In a recent research by Gartner, it was found that failure to respond to customer complaints via social media channels can lead to a 15% increase in client loss. Customers get agitated if your brand fails to respond to social media complaints and that includes ignored emails or phone calls from customers. Social listening capabilities in your customer relationship management software (CRM) can provide your organization with the ability to tap into these conversations and comments immediately. You can understand sentiment and other measures of how you stack up to your competitors with the help of social listening. So, social listening matters to any organization even more now. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-reasons-your-crm-needs-social-listening-capabilities-69840

A good way to stay organized and increase sales is to Keep track of your clients with customer relationship management (CRM) software. This is true for any business. But, the question is how you can keep track of your clients. The answer is to track customer data. This can be done with the help of CRM software. You can do that with the help of CRM mobile app, by tracking leads, tracking sales, and by sharing customer data. To know more about how you can use a CRM to track customer data, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-ways-crm-tracking-leads-to-more-sales-69832

Retaining old customers is the most profitable task of any small & medium sized business. According to Forrester Research, it was found that retaining 5% more customers can increase profits by 25-125% and it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing client. Customer relationship management (CRM) software can be a vital tool for organizational client retention. Companies use CRM tools for preventing customer defection, increasing client satisfaction and improving cross-selling efforts. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-ways-crm-is-key-to-smb-customer-retention-69833

Are you investing in a new CRM solution or want to replace the existing customer relationship management solution? You must consider several points before taking your proposal to the next level. If you consider these points, it will help in the future. First, you must compare the features against their ease of use; then you must consider how the information is presented, and lastly, you must consider is how well the CRM solution will grow with you. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-considerations-when-justifying-a-crm-solution-67771

Nowadays, small businesses compete against larger companies by utilizing cloud-based business systems. Cloud-based business services are becoming more advanced.  Professionals must understand the cloud technology. There are different cloud servers to assist a business, but some are more vital than others. They are: Cloud Storage and Email; Cloud BI Solutions; Cloud Security; and Cloud Based Accounting. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/the-advantages-of-using-cloud-business-services-01323254

In cloud based CRM, vendor handles everything from hardware maintenance to software upgrades. But, when the vendor overhauls their system which in turn forces your business to change the whole system. So, a change management plan is necessary. Business must have alternative plans in place for other CRM systems. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-handle-change-management-when-your-cloudbased-crm-gets-overhauled-69801

Earlier we have seen that CRM required manual input to fill in notes from sales activities and collect information about prospect behavior. But, nowadays, this is done with the help of technology and machine learning is one such technology. Machine learning is helping sales teams to fill in the notes. But, first we must know what machine learning is. It refers to a computerized data analysis where algorithms learn from new information and quickly decide what the next best action is. Web search results, credit scoring and email spam filtering are powered by machine learning algorithms nowadays. Such technologies are extending to CRM also. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/machine-learning-your-way-to-better-crm-69781

Customer relationship management or CRM technology improves workflow, automates repetitive tasks and improves their productivity in a small business. It was also found that if a small business adopts CRM technology, revenue increases by 41%. CRM tools provide assistance in many aspects of the sales process, but only if is implemented in the right way. To know more about how to effectively adopt CRM technology for your small business, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-to-effectively-adopt-a-crm-for-your-small-business-69782

According to Gartner, CRM has a global market of $23 billion. So, there is an opportunity for industry specific CRM. A general CRM has many features that control your sales pipeline, but may not fit into your sales process. So, there is a need to have an industry specific CRM. The following article link gives details about this: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/do-you-need-an-industryspecific-crm-69783

Customer relationship management tools can be valuable if it is not overloaded with plenty of data. Many CRMs allow business to customize dashboard so that you can identify critical data at a glance, such as meetings with prospects, potential value of your deals, total value of your sales pipeline and other information. So, to know the most important data points you should configure in your CRM, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/the-most-important-ataglance-data-points-for-your-crm-69784

In a recent research it was found that cloud-based CRM solutions account for 47% of deployments due to their price accessibility, ease of deployment, and integration with other cloud-based applications. If your CRM doesn’t work properly, most of the departments will find difficult to operate. A thorough service level agreement (SLA) is a necessary part of protecting your business operations. There are a few key areas you need covered. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-sla-areas-you-cant-skip-with-a-cloudbased-crm-69747

Michele Goetz of Forrester says, "Seems that the expectations that CRM systems could provide a single trusted view of the customer was starting to hit a reality check." Data quality issues affect 91% of businesses according to a research. There are a few ways to improve your data quality in CRM records. They are: Data Deduplication, Standardize Data Collected, Examine Data Collection Process, and Run Data Quality Initiatives Frequently. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-improve-the-data-quality-of-crm-records-69748

Keeping accounts is important to every business, including small and medium business also. Bookkeeping is the first step in keeping records of financial transactions which includes records kept in a journal, ledger, accounts receivable and payable, etc. Bookkeeping is important as it keeps track of the company’s money, show how the company performs on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, and help to prepare the company’s income tax return. Bethany Wesch (writes about blogging, branding and online marketing), writes in her article about different general accounting systems that all small businesses are expected to have. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/finance/important-accounting-systems-all-small-businesses-should-have-in-place-0324326

CRM software is different for different organizations. Peer reviews & recommendations are important while choosing a CRM software. But, the most important thing during initial research is that it needs to pass a technical evaluation which includes factors unique to your business, such as your infrastructure, workflow, end-user capability and business mobility. A thorough evaluation process is necessary to avoid deploying a CRM which is not suited to your business. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/what-to-look-for-when-youre-testing-a-crm-solution-69709

CRM can be powerful if we understand its features & functionality correctly.  This article link will tell us about some tips for success that have nothing to do with the platform you choose, but it depends on how you use CRM in your organization. They are: Understand your customer experience from the customer's point of view; be prepared to be flexible; and training. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/winning-with-a-crm-69708

Nowadays, CRM focuses on SaaS customer relationship management solutions. Researchers at Gartner found that 53% of companies with CRM use on premise systems. On-premise solutions help companies in maintaining control over security, avoiding vendor lock-in, handling maintenance and support in-house.  But, having control over security doesn’t mean that on premise solutions are secured. Companies need to follow security best practices for on premise CRM. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/security-best-practices-for-onpremise-crm-69663

It is predicted that enterprise mobility and BYOD market predicted to hit over $270 billion by 2019. It is also found that 81% of CRM user access software through multiple devices, ensuing in a productivity increase of more than 20% when mobile and social network features are integrated into the CRM. So, you need to choose the right mobile hardware and CRM solution for your sales department. To know more about how to choose the right mobile hardware and CRM solution for your sales department, follow the link: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/choosing-the-right-mobile-tools-for-crm-in-the-field-69662

Everyone prefers email. It’s also effective for lead generation and other sales activities. In a research it was found that emails have a 50% higher rate of qualified leads than other avenues, and 20% of income directly comes from emails. CRM tool gathers extensive information on customer contact through email, phone, chat, social media, and other channels. An email-based CRM solution is very important for small & medium sized businesses. Nowadays, several CRM solutions integrate with email and bring benefits to any organization. They are: An integrated view; increased responsiveness; integration with other apps; quick installation and deployment; and unified contact list. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-benefits-of-crm-solutions-with-email-integration-69633

Business intelligence can provide visions to businesses which helps them with decision making, in becoming more responsive to their customers and business partners. Cloud-based visualization software is now offering better business value. Rose de Fremery (founder of lowercase d consulting) writes in her blog about the four key benefits that it can bring to businesses. They are: Rapid Time to Value; Flexible Data Integration; Mobile Access to Data Insights; and Expert Guided Analysis. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/4-key-benefits-of-cloudbased-business-visualization-69631

Baseball is an exclusive game. It has been played for over centuries and hence is defined by the long history of data collected over the years which has hardly changed. We can relate baseball and big data. Baseball combines analysis of historic structured data with real-time event data and sequential insights. The following three factors have a direct analogy in consumer marketing: 1. in baseball, a manager look at batting averages, spray charts, and righty-lefty matchups whereas a marketer might look into historic purchases, create segmentation of behaviors and demographics, and add channel preference.
2. In baseball, a manager might look into real time data e.g. how pitch is affected, player’s approach. On the other hand the marketer looks into how he can capitalize on real-time events.
3. For a pitcher, set up pitch is important On the other hand, in marketing, the flow of emails or offers dictates the next offer or product promoted.
Read more at: http://www.tibco.com/blog/2015/08/10/baseball-and-big-data-marketing-closer-than-you-ever-thought/