What is a CRM system?

If you do business - providing services, manufacturing, selling something - in any
case, you communicate with customers. To do your job well, you have to at least
write down what you have to do for each client and when. Because if you forget, you
end up with an unsatisfied customer and lose money.

Currently, CRM systems
are a trend, respectively
there are a huge number
of different solutions,
cloud and installed,
domestic and foreign,
free and expensive still
can make many
classifications, but that's
not the main thing.



What do all CRM systems have in common?

First: they store contact information of potential and existing customers
Second: they contain information about a product that interests a current or
potential customer
Third: they store the history of relations with the client
Fourth: they implement a system of "steps" - steps to a successful sale.

WHAT ARE CRM systems?

CRM level 0 - a notebook or head. If a few customers, you do not advertise, you have
a retail store and you think that customers just pass by and buy you probably will do.
The question is whether for a long time?

Entry level CRM - usually excel or google docs or any other CRM system used at the
electronic notebook level. As a result, you get a list of clients, for which you can
already schedule some tasks, and track employees' work, it's already a little better
than a notebook, but still not a CRM. The choice in favor of this option is most often
made for the reason of economy - most often this solution is free or quite
inexpensive. But it doesn't solve the main task of CRM implementation - who your
customer is not up to you, but your employees. They are deciding who to put in the
CRM, who to delete, what contact number to indicate, who to call and who not to.
Unfortunately, most businesses in Russia have stopped at this level of
implementation.

CRM normal level - all communication channels are under control, all transactions
have tasks, all communications with customers are stored, there is a separation of
access levels, and all changes are stored.

CRM Advanced level:
• Everything that goes into the normal level + basic automation:
• automatic sending SMS, mail, and chat messages when certain events occur
• Enabling/disabling advertising at different stages of the deal
• automatic generation of CP, invoices.
• Inclusion of chatbots and voice bots into the business process.
• Integration with third-party systems - 1c, specialized software, e-mail, etc.

Analytics: Connected end-to-end analytics:
- you know the cost of the lead, the sale, and the intermediate stages (meetings, KP,
and others)
- understanding of the effectiveness of different advertising sources
- understanding of the effectiveness of employees
- regular reports are available

CRM Professional level :
• All that's included in the
"Advanced" as well:
• business process decomposed
into simple components
• no irreplaceable employees
• the sales process is not controlled
by an employee, but by the system
• KPI system is implemented, and
key indicators and deviations from
the plan are controlled

• reports and key figures are always available, not only on reporting dates

Let's summarize. Why should you implement a CRM system?

First of all, after its implementation, at least at a normal level, the client becomes the
owner of the company, not the employee. In the case of the departure of an
employee, all customer contacts remain in the company, preserving the entire
history of communication with the client. It increases the safety and stability of
business, and also there are real data on the number of appeals, and statistics of the
company as a whole and in the context of employees. It is already possible to make
decisions based on numbers, not emotions.

The introduction of CRM at an advanced level frees employees from unnecessary,
unproductive actions, which do not bring money. Effectiveness and, accordingly, the
amount of profit generated by an employee increases significantly.

Implementation at the professional level, on the other hand, creates a self-regulating
system. Very often for the implementation on this level, you have to rebuild business
processes in the company with the help of experienced business consultants, to take
into account specifics of business with the help of programmers, but as the result,
you get a highly effective machine with a large margin of safety, the mechanism that
works like a Swiss watch.

So still, which CRM to choose?

I did not set myself the task of looking at all the CRM systems available on the
market. There are a lot of them. I will say that if you think that at your current level
of development a normal level of implementation is enough for you, you can try
almost any. I'm 90% sure that as long as it's not a crummy piece of software
assembled by hand, you'll solve your problem. If you need an advanced or elite level
- you need a system that has at least:
1. business processes
2. work with API (the ability to integrate with any systems)
3. developer support, producing regular updates of the system
4. a large partner network.

And it should be understood that the mere presence of all these parameters in the
system you choose does not guarantee an immediate increase in efficiency.
Firstly, the CRM must be configured. If properly configured, you will quickly see an
increase in efficiency, if not you get another item of expenditure.
And secondly, the CRM needs to work. Both rank and file employees and managers
need to work. CRM will work if it becomes the heart of your business if the
employees' salaries and bonuses will be calculated based on CRM data.
That said, I have good news for you if you are already using or plan to use one of
these CRM systems:

• Bitrix 24
• AMOCRM
• Get course
• Capsule
• Bpm online
• ElmaBpm
• Salesforce
• ZOHO CRM

Conclusion:

Naturally, they all differ from each other in ideology, functionality, usability,
interface, the presence of additional functions under the hood, the cost of
ownership, and the cost of implementation. But this is a topic for a separate article.