Marketing campaigns, sales processes, customer service activities and business/sales reporting requirements will no longer be constrained by your accounting software capabilities.
By 'linking' your MYOB Accounting software to ACT! contact manager software you'll be in a commanding position to take your business to a whole new level.
MORE QUESTIONS ANSWERED
1.So why do small businesses need Contact and Customer Manager software?
2. How front and back office business processes and activities can be linked into one application.
3. So what is CRM? How does this all relate to small business needs?
4. Why you will struggle to develop profitable relationships using Microsoft Outlook alone.
1.So why do small businesses need Contact and Customer Manager software?
Many businesses find themselves struggling to manage disparate customer information in several applications. Many use MYOB and Outlook to try and manage activity. It's disconnected, messy and inefficient. Reporting is often a nightmare. There is no one place to share and access data. Businesses that want to continue to grow soon develop needs that go beyond what MYOB and Outlook were designed to cater for.
Effective sales and marketing activity can be severely constrained for businesses not using a dedicated Contact Manager application that connects the financial and non-financial customer requirements of the business.
Contact and customer management allows businesses to manage all tasks and information related to developing and maintaining relationships with people, groups, and companies with whom they do business.
It involves a variety of activities, including the ability to:
- Centralise critical contact and customer information and stay organised
- Manage and grow business relationships with highly professional communications
- Prioritise work to stay on top of appointments and tasks
- Forecast and track sales opportunities for an improved bottom line
- Access and report on information quickly for a complete view of customer status and interactions
- Improve efficiency by integrating the applications used everyday, such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and MYOB.
2. How front and back office business processes and activities can be linked into one application.
Xact Software Solutions has developed a link (or plug-in) that integrates MYOB customer information and functionality with ACT! customer information and functionality into a single, combined application.
See the Xact Link for ACT! and MYOB brochure
for the features and benefits of the link.
Information, processes and functionality can be shared throughout the business in one central place. You'll get the benefit of the world's #1 selling contact and customer manager software, with the back office information and functionality of MYOB Accounting combined through smart software integration.
This provides MYOB users with a CRM solution that competes against far more expensive options.
3. So what is CRM? How does this all relate to small business needs?
Simply put, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the process which is used to keep on top of what is happening between the business and its customers.
Information gained through the use of CRM can provide a business with an enterprise-wide, consistent and clear view of its biggest asset - its customer base.
Information can be shared by all teams (e.g. management, accounts, marketing, sales, customer service), providing a wealth of intelligence that can be used to drive sales, marketing and service strategies, and to improve internal business practices.
Through the use of CRM systems and processes, front office staff (sales, marketing and customer service) can manage and track outgoing and incoming communications and interactions, and accounts can manage the cash flow relating to those activities and its customers.
So all staff have a consistent and unified approach to customer management and development.
It provides the tools to collect the necessary information about the customers so that the business can make more informed decisions.
CRM can provide a standardised approach to converting prospects to customers - optimising conversion rates.
It sets the processes to enable 'best practice' retention strategies, ensuring the continuation of active and profitable relationships with customers - optimising customer lifetime value.
It can provide the insights and processes required to conduct highly profitable cross-sell activity to existing customers - optimising profit.
It can help identify the right audience for acquisition of new customers - optimising growth opportunities.
It is common practice in small businesses to use the accounting system, Outlook, Excel or a combination to manage CRM. Although this approach can work when the business is in its infancy it becomes highly inefficient once the business starts to grow and expand.
A multi-system approach across teams will not provide the standardised practices and workflow processes required for a business to reach its full Customer Contact Management potential
CRM processes and systems are many, they range from the very simplistic to the very complex and detailed.
CRM software and support services vary in price and flexibility.
But there are specialist CRM consultants who can help you make the right choice for your business, without reinventing the wheel. You can talk to Xact Software Solutions.
We're dedicated to providing the best in Contact and Customer Management solutions, linking them to common accounting products, and tailoring specifically to your business requirements. We specialising in providing ACT! by Sage - the #1 selling Contact Management tool worldwide.
Our client case studies and testimonials demonstrate our service and expertise.
We are New Zealand's leading ACT! certified services company with four qualified ACT! consultants positioning us with the ability to guarantee our work.
4. Why you will struggle to develop profitable relationships using Microsoft Outlook alone.
Businesses that require only minimal contact data and the ability to schedule appointments and send emails could get along using a PIM (Personal Information Manager) such as Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop and spreadsheets.
However, in reality, most small businesses that use Outlook as the defacto address book, calendar and email programme will struggle to successfully develop and cultivate profitable customer relationships. They are inhibiting potential growth by not being able to fully engage with their customer base and fulfill customer needs.
To understand just how beneficial a contact and customer management solution could be for your clients, here are just a few of the advantages of ACT! compared to Microsoft Outlook:
- Outlook tasks have a weak link to contacts. A task can be assigned to a contact, but it will not be found on the contact record, and you cannot go from the task to the related contact.
- Outlook does not track information on companies. Outlook has categories, but these hold no information of their own. ACT! group records can be used to hold company information.
- Outlook has a limited contact notepad. The notepad does not date and time stamp notes.
- Outlook does not log the name of the user who enters a note for a contact.
- Outlook has no customer report generator. You can't track your business to see how you have been doing (converting business, selling more to customers)
- Outlook does not support email merge or fax merge.
These are just few of the limitations of using Outlook for contact management practices. For a further analysis view this ACT! vs Outlook Competitive Analysis
You can integrate your MYOB Accounting customer information with the world's #1 selling contact and customer management software, and propel your business operations and marketing activities to a whole new level.
The Xact Link for ACT! and MYOB is an approved MYOB Add-on Solutions product. Products with this logo have been tested and found to work with selected MYOB products. MYOB refers you to the solution provider (Xact Software Solutions) for all support enquiries.
