Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an application software aimed at creating a better relationship for firms with their customers through automating processes, defining staff roles and planning processes. CRM helps firms to anticipate the needs of their current and potential customers. CRM consists of mainly two versions - onsite/in-house CRM and online/hosted/web based CRM. Online CRM is considered a milestone in marketing fields as it helps to maximize a ‘small’ firm’s revenue, customer satisfaction, as well as retention and profitability. It is as advanced as onsite CRM but is cheaper and easier to implement, and is the best choice for small and medium businesses.
Online small business CRM centralizes customer data and performs various tasks like marketing, customer service and managing sales so that the need for trained professionals can be avoided. The platform of online small business CRM solutions is the World Wide Web and the software installation is done on a single server (managed by the vendor). Online small business CRM can easily be accessed from anywhere in the world as the only thing you require for accessing CRM software as a database is an internet connection. Thus online CRM is accessible if you're mobile; is available on a variety of devices – computers, PDAs, smart phones, palmtops, laptops, and so on.
With online CRM, a small business owner can enjoy reliability, flexibility and affordability. A typical online CRM system is offered as Software-as-a-Service; comes with a central database, an online contact manager, marketing database and a project tracking tool. It works on the systematic understanding of the needs of customers and benefits they expect. A number of solutions are available for improving customer experience such as frequently ordered items, one-click ordering, market blast analysis, client profiles and automatic replenishment items, real-time reports and analysis, lead management tools, sales force automation, and so on.
Complete security of the data is provided by storing it in a secure location and the tedious work of data upgradation is carried out by the service provider. There is no maintenance fee involved. All the software upgrades are free and done dynamically. The only fee involved is the monthly usage fee, which is calculated on a per user basis.
Online small business CRM is cost effective and wide selections of modules are available for your selection. There are open-source systems also available, which can be customized to fulfill any business requirement. Online CRM system can also be customized according to the firm’s individual requirements.
Praveen Ortec is the Marketing Executive of eSalesTrack (
http://www.esalestrack.com) on-demand Customer Relationship Management software. eSalesTrack is a web based CRM software application that is ideal for small business CRM needs.