Still using hand-written notes and Excel? Try CRM on for size

As a small distributor, your customers are the heart and soul of your company. Maintaining positive relationships with patrons, following up on leads at the opportune moment and providing a personalized experience during phone calls and meetings are critical components of your business’s success. Keeping track of your customer data ultimately impacts your bottom line.

Back in the day, many organizations used tools such as a Rolodex to maintain a list of their customers and to make note of important facts and details. However, today’s technology offers much more compelling, convenient and efficient ways to complete these important tasks. With the right CRM strategy, small distributors have resources at their fingertips to enhance their interactions with customers and capitalize on exciting business opportunities.

Are you still relying on hand-written notes?
Many small distributors still write notes about customers by hand and use Excel spreadsheets to track customer information. While this might have been a satisfactory strategy in the past, these businesses need to consider how other organizations have embraced technology to improve their processes and operations. Those who stick with outdated methods risk falling behind their competitors.

Not only are hand-written notes easy to lose, they also make it difficult to share information efficiently with all stakeholders. Excel, too, has its drawbacks. It can be unnecessarily complicated, unwieldy and hard to work with in a collaborative manner. Additionally, the opportunities for reporting and automating processes are limited to the functionality included in the program. It simply wasn’t designed for robust CRM processes, so it’s no wonder that it falls short in this arena.

Introducing Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Instead of those flimsy notes and endless spreadsheets, imagine intuitive, user-friendly business programs that keep customer data organized, accessible and highly visible. Small distributors can transform and develop their customer relationship strategies with leading CRM software. Microsoft Dynamics CRM in particular provides companies with tools that are designed for CRM activities.

Rather than rudimentary data management and reporting capabilities, you should empower your staff with comprehensive, easy-to-use business capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports your business success with the following advantages:

• Serves as a central access point for all customer information – from first contact through purchases and post-sale
• Includes features for sales, marketing and service-based employees all through a sleek, intuitive dashboard
• Integrates with Microsoft Outlook to facilitate streamlined, flexible, fast workflows – which enables workers to see customer contacts and complete CRM activities right from their Outlook accounts
• Increases office collaboration by enabling team members to share information and maintain data integrity across the company
• Enables business intelligence and other reporting to drive consistent, measurable improvements in processes and results

Putting the right tools in place
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has clear benefits for small distributors, but it can be difficult to customize and configure all of the options in the most advantageous manner for your unique business needs. You need to think about how the new CRM software will integrate into your organization’s processes and fit with your other technologies. Planning for the best CRM and training employees are both critical steps toward getting the most value out of your CRM investment.

As a leading Microsoft CRM consultant, Beringer assists organizations with their implementation so they can be more competitive with their pricing, customer management and marketing techniques. Beringer’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services help distributors follow best practices and enjoy rapid time to value. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner, Beringer has the knowledge and experience necessary to guide customers toward success with their CRM initiatives.

If you’re ready to transition from those flimsy notes and tedious spreadsheets to a solution that can enhance your business operations, a polished, proven implementation strategy will put you on the fast track to success.