Are you using more than 5% of your CRM?
Unfortunately most small business people use their CRM as nothing more than a modern rolodex. You can flip through it and easily look up names, addresses and phone numbers. But think about it. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Some large companies understand this and have the time and money to invest in putting systems in place to ensure that their customer service people follow a process to deliver impeccable service. With technology today it is possible for a small business to emulate what some of the larger companies have accomplished.
What does it take? With a small business it takes discipline from the individuals. They need to be fully committed to the concepts and ideas, and then plan exactly how they will use their CRM for better record keeping and ongoing communication. It is our experience that the determination and discipline to implement from the small business owner has to also be agreed to by his/her staff. They then need to have regular meetings to make sure they are on the same page regarding exactly how it is to be used. Once the basics are in place it is usually surprising to see the staff taking a leading role in extending the capabilities of the system that was chosen. As mentioned it requires an extraordinary amount of discipline to initiate this process and successfully follow through for the first 60 days. Ironically, once it is in place you will wonder how you ever lived without it.