To get the best return on your CRM investment you need to integrate it fully within your business and sales processes and adapt it to your specific needs. A CRM is only as good as the information that’s entered and the quality of ongoing utilisation. If you’re wondering how to get the most out of Zoho CRM, read on for a few pointers…

1) Assess how Zoho CRM will be used, for what goal, and by whom

We all know that you can’t adopt a CRM, issue logins and leave it that. The first step to truly maximising the potential of a CRM for process efficiency and revenue generation is to decide how it will be used. What do you hope to gain from a Zoho CRM deployment and who will be your Zoho CRM users?

2) Ensure customer information is updated

Zoho CRM can only transform your business, connect you with your customers, and provide powerful analytics that helps you to drive sales and revenue if it has a constant flow of accurate information. Entering customer information into Zoho CRM at every stage of a sales process is vital and every employee must be encouraged to do so as a basic part of their role.

3) Use Zoho CRM to automate basic tasks

Once you have your Zoho CRM goals and users down, it’s time to begin automating your business processes. This might be daunting at first and you may want to concentrate on simply using the software, but you would be wasting one of the best features of Zoho CRM. The platform can cut down administration tasks for your employees, leaving them to focus more on customers than on clicking. Zoho CRM can schedule follow-ups, send emails, offer promotions, and much, much, much more. Zoho has hundreds of automation options leaving you to concentrate on a personal touch to convert your clients. And, your CRM vendor or consultant could help you with customising Zoho CRM, if you have a task not already available on the platform.

4) Incorporate Zoho CRM into your marketing strategy or your marketing strategy into Zoho

CRMs like Zoho have built-in marketing features, like email campaigns, and even text messaging. It’s worth spending the time seeing what Zoho CRM can do for you, then adding this into your marketing strategy, fully integrating the platform’s functionality with your plans.

Then, ensure your marketing strategy is incorporated into Zoho. Can you align marketing campaigns digital or otherwise with Zoho CRM tasks and pipeline planning, for example?

5) Customise Zoho CRM

Not only does Zoho CRM have a massive suite of activities it can perform for you, track, and analyse, but it can also be customised by a professional to your exact business needs. A Zoho CRM consultant will understand your business needs and adapt Zoho CRM to your business processes. Zoho CRM customisation is easier than you think. Workflows and native integrations can be optimised and implemented quickly, and more complex custom workflow management takes little time in the hands of an expert.

6) Train Zoho CRM users

Zoho CRM must become second nature to sales and customer-facing employees and they must embrace the system and its opportunity. Employees can only do this if they are comfortable with a platform. Train Zoho CRM users to deliver the best return for you and in doing this, confident users are ever likely to come up with even more process and workflow improvements.

At Digital Socius we understand your time is limited but you need to get the most out of your Zoho CRM investment. Our consultants are available on a short-term, per-hour basis, as long-term support, and as a Zoho CRM partner for all your Zoho administration, training, and implementation needs.

We take time to understand your business, show you how to get the most from Zoho CRM, implement and customise the platform for optimum results, and can perform customisations to create the perfect platform for your own operation.