Did you know that a bespoke CRM system, like CRM Engine, can streamline your processes, increase productivity and ultimately supercharge your business?

It’s a fantastic central hub for storing your business data with powerful features. 

One of the principal ways you can use a CRM to boost productivity within your business is by making use of the workflow automation that it offers. 

Discover the Benefits of CRM Automation.

Automation can be incredibly powerful when introduced in a considered way.

How can you make sure this happens?

Read Our Top 10 Tips for Successful Workflow Automation:

1. Evaluate Processes Before Introducing Automation

When considering where you may bring in automation, take some time to evaluate the different processes within your business.

Can you develop them in any way?

Could they be more streamlined?

You can find out what’s working and what could be improved by asking your staff.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to work out which processes could be automated.

It can be particularly beneficial to automate tasks that are repetitive and require manual input, rather than those that need more complex thinking.  

2. Document Your Processes

An essential step to take when introducing automation into your business is to document your processes. 

This will allow you to see what’s happening within your business, who handles different tasks, and can also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your processes.

When you’ve got all the details documented, you’ll be able to see more clearly where automation could help you work more effectively. 

Documenting your processes is also great for ensuring staff are carrying out tasks accurately, consistently and efficiently. It can be particularly helpful for supporting new members of staff.  

3. Invest in a CRM system

Okay, so you’ve evaluated, developed and documented your processes. 

You’ve identified the tasks you’d like to automate.

Now what?

You’ll need to ensure you’ve got the necessary systems and software in place, so you can actually implement your new ways of working.

A bespoke CRM system, like CRM Engine, is your friend here.

It can be perfectly tailored to your requirements and facilitates workflow automation.

4. Keep Company Data Updated and Accurate

Having the right systems in place is what makes automation powerful and effective.

But what’s even more crucial is ensuring that you’ve got accurate data within them.

It’s therefore worth investing time into making sure all your company data is in order. 

And ensuring your staff know how to keep it this way, with clear guides and documentation on this.

5. Seek Guidance to Ensure Effective Introduction of Automation

If you’re not sure how best to introduce automation into your business, it’s always worth speaking to someone with knowledge, skills, and experience in this area. 

Consult the people with the know-how…in both process optimisation and the technology that can facilitate it. 

Automation can be super effective…but only if it’s done in a considered way.

Here at CRM Engine, we’ve supported many businesses as they introduce workflow automation. 

We do this by getting them set up with a bespoke CRM and providing guidance on how they can make full use of its features and workflow automation functionality.

6. Support Your Staff

When operational changes are made within businesses, it can sometimes leave staff feeling a little uneasy.

They may not realise why the changes are being made. 

They might wonder how the changes will affect their own roles. 

They could feel anxious about having to carry out work in ways that they are not familiar with. 

That’s why it’s crucial that staff feel supported along the way. 

Let them know why changes are happening, how they will benefit from them and what they will be required to do.

7. Consider the Return on Investment (ROI) of Automation

There could be many processes that you’d like to automate.

But it does all take time. 

That’s why it’s worth prioritising the tasks you’d like to automate first.

So, how do you do this?

Think about the benefits of automating a certain task… 

• How much time will be saved?  
• Will it result in happier customers?
• Could it boost sales?
• Will it make your staff more motivated?

And also, how long will it take to introduce the automation?

This will help you determine the return on investment (ROI).

With this information, you can prioritise the tasks to automate first.

8. Introduce Automation Gradually

It can be easy to take on too much (and too quickly) when you’re developing processes and introducing new shiny systems.

We would always advise that you introduce automation gradually, reviewing it along the way. 

You can then see what works, and what doesn’t. 

This will help you make informed decisions when changing processes, so that it can then increase productivity levels, boost efficiencies and grow your business.

9. Future Proof Your Business with Automation

When you introduce automation into your business, it’s easy to think about the immediate benefits that it will bring.

It’s also important to consider how automation may help you meet future goals, so you can take your business in the direction you want it to go in. 

Think about your aspirations for your business and you can then use automation as a long-term strategy for helping you achieve them.

This can help you determine which workflows may need to be developed in order to future proof and grow your business.

10. Consider Your Processes Before Introducing the Technology

When introducing systems like a CRM, you’ll have lots of features and functionality at your fingertips.

It’s always worth remembering though that technology is there to support what you’re trying to achieve – it’s not about just using it because it’s there.

First, consider what you want to do…then work out the technologies that may support you with your goals.

How Could Automation Boost Your Business?

Which processes could you automate to help you operate more effectively?

I know, it’s a big question. 

At CRM Engine, we offer businesses an independent review of their workflow environment. 

This allows us to advise them on how they could optimise their processes, strengthen customer relationships and increase productivity within your business.

This service is FREE and perfectly complements a free trial of CRM Engine.

Get in touch with CRM Engine to discover how workflow automation could take your business to the next level.

Author : Mary Mason. Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

A CRM system is a powerful tool for ensuring that company data is up-to-date, accurate, and organised all in one central place.

And when your data is all in order, this then allows you to use your CRM to streamline your business processes so you can operate more efficiently.

A method which you can use to supercharge your business, with the use of your CRM, is automation.

Automation is incredibly powerful – it can take businesses to a whole new level.

What is CRM Automation?

In a nutshell, it’s all about using your CRM database to automatically carry out repetitive and/or manual tasks.

Automation can be applied to a whole range of tasks, including sales, marketing and service activities, with transformative results.

What Are the Benefits of CRM Automation?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the main ways that automation through your CRM system can benefit your business…

Increases productivity within your business

When you take the time to understand your workflows, you’ll soon be able to spot those straightforward, repetitive tasks that you could automate. 

Yes, they may not take a lot of time on their own, but collectively…well, it all adds up.

Get your CRM on the case and you can get your processes nice and streamlined, boosting productivity within your business. 

CRM automation can also increase the quality of what you’re doing, reducing errors and increasing consistency, as you’re letting the machine do the work, rather than a human.

Examples of tasks you could automate include sending emails that based on certain triggers, tracking sales deals from start to finish, and assigning activities to designated members of staff.

Gives you more time to focus on strategic work

Whilst it’s crucial to identify the tasks you can automate, to save time, equally it’s important to determine the ones that require a human touch. 

One of the fantastic benefits of automation is that it frees you up to concentrate on this more strategic work that specifically requires input from your staff.

These activities are your more valuable, high-impact tasks – the ones that will help to develop individuals, teams and ultimately drive businesses forward.

Plus, when you give your staff more time for these activities, and the necessary headspace, this is when creativity can really flow – innovative, forward thinking here we come! 

A great way to do this is by getting out of the office for a strategic planning day – let your staff go wild in their thoughts and ideas… and discover the amazing initiatives that can surface as a result.

Effectively manage your sales leads

With all your data in one place, CRM automation can help to streamline and manage your lead management process – something which is crucial for business growth. After all, you’ll want to ensure you don’t lose any of your valuable prospects.

So, what do we actually mean by lead management?

Well, it’s all about how you efficiently move a lead (or prospect) along the sales journey. This involves capturing the lead, qualifying them, assigning them to a member of staff, nurturing them, with the hope that the end point will be converting them to a customer.

Automation will increase your efficiencies in managing your leads. For example, you may use it to first qualify a lead, before you then have a member of staff speaking with the qualified prospect.  

You can use it to handle enquiries, send out automated responses and generate quotes – ultimately, it will make the sales process quicker, more efficient and more effective.

Allows you to gain valuable business insights

When you want to gain useful business insights, you can end up spending a considerable amount of time gathering your data, analysing it, and generating reports to share with different audiences.

CRM software allows you to have all your company data organised and at your fingertips.

You can then introduce automated systems that will collect, organise and analyse large amounts of data, presenting results in easy-to-understand reports.

With the results, you’ll be able to better understand the customer journey, profitability, the effectiveness of your sales process, conversion rates etc. And ultimately, you’ll be able to take the necessary actions to ensure your business is heading in the right direction.

Helps you deliver great customer service

Of course, we can’t forget that automation can help with the delivery of outstanding customer service – a crucial activity for all businesses.

A CRM is, after all, a customer relationship management system.

The system can allow you to deal with customers more effectively, sending them personalised and tailored communications.

It can take them through the sales process…smoothly and effortlessly.

It will also allow you to be more responsive to their needs.

All this will keep your customers happy and loyal, resulting in increased retention rates.

Can you afford NOT to invest in CRM automation?

When you consider the benefits of CRM automation, it’s easy to see that investing the time into this could pay dividends. 

After all, the future growth of your business could be dependent on it.

And when you think about that, you’ve got to ask yourself the question, can you afford NOT to introduce automation where you can? 

If you’re not sure where to start with CRM automation, that’s fine…

At CRM Engine, we can review your workflow environment, so we can clearly see how your business manages its customer data.

This review can then allow us to offer you suggestions on how to optimise your workflow to strengthen relationships with your customer and help your business to work more efficiently.

This is FREE of charge and perfectly complements the free trial of CRM Engine.

We’ll get everything set up for you, in the most efficient way, so you can concentrate on your ‘day job’.

So, as they say, you’ve got nothing to lose, and absolutely everything to gain!

Contact us to discover how CRM Engine can transform your business.

Author : Mary Mason. Photo by Alesia Kazantceva on Unsplash

We’ve put together a number of articles to explain what a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is and how it can benefit your business – we hope you’ve found these helpful.

If you’ve not seen these yet, we’d recommend that you have a read of them:

What is a CRM?

How does a CRM Work?

What are the benefits of a CRM?

How to choose the best CRM for your business

How a CRM can help you to grow your business

We thought it would also be useful to explain how a CRM solution can increase your productivity.

Here are 10 ways in which a CRM can help you and your colleagues to work more efficiently:

1. Automate Tasks in Your Workflows

Considering which of your work tasks can be automated will always help to boost your productivity. And a way in which you can do this is to get your CRM to carry out tasks for you. This will then give you more time to focus on other key activities that just can’t be automated, like working on how you can develop your business.

Here are some examples of tasks that can be automated via a CRM:

– Adding contact information to your database

– Acknowledging customer enquiries

– Sending out personalised emails

– Assigning tasks to specific people

– Creating follow-up activities

2. Helps You to Manage Your Time More Effectively

An important benefit of a CRM is that it can help you and your colleagues to become more organised – now who doesn’t want a bit of that? As you get more organised, you’ll be able to better manage your time and this will increase your productivity.

You can clearly see tasks that have been assigned to you, ensuring nothing gets missed. You’ll be able quickly schedule meetings that are then visible to the team. You can also easily track communications with a contact so that follow-up actions can be carried out in an informed and efficient way.

3. Benefit from Seamless Integration with Tools & Software

With a CRM, it can be seamlessly linked up to other software you’re using – and this can be a real time saver. There’s no need to switch between systems or copy data from one to another, and this will speed things up for you.

It also means you can stay more focused, as you’re just using one system, and this is a must for good productivity. It has been proven that multi-tasking just doesn’t work – it impairs cognitive ability, can be stressful, and is just not an effective way of working.

4. Access Up-To-Date Information – All in One Place

When your data is organised well and is all in one place, this will allow you to work much more effectively. Important and up-to-date information can be accessed quickly and easily, without the need to check things out with colleagues.

Plus, when you’re using a cloud-based CRM like CRM Engine, it also doesn’t matter if people are in the office, at home or working from a different location, everyone can be confident that they’ll be able to access the system and current data.

5. Use Mobile Devices to Access and Update the CRM

When you have a cloud-based CRM system, there’s no need to wait until you’re in the office as you can access the software from mobile devices. And with hybrid and flexible working, this is really useful.

You don’t need to worry about falling behind with your work, the CRM can be updated, no matter where you are. And imagine you’re working away, and are between meetings, you could quickly update your CRM from your phone, making good use of your time.

6. Allows You to Identify Opportunities and Convert Leads Effectively

Within your CRM, you can record details of prospects and the system will help you to convert your leads. It will allow you to track opportunities, automate your processes and ultimately encourage them to become customers.

You’ll be able to run useful reports, keep your leads ‘warm’ and ultimately build strong relationships with them; essential for securing those all-important sales.

7. Enhances Team Working

When staff are working with a central system, you’ll find that this can help with effective team working. And when people work well as part of a team, they will also be able to work more productively.

Here’s some examples of how a CRM can help people to work better collaboratively:

– Have clear details of tasks and who they are assigned to.

– Staff will know their responsibilities and how they fit with other people’s roles.

– Information can be accessed easily, allowing jobs to be carried out effectively.

– Workload sharing, re-allocating of tasks and helping one another.

All of these benefits have the ability to boost staff morale and this will always have a positive impact on productivity.

8. Using Labels to Access Relevant information

We’ve mentioned that it’s quick and easy to access up-to-date information. It’s also worth noting that there are specific ways in which you can locate data which will speed up the process for you.

One way in which you can do this is by adding labels – this will then help you to sort and filter your records. This is crucial when you’re working with lots of data – records can have multiple labels assigned at the same time too.

9. Having a User-Friendly System That’s Easy to Use

When you have a central system that’s easy to use, you’ll be able to work more efficiently. And a way you can ensure that your CRM is as user-friendly as possible is to introduce a bespoke system into your business, such as CRM Engine – it can then be perfectly tailored to your business.

How often have you wasted just trying to get your head around a system that just isn’t intuitive? We recognise that people need their CRM to be straightforward to use, so that they can get going with the job in hand. And that’s why, at CRM Engine, we take the time to set you up properly from the start, helping with any queries along the way – you’ll always feel well-supported with CRM Engine.

10. Better Understand Your Clients to Build Strong Relationships

With your CRM, you’ll have so much information at your fingertips and it will all help you to gain a fantastic understanding of your clients and their needs. When you know this, you’ll be able to use your time in a very informed way when you’re trying to convert your leads.

When you understand your audience better, you can then carry out activities in a smart way, communicate with them effectively – this will then help you to work more productively.

Why not try out a CRM solution and see for yourself how it can boost productivity within your business?

At CRM Engine, you can sign up for a free one-month trial of our popular Enterprise package.

You’ll get all the support you need to get it up and running, and you’ll see for yourself how it has the ability to transform your business.

Learn More About CRM Engine – A Bespoke CRM Solution for Your Business

To get more information about CRM Engine, contact us today – we’re happy to answer your questions.

Author : Mary Mason

Are you at a point where you’d love to grow your business but you’re not sure where to start?

Perhaps everything is ticking along nicely but you know that your business could benefit from a bit of a boost.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s worth carefully considering how you’re engaging with your customers – after all, they’re the lifeblood of your business.

Have a think about how you could improve your interactions and develop relationships with them. Get this right and you could see an increase in sales, improved customer retention and ultimately see growth in your business.

Now, we’re not saying this is easy to do – it certainly takes time and effort. Fortunately though, there’s technology that can help you with this – a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management).

Let’s take a look at some specific ways in which a CRM can help take your business to the next level:

1. Manage Your Leads

A CRM system is a central place for storing information on your business leads. This will then allow you to manage them, understand their needs and track the activities that you’re having with them. Having all this important data in one place will help you to move your leads through your sales pipeline, converting them from prospects to actual customers.

2. Analyse The Effectiveness Of Your Sales Process

Growing your business is dependent on having efficient and well-developed sales processes. With valuable CRM data and reports available at your fingertips, you’ll be able to determine the effectiveness of your approaches. You’ll soon be able to see what’s working and what isn’t. Perhaps you’ve run a marketing campaign and you want to see how successful it was. The statistics available within your CRM will give you fantastic insights into your business quickly and easily, so you can then make informed decisions about future marketing activities.

3. Keep Your Customers Coming Back

A CRM is an important tool when it comes to keeping your customers happy. When you’re wanting to grow your business, you may think it’s all about bringing in new leads but one activity that can be overlooked is how to encourage existing customers to keep coming back to you. The system will help you to keep in touch with people that have already bought from you, schedule activities to encourage repeat sales, as well as introducing automation to help you manage this.

4. Using Technology To Help Increase Your Sales

When you make effective use of your CRM, it will almost certainly lead to increased sales and generate more revenue for your business. This will then result in that important business growth that you’re looking for but it’s not always easy to achieve – let the technology help you with this.

5. Helps You To Carry Out Effective Communications

When running a business, it’s important to think about how you’re communicating with your audience. And there are so many different ways you can do this. You may post daily content through social media channels. You might send out weekly emails. Or perhaps you’re going to have phone conversations with people. With different communication methods, you’ll need to ensure is that you have joined up processes and ways to keep a record of your interactions – a CRM is a central place where you can do all this. The system will also make it easy for you to send out personalised communications which can make all the difference. The more you can personalise the content, the better – it shows you’re focusing on the customer, rather than your product/service.

6. Supports You With Segmentation

When carrying out marketing activities, segmentation can be crucial. So, what do we actually mean by this? It’s when you divide your customer base into smaller groups that share similar characteristics. Once you’ve put your audience into more manageable chunks, you can then target them with content that they’d like to see. A CRM system will streamline this process for you, allowing you to run your marketing campaigns in a very targeted and informed way.

7. Streamlines Your Business Processes

When growing your business, it’s worth taking a step back and seeing how you could streamline your processes. After all, resources can often be very limited and you’ll need to allocate them wisely. A way in which a CRM can help with this is through the automation of activities, for example emails that are sent automatically when prospects are moving along the sales journey. This automation will save you time, money and help improve your lead conversion rates.

As you can see, a CRM is a great system to invest in when you’re looking to grow your business. When you have a CRM, you’re ultimately saying that you truly value your customers, recognising that your business just wouldn’t exist without them. And with this mindset, you’re well on your way to having a business that will succeed and thrive.

Why not try out our CRM solution, so you can see for yourself how it could help you to grow your business?

At CRM Engine, you can sign up for a free one-month trial of our popular Enterprise package. You’ll get all the support you need to get it up and running, and you’ll see for yourself how it has the ability to transform your business.

Learn More About CRM Engine – A Bespoke CRM Solution For Your Business

To learn more about CRM Engine and how it will help you to grow your business, contact us today – we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

Author : Mary Mason

We’ve explained what a CRM is, identified the benefits that such a system can offer and we’ve describing how a CRM actually works.

It’s definitely fair to say that a CRM can be a very powerful system for any business. CRMs can improve team communications, enhance productivity, provide support with marketing activities, increase sales and ultimately transform your business.

But with so many CRM solutions available, which one should you choose?

Don’t worry, we’ve got 6 easy steps for you to follow that will help you to choose the best system for your business.

1. Get to know what a CRM is

If you haven’t done so already, the first step to take is to make sure you know what a CRM actually is, familiarise yourself with the features of such a system and get to grips with what it could do for your business. Without this basic understanding, you will probably find it difficult to identify the right system for your business.

To help you get your head around what a CRM is, we’ve put together some useful information for you – have a read of these posts:

What is a CRM?

What are the benefits of a CRM?

2. Identify what your business needs from a CRM

Once you know what a CRM is, and what it can do, it’s then time to consider how specifically it could help your business – after all, every business is different with its own goals that it would like to achieve.

What challenges are you currently facing in your business that you’d like some support with? Perhaps you’d like to be able to communicate more effectively with your customers. Maybe you feel that there are processes within your business that could be more streamlined, so you can operate more efficiently. Or, perhaps you’d like to focus on gaining new customers, so you can increase sales of your products/services and grow your business (I know, who doesn’t!).

Take some time to have a think about whatever it is you’d like to focus on. This will then help you to determine the sort of system that you’d like to introduce and the features that you’d like it to have.

3. Look into different types of CRM and their features

Okay, so you now know what a CRM is and what you’d like it to do. You’re now ready to look into different systems that are available, studying the features within each of them.

A good place to start is to think about the activities you’d like to carry out using your CRM. This might include running regular marketing campaigns to increase sales, using it to help with internal team communications or scheduling tasks to improve your conversion rates. And with lots of companies moving towards more flexible working models, you might want your system to be cloud-based, so your team can access it from wherever they are. It’s also worth thinking about whether you have existing systems that you’d like to be integrated within your CRM.

This is an important step to take your time with as there’s lots to consider. Study the features of the different CRM solutions available to you, so you can find one that will do everything you need it to.

4. Consider your budget

When you’re considering introducing a new system into your business, you’ll always need to consider how much you’d like to spend on it. Don’t worry though, with so many different systems available, you’ll be able to find one that will fit with your budget.

This is a great time to consider what the system will actually do for your business and how it might benefit you financially. For example, streamlining processes can save you time and money, marketing campaigns can lead to an increase in sales, more effective team working can result in cost-savings – and these are all things that a CRM can support you with.

So, do think about the income that can be generated as a result of having a CRM when considering the budget that you have to spend on it.

5. Research the companies behind the systems

Okay, you’re nearly there…you’ve identified what you’d like your CRM to do for your business, you’ve found some suitable options and you’ve considered how much you’d like to spend on your new system.

Now, it’s time to do a little bit more homework. Have a look into the companies behind the CRMs that you’ve found. Find out what others think of them by reading online reviews. What systems do your professional contacts us? Why not have a chat with them about their experiences with them? It’s also worth finding out what kind of customer support different companies offer, e.g. how can you contact them for support, how easy will it be to get hold of them etc.

You’ll want to invest in a system that’s from a reputable company that you can rely on.

6. Try it out!

And now you’re ready for the exciting bit…

You’ve found a CRM that looks perfect for your business and you’re ready to benefit from all that it has to offer. Before going full steam ahead, it’s a good idea to try it out first. This will allow you to get to know the software, navigate around it and gain a better understanding of the features that it offers.

It’s only when you start using it that you’ll know whether it’s going to do what you want it do, and ultimately be the right system for your business.

At CRM Engine, you can sign up for a free, no-obligation one-month trial of our popular Enterprise package. You’ll get all the support you need to get it up and running. And we’re sure you’ll love it as much as we do when you see how its comprehensive features will help you to transform and grow your business.

So why not take some time to follow these easy-to-action steps – you’ll soon find the perfect CRM solution for your business – and I bet you’ll wonder what you ever did without it!

Learn more about CRM Engine – a bespoke CRM solution for your business

To learn more about CRM Engine and how it can benefit your business, contact us today – we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

Author : Mary Mason
Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash