How CRM Systems and Tools Make Your Startup Efficient

By Nikita Kotliarov

CRM, or customer relationship management, is an approach that helps businesses improve existing customer relationships and find new customers faster. The idea of customer relationship management first appeared long ago, in early 1970s, but due to the lack of tools and techniques the only way to evaluate the customers’ satisfaction was the use of annual surveys. It took time, the data was not always accurate, and some new ideas in the field were extremely necessary. Thus, thanks to the rapid development of cloud technologies, open-source CRM systems became accessible to sole entrepreneurs, small teams and startups.

Choose Your Priorities

There are roughly 100 million startups opening each year. However, many of them don’t give much attention to marketing and customer support, which often lead to failure. Customers make an essential part of any business and the success of a new product or service depends mostly on customers. Startups as a rule are at the initial stage of customer acquisition and to win their attention is one of the major goals. For example, insurance CRM software systems and tools can benefit startups amalgamating sales, marketing, and customer support.

Connecting People

“Startup” is about meeting new people and creating new contacts. Recruitment CRM software helps to manage all the contacts, building databases, and ensuring access to the customers’ personal information, communication preferences, interaction history, and even the links to their social media accounts. Thus, the CRM system allows navigating the customers’ accounts and easily identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Save Your Time

Needless to say how automation of various routine processes saves time! CRM automates every aspect of your business and cut out time-intensive, repetitive tasks. Not only does it save time, but also helps to cut spendings on sales representatives’ training and reach greater workforce productivity.

Great Organizer

CRM system gets a small startup well-organized, collecting all the data from scattered sources in a central location accessible by all the team-members. For example, by using CRMs for architects, you keep the information stored and presented in the way that fits you most. You may be sure that there won’t be any duplicate records or other types of confusing errors. The system will also assist you in sales tracking, reports creation, and performance assessment.

Looking Ahead

CRM development today is the largest software market in the world, and it is still developing. To make your startup keep pace with the times, we suggest you the main trends in the field of CRM. One of them is the importance of customer’s experience.

As it was mentioned, CRM for retail help businesses manage their customer relationships more effectively, and they come in various forms to suit the needs of different types of businesses. For example, Legal Practice Management Software is designed specifically for law firms, while Property Management software is created for businesses that deal with properties. No matter what type of business you have, there’s likely to be CRM software that can help you to run your operations more smoothly.

Once again, the customer today has become the top of the businesses’ priorities. That is why even a small startup shall struggle to deliver a better experience to its customers than the competitors can. A company offering the easiest way to do business with or the most suitable products or services will be the winner of customers’ preferences. One of the keys to success is to offer something that resonates with the customer’s personal tastes. Additionally, venture capital CRM tools give you this key by collecting the data for each of your customers and providing a more connected and personalized approach.

Another trend in the CRM development is the use of social media. Today, social networks play a great role in the daily life of every person. And it would really be strange not to try using the social media to support the customers you already have and to attract new ones. A startup, as a beginner, needs to be mobile and social, needs to be available to its customers from the platforms that are suitable for them. We are all living in a world where empowering customers and elevating the experience is top-of-mind, and that is why social CRM will continue to grow in prominence.

As everything changes, the CRM software developers also try to make their products more user-friendly. Although helping to manage the relations with customers, CRM software may sometimes seem a bit cumbersome to the user, especially if one needs to find the right information quickly. To help a startup to become efficient, the CRM system shall be easy to use. And the non-stop development in this field suggests that the simplicity and customization of CRM software will become one of the major trends in the market.

So, no matter what business processes you have in your startup, you definitely have the need to generate revenue. And it’s not enough just to have a desire to make your startup efficient and successful; you need the assistance of a smart CRM system. It will not only help you to resolve your startup’s current issues, but also to establish a deeper connection with your customers.