Ten Things to Consider Before Choosing a CRM System

There are always plenty of things to consider before purchasing a new system for your business and CRM solutions are not an exception.

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is used to refer to a system whereby a company's interactions with current and prospective customers are closely managed. It typically involves using technology to organize, synchronize and automate such disciplines as sales and marketing, tech support and customer service. Often CRM systems will be active and monitoring many different networks for marketing campaigns. Also, they can closely and accurately track customer habits and persuasions through customer clicks and traffic.

Physical places where customer relationship management is often and most heavily used include but are not limited to, banks, call centers, social media, operation centers and customer data query centers.

Ten things to consider

Well now that you have a basic understanding of what a CRM actually is, you can now consider some very important things before purchasing a customer relationship management system of your own:

1. Make sure you and your team of employees understand how to use it. Your CRM system will be of little use if you don’t know how to use it.
2. Understand what features you need and never buy fluff. This may sound like the most obvious point in the world, but often people don't always read carefully every feature included in a package deal.
3. Consider carefully how the CRM system will improve efficiency, or if it even will do that at all.
4. Make sure that you acquire mobile tools. These days, very few people are working in one set location at their job the entire time, even if in an office job. The more mobile friendly, the better the system will be.
5. Know your hardware requirements before you buy.
6. Make sure the CRM system doesn't operate in a vacuum - businesses certainly don't.
7. Try the system before you buy it to confirm it meets your company’s individual needs.
8. Make sure you can see and understand the results as shown. Your CRM will be of absolutely no use to your organization, if you use the system itself, but don’t understand the information it provides.
9. Motivate your team to get excited about the new software. Not only will they be more inclined to use it, but also they will be doing it more effectively. So try to generate some hype before introducing it to your team.
10. Will it grow with your company? Look at the future and make sure that the technology you are using isn’t verging on the rim of extinction. Your new CRM system be able to support your growth plans.

WebSan Solutions Inc. is a Microsoft Dynamics Certified Partner and IT consulting and solutions provider. With over a decade of experience in Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM solutions, our team of experts will help you make the right decision about your new CRM system and transform your business.