive sales processes and giving sales reps the time to focus on more strategic activities, CRM automation enables sales teams to improve their decision-making strategies using advanced analytics. Automation also makes it easier for sales and marketing teams to collaborate so that they can access and share the content and technology necessary to reach more customers and prospects and close more deals. 

Better customer engagement

CRM automation can help sales people more effectively increase conversion rates by customizing their communications to fit the current stage of each customer’s journey. For example, although an email may be the right communication method for a customer in the early stages of the sales process, a phone call might be more appropriate for an individual who’s closer to making a purchasing decision.

Enhanced customer satisfaction

CRM systems can automatically log customer communications, including email interactions, telephone calls and form submissions, to help sales reps ensure that they identify and address customer issues promptly. 

Shorter sales process

Automating the steps in the sales process allows sales reps to spend more time communicating with and selling to customers and prospects and less time on repetitive administrative tasks. This shortens the sales process by streamlining certain tasks, helping users save time and energy, be more productive and close more deals.

ALSO READ: Using CRM for Customer Engagement

The five most useful CRM automations

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CRM software enables sales teams to automate any number of functions. Here are the top five most useful CRM automations:

Contract record management

Automating this function allows sales reps to automatically create, edit and organize sales data within the CRM database. This includes customers, leads, accounts, partners, and any other entities where sales reps would keep identifiable information, e.g., names, organizations, addresses, telephone numbers, social media accounts, email addresses. 

Automating contract record management means sales reps don’t have to enter any of this data manually since the system does the work. Manually managing and tracking the contract process slows the sales cycles. 

Automating the process, however, will enhance the sales cycle as it gives sales reps full visibility and control over their business contracts from initiation to renewal, saving them time and keeping them organized. Automating contract record management gives sales people control over their contracting processes and also simplifies contract management to help companies save time and money. 

Lead management

Lead management helps sales reps identify, analyze and monitor incoming leads so that they can convert them into customers. However, managing and nurturing leads manually takes a lot of work. But automating lead management in a CRM system helps users save time and effort trying to generate worthwhile leads.

CRM lead management brings leads from multiple channels into the CRM system, directs them through the qualifying and nurturing processes, then gives those leads to the sales people to convert them into paying customers. CRM lead management can boost the efficiency of virtually every sales team member by making them better at converting their leads and closing deals.

Using CRM software to automate lead management is critical because it ensures sales reps are pursuing and tracking worthwhile leads, moving them through the sales pipeline and making those all-important sales.

Opportunity management

This automation deals with an opportunity, i.e., a deal that’s in progress. Anytime a sales rep is actively selling to a customer, they’ll want to create an opportunity to track and manage the sales process. Automation enables sales reps to eliminate the manual repetitive tasks, such as manually entering leads and duplicate data entry, that have to do with managing sales opportunities in the CRM system. 

From first contact to closing the deal, automation streamlines opportunity management and makes it more effective as all the necessary information is recorded automatically in the CRM system. Additionally, automation brings all that information together in one place, ensuring that each sales rep gets a 360-degree view of all the information that pertains to a specific opportunity so they can make an informed decision about that opportunity. 

Automating opportunity management helps users manage their sales opportunities effectively so they can convert these opportunities into revenue.

Email tracking

Email tracking capability built into a CRM system alerts a sales rep when someone has opened or clicked through one of their emails. In addition, this feature provides data as to how many times recipients clicked a certain link, forwarded or archived it without reading it. Automating email tracking means sales people don’t have to manually send and track emails and then manually collect actionable data from those efforts. 

Automating emails cuts down on the many hours that sales reps would otherwise spend crafting emails and remembering to send them out on time. And because email tracking lets sales reps know which customers and prospects opened and engaged with their emails and which did not, they’re able to target the interested customers and prospects with more effective communications in the future. 

Task management

With the task management feature in their CRM systems, sales reps can create, view, assign and monitor tasks relating to the sales activities that they have to complete. This feature provides sales people with a quick overview of what they need to do and lets them set deadlines to complete those tasks.

Task management tracks tasks in real time, helping sales reps stay on schedule. Reps can use task management to organize tasks in order of importance and keep track of the tasks that they’ve completed without having to track them manually. This feature allows sales reps to stay on top of critical tasks, automate recurring tasks and assign tasks to other team members.

ALSO READ: CRM vs. Marketing Automation: How are they different?

In summary

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CRM automation lets users save time by processing information and completing sales tasks automatically without the need to enter data, assign tasks or transfer information manually. Automating CRM tasks enables salespeople to be more productive because they don’t have to complete time-consuming and repetitive tasks manually — allowing them to close deals more efficiently and increase revenue.

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

FAQ: CRM Automation 

What is CRM Automation?

CRM automation is the process of automating manual, repetitive tasks so sales reps can better track and manage their efforts to engage with prospects as well as current customers.

What are the benefits of CRM Automation?

There are a number of other benefits to CRM automation, including increased productivity, better customer engagement, increased customer satisfaction, and a shorter sales process.

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In this guide, we’ll cover the pros and cons of using Salesforce project management and discuss how you can make the most of Salesforce’s project management features.

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• CRMs can be great for improved efficiencies and better customer experience. But they’re also another gold vault to protect, so the selection and usage of a CRM should be done with care.
• “User-friendly” for software is a positive for non-technical users. But it’s important to remember that some conveniences are not worth the risk.

Security and access are inversely related. The simplest way to make your CRM database more secure is to restrict access because wider access means easier exploitation. Remote work and decentralized work forces, then, present major challenges for cybersecurity efforts.

Not all business data is sensitive. But most of what is found in a CRM database is absolutely sensitive information. How can companies maintain security and data privacy, while still benefiting from both CRM tools and generous work-from-home policies? 

Whether you’re a CRM user, a manager, or a member of IT staff, every stakeholder can influence CRM cybersecurity, for better or worse. This article should help push things toward the “better” category, with advice aimed at every level of CRM access. 

CRM user access privileges: The CRM work-from-home crew

(Almost) Anywhere operations

Some worst-case scenarios only really become possible when working remote: having your laptop stolen, someone logging in and stealing customer info while you’re not present, hackers snooping over an unsecured network, etc. These are things your IT crew can’t do much about, but you can. 

Bottom line: trust no one. “Zero trust” is a standard for cybersecurity, but the same should be true for users. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Lock your computer when you step away
• Don’t leave it unattended in public places
• Avoid public access wifi unless you have a VPN handy
• Guard against peeking like it’s high-stakes poker

ALSO READ: 6 Ways to Improve Your Social CRM Database

Offline still has risks

Don’t assume that going offline is automatically safer; it’s not. Data can also be vulnerable when it’s “at rest,” not just when it’s traveling across the network.

Sure, having access even when you don’t have a connection can be handy (sometimes wifi and mobile data can be hard to come by). But a local safe file is like a briefcase full of money—it’s only secure if it stays in your possession. If the device falls into the wrong hands, so does all of that sensitive customer information, and it’s worth a lot more than the laptop.

If internet access is required, then even once the device is unlocked, the thief has to find a way to log into your CRM database, providing another layer of protection. 

Mobile madness

Similar to offline mode, mobile apps are another dangerous attack vector should your device fall into the wrong hands. That doesn’t mean that mobile companion apps are a dealbreaker, but they deserve close scrutiny. Even if they feature robust security, it’s on you to make sure your phone itself doesn’t serve as a convenient backdoor.

Strong passwords and a close watch on your device are both critical to maintaining the privacy of customer data. Public wifi, as always, is to be treated as a den of vipers. And of course, watch out for malware.

Careless whispers

Like any good spy thriller, the weakest part of any security system is the “wetware”—i.e., the flesh-and-blood components. Exploiting you as a valid CRM user makes gaining access to customer info a lot easier. Here are a few ways a hacker might do that:

• Guessing your simple passwords
• Reading passwords you wrote down on paper
• Convincing you to open/click on/download malicious links/files/etc.
• Fooling you into sharing sensitive information with a “trusted source”
• Exploiting flaws in old software which isn’t updated 

In the end, your device, login info, customer data, and so on, should all be guarded as if they were a credit card in your name. Wherever and however you work, be safe. Follow the best practices you get from your IT team, and don’t assume anyone is who they say they are (by text, email, or otherwise) unless you have a way to verify it. 

ALSO READ: CRM vs Marketing Automation: How are they Different?

CRM moderator access privileges: Management staff

Supervisors, team leads, directors, and execs—each of these tend to have additional functionality available to them when using CRM software. Even those without a technical background will usually have elevated access levels when they use the software. 

These “mods” use the increased privileges to do things like: 

• Create, modify, and delete user accounts
• Access customer data, staff files, and other digital assets across the system
• Pull records and create reports about CRM-wide trends

In other words, users have keys. Mods have “master keys.” That means that this access level requires safe user habits (see above) plus safe moderator habits.

Anyone who doesn’t need expanded access, should not have expanded access. 

Due diligence and compliance concerns

Solid cybersecurity for any system starts with some universal basics—and a CRM database is no different. Rules, policies, and regulations serve as the foundation (often achieved via a cybersecurity framework), and decisions about tactics and tools are guided by those principles.

HIPPA is a good example. Healthcare teams using patient management software (i.e. CRMs for medical professionals) have to vet their vendor options by comparing their security and privacy features to HIPPA regulations. It’s a simple way to screen out high-risk candidates.

This is where management teams come in. Often, it’s not the users or the IT staff making the final decision regarding a CRM SaaS tool. It’s someone in charge of the budget. 

If that’s you, the granular information about the technology may be outside your expertise, which isn’t a bad thing. But it does mean that you’re responsible for managing threats and risks you don’t fully understand. This includes your internal system and staff, and the CRM vendor you choose. 

For both, you’ll need to confer with your tech experts and compare notes to be sure you’re properly addressing vulnerabilities you can’t always see on your own.

Trusted vendors

Vendors aren’t always upfront about their vulnerabilities and exposures. They may even falsely present themselves as bastions of data privacy. And even your seasoned InfoSec experts aren’t psychic. As a result, vetting vendors can be a difficult process. 

Should your IT or I&O staff not have the means or resources to evaluate the dozen CRMs on your shortlist, you’re not out of luck yet. 3rd-party vendor risk assessments are available from independent security outfits, giving you a way to gain those insights without overburdening your staff. 

If your organization hasn’t adopted a cybersecurity framework yet, getting an independent assessment provides a way to benchmark a vendor’s security level despite having an established standard to use internally. 

Vendor risks, especially with the sensitive nature of the information stored in a CRM tool, are not to be taken lightly. The wrong CRM tool can lead to catastrophic security issues.

Blind leading the blind

Even with a well-secured CRM database, there are likely still holes in your internal team. Humans tend to be pretty fallible, but cybersecurity solutions can help safeguard against user error. I&O teams can work to prevent and respond to incidents, but most major breaches are the result of human error or oversight. 

This means a great deal of the system’s security depends on how well you’ve taught your team to avoid risky behavior. 

Like factory safety, food handling policies, and HIPPA methods, the rules and best practices are there for protection, even if their importance is based on expertise that most employees don’t have. Employees don’t need to know how a Man-in-the-Middle attack works to understand that using public wifi carries a high risk factor. 

A policy such as “Use only secure wifi for remote work, or working in office will be required” should get the point across to even the least tech-savvy members of your team. 

Above all else, model the security habits you want your team to have. “Do as I say, not as I do” is a bad parental strategy, and an even worse business leadership. 

CRM database admin root privileges: IT, InfoSec, and I&O teams

Finally, we reach the root of the issue. Root privileges, that is. 

Tech teams are in the unfavorable position of trying to deliver expected functionality to users and managers while knowing exactly what’s at stake whenever one of them uses “password” as their password. 

By no means should the whole burden rest on their shoulders, but most non-tech staff won’t understand details like “storing login credentials in plaintext,” so it’s these experts who need to raise the red flags that others can’t see.

Data dilemmas

Data, specifically PII (Personally Identifying Information) functions like Marvel’s Infinity Stones. Useful, powerful, in some cases critical to accomplishing the task at hand. But disastrous when acquired by those with malicious intent. 

CRM databases, like nearly every cloud-enabled software tool, must reckon with three areas of data vulnerability: transmission, storage, and disposal. Thus, any potential CRM vendor needs to adequately address those three attack vectors, and answer questions like:

• How do you protect data at rest? Is it encrypted? Is it stored on private servers? Is access monitored and recorded?
• What protects the data during use? How is it transmitted between the client and the server? How are user credentials verified to prevent unauthorized access?
• When data-bearing assets are erased, what safeguards prevent unauthorized recovery? How do you handle data from a canceled account? Will we have a transparent view into processes that affect our data?

We’re mentioning this because of your peers in the above user categories, who likely won’t understand the tech jargon. For one, if you teach them the questions to ask, they may be able to do some of the digging for you. A nominal understanding will help when you tell them why a given vendor is a no-go. 

Identity crises

If the term “zero trust” rings a bell, you’re likely familiar with the issue of access/identity management. You should demand the same stringent security efforts from any CRM vendor your team asks you to investigate.

How the CRM tool handles user credentials is important. Everything from how those credentials are stored, to when logins are required, is vital to the security of your customer and employee data. Beyond that, look for additional flexibility to customize authentication functionality to meet your specific use case. 

Don’t accept cookie cutter responses.

Calling in backup

Don’t be afraid to suggest outsourcing some of the risk assessment process. IT services are outsourced all the time, vendor risk assessments included.

Like any IT service, it’s an investment, and that may be a bit of a hard sell to those who manage the budget. If so, point to the potential cost of omitting the assessments and trusting an unsecure CRM vendor. Surplus security is always preferable to a preventable loss.  

Making the right choice

CRMs can be great for improved efficiencies and better customer experience. But they’re also another gold vault to protect, so the selection and usage of a CRM should be done with care. And no single employee or department can protect a system on their own. 

Cybersecurity is a team effort, and as the business world becomes increasingly digital-dependent, the importance of solid security practices increases with it. 

It’s not always convenient, but the more seriously we treat security efforts, the safer everyone using the internet will be.

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

The post Protecting Your CRM Database with Cybersecurity Solutions appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• A CRM tool creates a centralized hub that stores your collected contacts, and with email integration built in, the software should be able to organize automations for you and keep tasks simplified as well. 
• Setting up your CRM software with email marketing may seem like an insurmountable feat at first, but getting started is easier than you might think.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software employs a number of features to help your team focus on your customers’ needs. It streamlines your company’s ability to retain its current clientele, forges new consumer relationships through personalized communication, and promotes the growth of your business.

Customer relationship management and email marketing are not mutually exclusive, and there is a world of benefit you can gain by connecting the two. However, there are many CRM platforms that are now designed to merge email marketing into their product portfolio, which makes for a more intuitive and organized workflow.

What does CRM have to do with email?

By combining CRM with email marketing, your team can easily track clients and organize data into a centralized hub that’s accessible to anyone. While email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most popular tools to engage with and communicate your company’s message to existing and prospective clients, it’s traditionally been seen as a self-contained means of engaging with and attracting new customers.

CRM platforms display pertinent information on your current clientele and makes for a more informed way to communicate more effectively with them via email marketing and other means. It also allows working that data into your automations and reports in a more integrated fashion.

ALSO READ: Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation

Using a CRM tool can allow you to target specific individuals or groups of customers with custom-tailored emails based on analytics, monitored customer online activity, as well as click through rates. These features enable a higher rate of engagement and customer retention than by using dated email practices alone.

What are the key benefits of using CRM email marketing?

There are a wealth of benefits to be had when using integrated CRM email marketing as opposed to opting for a dedicated email marketing tool that works independently from a CRM tool.

Client retention

When CRM email marketing is used to the fullest, your team will be reminded of any tasks ahead through automated communication, which means they’ll never miss a callback and continue to meet their daily goals without having to rely on management to remind them of their tasks. This ultimately saves time, which is ideal for turning your company into a well-oiled machine.

ALSO READ: Customer Retention Management: Strategies & Solutions

A good CRM platform with email marketing also promotes regular check-ins with clients and potential clients, which captures and maintains their interest. Additionally, a good CRM tool makes it easier for your sales team to nurture new leads and keep existing customers from falling through the cracks.

Data collection

A CRM solution will collect all of the necessary client data, allowing for a more efficient approach to targeted email marketing campaigns. That client data can include their purchase history with your company, along with detailed information that demonstrates their online engagement.

Client information stored in your CRM hub will inform you and your team on how to thoughtfully craft effective email campaigns that provide information that’s likely to be of interest to your customer base. This is possible on a small scale, where the goal is to target individual customers and can be just as effective when focusing on larger groups with email campaigns that matter most to the entirety of your customer base.

ALSO READ: CRM and Email Reporting and Best Practices

Seeing and understanding the patterns unfolding through the course of your email marketing campaigns will allow you to be better able to understand your customers on a deeper level and allow for more personalized email campaigns overall.

The raw data you’re able to reference at any time will inform your team on what email marketing strategies are effective and can be a learning experience in determining which approaches work and which don’t.

Saves time

Basic process emails are another way to leverage CRM email automation. Whether it’s artwork approvals, invoicing, or shipping confirmations, all of the menial but vital tasks can be automated. This keeps your valuable sales team selling, instead of performing hours of menial tasks every week.

Customization

Perhaps the most appealing benefit of using a CRM tool with email marketing is the customization it affords. The ability to eventually automate tedious mass email campaigns will save your team precious time to pursue other tasks where they might not otherwise be able to fully focus.

What type of emails should be automated?

Email automation helps save your employees’ time, so they can focus on other important tasks. Automated emails should be sent to the right customers accordingly and contain information they’ll find useful and that appeals to their interests.

Bulk emails are a form of communication that should likely be automated. These emails might contain sales, new products, or promotional notes you wish to get to your entire client base at once. Bulk emails are frequently reserved for instances when your company needs to promote a broader message or push out content that stands to inform a larger audience.

Automated emails can also be narrowed down to a group of customers who have similar business characteristics or who consistently appear to respond more positively to a particular pitch. Inversely, they can also serve as a way to reach your entire database of leads in short order.

What are the best CRM solutions for email automations?

There are a growing number of CRM platforms with integrated email automation being utilized today. While most handle some amount of email marketing automations, we’ve found a few that do it extra well if it’s a high priority. Before selecting the right CRM platform, it’s important to recognize which CRM software best meets the needs of your business and how that software will ultimately benefit your consumers.

Freshsales

Freshsales features solutions for automated email campaigns that allow you to send personalized emails. The software also incorporates a tracking function to measure the overall effectiveness of any given campaign based on how your customers respond to your content.

Nutshell

Nutshell is a reputable CRM tool that features email automation. The platform is easy-to-use and offers email templates and automated personal email sequences, which work well whether you’re sending out content to one prospect or a larger group of them.

Emarsys

Emarsys is an excellent option when it comes to supporting your business with its email automation needs. Emarsys uses a customer engagement platform that allows you to create and tailor personalized email campaigns that drive customer engagement and convert leads to customers.

Is it difficult to set up CRM email marketing?

A CRM tool creates a centralized hub that stores your collected contacts, and with email integration built in, the software should be able to organize automations for you and keep tasks simplified as well. 

Setting up your CRM software with email marketing may seem like an insurmountable feat at first, but getting started is easier than you might think. A good CRM platform is designed to be easy to navigate and can help walk you through the entire setup process step-by-step.

If you’re working with a quality CRM solution, it should have many training tools at your disposal, and depending on your plan, you may even be able to get hands-on assistance.

Is CRM email marketing worth the work?

Absolutely. There are a number of tools that can affect customer relationship management in a favorable way, and CRM email marketing stands out as an important key component.

CRM software that offers email marketing is beneficial in that the data pertaining to current customers and potential leads is saved to a single information source that’s easy to refer back to at any time. These important details are collected and securely stored in your CRM. Members of your team will have access to the data as needed, which ensures they are all on the same page and can work more cohesively. 

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

The post The Benefits of Connecting CRM & Email Marketing appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• HubSpot offers more advanced features than Zoho, but you need to upgrade to significantly more expensive plans to get access to these features.
• Zoho’s feature set is slightly less advanced than HubSpot, but its more affordable pricing plans mean it is a more realistic choice for small to medium-sized businesses.

Spend just a few minutes searching for the best customer relationship management (CRM) software, and the Zoho vs. HubSpot debate will undoubtedly come up. Indeed, many companies narrow their final CRM selection to these two contenders.

Both HubSpot and Zoho CRM offer lead management, automation, and reporting and analytics. And since they offer many similar CRM features, it can be tough to choose between the two CRM platforms.

In this guide, we’ll compare them to each other and dive deep into these essential features to help you make the right choice for your business and customer relations.

Zoho vs. HubSpot Feature Comparison

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On the surface, when comparing Zoho and HubSpot, it may seem as if they offer similar features — and they do. However, once you start digging deeper, you’ll realize these CRM solutions are far from identical. Keep reading to see exactly how Zoho and HubSpot compare.

Lead Management	Yes	Yes
Automation	Yes	Yes
Reporting	Yes	Yes

What HubSpot CRM Offers

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HubSpot is most well-known for its forever-free CRM software, but this offers limited functionality. To get the most out of the platform, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan. For the purposes of a fair comparison, we will be considering the paid versions of HubSpot, which is a more comparable platform to Zoho.

HubSpot’s CRM is included as part of its Sales Hub package, which has a reasonable starting price of $45 a month for two users and a small selection of features. If you want more functionality, the HubSpot Sales pricing plan then jumps up to a minimum of $450 a month for five users with the Professional Plan and $1,200 a month for 10 users with the Enterprise Plan.

HubSpot Sales Hub software has a well-developed user interface that is visually appealing and easy to navigate. Sales Hub offers all of the core features you would look for in a CRM software, including lead management, sales automation, reporting, and email marketing. It also integrates seamlessly with other HubSpot software, which includes HubSpot Marketing Hub, HubSpot Service Hub, HubSpot CMS, and HubSpot Operations; the different plans can be bundled together for various savings.

In short, HubSpot is the best choice for medium and large businesses that need a powerhouse CRM tool with lots of features and are willing to invest money in it to get best-in-class software.

HubSpot CRM disadvantages

While HubSpot has a lot going for it, it has some distinct disadvantages that means it won’t be a great fit for every company. For one, all of the features may be overkill for a small business, especially one looking for its first CRM solution.

HubSpot pricing also forces you to upgrade to the more premium plans to get access to the more advanced features, such as sales forecasting and analytics. Since the second tier plan is 10x the cost of the entry-level one, these upgrade costs will quickly add up.

What Zoho Offers

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Zoho offers a forever-free CRM software, which is one of the reasons it’s considered such a direct competitor to HubSpot. Similar to HubSpot, Zoho’s forever-free CRM offers a limited feature set that isn’t sufficient for many users.

For users who need more features, paid plans start at a reasonable $14 per person per month for the Standard plan. If you need even more functionality, prices jump up to $23 per person per month for the Professional plan, $40 for the Zoho CRM Enterprise plan, and $52 for the Ultimate plan. In other words, even the most expensive Zoho plan costs less than half the cost of HubSpot’s Enterprise Plan for the same number of users, making it the more affordable of the two CRM solutions.

However, the tradeoff is that Zoho’s user interface (UI) is not as sophisticated as that of HubSpot, and the navigation layout isn’t as logical and intuitive. Its feature sets also aren’t as advanced as HubSpot’s when compared head-to-head; although, it does include all of the core features such as lead management, sales automation, reporting, and email marketing. Further, Zoho CRM integrates seamlessly with Zoho’s other software solutions, including Zoho Marketing, Zoho Projects, Zoho Desk (customer support), Zoho Analytics, Zoho People (HR), Zoho One (operating system), and more.

That said, Zoho is an excellent choice for small and growing businesses looking for a well-regarded CRM software that offers a good balance of functionality and price.

Zoho disadvantages

Zoho’s lower priced plans do come with some drawbacks. For one, Zoho’s UI does not feel as polished compared to HubSpot. Users also say the onboarding and setup process can be complicated. Some have observed that Zoho CRM feels like it’s designed more for project management than a complete sales solution, which is in keeping with its more simple approach. And Zoho’s less advanced feature sets may not be sufficient for users looking for a powerhouse CRM solution.

Zoho vs HubSpot: Lead Management

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Contact and lead management software is a key feature of any CRM tool. It helps to grow your potential customer base, prevent lost leads, identify bottlenecks in the sales process, segment customers for email marketing campaigns, and more.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM offers lots of contact management options and more sorting and grouping options than Zoho. However, you must upgrade to the more expensive Professional plan if you want more advanced contact scoring.

Zoho

Zoho CRM makes it easy to add, import, and edit leads and contacts. While it’s not as advanced as HubSpot, Zoho does offer pretty extensive lead filtering and scoring capabilities, which should suffice for many businesses.

Which to choose for lead management?

HubSpot. Here’s why: While Zoho’s lead management features should be plenty for most small businesses, we do like the more advanced capabilities of HubSpot’s lead management. For companies with lots of incoming leads, those more comprehensive features can make a huge difference when it comes to identifying and nurturing the most promising leads.

Zoho vs HubSpot: Automation

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Tired of spending countless hours manually entering data and writing sales emails? Marketing automation features cut back on redundant work and allow sales teams to focus on more value-added tasks, like closing deals.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot offers two types of marketing automation: sequences and workflows. Presets are available for both, or you can build custom ones from scratch. However, users do say the custom option has a learning curve, and watching HubSpot Academy tutorials are helpful. Automation is available on the entry-level plan, but the number of instances is severely limited, so if you require a lot of automation, you’ll need to upgrade.

Zoho

Zoho CRM allows you to automate routine tasks to free your team up to focus on other things. Although, there is a bit of a learning curve to set up custom workflow; users say you have to really understand the platform before you can take full advantage of the level of detail offered. If you want marketing automation suggestions, then you need to subscribe to the highest tier, the Ultimate plan, but all paid plans have access to unlimited automation rules.

Which to choose for automation?

Zoho. Here’s why: Both HubSpot and Zoho CRM offer marketing automation options that require a knowledge base to fully master, so in that way it’s a tie. That said, we appreciate that Zoho does not cap the number of workflow rules on its entry-level plan, whereas HubSpot forces you to upgrade to the Professional plan if you want unlimited rules. For that reason, Zoho has a slight edge when it comes to automation.

Zoho vs HubSpot: Reporting

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Without accurate reporting and analytics, you can’t know how well your sales reps are performing, identify areas of improvement, or participate in sales forecasting. You’ll want both preset reporting templates for ease of use and custom reporting, so you can track the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most to your team.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot offers many reporting templates you can copy or tweak as well as the option to set up customized reporting. Unfortunately, you have to upgrade to the Professional plan to get custom reporting, which may be cost-prohibitive for small businesses. However, the custom reporting function is pretty intuitive to set up once you get access to it.

Zoho

Similar to HubSpot, Zoho CRM offers lots of preset reports to choose from. In contrast, custom reporting is standard on all paid Zoho plans, even the cheapest entry-level one, which we appreciate. However, custom reporting can be tricky to set up, and it has a higher learning curve than HubSpot.

Which to choose for reporting?

It’s a tie. Here’s why: HubSpot’s customized reporting is better overall, but we don’t like that you have to pay for a significantly more expensive plan to access that feature. Zoho’s customized reports are less intuitive to set up, but they cost much less and will still be sufficient for most small and midsize businesses looking to track marketing performance and improve sales forecasting.

Zoho vs HubSpot: Which CRM Is Right for Your Business?

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When comparing Zoho CRM vs. HubSpot, both offer lots of contact and lead management features. HubSpot’s filtering and scoring capabilities are more advanced than Zoho’s, but you must upgrade to a more expensive plan in order to gain access to them.

HubSpot offers the best feature set overall, but you must pay for the significantly more expensive plans in order to get them. This makes HubSpot a better choice for bigger businesses with large sales and marketing teams that can justify spending that kind of money on a CRM tool.

Zoho doesn’t offer quite the robust feature set HubSpot does, but its functionality will more than suffice for small and growing businesses. It also offers a range of affordable pricing plans that are more realistic for most small business budgets.

Not sure if either HubSpot CRM or Zoho is a good fit for your business? Check out our CRM software guide to see our other top CRM software picks.

The post Zoho vs HubSpot Comparison (2023) appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• Equipping your company with the right CRM software could not only increase customer retention, but make acquiring new customers and keeping them a reality.  
•  Customer retention is optimal and should be a priority regardless of the scale of your business.

Customer retention management is a process that is wholly important to maintaining your current customer base to the fullest extent possible while also ensuring that your business will continue to thrive. Turning to your CRM for customer retention might be the answer you didn’t know you already have.

There are a number of solutions available to maintain healthy relationships with your customers, to better gauge their interest in your product or service and to keep them informed on ways that your business will continue to provide them with value. 

How Do You Retain an Existing Client Base?

Retaining the loyalty of your existing customer base will pave the way for their continued patronage. This is crucial since it’s far easier to keep their support than to experience a loss and have to scramble for new clients. 

Customer retention management involves a number of different processes that when combined tend to yield the best results. Members of your team should have access to your customers and understand how to properly engage with them in order to keep their attention and to maintain their interest in a positive way. 

ALSO READ: How B2B Firms Can Improve Customer Loyalty

How well you execute customer engagement will ultimately tell your team how well they are performing and what they should be doing better. If a customer has an issue or a complaint, it’s important that they have access to someone on your team who can provide them with the kind of support to leave them satisfied. 

When reaching out to your clientele to resolve an issue, your messaging should be personal and respectful. Staying in touch and really listening to your clients should slow their waning interest and give them pause before they move on. 

Customer spending habits should also identify how well you facilitate sales and will inform you of what your customers do and don’t like about your product or service.

Your company’s progress and missteps should be made clearer through the careful monitoring of your revenue and how your customers respond to your level of customer service. This data is measurable since it’s likely to be routinely collected and can help to inform your team on how well they’re delivering on quality and what areas may need more immediate attention to yield better results.  

Isn’t Some Customer Churn Natural?

Regardless of how big or small your business operation is, you’re likely to experience some form of customer churn. This is inevitable but can be mitigated so that you can maintain as many clients as you can for as long as possible. 

Customer churn stems from a loss of interest from clients who stop using your product or service for a myriad of reasons and is just the way of the world. Potential areas that can be lacking and reflect a loss of loyalty among your customers could include poor customer service, aggressive sales tactics and a lack of effective communication between parties. 

ALSO READ: Why Customer Retention is the New Acquisition

How Does CRM Help With Customer Retention?

A customer relationship management (CRM) platform can breathe new life into how your company interacts and keeps the attention of your current customer base. 

A good CRM platform optimizes your team’s efficiency and makes for better overall communication. Team members have access to the CRM hub, which shows collected client data. This tool will help your company foster healthy relationships with your clientele and keep them interested in what your company has to offer. 

Keeping customers engaged with personalized messaging, good customer service practices and automating repetitive tasks allows for your team to focus on the more immediate needs of your customers—which is what matters most. 

What Program is Best for CRM Customer Retention?

It’s easier to maintain current customers by building their trust and keeping them happy than it is to attain new customers who are unfamiliar with your business. However, equipping your company with the right CRM platform could not only increase customer retention, but make acquiring new customers and keeping them a reality.   

Salesforce: Best Comprehensive CRM Platform

Salesforce is a trusted CRM developer and offers a comprehensive approach to business solutions. The company offers benefits that can help you through its Customer 360 program. Customer 360 is a fully integrated CRM platform that connects multiple departments in your company like sales, marketing and IT and allows them to share data quickly and reliably from anywhere. 

Salesforce has a number of products that together offer a very robust combination of features to manage customer relationships and growth. Certain companies may not want to utilize every product in Salesforce’s portfolio, but rest-assured that your CRM software experience can be tailored to meet the unique demands of your company. 

Zoho CRM: Best In Sales Automation and AI Solutions 

Zoho CRM aims to simplify the way your company communicates internally and with your clientele through the use of AI and automation when it’s needed. Through an intuitive interface, company leaders can count on the standardization of an automated sales approval system. This system quietly works in the background and allows your salespeople to allocate their time to other areas that are more pressing. 

Zoho also offers a fully integrated help desk that aids sales teams in converting leads into customers and building upon these interactions to promote consumer confidence. A lot of this communication can be automated and ensures that the right team member or members are made aware of what tasks need completing in a hurry.

Less Annoying CRM: Best No Frills CRM Platform  

Less Annoying CRM is an easy-to-use software platform that puts customers first by offering your team the tools needed to boost their performance and meet client expectations. Less Annoying provides a secure space to store need-to-know customer information that can be accessed from anywhere. This makes it easy for your team to view everything from notes to tasks and even events that are related to a particular contact all in one place. 

Your team’s various tasks and events can also be listed in an easily updatable calendar baked into the CRM so that everyone is reminded of the work ahead and this data can easily sync with Google Calendar. Additionally, this CRM is entirely web-based so that all of your company’s information can be accessed from anywhere in the world and on any device without the need for additional software installation.

ALSO READ: The Most Important Thought Leaders in Customer Loyalty

What Other Tools Should You Use for Customer Retention?

Customer retention is optimal and should be a priority regardless of the scale of your business. Thankfully, there are areas that you and your team can focus on to limit churn and keep your existing customers happy and interested in your business’s offerings. While a decrease in interest is common, identifying and isolating certain issues and working to patch them up is a necessity.   

Some customers can be fickle, while others tend to maintain their interest so long as their expectations are being met, or better yet, exceeded by good business practices. 

One thing that can make or break any company is how well you listen to your clients and adapt your business practices to fulfill expectations.

Adding a level of personalization and making your customers feel like they are being listened to is a crucial tool when it comes to optimizing their experience and keeping them interested in your product or service. Good customer service is very important. 

You’ll want to communicate how your company can benefit your current clients by demonstrating your value. Making certain to address any concerns they may have will allow them to feel more included and that their needs are being met in a timely fashion. 

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

FAQ’S 

What is Customer Retention Management?

Customer retention management is an important part of any business’s long-term success and should be taken seriously. This particular process employs a number of tools that you should have at the ready in order to combat customer churn more effectively. From successful email marketing to good CRM software, monitoring customer activity and engagement also ensures maintaining healthy relationships with a loyal clientele. Ideally, it will keep clients from opting out of using your service or purchasing your product.

How Can You Improve Customer Retention?

Improving customer retention is a process that takes time but can yield significant results when done correctly. It’s important to keep in mind that you may not get immediate results, but through careful monitoring and patience, your outcome will match the time and effort that you invest into the process.     

Maintaining an open line of communication with your customer base and tailoring your approach to managing these relationships efficiently with a combination of email marketing, CRM and a balanced sales approach is key. These tactics will increase customer loyalty, boost brand visibility and entice current customers to continue using your product or service.

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