Time For An Online CRM Approach?

The decision to take your CRM online or to continue to manage it in-house can be approached from a purely logical standpoint.

In the end, whether you choose to use a service for online CRM is completely your decision as a small business owner. But make sure you look at all the aspects of the decision with a discerning eye.

Marketing In-House

In-house customer relationship management in marketing requires a full-time marketing person to seek out and acquire new customers.

That person or department would need to simultaneously manage a multitude of social media sites, oversee a direct mail marketing campaign, track response rates and concoct a report mechanism so that you and your oversight board can try to determine if your marketing dollars are being spent in the right areas. 

Marketing via Online CRM

Marketing via an online CRM approach can be much simpler.

You could literally give orders to the third-party company to manage your marketing concerns within your budget constraints and it would all get done behind the scenes.

Social media posts, SMS messaging, online ads on relevant sites - all done in the blink of an eye. The best part is you would receive real-time reports via your dashboard as to how your marketing efforts are paying off.

Sales Team Management In-House

Managing your sales team in-house is a full-time job in itself.

Sending leads, managing training and just tracking sales is complicated and requires a whole host of tools.

If you're relying on Excel spreadsheets to track sales, you're missing out on a lot of useful data that can make the difference between profit and loss.

Sales Service via Online CRM

The small investment required in online CRM is negligible compared to the amount of work that you won't have to do.

Imagine tracking sales performance automatically, having each sales team member log in daily to their own online portal from wherever they are, and giving them access to automatic access to local leads generated from the marketing "department."

Having an online CRM for your small business website is like having the tools of a conglomerate.

In-House Customer Service

As a small business owner, you need to take care of the customers you have.

It's been shown that it costs six times more to get a new customer than it does to retain a current one. Managing customer service in-house is another full-time job.

You must answer emails, phone calls, field complaints and every once in a while issue refunds. And you'd better be keeping track of it all. Otherwise you won't know what customers like and dislike about your product or service.

Online CRM Customer Service

With online CRM customer service, you'll be able to give your customers 24/7 live support, all with the advantage of having access to data with details about the reason for the call, how it was resolved and the final result. That's powerful.

As the following article looks at, the question of should your small business use an online CRM is easy to answer.

One of the best kept secrets of online CRM is this.

When you pay for an online CRM service, it's a tax deductible business expense. When you try to do it all in-house with a paid staff, that payroll is a liability. Can you afford that?