Posts Tagged ‘Web Based CRM Software’
Sales Force Benefits Web Based CRM Software
Friday, January 8th, 2010Benefits from Web Based CRM Software
Using the phone and pen and paper is costly and time consuming, making it administratively intensive, often inaccurate, and rarely up-to-date. It is also very slow to inform sales reps about new target customers or share information on customers-in-process using the phone and paper lists.
Change all of that with web based CRM software. Maximize the productivity of the sales force by:
- tracking sales activities
- handling territory management
- creating accountability for the sales reps in the field
It’s an advantage to have all the information in one place. It gives the mobile sales force and management back in the office the ability to look up records, receive leads, edit and manage records, set and track appointments, and report results immediately.
Web based CRM software available on the sales reps’ smartphones results in:
- More effective sales teams
- Better analytical information
- Less paper
- Reduced administration
- Enhanced growth strategy
Data can be used to coach sales reps, watch daily activity, and spot trends quickly. This eliminates the use of raw sales numbers at the end of sales period to determine whether goals are met. Instead, the sales reps are kept sharp in a competitive environment.
Five More Essential Ingredients of Web-Based CRM Software
Friday, October 30th, 2009Cynergy software improves communications between Help Desk customer service reps and customers or employees with the Cynergy Web Based CRM ticketing system.
Cynergy Web Based CRM ticketing software can also be easily customized with multiple user defined fields, colors, labels and multiple addresses or phone numbers. If you need to be able to view only “your” help desk tickets, or if you want to be able to view everyone’s outstanding issues, Cynergy gives you Special Permissions that allow this.
Cynergy’s help desk and CRM suite of solutions can be modified to allow strategic permissions and security among your internal employees and external customers. We also allow three methods for submitting tickets and our new Project Management module allows conversing and benchmarking throughout the launching and completion of a project.
6. TIME KEEPING is as important to your bottom line as productivity levels are. Being able to justify time spent on a project or client’s site is paramount during these economic times. Cynergy keeps track of time on tickets, projects, and events.
7. DATA is what runs today’s world. That’s why we use MS SQL. We ship with SQL Express (good for 250,000 tickets) and upgrading is straight forward. Backups are easy and stable.
8. INTEGRATION into other systems and software platforms is accomplished with relative ease. We have build a Web Service that allows platforms such as PeopleSoft to update Cynergy on the fly based on changes that take place in the primary system.
9. KNOWLEDGE LIBRARY systems are becoming commonplace among most large or growing organizations. Our Cynergy CRM Knowledge Center Software can contain unlimited information easily searched on. Or you can link tickets to knowledge for content management and training.
10. ASSET MANAGEMENT is essential to any business or organization that has over 5 employees or customers. Cynergy allows unlimited User Defined Fields for keeping track of Assets.
This concludes ten pieces that any great Web Based CRM system should have. Cynergy Help Desk Software has much more than we listed above. Try out a FREE DEMO Today or Call 405 516 2420 and talk to one of our experienced Help Desk Professionals.
Five Essential Ingredients of Web-Based CRM Software
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
“Cynergy had more features available than any other Support Software that
I could find. We were able to mold the Software around our business.“ J. Trimble, Trimble Industries
1. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Cynergy Web Based Software offers a 3 tier structure. Company/Site/Contact that allows you to see the hierarchical relationships that exist in every organization. All communications have a user footprint and history that allows you to see detailed information.
2. WEB/Email: Should take full advantage of the Web and email in one CRM application. Email ticketing, response, and communication is becoming the norm, not the exception. Your ticketing system should center around this activity.
3. VISIBILITY into all interactions, be it external customers, internal employees, even vendors information should be viewed by your team. Cynergy also has a project manager to facilitate new projects and events and allow the team a horizontal as well as vertical view.
4. RELATIONSHIPS with independent contractors are important to many of our clients. We offer special permissions that allow sub-contractors the ability to view as well as modify tickets for “their” specific clients without the requirement of a named license. (saves you money, improves communication)
5. REPORTING is critical in today’s business environment. Having the right information on a timely basis is essential towards the decision making process that you need in your organization. Our 300+ reports can be automatically run and emailed on desired dates.
Cynergy Web Based Software Help Desk Solution can be purchased three ways:
- As a self-hosted solution on your server (you buy it, you host it)
- As a Cynergy-hosted solution on one of our secure servers (you buy it, we host it)
- As a “pay-as-you-go” monthly subscription solution on a secure server (pay monthly)
Purchase the moderately priced modules separately, as you need them, or not at all. End users have unlimited licensing.
Keep Your Customers and Keep Them Happy
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009What do your Customer Service Reps spend their day doing? Have you ever walked around and watched them? Or asked them what they’ve been doing all day? Are they truly serving your customers and keeping them happy or are they really putting out customer fires and keeping the management of the company happy?
It could be that they are busy filling out forms, creating reports, and doing other mundane but necessary tasks. If that is the case, you — and they — need a change!
What do you want them to be doing? It is more advantageous for your company and more fulfilling for your reps if they spend the majority of their time establishing contact with client prospects and building on existing relationships. Finding new customers and building positive long-term relationships with current customers provide keys to growing your business. If your customer service reps are not doing these things, business is not going to grow.
How can you enable that to happen? The most important thing you have to do to enable your reps to spend their time productively is to provide them with a web based CRM software. This allows them to access all the contact information they need from home or office . . . or even the client’s site or while traveling.
This also allows them to update all information or run reports using the information at any time. They can also track any issues a customer might have had and how they were resolved.
Web-Based CRM software will create all the necessary reports (whether they are about problems or people) at the click of a mouse. It will sort information from a multitude of people or tasks to allow you to see everything from work flow to each employee’s efficiency and time to complete various tasks.
With Cynergy Web-Based CRM Software you can easily boost your sales and shorten support cycles. You can turn leads into customers and customers into repeat customers. You will keep your customers. You will keep them happy. And you will find many new happy customers as well.
Age of Urgency
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Age of Urgency Merry-Go-Round needs Web Based CRM Software
Think about your life. You get up in the morning and dash around getting ready for work. You may be multitasking to make sure the kids get to school on time and everyone gets where they have to be with all the items they should have. With school starting again within days, you are dreading the rat race.
You get to work and your boss needs Report XYZ in an hour. And the thing he asked for yesterday, he reminds you, he needed yesterday, but you are still waiting on people to get back to you with data. Your own to-do list is growing . . . for everything you check off, you add two or three! And everyone seems to add things like “now” or “ASAP” to when they want items. Life feels like a merry-go-round that just keeps spinning faster and faster, threatening to whirl us all into space at a dizzying speed.
Then you get home and find two children who have to go shopping for supplies for projects and one who needs help with math. While you are picking up supplies, your spouse calls to say, “sorry, but I will be late tonight.” So you also drive through and pick up supper.
While you try to remember algebra, you have your laptop setting next to you in hopes of finishing one of the reports that was due today. That’s when your phone rings with a friendly reminder that you had promised to work as a volunteer for a weekend event and there is a volunteer training “tomorrow evening.”
Have you ever felt like there is so much urgency, so many things that have to be done right now, that you simply can’t enjoy life or your family and friends? This has been called the Age of Urgency. And our fast-paced lifestyle has been blamed for all kinds of stress-related accidents and chronic diseases as well as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and a variety of mental afflictions.
Yet, we all know that relationships are more important than accomplishments or material things. How can we apply that knowledge in our lives? More importantly, how can our business dealings reflect that?
The advent of computers and cell phones and constant connectedness seems to have made our lives rush by even faster. However, the purpose of all of this was supposed to be to give us a better quality of life. Can we learn to use these things to improve our lives, or better yet, to improve the lives of our customers, families, or friends?
The unequivocal answer is YES. With web based CRM software you can improve your life and the lives of others. The need to stay connected can be satisfied through targeted messages sent at opportune times and with needed information sent (or received) in a timely manner.
Whether you are involved in a small business, a large business, or a nonprofit organization, the use of web based CRM software will improve your relationships with your colleagues and your customers. It will keep you connected without driving one of you crazy. And it will give you information and feedback when you want it.
Don’t let the Age of Urgency send you flying off the merry-go-round. Harness the energy. Use the “need to know” to your advantage. Use web based CRM software to stay connected wherever you are and in the way that best helps both of you.
The Tangled Web
Monday, July 27th, 2009
I always thought that the tangle of cords and wires under and behind my desk was a mess. If I had to unplug one part of my computer (say my printer) to be repaired, I had to crawl under the desk and then reach up to the printer and find the cord and start following it to where it plugged in. In the process, it usually went under a cord and over a cord and through a loop in another cord and about that time, I lost it and had to start over.
I have tried to keep these cords organized. At one point my desk was in front of a large window at street level and I was always afraid that potential customers would see the mess of cords as they drove up and just leave. I’ve bought those things called “cord tamers” and I’ve saved paper towel rolls to put my cords through. I’ve put little things along the floor to guide the cords. But has that helped? The next time I had to unplug something, guess what!
Yep, there I go through the maze again. Worse yet, I have even unplugged the wrong thing. And I have unplugged something and then not been able to untangle its cord to get the gadget loose — even though technically it is loose!
Hopefully, your CRM is not this tangled. However, if you are using a premise based CRM software, it could be this tangled and you would not even know it! Maybe it has been a little slow recently. Maybe you could not access part of it. Do you suppose . . . now I’m not accusing you of tangling it. I’m just saying that wires can get crossed or too much can be going through one wire and suddenly, poof! your customer management is up in smoke.
Don’t let this happen to you! Web based CRM software will not leave you stranded. Web based CRM software will not leave you with a tangle of wires to be unwound. With web based CRM software, you will be able to communicate with your customers and potential customers any time you need or want to . . . and from wherever you happen to be. You will no longer be tied to your desk by all those cords. Cords are not the lifeline to your customers. The internet — wirelessly — is the lifeline to your customers!
Improved Business During a Tough Economy Part 3: Wise Investments Give Better ROI
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Mired in data with outdated processes and no CRM software
Managers know that their workers deal with multiple layers of data every time they look for information. It is estimated that so much time is spent by sales people looking for qualified leads that only a fifth of their time is spent actually selling. Businesses have such a wealth of information that most workers are mired down in the effort to find and make sense of it all. Meanwhile, the world is becoming more automated and the workers are falling farther behind.
Business strategies and processes may need an overhaul to identify the important information and streamline its access. Agility in using the information takes “real-time” solutions that work intuitively for the worker and seamlessly with other applications the company uses in the course of the workday.
If you were to have your company’s workers track how they spend their days, you might be surprised to realize that many spend up to 30% of each day simply looking for information they need – information that should be at their fingertips. This is almost one third of their time spent on non-productive activities. Just imagine what you could do to make your company more productive and quit wasting one third of your workers’ time and pay.
The best thing you could do for your company to give a good return on the time and money spent would be to start using the best Customer Relationship Management software for your company. In some cases, this would be premise-based software, but in many cases it is much more cost-efficient to use web based crm software which can easily be configured to fit your company’s needs.
By switching to a web base crm software, you can greatly increase the efficiency of your workers. And make their lives easier in the process. Your workers need to access information in a myriad of software packages and on an array of servers. Each package has its own formatting. Yet a person such as a help desk representative may need to access information about an order or create an order (as for cross-selling or up-selling) while talking with a customer about a problem. Another person may need to access financial data for a customer to understand their bill. Their manager must access information about the length of time each worker took to solve the customer’s problem. All of these can be accessed through a web based crm software.
Each of these workers would also like the interface he sees to be customized for him – with his e-mail, his to-do list for the day, and other pieces of information he needs ready to be accessed with a single click. To be useful, the information needs to be centralized, integrated and easily accessible. Workers need to spend less time looking and use their time effectively in responding with the right information within seconds.
Your company’s CRM solution needs to connect all your company’s date, people and processes. Web based crm fully supports workers in sales, marketing, services, and support roles. By using CRM software effectively, your company reduces its monthly costs which, in turn, increases its revenues.
When the economic times get tough, companies are often forced to realize that the very thing they have resisted may be their savior—their means of getting through the tough times and coming out ahead of the competition. For some companies, web based crm may seem like an unnecessary expense or too much technology for their business. However, workers throughout the company will be empowered to work faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. Customers will be impressed with the improved and more personal service. Prospects will be followed more easily from the point of first contact through the purchase decision and beyond. And the performance of all of your company and its actions can be tracked and analyzed to make sure that peak performance is being achieved each day.
Don’t get stuck in the processes and software you have always used when there are better ways to do things. Right now, during the economic downturn, is the best time in your company’s life to take a hard look at and question every process and every move to become more efficient and more effective in the next few months. Help your workers find their way through the layers of information. Pull them out of the mud by using the appropriate web based crm application. By doing so, your company will survive the tough times and come out a leader when the economy picks up again.
Improved Business During a Tough Economy Part 2: Track Your Future Customers
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Track your prospects with web based CRM software
If you desire to find an animal, you must look for it. Let’s say you want to find a deer. First you have to dress for a time period outdoors (usually in cold weather). Then you have to use your eyes to look for the deer. Not only do you look for the deer itself, but you look for signs of the deer such as its tracks. Once you find its tracks, you begin to follow them.
To find prospective customers, you have to do some preparation. Just like dressing appropriately for a period of time in the cold, you will have to plan ahead. Use referrals, testimonials, and case studies to get your message out to more potential customers. During an economic downturn is not the time to cut the advertising budget! In fact, it is the time to increase that particular budget and work especially hard to understand where potential customers will be. For example, if you are selling a product to farmers, you should realize that nearly all of them listen to the radio in their tractors and trucks. Use a testimonial in a radio advertisement. Or, if you are selling to women, you need to figure out what television shows the women will watch or what magazine they will still pick up when money is tight. If you sell to other businesses, take advantage of trade shows and trade magazines. Use the information your satisfied customers have given you as ammunition and show their faces or their companies as proof of what they’ve said about your company.
Marketing is not the deep, dark secret that many companies think it is. You do have to spend time and effort tracking down a deer by following its footprints. In prospecting for new customers, sophisticated analytics are useful in tracking responses to marketing campaigns. Some tracking tools even capture every “touch” with the prospective customer.
Track what you have done and track your inquiries (leads) using customer relationship management software. You will have a built-in method for know what works and what doesn’t. You will also be able to carry on conversations by e-mail and phone that leave a trail so that you know what is talked about and what interests they have.
Use the internet to attract new customers. Build a better web site. During an economic downturn you can use your extra time to evaluate what is working and what is not working with your web site. Have it professionally evaluated. Spend the time and money to improve it and get it search engine optimized so prospective customers can find you. Tie your web site to the analytics of your customer relationship software so that you know how effective it is.
Consider social media. Start a blog. Your blog can be about your products or services or it can be things of interest to you. Have two or three people in the company participate in writing blog entries two to four times a month to keep it fresh and interesting. Start a business page for Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Get and keep people interested in your company by using short sentences about your products or services. Set up your customer service software to connect with people through these channels.
Follow up each touch with a phone call or e-mail contact to assure that each prospect has all the answers necessary or can get an online or personal demonstration when necessary. Use your CRM software to route leads to the representative who is most qualified to help that prospect according to the availability or qualifications of the rep or the particular marketing effort that brought in the lead.
Lead-qualification scripts can be embedded into CRM systems and pop up when keywords are said or typed to help understand and sell to each prospect. Your sales process should be able to build a 360-degree view of the customer to whom you are selling. Using your web based crm, you should be able to match campaigns and messages to individual prospects or prospect-types. Become very focused. Customize your messages and offers to address specific issues within an industry or for a specific customer-type based on a specific customer.
Integration of sales software and service software through web based customer relationship software keeps the contacts with a prospect seamless as he moves through the process from prospect to customer to high-priority customer or customer-with-a-problem. Each person who deals with that person can see his entire history with the company or product line and understand exactly what his experience has been thus far.
Marketers, sales managers, and help desk managers should have current statistics and analytical tools at their fingertips. These should not bring up overwhelming amounts of data with no meaning, but should analyze the data and give meaning to it. They should be able to use web based crm software to know if an ad campaign is generating a good percentage of qualified leads and how many of those are being turned into customers through purchases they are making.
Is Web Based CRM More or Less Expensive Than Premise Based CRM?
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009Some people feel that web based CRM is priced like a utility – you pay for what you use. However, that is a myth.
Most companies must commit to a pre-determined contract that is independent of their actual use. Web based CRM does not have the hefty upfront costs of hardware meanienance, upgrades and support as well as license fees that on-premise CRM applications have. But web based CRM may include fees for extra features such as mobile or offline access, various types of industry-specific functionality, extra storage, or premium support.
Both types can offer a great array of customization. Both types offer flexibility.
Web based CRM may be less expensive than on-premise software over a two year period, but that may not hold up over five years since on-premise deployments can become less expensive as the capital assets depreciate. For companies with less than 500 employees, the real advantage of web based CRM kicks in about year 7 of the deployment. These organizations are able to delay upgrade cycles due to integration and customization.
There may be issues that affect the cost that are not usually considered. Downtime, data loss, and time to restore a backup in case of catastrophe are items to be asked and understood.
Web based CRM brings together all the information about a customer in one location or database. This is a great advantage when dealing with multinational customers whose information would be stored in databases in various countries using an on-premise CRM. The information sharing that can take place impacts the bottom line. This can even happen with national accounts that are serviced by regional offices.
Web based CRM may never fully replace on-premise CRM because different companies have different needs. Costs, complexity and control will keep two different models alive for the foreseeable future.
No Backup Needed: Web Based CRM Software
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Well,
Last night the inevitable happened…..hard drive crash. I have been using this laptop for about 3 months, and wa’ la’! Hard Drive decided to take a dive…. (Hitachi, on Lenovo T series) I have been using IBM notebooks for over 10 years, and I would have to admit, this is first time I have ever had an issue. The good news….All of our mission critical data was stored in Cynergy Web Based CRM Software. The bad news: All of my email is gone, favorites gone, files gone. However, only lost 3 months of data. And yeah I kept meaning to do the backup, (we have the software) (but who has the time?) Now, I have plenty, waiting on the new drive, and using a temporary big box while waiting. (Yesterday I downloaded 43,000 emails from the server, twice) I only share all of this with you because it’s good therapy, and most of us have experienced it, thus have something in common right off! (plus, the wife (who is not computer savvy) said, “aren’t you supposed to back up your stuff?” (I loved that one!)
With the rapid increase in the “digital lifestyle” we find more and more of our personal possessions on our computers such as Pictures, home movies, music, school work, financial information, and more. With this greater digitization of our life style comes the greater possibility of a catastrophic loss. Sometimes it may be the loss of just a few documents from school or work. But in the worst case it could be an entire hard drive containing gigabytes worth of pictures, movies, school work, and important financial information. We are all only one computer virus, hardware failure, or user error away from losing that important digital information. TA DA!!! Like me!
Using a web based CRM Software can certainly alleviate a lot of these headaches, but you still need to back up the content that is also important to you.
Although this may seem rather bleak, there is no reason to go back to keeping hard copies of all of our information. There are a multitude of tools available today to help you keep your data from being lost. The ITS Help Desk highly recommends a proactive approach to computing – scanning for and preventing viruses, spyware, adware, and malware; keeping your system up-to-date with the latest operation system patches; and keeping current backups of your data readily available and easily accessible.
The instructions below are intended to provide various methods available to you for backing up your personal data and other pertinent information.
Data Backup Options
Windows CD Writing Wizard – This option is built in to the Windows operating system. To back up your data using this option, your computer will need to have a CD-RW drive or “CD burner”. You will also need several blank CDs. (like a million)
Backup Utility for Windows – This option also comes built in to the Windows operating system. The utility creates a single backup file of all of your data, which you can store on your hard drive, a USB Key, an external hard drive, or burn to a CD or DVD. You can also use the same utility to restore your data from the backup file, should your data become corrupted or lost.
Knoppix Boot CD – Knoppix is a Linux boot CD created by Klaus Knopper. Don’t let the word “Linux” scare you off, however. Knoppix can be used on most Windows computers and is best suited for instances where your Windows operating system has been corrupted and you are unable to boot into your desktop workspace.
Back up Your iTunes Music Library – If you have a large collection of music that you use with an iPod, then you probably store your music in iTunes. Use these instructions to create a back up of your iTunes music library. After creating an initial backup, Apple also provides instructions for making incremental or periodic backups of your iTunes library.
Third Party Backup Software – There are several third party software programs available that help you back up the data on your computer. Visit PC Magazine’s web site to read reviews of third party backup software. Our favorite is by: logmein and from now on, I may just actually use it!!!