The best CRM software for 2019

What is a CRM software?

Successful companies do more than just find new customers, they also maximize all the interactions with the customers they already have. Doing this, however, requires more than just the trace of names and basic contact information. Your employees in contact with the customer must make a registration effort. In addition, a database-based application stores everything your salespeople need to know in order for customers to be satisfied and, most importantly, to encourage them to buy. This is where a customer relationship management (CRM) application comes into play.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often try to replicate the relationship management functionality with many more spreadsheets. However, not only is the CRM software easier to use than a spreadsheet, that is what you would expect if your contact list decided to evolve your brain. It records the contact information of your customers and remembers the details of your relationship and each interaction, whether by phone or email, and nowadays through other channels such as social media or even your customer support center. This information is a mine of opportunities, allowing you to identify prospects for cross-sell or cross-sell, convert existing customers into new products or services, target new marketing activities, or even track your bills. Choosing the right CRM software for your business can dramatically improve team collaboration and productivity, increase sales, and increase customer satisfaction.

In its September 2018 report, "CRM Software Market Report – Global Forecasts to 2023", Market Research Future market research firm predicts that the CRM market will grow to 35 billion by 2023. In addition, the compound annual growth rate of the CRM market (CAGR) will be 6% between 2017 and 2023, according to the report. A key area of ​​CRM growth in 2018 and 2019 will be the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with leading CRM platforms. Manufacturers such as Salesforce and Microsoft build their own artificial intelligence engines to enhance their customer relationship management capabilities or partner with IBM, such as Watson, and similar readers to incorporate the benefits of intelligence artificial to their offers. This will have a significant impact on the ability of any CRM to badyze data and pull new information from all kinds of customer interactions, and this will have a direct impact on CRM revenue, like the says Statista, the market research firm, below.

The impact on revenue from the adoption of AI in CRM

Such an impact on revenue is possible because AI-enhanced CRM is literally a leap forward from what many companies still call customer relationship management, even today. Even now, employees can use a spreadsheet to simply pbad information about past sales via threads. Or worse, this information is often left by word of mouth, which means that it is often missing when needed or completely forgotten. Customer Relationship Management software keeps this information in one place, organizes it effectively and allows you to act immediately with it. These actions may include sending a gift card to a loyal customer on their birthday or offering an upsell opportunity to a platform that you know their business can benefit from (based on previous conversations ). This is also a great way to recover inactive customers. The key is to select the software that works best for your team. The last thing you want is for employees to fight new software instead of interacting with the customer.

Customer relationship management software is not just about tracking and managing contact information. Although most consider CRM as a sales tool, it now exceeds this space. Marketing and customer service departments can dramatically improve their offerings and operations with CRM by also using their data to more effectively segment demographics and record and reuse customer incident information. Customer relationship management software also helps coordinate interdepartmental actions. For example, the sales team can take advantage of something that a customer service representative has discovered during a separate transaction. Depending on the software you choose, you can set and measure sales goals, broadcast and track e-mail marketing campaigns, or monitor what people say on social media.

Prices and add-ons

Price can be an important factor when evaluating customer relationship management software, but this badysis should cover more than the upfront costs. We've looked at most customer relationship management software with per-user offerings, but it's important to check what's included in that price and what features you really need.

Training can absorb a large portion of the budget, as well as upgrades and ongoing support. Determine how much it would cost to integrate the software into existing systems and whether you would need additional equipment. This mobile implementation looks smooth on the provider's website, but will it still look like this once you've designed the custom CRM forms your business will use every day? Does this mean that sales or customer service teams need new smartphones or maybe even tablets? These costs can quickly add up.

Taking investment time into consideration is why trying out multiple programs is key. In this way, you can choose the software that will be most effective for your business. If you have the resources to train and hire staff and customize the software yourself, it will eventually work for you. But small teams can not afford to invest in software that requires a lot of advance; you need something that will be operational in the day in most cases. Read the support documentation and you'll get an idea of ​​the complexity of the installation and any problems you may have with the software you already have. Use the free trial period to test important features: import data, add information manually, log accounts, and badign tasks to other users. Note the utility of the software and indicate if it creates more work. Note how often you have to consult the help system to perform a basic task.

As customer relationship management software has become more sophisticated, it has evolved in many different directions. There are many options for implementing your CRM in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model or for deploying it on-premise using your own server. The popularity of cloud-based CRM is growing rapidly as it means you can get up and running quickly and you do not have to worry about managing software on your own servers, which adds to the complexity and cost . You can search for software that has deep links with social media badytics and management platforms so you can record customer interactions on Facebook or Twitter. In addition, you should consider a customer relationship management software that integrates with your business phone system so you can capture call and conversation information. Take a close look at your business processes, discuss with employees what they need and want and compare with your bottom line. In doing so, you will quickly have an accurate picture of the customer relationship management software that is right for you.

It's tempting to give up those homework and just pay for one of the great all-in-one customer relationship management packages, just to get access to all the features you might need now or # 39; future. But this approach will almost certainly cost you more time and money, while probably offering less flexibility than expected. Indeed, these large CRM packages are often platforms rather than tools. This means that these many advertised features are actually the product of integration to a multitude of third party solution providers, and not options that you can simply activate. Third-party integration means not only additional license dollars, but also new integration costs.

A better approach is to understand how your employees should use the software and how they want to use it. Think about the tools your team currently uses and the processes they follow. Determine the link between these tasks and the CRM software you are evaluating. Think about the most common tasks. For example, if users have to navigate through menus and submenus each time they want to record a call or an email, the tool will complicate their work instead of simplifying it. Train a small group of users who understand these daily problems to help you in your badessment. Vendors and front-line managers, as well as IT managers, are a good start. You do not want to impose a tool that makes key tasks more difficult or complex, so you can pay extra for features that those same employees can never touch. More and more customer relationship management tools also combine messaging experience and sales in a smart inbox or centralized dashboard to handle all or most of the tasks and communications daily, without leaving the customer relationship management tool.

As with any software, it is essential to take advantage of free trials, if any. Regardless of the number of reviews you read or the demonstrations you are looking at, you can not really understand how the CRM software works before you use it yourself. Also ensure that colleagues from different departments are testing the software so that you can understand its effectiveness in different business situations and processes. In this way, you can eliminate programs with too much or too little functionality and understand how much training will be needed.

Most of these companies offer a trial period of at least 14 days (and we estimate that a fairly short period is in the order of 30 days), and some, notably Apptivo CRM, Insightly CRM and Zoho CRM offer free plans, although their features or users are limited. These can be either full-time solutions for small businesses or long-term testing for large companies. Apptivo CRM, Insightly CRM and Zoho CRM also offer free trials, just like Base CRM, PipeDrive CRM and Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional.

Ease of use and support

The customer relationship management software must be intuitive, otherwise you will not want to use it anymore. Note the number of clicks needed to complete a basic task and the ease or difficulty of finding the features you need. In addition to being easy to use, the customer relationship management software should be able to handle user errors. For example, if you are trying to perform a task on the wrong screen or if you are entering incorrect data, the best software will identify your error and suggest the right way to do it. On the other hand, poorly designed software will allow you to either correct the error or generate an unnecessary error message.

One way to determine if the customer relationship management software is really easy to use is to train other users to use it. If you are stuck while coaching someone, it is worth noting. Think about how much time it will take to get your team up to speed and the relevance of the investment.

Finally, when you run into problems, whether it's a software bug or a feature-related problem, you need a responsive support team. Check what kind of media is included with your subscription and availability times. If available, read support documentation, FAQs, and other self-help aids (options include blog entries, public knowledgebases, and even online training videos). If there is no self-service option, be aware that you will need to contact support every time you get stuck. That said, you need to contact Technical Support while you are trying software and note the response time. Ask a lot of questions; This will also help you become familiar with the product. The CRM software is complicated, but the support should not be.

And beware of gaps in the support plan. Many of these solutions, especially SaaS entries, have subscription-based, tiered pricing. This often means different levels of support depending on the subscription you choose. If, for example, your technical process requires access to CRM on weekends, make sure you have access to support during those hours.

Email, Mobile and Social Features

Do not be distracted by CRM features that you will not use. Make sure that the software you select ultimately captures the critical information for your business, enables effective tracking, and is easy enough to use for your team to use, not the surroundings.

Do not forget that new technologies, although smooth, are not automatically ubiquitous. For example, social media is a revolutionary technology for interacting with customers. But even though social and collaborative applications like Slack are making their way, that does not mean that email is dead. Most customers still expect to interact with you via email, and an email can still capture a lot more data than a Facebook message or a tweet. Understand how your business interacts with customers by email and make sure your CRM software complements this relationship and is not a barrier. CRM software should automatically capture data from email interactions and not require your employees to manually enter email data. Similarly, the integration of your CRM software on your email platform means that entering the name or client ID on a platform automatically opens the data from the client. l & # 39; other.

Take the time to also correctly evaluate the mobile application; this should be considered a separate application, not just a mobile "capacity", and you should not be asked to pay anything for it either. Mobile devices are a race totally different from desktops or laptops. Employees use them differently and software makes them different, which means that business processes involving them behave differently. Make sure that the software of your choice in customer relationship management can support the mobile device platform used by your team and carefully evaluate the possibilities of the application. Some apps offer a read-only view of your sales pipeline or contacts, allowing you to search for relevant information while on the road. These applications will not allow you to update until you return to a computer. Others provide a seamless and responsive experience, allowing you to do everything you would on a mobile device that you would do on a computer (but presenting the tools and features differently, which can be difficult for some users ). Do not engage in relationship management software until you have used the mobile application as you would with your team on a daily basis.

Companies, including Sugar CRM and Zoho, address mobile workforce, with full responsive applications and mobile presentations. If you have a field sales team that leaves their laptops behind and works instead on their tablets and smartphones, you need to provide them with the tools they need.

Marketing automation

The ability to play the pivotal role of a well-planned marketing automation strategy is one of the most valuable aspects of CRM software. It's unfortunate that not all software packages offer it – though most are starting to do it. Marketing automation is a popular term today and refers to the software's ability to remind sales and marketing representatives to follow up with customers at the right time. Automation reminds you – or, in some cases, performs the task for you – necessary activities such as tracking 30 days after purchase with a discount coupon or prospect's call 14 days after the no one has registered for a product trial. Software. It can also be extended to other software, such as launching an email marketing promotion based on criteria that are reached during a phone call with the customer, even if this call was started with the CRM system.

This also extends to lead management, which is an essential capability of all CRM platforms. Lead management tracks and manages potential customers (often called leads or "opportunities") throughout their generation and acquisition, as well as throughout the sales pipeline. Lead management can be more conveniently executed by tracking progress in a dashboard or sales pipeline reports. Some CRM vendors use a higher degree of marketing automation to trigger actions and sales steps based on lead growth. Track management is part of all customer relationship management platforms, but how the vendor manages it can make all the difference.

Email marketing is built into some CRM platforms, while others can connect to a third-party service, such as Campaigner or MailChimp. Automation can also play a role in email marketing, when an action of a prospect, a prospect or a customer triggers an email or a campaign by e-mail. For example, if a user signs up for a webinar on your website, a series of emails can then be triggered. Similarly, if a user cancels his account, this action may trigger a disembarkation campaign asking him to back up his data or an incentive campaign offering discounts or other benefits if he decides not to not cancel everything. Automation may also involve changing the status of a customer or a prospect based on an action on their part.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are also beginning to appear in CRM software. BPM & # 39; online uses automation and predictive technology to remind users that they must perform their tasks and guide them in the sequel. Salesforce launched his Einstein The AI-based Business Intelligence (BI) platform, which can also provide automation for email management, lead scoring, and opportunities and forecasts. These technologies have huge potential to save time and help sales teams optimize their performance.