Wednesday, October 26, 2016

How CRM helps cut costs for your business

It is a fact that CRM software helps to make a business more profitable and kick start stagnant sales. This is done by increasing sales and cutting on expenditure. With CRM, you can get real-time feedback from your clients, track and nurture your sales leads, increase conversion rates and respond to your customers quickly. All these help your business increase productivity and maximise sales. However, that’s not all. While helping your business increase revenues, CRM also helps you cut business expenses. Read on to find out how it reduces costs for your business.

Reduce customer acquisition costs

There are many reasons why businesses need CRM software. And one of them is that it helps to reduce customer acquisition cost. Customer acquisition refers to gaining new customers. Usually, it takes a lot of time and effort to win new customers. For instance, for customer acquisition, you may need to:

  • Send emails, reminders, and newsletters to your prospective customers
  • Run expensive marketing campaigns and meetings
  • Spend time and effort on cold calling and face-to-face consultation

CRM software makes customer acquisition easier and more organised, thanks to features like real-time monitoring and analytics tools that help gain insight into customer’s buying behaviours quickly and cost-effectively.

CRM also contributes in achieving better customer retention rates. QuickDesk’s CRM software comes with advanced features such as DNC filtering, real-time calling, auto dialling, recorded history and automated activity tracker – all of which help in the process of acquiring new customers. Not forgetting, CRM system also helps in your content marketing efforts!

Cut costs by revamping your sales process

CRM also restructures your sales process to increase revenue. With CRM, your staff will not need to keep track of leads, schedule appointments, and manage orders manually. CRM software helps book appointments, set reminders and display unfinished tasks on a priority basis. As a result, your productivity improves, and you can avoid income losses as well. As CRM software helps you schedule and organise your tasks, there is almost no chance of missing out on important ones. Plus, you get more time to focus on customer acquisition. Simplified CRM such as QuickDesk lets you streamline quotations and invoices by creating reusable templates and adding items like items, taxes and fees.

Reduce your travel expenses

Typically, field sales executives bring up more clients than in-store sales representatives. However, now you can reverse the situation and save on the travel costs of your field representatives. CRM software helps in-store sales representatives establish a strong rapport with customers and even acquire new ones from their recommendations. Thus, you do not have to depend only on your field representatives to obtain new customers.

No more misplaced invoices

Misplaced invoices often lead to massive financial losses for businesses. CRM systems can flag all misplaced invoices for you to follow-up immediately. Digital invoices also save you the trouble of manual invoicing. Paper invoices are labour intensive and take up too much time. With CRM, you can save on printing material as well. Another challenge of using manual invoicing is that they are prone to errors. With CRM software, you can save both time and money on invoicing.

Reduces costs with email integration

Effort translates into money and businesses should focus on channelling it in the right direction. Using any good CRM software, like QuickDesk, you can communicate seamlessly on email even as you chat or call your customers. Updating lead data with Gmail is easy. You can simply access your emails and share them with the rest of the team over the mobile app. These emails can also be referenced quickly while you’re still on a call.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

How to nurture leads using CRM

No matter the size, all businesses need a system to develop relationships effectively with prospective buyers at throughout the sales cycle. In marketing terms, this process is known as lead nurturing.

Lead nurturing is a long-term process in which you track your leads to maximise conversions, thus helping to kick-start your stagnant sales and boosting your marketing efficiency and increasing sales. According to a recent study by market research firm Forrester, lead nurturing helps boost sales by 50 percent at costs that are reduced by 33 percent.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps you organise your database and nurture your leads by maintaining timely interaction. Here are some useful tips on how to use CRM software for lead nurturing.

Have an organised database of your leads

Without an organised database, lead nurturing becomes difficult to manage. When you have a large database of leads, tracking and engaging them regularly requires a well-organized system.

In order to improve your engagement and ensure it is relevant to your leads, you could store the latest information about your leads in your CRM system so you can access them whenever you need. To maintain consistency when using the CRM software, ensure that all team members enter data using the same format. For instance, if you use the abbreviation ‘CMO’ for Chief Marketing Officer, make sure that every member of your team is doing the same (i.e. entering the abbreviated form).

It is also important to categorise your leads. Consider using CRM software that allows you to create custom fields so that you can categorise your data in a manner that is most relevant to your organisation. For instance, if you are running a bus rental company, you may want to create separate categories for corporate guests and general tourists.

Track your leads

CRM helps you track and review your interactions with prospective clients. You can monitor how your engagement with leads across different platforms, such as social media and phone calls. With a thorough review of all interaction, you can assign leads to different categories depending on their position in the sales cycle. Prospects which are ready to make a purchase would be considered hot leads, while cold ones would still need to be nurtured. With a clear view on the status of every lead, your sales team can plan their marketing campaigns accordingly. This allows you to time your interactions with leads well and increase your chances of conversion.

Engage leads with the right content

Ensure that your prospects are given enough information to make an informed buying decision. To do so, you should first identify their pain points and the information they would need to make a purchase decision. Once you understand their needs and have identified the most relevant information for them, you can then develop content and engage them accordingly. For instance, some of your prospective customers may be looking for e-books to develop their knowledge, while others who are considering your products and services would like to view testimonials. With CRM software, you can find out and track what your prospective customers are looking for at various stages of the sales cycle, allowing you to deliver the right content at the right time. This will help you establish your business as one that delivers excellent service and value to the customer.

Use automation to ensure timely interaction

It is important to interact with your leads at the right time. For instance, if a prospect has shown interest by downloading an e-book on your website, you may want to send a follow-up email quickly to further engage and develop their interest. With automation features provided in your CRM software, you can track the actions of your prospects and react to them in a timely manner.

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Thursday, October 13, 2016

How to use CRM to target Gen Y customers

Also known as the millennials, Generation Y is those born between the early 1980s and mid-2000s. Gen Y customers are tech-savvy and can be fickle minded. Their buying behaviour is a mystery that most marketers seek to understand.

Gen Y represents a large percentage of Singapore’s population. According to the latest statistics from HR consultant firm Aon Hewitt, they account for 22 percent of Singapore’s total workforce. Quite evidently, you – as a marketer – cannot afford to ignore Gen Y customers. In fact, depending on the nature of your business, millennials could be your target customers with the greatest potential.

Thankfully, there are ways to target Gen Y using the CRM software. Here are some useful tips.

Gather information about their social media profiles

If you want to target Gen Y customers with your CRM software, simply collecting names, phone numbers and other general information of your customers is not enough. Unlike the previous generation, millennials are very active on social media platforms. They share their views and voice their concerns on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Before making purchase decisions, they will compare products online and ask for recommendations on social sites. If you can collect the social media details of your Gen Y customers and analyse them using CRM, you can gain deeper insight into their buying behaviours.

Practical tip: You can ask your sales staff to gather information about their social media profiles. For instance, you can collect and enter the Facebook addresses of your prospects into the CRM system, so that you can track their social media activities and plan marketing campaigns for them.

Conduct real-time analysis

Simplified CRM software, such as QuickDesk, comes with advanced features including real-time monitoring. You can call your customers directly via your CRM, have your calls recorded and monitor your clients in real time.

While you can use this real-time CRM analysis to target customers of any age group, this strategy works best for Gen Y customers, as they are more likely to use multiple devices when making purchase decisions. For instance, a Gen Y customer can visit your website using their desktop computer, call your customer care executive from their Smartphone, and chat with another sales representative on their tablet – all within 24 hours. With real-time monitoring via CRM, you can track all of the information shared by the customer at every contact point and analyse it to gain a deeper understanding of your customer’s buying behaviour. And this is the right way of targeting and retaining the right customers. By following them closely.

Track interactions to provide better customer service

As mentioned, CRM software lets you track interactions between your customer and sales representative. Using this information, you can gain deeper insight into the buying behaviours and preferences of your Gen Y customers. Once you know their likes and dislikes, you can tailor your customer service to suit them. Remember, excellent customer service is a prerequisite to winning repeat business from Gen Y customers – they hate delays in responses and value companies that provide exceptional customer service.

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Thursday, October 6, 2016

3 ways to target and retain the right customers

Businesses all over the world are paying a considerable amount of attention to online presence. Purchases of all sizes are being made online. So, if you have a business, it is important to stretch your presence in the digital world. However, the idea should be to focus on specific demographics of customers. Targeting the right prospects is necessary to convert them into leads. CRM software goes a long way in identifying this base. All you have to do is collect crucial data via surveys, forms and events and render it through the analytics tool of your CRM. Read on to know the right way to target and retain the right buyer base.

Identify and develop on your target customer

Frame a fictional representation of your typical customer. If your company sells formal/business clothing aimed primarily at fresh adults, it is safe to assume that they are a part of an urban, upmarket, millennial culture. Identify the ideals and business principles that this group relates to, and incorporate them in your business model. The necessary information can be gathered using short surveys. It is important to offer incentives, so that you can have credible information. Surveys are great because not only do they provide demographic information, but ideas for blog posts and social media updates.

Keep a track of rivals’ activity

Your rivals could be doing better at marketing and leads conversion currently. This is why you need to be aware of their practices. Even otherwise, broadening your knowledge base is a good idea. Follow them on social media, read their content closely, and pay frequent visits to their websites. What you can do for successful customer targeting and retention is:

  1. Use keywords to target followers on social media. This works by way of targeting people based on who they follow. You can even add additional targeting areas like interests, tailored audiences, and so on.
  2. Engaging the customers of your competitors is a smart idea. Social media has additional tools to create prototypes of your ideal audience. You can customize the particulars of the audience.
  3. Visiting rival businesses’ blogs is advised. Be sure to read the popular posts and the discussions that follow, carefully. Use similar keywords for your own blog posts and engage your prospects in the same way.

Purchase and install an efficient CRM

There is no more excuses to avoid CRM. It is important to have a centralised and an easy access to the updated database of a company’s prospects, leads, and existing customers to all sales and marketing staff. An efficient CRM software performs all these functions easily, besides providing even more insightful information. Across industries, CRM is the best way to optimize and analyze relationships with customers. CRM systems organize crucial customer information in a number of areas. Efficient CRM software will keep customer interactions updated, no matter what the mode of interaction.

It will also be able to prioritise these interactions and respond accordingly to any changes. This is necessary in order to know which prospects to retain and which ones to let go. While purchasing CRM software for your business, be sure that its processes are user-friendly and real time, and it delivers industry-specific reports.

If you would like to learn more about how a CRM software made in Singapore (Quickdesk) can help your business with the above functions do drop us an inquiry!

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