To answer that question you first have to ask, what is a CRM. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and exactly as it sounds it contains details of all your customers or potential customers.
At its heart its a database (we know quite a bit about databases here), and SuiteCRM (born out of SugarCRM in an earlier open source incarnation) is a prime example of an excellent CRM. It is customizable (we can use it for generic database work as well), modular and can be installed on your own servers (or ones we can set up on your behalf).
Why do I need one?
Most people asking this are using Spreadsheets, accounts packages, email or something else to keep track of their customers or leads, this is all very good for invoicing etc but when tracking projects, leads or opportunities or even keeping an eye on how you or your staff are supporting existing customers, you may very well need more.
A CRM can integrate with your email system and save emails from/to customers against their records in the CRM. With a few modules you can store Social Media Interactions as well. You can integrate your VOIP system so calls can be logged automatically. Just keeping track of conversations is a great benefit to the customer when you can answer the phone and immediately pick up their details and see the last conversations you had.
Drive Sales
As the adage goes, your best new sales comes from existing customers. You can use your CRM to email/SMS market you existing and new customers. You can report on Sales and do “what if” marketing (people who bought this liked this other service/product so you may too). Linking to eCommerce systems can track a lot of this information automatically. You can even link to accounts systems and see which customers are bringing in the money and if you are using it for support, see which ones are costing you more as well.
Integration
There are many modules for SuiteCRM, however it also links to Zapier quite nicely and so for anything extra you can send/receive from anything else that links to Zapier as well.
FOMO
Afraid of missing out with a client? Well run regular reports to see when you last contacted the client (call/meeting/email) and then auto schedule in a task for the person responsible for that customer to give them a catch up call.
Give us a call
Many people can make use of a CRM, and equally many will not need it, however if you are not sure give us a call and we can help you analyse your requirements and see if its worth it for your business or not.