If you’re looking for customer relationship manager (CRM) software to boost your sales then these are the features you should be looking for. We’ve exhaustedly researched our own customers, read hundreds and hundreds of CRM software reviews, and catalogued sales people’s online requests to produce this list.
Address Book
A company-wide address book is the most used and requested feature of CRMs. While this seems obvious it’s worth repeating that a CRM provides your entire company with the contact details of all your customers. It is a source of truth (provided you enter the correct details!) for your external communications. This data can then be used by the sales team, marketing, accounting, inventory, logistics, telesales, etc.
User-based permissions and roles
Being able to set permissions to data within the CRM is key. So individual sales team members have access to their data but not each others, while the sales team manager has access to everyone’s data. This prevents interference in records between staff while enabling company-wide reporting for the sales manager.
Fast Search
Quick access to records is crucial when you’re trying to keep admin time to a minimum. The faster searches are completed, the quicker you can update and move on to a new task.
Configurable Dashboard
Everybody works differently. That’s a given.
Allowing customisation of a dashboard in your CRM lets a user decide what information they want to see and where. It lets the user prioritise their needs over the needs of the system and being in control is something that ensures your team will use the CRM.
Custom Fields
Every business has distinct business practices. Being able to record the information relevant to your products, customers, and industry in custom fields means you’ll be able to store and report on that information for every customer.
Assign Tasks
Setting calls, appointments, and tasks for others allows a team leader or a telesales member to manage lead generation and follow-up. Administration spread over a department reduces the load on individual sales members.
Automating the dull stuff
Setting up an automatic workflow in a CRM should be simple and easy. What is a workflow? Any repetitive task that you’d normally do multiple times. ie. scheduling a call for a client six months from your last point of contact. A decent CRM includes a workflow feature that automates these repetitive tasks like scheduling and reporting. The things you could accomplish if you didn’t have to click through hundreds of records…. hmmm.
Connecting to other systems
Contacts, companies and addresses are one thing. Linking them up to sales, accounting, marketing, inventory, logistics, etc. will provide your sales team with even more information. Look for a CRM that offers integration capabilities with your other software – hook them into your CRM and you’ll truly see a complete view of each customer.
Team Calendar
A good CRM will sync with your other online calendars so when you’re making appointments and setting tasks you know where and when you’ll be available. Plus, the sales team manager can see what everyone is doing at a glance.
Mobile app
For quick updating on the road, a CRM mobile app is invaluable.
TLDR; These are the most requested features in a CRM
- Company-wide address book
- Fast search
- Customisable dashboard
- Custom fields
- Assign tasks
- Workflow automation
- Integration
- Team calendar
- Mobile app
So to be clear, BuddyCRM has all these most requested features and loads more. If you’d like to see a fully operational CRM in action, get in touch with the Buddy team on 0121 288 0808.