Do you think CRM software is only for big companies? Think again: A survey by Capterra reports that customer relationship management software is now the fastest growing business software product out there — and offers myriad benefits for companies of all sizes. Here’s a closer look at CRM for small business and how it can help your company grow, too.
First, you might be surprised to learn that small and midsize companies are actually the fastest-growing group of CRM users. And while you might think that B2B businesses are the most common users of CRM software, in reality that honor goes to B2C companies: Sixty percent of them use CRM tools.
Retailers, in particular, are the most likely to implement CRM for small business. This makes a lot of sense: Retail CRM software can enable retail firms keep track of past customer purchases, offer suggestions for complementary products to purchase, and help with loyalty rewards programs.
Of course, CRM also benefits service businesses, the second most likely type of company to use CRM tools. It’s easy to see how CRM can help when your company has a long sales cycle, or sells complicated products and services. You can use CRM during the sales process to track customers from the moment they become leads to the time they make a purchase and beyond. CRM for small business enables all of your employees who interact with customers to easily access data about past customer interactions, so that the customer always enjoys a satisfying experience. Postsale, CRM can even keep track of follow-up conversations, emails, problems and solutions, as well as pricing, contracts and more.
Speaking of who uses CRM software, it’s not just the sales team. The marketing department and customer service employees are also frequent users of CRM tools. However, even the finance and HR departments can benefit from CRM. Finance departments use it to access customer billing records, contracts and other financial data. HR may use it to see how productive customer service or sales employees are.
You don’t have to be a well-established business to benefit from CRM, either. According to the survey, most companies that adopt CRM technology do so within two years of startup.
If you are considering implementing CRM for small business, but haven’t yet, check out this list of the best small-business CRM software as chosen by Capterra.
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