Customer database of any business is constantly changing. A business owner should not only record customers’ contact information, but also remember the details of every interaction. It helps to identify prospects and conduct new marketing campaigns. The right CRM software efficiently increases workflow productivity and sales. Besides, it helps save time and simplifies business process management.
What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management is a complicated system of measures taken to coordinate and gear business processes. It’s operated with the help of special tools.
Customer database software is a powerful and simple in management system for maintaining small businesses’ workflow (and not only small ones). It effectively helps grow businesses, serves for marketing, sales, and service automation. Using such a customer profile database you can control and manage complete customer lifecycle on a single CRM platform.
The software of the kind can be described as “a contact list with a brain”. It can be integrated with already installed corporate programs, social media websites and popular productivity tools such as Google Calendar, MS Outlook and others. There are convenient mobile apps for smart phones and tablets, which make it easier to operate the system.
Where can you find these CRMs? Here’s the list of the best software for you. We’ve arranged the solutions for management of workflow according to the customers’ reviews and votes. Check it to find the best solution for you.
- BPM’online CRM is a multichannel marketing software. It’s suitable for small businesses and large corporations. Providing an easy customization, the software is multichannel and manages the complete sales cycle. A single business management platform allows for changing processes and can adjust to the new business environment. This robust platform unites marketing, sales and service into one complementary system. Bpm’online is a customer database (software) + online management, which has been operating for more than 13 years and proved its effectiveness and productivity.
- Insightly. This software is a good option for a very small business. It’s affordable and simple in management feature-rich CRM. It comes with all the time-saving CRM capabilities, for example, contact and project management, detailed sales reports and so on. With the growth of the business it can be scaled. Insightly is simple and has an intuitive dashboard. Using the top toolbar, it’s possible to find items very quickly by typing just first letters into the search bar.
- Salesforce. It’s a credible customer database (software) +cloud CRM software for all types of business. Salesforce is “all-in-one software”, which includes management, sales forecasting, workflow automation and more. You can have access to your data at any time from all devices. The dashboard can be customized to show many types of data. The software is easy to navigate. All the data is displayed in a simple list with links to the contacts. A special praise deserves the software social media function.
- Zoho CRM. The web-based software is a scalable enterprise-ready package. It’s easily adapted to meet the market. Zoho unites the functions of lead and contact management, sales pipeline management and purchase control. Easy-to-use interface gives access to 10 different components. The dashboard can be customized to be more business-specific and suitable for building a customer database in certain conditions. The software has core functionalities for a small business. Besides, it includes project management apps, email marketing campaigns, accounting software and more.
- Apptivo CRM. Convenient web-based suite of over 50 modules adjustable to most businesses. It tracks the complete sales process and automatically updates tasks, contacts, and opportunities while the details are fresh. It gives unlimited access to business contacts, customers database, tasks, activities in real time with all your data. It integrates with other applications and Google. Besides, Apptive CRM allows to isolate business activities from personal ones in your own device.
Customer database management
There are two basic types of it. The first is free but limited (also called freemium). The second is open source (fully functional and extremely customizable). A lot of source CRM companies also offer a preconfigured version and/or installation and support for a price.
Main functions:
- customer database management;
- coordinating actions in sales, marketing and service;
- combining customer data and business process management tools;
- simplifying document processing;
- automating business management processes;
- viewing detailed customers’ buying behavior;
- accurate forecasting of sales plans;
- supervising business events and activities.
The software gives you control of business processes, enables you to assign roles, control access and impose restrictions.
Advantages of customer database software:
- has cloud and on-premise infrastructure;
- doesn’t require server upgrades or security fixes;
- views detailed customers’ buying behavior;
- multi-user software;
- automation of tasks;
- staff collaboration through social media function;
- measuring business’s and employees’ performance;
- integration with other software products.
You can try any software for free to estimate its opportunities. Having tested different software packages, you can choose the most convenient for your workflow. The choice always depends on your business needs and requirements.