CRM is considered by many specialists to be one of the best programs to manage customer relationships. Attending to steady contacts will help you retain your customers, and optimise brand’s promotion on the market. It is easy to realise that there is no business – no matter if linked to services or sales – that would be too small to use this kind of application.
Certainly, applying CRM in a smaller firm takes much different actions than in a complex corporation. In both cases, however, there is a basic need of gathering data – both from before and after CRM installation. First step after that is recognizing company’s needs, creating detailed analysis of its functioning, and investment in proper IT infrastructure. Data accumulation in smaller enterprises usually doesn’t take much time, which is a big facilitation. Contrarily, it might be quite different in the aspect of employees training. Because the team is much smaller, duties must be distributed in a more complexed way. This is why smaller companies cannot afford fragmentary trainings, or exclusion of some skills. It could generate higher costs, especially per person.
Data bases in CRM system
The essence of functionality in CRM’s data bases comes down to their extensive supplementation. Pieces of information can be imported from different files, which then are converted into the same format. In small business it is paradoxically advantageous to have few clients (with growth tendency). It helps to gather more comprehensive customer data, lets us understand their needs and expectations towards our services or goods far better. Then, the concept of „building relationships with clients” is much easier to realise in practise. Using CRM in a small firm, there are more possibilities to make direct connections, it is also easier to follow everyday changes in customers’ life (e.g. thanks to social media profiles, from which the data can be imported).
The implementation
CRM implementation in smaller company theoretically should be easier than in a bigger one, but only if it’s properly planned – not only with the help of specialists, but also with adequate technical support. The more intuitive and functional the system IT is, the better. Relationship management shouldn’t rely on too complicated programs – the priority must be your everyday duties: keeping multichannel communication both with clients and your employees. This is why your data should be accessible (even if in different ranges) to all of your staff members, not only those responsible for customer service. Besides, delegating tasks in small companies often means choosing one person, not the whole team. In accordance to this, every one of your employees should be trained to use CRM platform. Essential element of CRM is accessibility to regular reports based on current sales and marketing information. In a smaller company, development strategy has different dynamics than in a corporation, and it can be planned in result of team work (especially when it’s family company, which doesn’t have a distinctive management division).
Where won’t the CRM work out?
It’s easy to demonstrate, that there is no business too small to implement CRM system. However, it doesn’t mean that it will work out in every possible situation – there are some important criterions related to firm’s functioning. Implementation will be risky in following situations:
- when the customer service wasn’t constructed properly (with division between direct, telephonic and online support)
- if the people responsible for customer service are unqualified
- in company which pays too much attention to formalism, or contrarily – is too laidback. Of course, CRM is an elastic system, so keeping to very restricting rules isn’t recommended. But still, you need to have some principles and limitations, otherwise your work will become chaotic.
- when IT solutions are valued more than human factor – it will make building relationships very difficult (for example: in call centres or telecommunication firms)
- if company gathers data in incompetent, non-consistent way.
