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How a Customer Relationship Manager for MS Office Can Turn Your Small Business into a Productivity Powerhouse
The number one reason small businesses fail is due to lack of
experience. "Lack of Experience" in the industry the
entrepreneur enters and in management, as well. The fact of the
matter is small business owners nearly tear their hair out when
attempting to coexist as the CEO, Director of Marketing & Sales,
Customer Service and Office Administration. After all, wearing
multiple hats is challenging, especially when there's only 24
hours in a day.
Today's technology supports an entrepreneur's ability to evolve
into a savvy manager by computerizing internal business
processes and simplifying intra-office communications with
office automation software (OAS). With 90% of the market share,
Microsoft Office allows opportunists world-wide to conduct
effective personal information management using Outlook, prepare
professional documents with Word, present proficient Power Point
presentations, manage data effectively using Excel, and more.
The question is, "How can entrepreneurs fully utilize Microsoft
Office for positive interaction with their business' external
environment?" The solution is uniting a dynamic customer
relationship manager (CRM) with the ubiquitous Microsoft Office
suite.
With minimal resources and personnel, entrepreneurs can use CRM
for Microsoft Office to efficiently communicate with their
employees, customers, and vendors. A centralized contact manager
not only streamlines common business processes but saves time
and increases productivity. Whether you're a "one-man show" or
have a network of a few employees, a contact manager combined
with the power of Microsoft Office, can help build long-lasting
relationships with company stakeholders and make it easier to
clearly focus on succeeding.
For Administration:
A centralized database of client, employee, and vendor contact
information, provided by a systematic customer relationship
manager, simplifies every-day administrative duties including
scheduling and messaging. Business owners and administrative
assistants alike can easily use a CRM Office Add-on to pull up a
contact record and schedule an appointment. By integrating with
Outlook, the user can create appointments or tasks from a
central location and it will automatically appear in their
personal Outlook or on the company's public calendar (if in an
Exchange environment). The same goes for messaging. Locate the
contact record from any desk in the office, and send a message
via email using Outlook.
For Marketing:
The everyday infrastructure of most businesses is already
facilitated by Microsoft Office. Let's take writing 15 thank you
letters, for example. It's almost commonplace to use Microsoft
Word to create such a professional document. However, once the
letter is complete, Word doesn't provide a way to automatically
format each letter with the customer's name and address. In
addition, what medium will be used to deliver the professional
documents to its respective targets, all 15 of them to be exact!
Can Outlook do this? Sure, if email is the method of choice for
delivery. First copy and paste the content of the letter 15
times into 15 emails and then enter the email addresses for each
letter. The process is not only time consuming, but often
painstaking, as well. Not to mention, that's only for 15
letters. What about 50, 100, 500 or even 1000?
With the added help of a customer relationship manager,
repetitive tasks like letter writing, turn into routine
processes. Create the letter template in Word and save it to the
centralized database of the customer relationship manager. Next,
pull up the 15 contact records of this week's new clients.
Select all 15 records and merge their contact information with
the template into 15 letters. Besides the
10 minutes it takes to
write the letter, the CRM creates 15 personalized copies in
about 30 seconds. Hence, mass communicating is systematized and
cost effective. The days of spending a week to do a mailing to
the firm's entire customer base can be done in just minutes
through broadcast mailing, and even faxing or e-mailing, too.
For Sales:
Many businesses who implement CRM technology with MS Office
notice benefits immediately. Once customer data is centralized
and easily accessible by the sales team, the CRM becomes a great
monitoring tool. The sales team is now able to conduct follow-up
phone calls while having the power to view personalized,
detailed notes unique to each client record or lead. Then a
fortunate chain reaction is triggered. By personalizing the
follow-up strategy, the customer ultimately feels more
distinguished and treasured. Plus, a regular follow-up strategy
helps the sales professional to build a relationship with the
client, which will then increase client loyalty. To sum it all
up, CRM technology makes the game of lead control a win-win
situation for the firm and its clients. A CRM solution will also
refine sales methods to better meet each and every need of a new
prospect.
Now, add the capabilities of the CRM to Microsoft Office. From
the contact record, sales professionals can add a note to their
personal Outlook, write an entry in their personal Outlook
journal, create an Excel spreadsheet for tracking monthly
revenues or calls, email the contact through Outlook, send the
contact a fax, and schedule the next follow-up call. Now the
sales process is completely automated from a central point of
location. Think about how much time is saved.
CRM Solutions Help Build Stronger Relationships
It's no secret; the vast number of customer relationship
managers which are currently on the market. The question is
which one is right for you?
Key factors to consider when evaluating a CRM solution:
* Is the contact information you enter accurate and true? * Is
the database constantly updated and maintained? * Can you easily
retrieve and share contact information? * Are documents such as
fax cover sheets, letters, labels and lists easily constructed
with the program? * Can it communicate with Microsoft Office
without complicated exporting procedures? * Does it enable users
to easily communicate with each other and the outside world? *
Does it send messages to cellular phones, PDAs, smartphones,
pagers, email and two-way radios instantly? * Can employees
effectively track communication with clients and vendors? * Does
it include lead & campaign management features for prospecting?
The benefits of a CRM do not stop with just the needs of the
customer -- it adds value to the business as a whole. Employees
are happier and less stressed because processes and procedures
are simplified, take less time and effort to execute and the
details are "taken care of". Employees become more organized and
effective in achieving team goals. Management also benefits from
increased employee productivity, lowered business expenses,
reduced overtime hours, and goals are easier to meet. The
business as a whole can run leaner because a good contact
manager allows entrepreneurs and their employees to multi-task
in a Microsoft Office environment, with ease.
About the author:
Brandi Browning is the Director of Marketing of Advantage
International, Inc. specializing in Microsoft Exchange, Outlook
and Office Add-ins for calendar and contact synchronization,
improved group task management, and CRM/marketing lead
management solutions. Email any questions to brandib at
diditbetter.com or for more information visit http://www.diditbetter.com
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