Whether you are looking to improve your customer service or simply find new customers, SouthwestCRM offers IT-based sales and marketing support to all Devon-based businesses.  We are a CRM company in the Southwest delivering software solutions.  We specialise in CRM and Social Media marketing, email marketing campaigns and customer relationship marketing activity.

What is CRM and "Social CRM"?

CRM is an approach to doing business (It is not a technology).  "CRM technology" is there to support your own particular approach to doing business.  Everyone has some form of CRM methodology in place even if it is not IT-based.

Typically, software can be used to help a CRM approach and SouthwestCRM is the leading CRM software provider to SME's in Devon and Cornwall.

Some of the many benefits of CRM

• Customers keep coming back to You
• Easier to find (and attract) new business
• Greater sales reach
• Consistent branding and messages adds professionalism

Social CRM

Social CRM conbines the practice of 'doing' CRM with the latest Social Media and Social Networking tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn and FaceBook.  Ultimately this means that all your traditional forms of marketing can now co-exist with Social Networking and thereby deliver a consistent message and create new opportunities.

For example:

As a salesperson, when answering the phone to a prospect I am trying to sell to, I want to see the last 5 tweets my prospect has tweeted on screen inside my CRM database without me having to go off and try and find out this information.  This information should be displayed BEFORE I pick up the call.

As a salesperson, I want as much insight into the LinkedIn employees at the prospect company and which ones are in my LinkedIn network.

Call to Action

If you are a Devon-based business and wish to talk to someone about your specific requirements SouthwestCRM is the leading CRM provider in the South West.  Our approach is friendly and professional.  We aim to address your needs before considering which technologies are right for you.

We know the software market inside out so If we can't help you, we're not shy to recommendation others.  But the chances are we can help you. 

We specialise in a range of technologies including SugarCRM, info@hand, KnowledgeTree and Joomla!

We thought we'd share some tips with anyone who is about to embark on a new CRM project (or any type of project for that matter).

Tip 1: Like a good Carpenter - measure twice, cut once

We cannot emphasise enough about the need for good planning and design BEFORE you start implementation.  Have all your processes mapped out beforehand and ensure that you know the reason for doing the process and its benefit to the business and individual who will be using the process.

When we go into companies that are looking to replace their existing CRM, very often they are unhappy with their existing CRM because it was never configured properly in the first instance.  Sometimes their existing CRM can be made to work but all too often disenchantment has set in and a fresh start is sought.

If you're not sure what your processes are yet or what the likely impact will be from implementing a new process then be prepared to spend additional time, effort and money implementing, fine tuning and re-implementing a process.  We often see situations where the budget has been spent on the initial purchase and new processes are poorly implemented by the customer [supplier now in reactive support mode] leading, again, to disenchantment with the software.

Tip 2: Budget well

Who decides how much to spend on your new CRM system?  How was the budget amount derived?  All too often an unrealistic budget figure is set before engaging with the CRM suppliers.  This is a recipe for project failure.  Suppliers vie for the business and estimate down the likely overall cost in order to sweeten their offering in the eyes of the client and to remain price competitive.

One area which commonly causes the budget to increase is in data migration.  Skimp in this area, or get this wrong, and your new CRM system will never function as intended.  Poor quality in, poor quality out.  Decide, what data to bring in, what each field of information is going to be used for and when.  How many different data silos do you operate? are all silos being replaced with the new system? Do any need to co-exist and keep in sync with each other?  How much data is there?  What indexes need to be applied to the database to speed up keyword/field searching?  Very often a customer will budget one to two days to import their data into the new system.  Be realistic and budget accordingly.

Tip 3: What is the value to the business

In this example, we'll paint a picture of a small business owner.  For simplicity the business owner is a he :)  So the business owner has set a budget of 20K on a new CRM system.  The CRM system will effectively help keep control of the entire sales, marketing and customer service parts of the operation.  Time will be saved and his end customers will see a marked improvement in customer care.....  how much is that worth to the business? What if the actual investment cost was more like 40k? You need to identify the value of the system to the business otherwise the budget and system is just seen as a cost to the business and not an investment.  In the example above, the business owner might not think twice about spending 40K on a new executive car and baulk at the thought of spending the same on a system that will help run his entire operation more efficiently.  We've lost count of the number of small businesses with around 10-20 staff who only budget 5K on a CRM system.

Be clear about the value of the system to the business from the outset.

Tip 4: Be prepared for a culture change

The best planning and configuration will just fall flat if the end users are ill-informed or not prepared for change.  If we were given the keys to a thoroughbred racing car and told to drive around a race track, we're pretty sure that if we gave Michael Schumacher the keys to our Volkswagen, he'd still beat us.  We wouldn't be at ease with the car and we'd probably crash in any case :( With a little tuition, tips and incentives, we're sure our lap times would come right down.

But seriously, you're going to find all sorts of personalities involved in the project.  Some people hate change, others have hidden agendas, some embrace new systems and apply their own styles etc..  The bottom line is education, training and benefits realisation.

Understand the benefits each user is going to get from the new system.  Identify areas which may result in a slowdown in some tasks for one user but which are necessary to the overall speed up of the process across the business.

Conclusion:

Get CRM right and your business will grow, will be more efficient and will empower your workforce.

Ok so it may not be a national paper but the local newspaper (Falmouth Packet) picked up on our ShelterBox story and published it recently.  Here's a scan of the article...

A pretty hectic photo session due to the Venezuela Disaster.  The team in the background are packing vital supplies for Venezuela.  We're proud to be part of such a great cause.   Well done ShelterBox