How Guide Paddle Helps Small Businesses Better Manage Customer Data with Salesforce.com
Considering that small businesses have a limited number of resources, “doing more with less” is key. A properly configured Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool such as Salesforce.com can help your business be more efficient and grow without having to hire additional employees. Some of the small business challenges that Salesforce can help solve include:
1. More Effectively Manage Customer and Prospect Data
62% of small businesses use email, and 53% use spreadsheets to track customer information. As companies grow, they need to share data between multiple employees and keep track of customer details. This is difficult when using email and spreadsheets as the primary data source.
Solution:
Salesforce makes it possible to manage all of your customer
and prospect data in one place, including data fields specific
to your business. Integrate your accounting data with
Salesforce to keep track of invoices and other financial data
for each customer. For sensitive information, control which
data can be accessed by different employees. With a free
mobile application, Salesforce enables the same data
experience whether you’re logged in to a computer or a mobile
device.
2. Provide a "Big Company" Customer Experience
In a recent study by Salesforce, they found that in today’s marketplace, “Eighty percent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.” For smaller organizations, this can prove an overwhelming customer expectation.
Solution:
Salesforce makes it possible to automate various steps in
your customer experience - whether it’s a quick email update
on the status of an order, or an acknowledgement response for
a customer support question received. Keeping track of all
customer information in one place makes it possible to have a
360-degree view on each of your customers at a glance, and
helps you deliver personalized customer experiences with every
customer interaction.
3. Streamline Business Process and Enable Growth
Whether you have a small one-person operation or a business with a few employees, businesses often spend all energy and resources on business operations - keeping things afloat. Growth initiatives can require longer working hours or additional responsibilities for existing employees, or large investments. All of this can take needed energy and resources from mission-critical areas of the business. Anything beyond simple organic growth is often difficult for small businesses to handle.
Solution:
Improve efficiency by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
Salesforce to automatically keep track of emails sent to each
customer, making it easier to follow your communication
history. (free with Salesforce Essentials, paid add-on for
other versions). Automatically log web form inquiries in
Salesforce, and route the inquiry to the right person in your
organization for response. Powerful reporting and dashboards
make it easier to analyze prospect or customer data to make
strategic decisions, plan and forecast growth, and grow
revenue.
Conclusion
With better data management and quick access to a 360-degree
view of customers and prospects, this opens the door to better
relationships with existing customers, better targeted
campaigns for reaching out to potential new customers, and
higher revenue.
Salesforce has versions specifically tailored for small and mid-size companies - with competitive pricing. Depending on your company’s size, Salesforce Essentials (5 users or less) or Salesforce Lightning Professional may be right for you.
How Guide Paddle Can Help
If you decide that Salesforce is right for your company, there are a number of ways to get started. Choose Guide Paddle for help with Salesforce if you want a consultant that is:
- Focused on helping small and mid-size companies
- Experienced with business strategy and the technical skills needed to support Salesforce
- Responsive to your company's customized needs with Salesforce
Guide Paddle can help your business implement and manage Salesforce on a path to increased productivity and revenue. If you need help setting up Salesforce for your company and/or managing it on an ongoing basis, Guide Paddle provides experienced, affordable, outsourced Salesforce management and consulting services for growing companies. To learn more about how we can help your company, please contact us to learn more!