If you are a small-scale or mid-scale business owner and are still not using a CRM system to run your business, then what are you relying on?
Is it the incessant spreadsheets?
Well, if your answer is yes, you have been fighting a different battle all along. Have you ever thought about what it is like to maintain your database on those never-ending loops of spreadsheets?
And if it is this loop that you are in, then how are you even managing your work processes? Are you even able to give a thought to generating more leads or getting thorough control of your business?
You might also feel that giving your customer a great experience or building a strong customer relationship is taking a place back, but then there is something wrong.
You might have also accepted that the leaks in data are unavoidable. They are avoidable.
Still, if you feel that not using a CRM system or a CRM for lead management is not affecting your business, let us take you through all the disadvantages that you are having because of not using a CRM.
Here are the 5 Biggest Disadvantages of Not Using a CRM
1. Disjointed Database
If you are using a spreadsheet in place of a CRM System your actual data is hard to track. Using a spreadsheet always raises a question about the data accuracy and the format in which the data is stored.
You always come across the same data and you try touching those customers again through emails, SMS, etc. which might leave a bad impression about your business. For example, for business owners like immigration agents or migration consultants, the speed which with the business runs, the more you are targeting the sales. But, what about the effectiveness? Incomplete data, duplicate data, and subordinate data will always be a problem.
Whereas a CRM for immigration consultants or any of the business owners in that case, will help you have a standard database and data storage format, it also gives you the option to customize fields to store the leads and you get competent data with no duplicates.
2. Mismatched Sales Process
For businesses, the biggest challenge is the fulfillment of a standard sales process. Different sales processes are followed by different salespersons the entire process is messy and unpredictable. It becomes difficult for business owners to pin down the process that works successfully.
And that is the reason why business owners are failing to get a cent-percent result-oriented action plan.
Well, a CRM for Education consultants for example will have a certain set of sales processes defined in an order and will be tracked with a timeline feed, leaving the sales managers with a clearly defined sales process.
3. Overburdening and Underutilisation of Resources
Spreadsheets consume most of the time of your resources in data entry and maintaining follow-up records, and all these lead to potential lead leaks. Maintaining a database not only burdens the salesperson, it also affects their competency, and meanwhile managing this complex work process makes it difficult for managers to analyze the performance of each individual and identify improvement areas. Lead Routing is another thing that a manager misses out on due to the burden of manual process management.
However, with a CRM System, lead management and maintaining the follow-up records, all happen in one place. And not only this, with a CRM system it becomes easy and quick to send the drip email campaigns, link the email conversation to keep the managers and sales person updated with the last conversation, to send automated alerts and updates.
Also, the managers with a CRM System will get the Sales Workflow Control wherein the salesperson could be guided at each step.
4. Stagnant Customer Experience
With the customer experience not being updated regularly or in one single place, it becomes difficult for the Customer Support team to stay updated about the latest events, and this might impact customer interaction drastically. Also, process records play an important role when it comes to customer interaction.
Another issue that comes up in customer support is that, because of the spreadsheet work management the managers or customer experience managers will not be able to update or resolve the issues raised by the customers.
However, having a CRM System will set a process for the customer support team too. The team can avoid sending repeated emails and SMS to a customer. And whenever a customer query ticket is raised the support team can roll back to the record and provide them with the right and prompt solution.
For Example, KONDESK – a CRM for an Education Consultant is important as every step is different and important, so having customer interaction and follow-up records will help the customer support team provide them with the latest updates.
5. Messed Team Collaboration
Imagine your team dealing with the customer in the next work process having no updates about a lead? Yes, they will end up giving the customer an unpleasant experience.
And what if your colleague deals with the same customer for a similar work process because of duplicity? You will end up losing potential customers because of such things.
Spreadsheets become even more complex to follow when you have to bifurcate the leads depending on their quality. Most of the time it becomes a manual job to find the potential leads out of all the leads gathered and divide them amongst the team members.
However, using a CRM System will help you prioritize the leads and bifurcate all of them based on their potential. But do not mistake it as a CRM for Lead Management, it does more than that with all the leads that are there in the system.
Conclusion
Apart from all of these the business that comes from following the spreadsheet dependency method has defined ROI measurement and hence action plans often take time. With all these disadvantages being clear, there is a big question that is lying ahead for the business owners and that is “How many tools will you use along with the spreadsheet?”
Opting for an Edu-immigration Industry Specific CRM like KONDESK will help you integrate different software to get your job done easily and quickly. Save your business from this scary picture, and start using a CRM System today.
