There is a big need to upgrade Microsoft outlook as CRM in your business, most especially when it comes to coping with this post-pandemic era.
When it comes to email communication, Microsoft Outlook is the clear industry leader, with more than 400 million individuals worldwide utilizing it to communicate with clients and prospective consumers.
Although social media has gained popularity, email marketing remains one of the most effective sales and marketing tactics for organizations of all kinds, B2B and B2C.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that utilizing an email tool like Outlook will help you handle your most important client interactions better. While Outlook is a great email client, it lacks the customer nurturing features and capabilities of a top-tier CRM.
Who is CRM designed for?
A CRM system benefits sales, customer service, business development, hiring, marketing, and any other line of business by making it easier to manage external interactions and relationships that are critical to success. A CRM solution allows you to manage customer and prospect contact information, find sales opportunities, track service issues, and manage marketing campaigns all in one place – and to make information about every customer interaction available to everyone in your organization who needs it.
Collaboration and productivity are aided when data is visible and accessible. Every employee at your company has access to data on how customers were approached, what they bought, when they last bought, and how much they paid. CRM can help organizations of all sizes grow, but it is especially useful for small businesses, where employees are constantly encouraged to do more with less.
Here are five reasons why CRM is essential for your company.
CRM will be the single largest revenue source for commercial software spending by 2021, according to Gartner. You already know that if your company is to survive, a long-term strategy is required. You’ve set sales, business, and profit objectives for yourself. On the other hand, gathering accurate, up-to-date information about your development can be difficult. How do you turn the deluge of data generated by sales, customer service, marketing, and social media monitoring into actionable business intelligence?
A customer relationship management (CRM) system can provide you with a comprehensive picture of your customers. Everything is in one place: a simple, customizable dashboard that informs you about previous interactions with a client, the status of their orders, and any outstanding customer service concerns.
You can also combine data from their public social media activity, such as their likes and dislikes, as well as what they say and post about you and your competitors. A CRM solution can help marketers better understand the sales or prospect funnel, which simplifies and improves forecasting. Each opportunity or lead will be obvious, allowing you to follow the path from enquiry to sale. Integrating CRM throughout your organization – from human resources to customer service and supply chain management – can result in significant efficiency gains.
While CRM systems are typically associated with sales and marketing, they also provide significant benefits to customer service teams. Today’s client may lodge a complaint via one channel, such as Twitter, and then resolve it discreetly via email or phone. A CRM software allows you to manage inquiries across channels without losing track of them, and it provides sales, service, and marketing with a unified view of the customer.
Next, we’ll discuss five ways why pairing a leading CRM with Outlook will give your client relationship management a big boost and your productivity.
1. CRMs Provide Insights Regarding Sales
First, CRMs help you and your team manage and track contacts better, helping you build more authentic and organic relationships with the individuals that matter most to your organization.
In addition, CRMs instantly deliver sales intelligence like job titles, phone numbers, firm locations, and social media platforms to your team!
Furthermore, combined with social media, a CRM may immediately reveal a person’s interests, hobbies, and other personal characteristics, allowing you to establish common ground swiftly. Tag and add contacts for follow-up.
Some CRMs can automate data entry and update contacts as you interact. They can automatically populate contact information and help you better manage the contacts you need to keep in touch with.
2. CRMs Organizes Tasks
Adding a customer relationship management system (CRM) to Outlook can help you organize your inbox and data so that you can remain on top of key leads and top priorities.
Integrating contacts and calendars can also help simplify communication by making it easier to designate critical emails as needing to be followed upon.
3. CRMs Can Make Outlook a Collaboration Tool
Your team builds vital relationships every day, so you’re not alone. That’s why using a CRM that allows team members to share contacts and discussions is critical to expanding your network.
A customer relationship management system (CRM) centralizes all of your team’s contacts, emails, and tasks. Your team must agree on a single source of truth for communication history, sales data, and social sales intelligence.
According to Forester statistics, CRM increased the productivity of 50% of teams.
4. CRMs Maximize the Effectiveness of Email
Customer relationship management software (CRM) automates sending group emails, and the best CRM packages available today include marketing automation capabilities.
Also, CRM software allows you to send trackable emails to see who is responding favorably and who is not. This gives you crucial information about who is “receptive” to your email and when to communicate with them.
You will have a better understanding of the people you interact with as well as their actions. In this way, you can compose a follow-up that engages recipients and helps you maintain a successful connection.
5. CRM Systems Boost Sales Performance
The ability to track engagements allows for the early detection of important issues in the sales process. You can optimize your emailing approach and increase sales effectiveness by knowing which contacts are constantly not responding. Gaining loyal clients can raise revenues by 25% to 95%, according to research. Using data from Bumped, Columbia Business School discovered that client retention techniques raised earnings by 40% across industries.
Enriching connections and increasing corporate performance are the hallmarks of CRM software as an Outlook add-in.
It may be the difference between closing your next big transaction and losing it.
How to Use Microsoft Outlook As a CRM
Although Microsoft does not offer Outlook CRM by default, it is easy to turn Outlook into a CRM powerhouse. Outlook is an email, contact, and calendar management system designed to fulfill the needs of most corporate users.
Salespeople must go beyond Outlook’s features to properly track and manage prospects, contacts, transactions, and pipeline updates.
Fortunately, there is a way to convert Microsoft Outlook email to “Microsoft Outlook CRM.”
Introducing: Microsoft Outlook Customer Manager (Your Ultimate Outlook CRM)
Outlook Customer Manager is a cloud-based application that comes bundled with a subscription to Office 365 Business Premium. If you do not already have a Business Premium plan, you must upgrade.
Outlook Customer Manager enables you to manage client relationships directly within Outlook without installing or learning anything new. It automatically organizes customer data such as emails, meetings, phone calls, notes, files, and tasks.
Deals and deadlines in a timeline next to your inbox. You can also share customer information with your team, so everyone knows what’s going on.
Outlook Customer Manager is now rolling out to Office 365 Business Premium customers. The distribution starts with those who opted into First Release and continuing worldwide in the coming months. Once it updates your Office 365 account, you will see an icon in the Home tab in Outlook 2016. To get started, click the icon.
Outlook Customer Manager is accessible with one click from the home tab in your Outlook inbox—so you don’t need to install any new software or spend days training your team to get them started. Because your data stays in Office 365, you don’t waste valuable time setting up connectors to other software or services. It will be easy to manage separate products also.
Conclusion
The ability of a corporation to respond to external developments can make or break it, as the COVID-19 epidemic illustrated. Some enterprises have failed, and the repercussions have been terrible. Many firms have pivoted and been able to modify their products or services in new ways to reach new clients, resulting in an entirely new customer base. Some industries, such as eCommerce, logistics, and pharmaceuticals, have grown. The consumer, on the other hand, is at the center of all of these firms.
Machine learning and business intelligence (BI) is evolving. Microsoft uses data automation in Outlook Client Manager to help small businesses manage customer relationships efficiently. Firms will seek smarter, more effective ways to handle connections, engage leads, and convert them into loyal clients as we approach 2022.
CRM software allows users to handle client data successfully. Business Contact Manager allows you to enter customer contact information, notes, activities, and more into Microsoft Outlook. Client relationship management software can also assist you in categorizing data and manage customer activity. Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager has various CRM management tools.
You require the best online solutions to meet your daily work, business, and family needs in this new normal. Softvire USA makes it simple to find an online software store in the USA. Furthermore, Microsoft Softvire USA offers the best affordable, legal software that also includes after-sales support. To make your purchase more worthwhile, look into the other online software available for purchase.
Follow us on Twitter @SoftvireGlobal for the most up-to-date information on our best deals and promotions.