The Qualities To Look For When Buying New CRM Software For Your Business

Buying new software of any kind for your business can be a big decision as it can completely change the way you work, especially when it comes to all-in-one software systems like CRM. It is not a quick decision to make, you certainly want to know you’re buying something that can help progress or improve your business rather than hinder it. In this article, we are going to discuss a few of the top qualities we’d recommend looking for when buying new CRM software and why they are essential.

What is CRM?

First off, let’s explain what CRM is and why it’s important. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Over the past few years, CRM has been developed to integrate all factors of customer communication like marketing, email, data, and so much more. It is designed to be a one-stop-shop for customer data and analysis, giving you the power to understand who your customer is and how you should be interacting with them to make more sales and keep them happy. These tools were always being used, but CRM brings them all into one space making it incredibly easy for cross-team communication and understanding.

Certified Staff

One of the first things you should look for in a CRM is whether they have accreditations. You want certified professional staff to help you on your journey with the software. For example, if you are hiring someone with a Salesforce certification, you know they have been trained in the software by industry-leading experts. With big companies like this, you can be assured that quality staff have been trained to the highest standards, making the implementation of CRM much easier.

Ease of Use and Integration

Obviously, not everyone within your company who is using the software will be a certified professional. Some of your own staff will have to be able to quickly learn and understand the software. It will likely be used across the whole team, to some level. This is why you need to assess the varying tools and their ease of use. The central hubs of the software should be easy to understand with useful visuals, graphs, and charts so that people from all corners of your organization can understand the various data points.

It should also integrate easily with all the other software and accounts you use. For example, you want your CRM to be able to read, analyze and understand your website, email, and phone records to present customer engagement data back to you. This should be seamless and an easy process if you want to get your whole organization on board.

Automation

Another software feature to look out for is automation. Though CRM software is not full-automation software, it can have automated elements. For example, automated email marketing which targets individual customer’s email addresses at the right times, or automated diary management. This small part of automation can really speed up various processes within the business as well as ease workload for various departments, giving more time for customer-focused activities.

Cloud Computing

While an obvious point, it’s important to mention that good CRM software should have both local and cloud-based server options. At the end of the day, CRM is all about data. Customer data, web traffic data, engagement data and so much more. If the software does not have safe and fast cloud-based data storage included, you risk losing all that data. It is also crucial that the data is properly protected. Without proper security protocols in place, data can be hacked or leaked, which could leave your business at the wrong end of major lawsuits or malpractice claims.

24/7 Support

Finally, when deploying software as important as this, you want to know the vendor is going to be there for you in times of crisis. If the server does go down, or the software decides to crash, what support is available? A good quality developer will offer 24/7 support around the clock for their customers. Having this means you can use the software whenever needed safely in the knowledge that any issues, bugs, or failures can be fixed with remote support or on-call technicians. You provide the best possible customer service for your own customers, so you should get the same care as a customer yourself!

These 5 features let you know that you are purchasing a great set of software tools that can really make a difference to your business. Really, we don’t think we’re asking for too much here! Make sure you properly research whatever CRM software interests you to make sure it is suitable for you and your business.