CRM Trend in India

The CRM technologies and systems have by far evolved a lot and walked a long journey upwards since it was first initiated in the 90's. The evolution of this technology is not over yet and will see a lot of new CRM trends in the future too.

Indians have realized the importance of better customer service and this has resulted in better business processes inculcated with customer strategies.

Customers are already treated as kings by almost all businesses, and they have a big hand in determining the sales of the company. With the help of the CRM trends and management this scene is only expected to get much better and provide the customers with even more power than what they have actually ever expected.

The rapid expansion and growth of countries like China and India as options for setting up manufacturing and service bases indicate the number of people that will be added to the list of affluent customers in these countries and which will indirectly lead to the implementation of CRM trends to meet the growing demands.

One of the most important CRM trends is the exponential growth that we are going to see in the years to come by. According to studies, the CRM industry is going to experience a 5 to 10 percent growth rate every year. It is therefore possible that there are going to be more CRM solutions that will be designed for small business in the next few years.

Read more about Why to use CRM?

CRM on Mobile

As we know, the mobile phone usage in India in increasing very fast. CRM companies are improving their possibilities to reach many business enterprises with new features and CRM on Mobile is just one of the kind. A mobile based CRM solution gives you flexibility to access the software using your cell phone. You can have remote access to all your data stored in your CRM software. This is basically a technological advancement that will improve your customer relations. This can help business to organize and automate business process which includes sales related activities, customer service or technical support using a wireless device.

There is a tremendous change in the present market where people access their wireless devices. With everyone going on mobile, its a good time as CRM companies are introducing mobile CRM. Business people are looking for CRM which can allow quick access from anywhere. The opportunity to use softwares when roaming is just awesome. You dont have to depend on your office or PC to use it anymore. No delays in getting your information whenever you want. As sales team spend most of the time on field, using CRM on mobile will be the essential tool for the business.

All I can see is Cloud!

Whats with cloud computing these days?

Most of the applications, social networking sites and softwares are working on this new cloud computing technology. Lets see what is it all about.

Cloud computing is nothing but doing things online. It is a virtual environment where people collaborate, share and work using a web interface. So there is something called remote server and applications or websites run over browsers but the actual data is stored in the remote server. Instead of having a storage unit in our computer systems or over a LAN based server, it is all all stored in the remote server. Well, in that case having all data in some place which we are not aware of is it considered safe? There can be unauthorized access over those data isn't it? Oh now, lets take some of the good examples which works this way.

Starting from Google and its various products. We have complete data storage facility over Gmail, we upload photos on Picasa and then there are these social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook etc. These applications work on cloud based technique and they do provide secure connection and authorized access to our accounts. So there are free services like this and there are subscription based applications as well.

Cloud computing is not limited to individual user. It can be used by small and medium organizations or even larger companies. This technology is rapidly growing in both personal usage and for commercial entities. Its flexibility and the usage over internet is making it a huge success.

Many business owners consider cloud computing as cost effective especially SME's look forward to increase efficiency in their working operation. 

But ultimately one has to ensure that there is data protection over these. Customers would need to choose a reputable data service provider. It is always good to collect as much information possible about the hosting service provider and make sure that there is sufficient back-ups taken timely. Data security is the primary area of concern when there is cloud computing technology involved. All the information stored is absolutely critical and sensitive. 

You can also go for private clouds instead of public clouds. Public clouds are the ones where other companies data is also stored in the same place as yours. It is called shared hosting. Though they provide secured data hosting, you can invest more money and get a private or a dedicated hosting and get a data space allocated only for you. Cost is not the only thing that have to consider when you are choosing a cloud based application.

For SME's cloud computing is an enormous opportunity. They can concentrate on the business rather than working on to build their IT requirements and administration works. I had this conversation with my friend once who asked me how much can I save with cloud concept? I was not sure about the exact amount that can be saved as it depends on the type of business one is into and what kind of application one chooses. But I can say that cloud services are really tremendous cost savings and it does help in time management. You can practically do anything on cloud.

Why use CRM software?

In today's competitive business landscape, small and medium-sized businesses need the most efficient and effective way to market to, sell to, and service clients. CRM, or customer relationship management, consists of the business processes and software that enable collaboration, performance improvement, and better business visibility across all customer touch points. If customer relationships are an important asset to your business, then effective CRM strategies and software are the keys to achieve the goal.

Analyst studies show that on average, companies using CRM software grow their businesses at a rate 2-3 times faster than those that do not. That's because CRM enables businesses to:

* Win more deals by collaborating throughout the sales cycle
* Centralize customer information for all employees to better service customers
* Build profitable relationships with customers through more effective target marketing
* Increase customer loyalty and drive repeat business
* Automate customer-facing business processes and streamline repetitive tasks
* Gain visibility into staff and business performance to make timely decisions

Whether CRM is really required for Small Business?

You may often keep thinking whether you really need a CRM software when you are running a small business. I can help you in answering this.

Small Business is where the Sales, Marketing and Customer Service requires more importance. You cannot afford loosing a business here. So you would need to concentrate more and put the right strategy to get more customers as well as maintain the existing ones. This would definitely need a system where everything can be maintained and tracked rather than manually doing it.

Lets see what is the typical exercise that you do in your business:
Collect and analyse the customer details
Tracking of each customers information or the communication history.
Preparation of reports on week end or month end.
Manage advertisements, email campaign etc
Monitor the executives working on each customer
Group the customers into different categories based on their interest

Quite a lot of work which needs to be operated carefully if not you will end up in a messed up situation at the end of month or you may loose a good deal concentrating on some other one.

This is where CRM can help you. In business, how you do it is what matters than what you do.

CTrac CRM - For Sales

Yes, as mentioned before CTrac CRM can help in improving the sales of any business. Let me explain in detail.

We know quite well that every business depends on sale. They want to sell more and more. The primary goal of CRM is to help sales. CRM works as a mediator in identifying, responding and close the sales opportunities.

With CRM you can easily know when to act and whom to act on. The information that you enter in CRM enables you to make out how many customers are less-active or pro-active so that you can reach out to the right customer and respond to their queries.

CRM is the place where you can capture all the information about your potential customer, positive leads or idle customers. You can link your CRM to your website so as to capture a lead directly to your CRM account that too categorized as wanted and you can then allocate the lead to specific sales executive. Now, that sounds like time-saving option. You can add the key tasks or services for your leads as Activities. Followed by schedules for those activities. All these details are saved and you can access this history at any point of time. Not only this, but you can add all those communication details that you had with your client. With this, you need not worry about memorizing any detail or saving all these in some place. Everything is easily accessible at any point of time. If your manager wants to check the details, he can do it right from his desk. Well, how easy and comfortable this sounds?

Talking about business improvement, CRM gives an easy tool to monitor the sales activitiy. You can monitor on a particular lead or a sales executive to know what is he working on, how many sales has happened by him in a month etc. This gives you the authority of checking and monitoring on the work rather asking the executive or checking his daily, weekly emails.
Sales representative need not worry about client detail management or memorizing each and every detail, instead he can concentrate on sales.

Don't loose your deals, instead get a chance to win it using CRM! 

CRM Reports

Today's CRM softwares offer wide range of features that enhances the business need. One of the feature that CRM provides to improve the customer and prospect interaction is Reporting. We can call it as a key component in our business strategy which allows companies to understand the customer data and improve much better.

Reports are important for any business. You need to see how your business is performing and where you would need to make the changes. Reporting and Analysis provides the company a clear visibility of customer related activities within the company's limit. So business can focus in depth the customer need and their behavior based on which you can identify the opportunity. So this  can help you monitor and fine-tune your organization.

If you are looking for a software to help your sales department then make sure you look for one which has reporting features as well. Having standard reports in the software will make it easy for you. Also, graphical reports can be more helpful to understand the result easily. New concepts of Custom Reports are too available in the market which can be  very useful in generating reports based on your requirement. You can get reports instantly based on your conditions and filters. There can be more reporting features too. So look out for more possible report options when you are planning to go with a CRM.

CRM as Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to the provision of doing things on cloud i.e. internet. Sometime before we had the model of having softwares and all the data in a computer. Now, we have this technology called Cloud computing where you have all the softwares, data and information over the internet. Users can store and access their files on a remote server instead of carrying a storage device. We have some good examples like Gmail and Yahoo where we have our emails and other files stored there.

Usually cloud computing applications are delivered on Software As A Service (SAAS) model where there is no requirement of installation & no issues of maintenance thus allowing you to easily manage your applications over the cloud. 

Talking about Cloud based CRM applications, it allows business owners to have information on the tip. With the functions like Lead Generation, Sales Monitoring and Reporting, Managing customers and details the CRM acts as full need to the business.

The CRM industry is growing fast and is expanding its wings because many companies realize the importance of having such a product which can act wonders to the business sales and customer relationship. Improved customer service and productivity can bring in more revenue to the business is what the idea is all about.

Companies operating from various location and branches cannot reply on system based applications. Cloud Computing CRM is the best which can be used here. And ofcourse who would not think of to move on with the new technology?

Want to run your business faster, better and bigger? Cloud Computing CRM is the go!

Advantages of Web based CRM

Lets have a look over the advantages and benefits that you find or get from the web based CRM products:

Firstly, the fast and easy setup. That means if you choose for a web based CRM, the software is ready in place and you just have to customize it accordingly and start using it. No installation or hardware issues. 

All the information and details stored in your CRM is available online and you can access this information from anywhere in the world and need not be present in your office. 

No IT team required to maintain the data nor any issues in taking backup of the database. 

No worries on expanding your hard disk or setting up a dedicated server for the CRM.

Tremondously cost saving in terms of installation, maintenance and management.

Greater scope for field staff in having access to the CRM software to provide quick action on business leads.

So take the best out of the available web based options.

Small Business CRM solutions

Are you planning to buy a CRM?

Well then, you might be in a confusing state as to what to choose from the available hundreds of CRM. You might be worried to pick the most suitable one for your business.

Let me try to give you some ideas as how you can start.

1. Analyze why would you need a CRM first?

2. What type of CRM may be the best one suiting your business?

3. Figure out the best CRM which has the best value for money.

4. Think on the affordable CRM solutions. 

Do remember that CRM is no longer an option to build your business, it is a necessity for your business strategy. It has become as important as the mobile phone that you carry along with you.

So if you are looking out for a better CRM, do think on the above grounds.

What is CRM?

Customer Relationship Management usually referred as CRM is a technological solution for large companies and also different organizations to manage all the details regarding their customers, handle sales and service and improve the performance of work internally. This application helps the company to identify and categorize customers and manage relationships with them. This enables marketing and sales of products or services in an ideal way. CRM consists of the business processes and software that enable collaboration, performance improvement, and better business visibility across all customer touch points. If customer relationships are an important asset to your business, then effective CRM strategies and software are key.

Customer Relationships are the heart of business success and CRM helps as a strategy to know more about customers needs and behaviours in order to build a stronger relationship with them. CRM applications can be accessed online with only a web browser and an internet connection. In fact there was once a time, when CRM applications were treated as something which is only afforded by large companies who are into huge sales and business. That used to be like such because good CRM could cost very high. Setting up such CRM applications was difficult and it required lot of training in order for people to use it. That is no longer the case. Now CRM softwares are easily available in the market which is not only inexpensive but also effective applications which can serve industries from small, medium to big. Companies can step ahead in competiting with the right CRM software in their hand.