The prosperity of any business mainly depends on its customers. How satisfied your customers are with the service mirrors how good your business is operating. However, achieving the same requires a great deal of effort. The communication between you and your customers is what paves the way for the growth of your business. There are many important things such as customer service, finance, etc. are to be kept in mind to enhance the customer’s experience with the company. However, performing all these tasks separately can be extremely difficult. Thus, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has become a necessary tool for businesses of all types these days. CRM is a tool used to consolidate the customer database, identify customer patterns, automate processes, and track sales interchange.
Here are 8 benefits to cloud-based CRM
The Freedom to Work from Anywhere
One of the most attractive features of cloud-based CRM software is the freedom cloud services give the employees to do their jobs remotely. Unlike an on-premise solution, in which cloud availability is finite to an onsite server, utilizing cloud-based CRM, is never unapproachable. The only requirement is an internet connection per user.
The Space for Scalability
As a small business, you hope you are permitted to grow. That almost goes without saying. What becomes troublesome is when your software or tools do not grow with you. As you add on new employees or provide new services to your customers, you want your CRM software to assist you.
Good Reliability
Before you put any money into a new product or service, you want to be certain it is a reliable one. How dependably will it work? Will there be times in which you cannot avail of the software? We are not necessarily discussing on-premise software, either, where you are limited to being in the office if you want to utilize the CRM process.
Rather, the discussion is about those unavoidable incidents and problems that will pile on. What happens if the power goes out? What do you do if something connected to the software fails? Even if you can still work, doing so without the CRM system can be a block. Not only would you deal with a serious block in productivity, but some of your customer data comprising of contact information could be missing for good.
Countless Integrations
You buy a shiny new piece of software and eagerly install it. Then, to your surprise, you discover in the coming days that said a shiny piece of software does integrate with all the other software, tools, and programs you use regularly. Well, that is unlucky, but it is more than that. Each time you have to log into your CRM programs each day, you waste useful time. Maybe it is just a few minutes each day, but those minutes do add up. Not only do you lose time every day then, but your money, too. The more software accounts you have to keep open per user/employee, the more cash replenished out of the bank account.
Affordability
From the installation to maintenance to hiring an IT team to have the system running at its best, on-premise software has a heavy price tag and is not for small businesses. That is not so with CRM on a cloud-based system. There is no worry about buying both software and hardware, only the software. You can do so on a subscription basis, pricing plans generally comprise paying by the month or even annually. If you add new user accounts, you would then pay for this per user as you utilize them.
Great Security
Before making the move to use a CRM cloud system for your small business, you might have some questions about security. After all, if anyone can move on your CRM platform and avail your data on a cloud-based system, then doesn’t that leave you wide open to threats? An on-premise CRM, for all its heavy costs and cons, at the very least avoids anyone from the outside of the physical office from entering the cloud.
Easy Installation
Anytime you begin using new software or hardware in the office, you have to position and install it. Before that happens, the decision on which software to choose has to have confirmation. You will likely meet with key stakeholders in your company, talk over what is good and bad about the software/hardware, research your options, and finally decide to sign up for a service and begin paying. This can take a long time, many times too long. If you do not want such a decision to carry on for months, then utilize CRM software in the cloud.
Upgrades do not much
Occasionally, in addition to adding your CRM with staff changes and hiring, you might think about the requirement for different CRM services as well. This would comprise upgrading your CRM system. If you had an on-premise system, then you will need the assistance of the IT team every time you want an upgrade.
How cloud-based CRM helps?
Cloud-based customer relationship management or CRM software keeps the crucial data in the cloud. It is updated frequently, and, even better, the employees and staff can avail cloud anywhere, anytime.
The server is not present in the office, so if the employees travel or work from home, they can still log on to the CRM system. They can also do so from their smartphones, tablets, laptops, home computers, from about anywhere. This means of utilizing CRM provides many advantages for sales force automation that results in impeccable customer service, customer support, and customer relationships. There are opportunities for less wasted time, more revenue, and scalability. Installing and upgrading the system takes less time. If by now you are not using a cloud-based CRM to boost up the sales processes, then what are you holding on for? The bottom line is that whether you are a small business or a mid-sized company, it is time to make the move. For more details about CRM features, visit BizOrbis.
Also read: Why your Organization needs a Mobile CRM Strategy?