How to Choose a CRM Software: Questions to Ask and What to Look For

Every business should get a CRM software. Simply because it helps businesses grow and succeed. But other benefits include analysis of which clients are the best customers, their buying patterns, which leads you to maximizing profits per customer. This software was built to help businesses maintain and track their interaction with customers. But it has developed to be a more well-rounded software, dealing with all aspects of business like sales, accounting and all operational data. It has become an indispensable software for every businessman. So what are the questions you should ask before choosing the best CRM tools for your business and what should you look for? This article will serve you as a guide on how to choose the software that will fit your business needs.

Do You Have a Need for It?

First thing you have to consider is do you have a need for it. This is an additional business expense and although it will help your business, it might not be for everyone. Well, how will you know if you need a CRM software? If the following applies to you, then you need to get the software.

1. You need an effective management system for your contacts. This can be done with an address book and a pen. But sometimes this form of contact management can be confusing and messy. If you have a business that is growing, keeping tracks of all your contacts should be a priority. And it should be done in an organized way.
2. You want to boost sale. Of course, every business wants to boost their sales. But with the use of CRM tools, you have an arsenal of tools to help with your sales and marketing campaign. It can help with generating leads and nurturing those prospects, email marketing, order tracking and a lot of other tools for sales and marketing.
3. You want better customer support. This software was originally designed to manage customer relationships. So if you see that your customer support is lacking and you want to improve it, then you should get this software.

How Much Will It Cost You?

The cost of the CRM software will depend on a lot of things. First is the service provider. They offer lots of plans and every vendor will offer a different price plan for you. There are companies that will offer cheap subscription plans, but you should read reviews of CRM software before committing so you know you will get the value for your money. It’s not that you should be wary of companies offering inexpensive plans, just that you should be careful when choosing. Another thing that will be considered for the cost is how many people will use it. The more people that will use the software, the more expensive it will be. Last factor that is considered for the price is the feature that you choose to go along with the software. There are many features that you can add to the software itself. The more tools you add, the more expensive it will be. Don’t add tools that you will have no use for, you are paying for that. Some companies may make it look like the additional features are free, but actually that is added in the monthly subscription plan that you will be paying.

What Can It Do for You?

When the CRM software first came out, it was only used to manage the interactions between you, the businessman, and the customer. But over time it has evolved to do a lot of things and that includes:

1. Lead generation. The CRM tools can help your business find and generate new leads from sources like website traffic, social media, calls and sign ups.
2. Performance tracking. The software will give each of your agents accounts where they can track their performance and sales numbers. With these you can know who is performing well and reaching their quotas.
3. Email marketing. The software can automatically build email lists for you. It can also launch email marketing like sending reminders and newsletters to people who have sign up for it.
4. Prospect nurturing. Other than generating leads, the software can also nurture your leads to convert them into buying customers. It will work by following up on those prospects and help you close the sales.

The things mentioned above are just some of the things your software can do. There are many more it can do like order tracking, sales forecasting, sales invoicing and even competitor tracking.

What Type of Security Is in Place?

This is an important question and should not be forgotten when choosing the best CRM software. You will be uploading sensitive information in the server of your software, so security must be tight. Some concerns about security of the software include:

1. How will the software be hosted? Ask your vendor this, will it be onsite or will it be cloud based. Different hosting means different types of security.
2. What is the security policy in place? Review the policy before signing up, it should mention all problems that might occur and how will they be solved in case they come up.
3. How is the customer privacy? What are the policies that involve privacy of the interaction of the customer support and your clients? What will the company do in case of data leaks? This is a real possibility especially when working with cloud based hosting. You should ask the company how they will handle this problem and how to prevent it from happening.

Are There Limitations?

Every software has its limitations, so ask the vendor the limitations are on this CRM database software. Other than the limitations, what are the key features that you should look for when choosing the best software. Here are some of the features you should look for:

1. Application Programming Interface or API. This is a feature that will allow your software to be able to link with different systems. This will help with integrating the software with other applications to make the software better.
2. Multiple Contacts. This is an important feature because it will help you organize your contacts and find them anyway you need to. This will let you search for clients based on name, company and other demographics that you can think of.
3. This is very important because this will show you and everyone else who uses the software what the ongoing projects are, the finished tasks, the events to be attended and what tasks are still needed to be done.
4. To make work easier for everyone, the software you should get should be able to delegate tasks to employees with the use of the software.
5. Access and Entry. One last feature for your software is the ability to enter information to the anywhere in the system.

Sometimes, the companies will advertise that they have these features but actually they don’t. Or they do, but they don’t work effectively. Reading CRM software reviews will help you see which companies are being honest about their product.

Is It Easy to Use?

You will be using the software for a long time, depending on the contract you will sign. So it is very important that the customer relationship management software you will choose is easy to use. The ease of use will help you and your employees learn the software quicker. Another thing to consider is how comfortable are you with the software. You will be teaching your employees how to use the software, so you should be able to use it efficiently. Other companies that offer the software will also offer to do an education on how to use it properly. This is a good thing, and will remove one less worry from your mind. Read the reviews of CRM software available anywhere on the internet to know which companies will offer free training.

How Is the Customer Support?

It is very ironic if the vendors of customer relationship management tools will have poor customer support. That would be indicative of how their product will fare when used. Customer support is important because if you experience problems they will be the one to help you, since they are the ones who know their products best. This might not be in the service agreement you will sign, so you should ask the vendor themselves this. How is the customer support for your product? Will you be able to reach them anytime of the day and night? Are they available and capable to answer all questions and queries that you might have. This are just some basic questions that should have a strong bearing when you choose the CRM software you will get.

Other than the benefits mentioned above, read other articles that focus solely on benefits of CRM software. You will see that it has helped small businesses prosper tremendously. But it isn’t easy choosing the best CRM software. So take into consideration the questions mentioned above and ask them all to your vendors so you can make the right decision when choosing the perfect software for you.

Have the questions above helped you choose the right software? If not, read CRM software reviews at CrowdReviews.com and you might find your answers there.

• About
• Latest Posts

Jeev Trika

Jeev is an executive leader with successful experience building research portals which recommend the best products and services in various highly competitive verticals.

Latest posts by Jeev Trika (see all)

• 5 Reasons to Use Compliance Software for Business Management - November 25, 2016
• How to Find Reliable Reviews of Video Conferencing Software - November 24, 2016
• Why You Must Read Best Business Intelligence Software Reviews - November 23, 2016