In this 4-minute read:
- Why do small businesses need a CRM?
- What features make an ideal, simple CRM for local businesses?
- Is there a simple CRM built specifically for small business?
CRM has become the top software market, generating $40 billion yearly across the globe, with a 16% growth rate annually. Customer Relationship Management software is used by 9 out of 10 businesses that have over 11 employees, but is there a simple CRM for small business?
Chances are, if you’re the owner of a small, local business, you had never heard of “CRM” until recently. Outside of big, “enterprise-level” firms, customer relationship management systems were not commonly available or used until the past few years.
Get smarter about your customers and their impact on your business with a simple CRM specifically built for busy small businesses: Womply CRM. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!
However, as the digital revolution has hit the mainstream—and Main Street—a limited number of CRM software platforms have been developed to meet the unique needs of busy small business owners.
A simple, effective CRM can help small businesses owners know, market to, and retain more customers. This increases revenue and helps level the playing field against the megacorporations that are spending billions trying to capture your local market.
Any effective CRM for small business must make it simple to address the main customer relationship problems small businesses face:
- Small businesses don’t actually know who their customers are, other than a limited number of “regulars”
- Small businesses face tremendous friction in gathering customers’ contact info and linking transaction and engagement history to a customer list
- Small businesses have trouble grouping customers into appropriate categories to facilitate effective marketing efforts
The primary reason local business owners have not been concerned with a CRM is that there wasn’t a simple CRM designed specifically for them. Although this is changing in recent years, and there are now several CRMs being marketed to small businesses, many are actually watered-down versions of huge, complicated, enterprise-level CRM platforms that require full-time staff to manage, and are pitched as being designed for “small- to medium-sized businesses.” Medium-sized businesses have greater than 100 and up to 999 employees. This makes these offerings irrelevant to the vast majority of local shops.
So what are the main attributes that make an effective, simple CRM for truly small, local businesses like yours?
An effective, simple CRM for small business must be inexpensive to purchase and run
Local businesses often run on slim, 3-4% profit margins and can’t afford the enormous monthly costs of enterprise-level CRM solutions. Enterprise CRM platforms were designed for massive businesses with enormous amounts of cash reserves and gigantic marketing budgets. Many of them are sold “per number of users” and have complicated pricing structures.
A simple, effective small business CRM must be built from the start for local shops, by someone with a fundamental understanding of small businesses’ needs and problems, instead of a “me too” version of a complicated enterprise-level platform.
The ideal CRM for small business must be simple to use
Enterprise-level CRMs like Oracle and Salesforce pretty much require one or more full-time employees to manage the platform and provide data to UX and marketing teams. Does that sound like something a small, local business owner has the resources or time for? Uh, no.
Furthermore, some “simple” CRMs intended for smaller shops are time-sucks, requiring hours per week in manually inputting customer contact info and other valuable data, and in managing any marketing efforts. Small business owners wear many hats, and they need a simple CRM that actually saves time and effort, rather than making the process more complicated.
While enterprise-type CRM software is intended and designed for heavy usage and engagement, the ideal, simple CRM software for small businesses should automate key tasks and keep necessary inputs and user engagement to the bare minimum, saving swamped local business owners as much time as possible.
Small businesses using Womply’s software save an average of 10 hours every week. Imagine what you could do with an extra 10 hours per week!
Is there a simple CRM for small business that comes “pre-loaded” with customer data?
The primary customer relationship management issue small businesses face is that they don’t actually know their customers and can’t easily collect contact information. While global megacorporations use multimillion-dollar platforms and sales funnels that allow them to collect and organize customer names, contact information, credit card data, email addresses, shopping history, and more, local stores might only know a few “regulars” by sight and have no easy and reliable way to collect, organize, and update customer information.
This is what’s we call the “zero data problem.” Womply has solved the zero data problem for small businesses by building the only “pre-populated” CRM in the world.
When someone transacts with your business, Womply’s CRM automatically builds or updates that customer’s profile, drawing on a proprietary, 200-million-consumer database with over $1 trillion in transaction data.
There’s nothing more simple in the CRM world than software that provides you with a robust customer list that gets better the more you use it. This also enables automated email marketing to build loyalty and encourage repeat visits—even if you don’t have a way to collect customers’ email addresses. (And as we’ve often pointed out, email marketing is hands-down the most efficient, powerful, and effective marketing tool for small businesses.)
Womply’s simple, “pre-populated” CRM may be the the right choice for your small business
To best serve the small business owner, we intentionally built a CRM with the most simple, highest-value functions: creating customer records automatically, updating and organizing critical customer profile info, and enabling automated email marketing.
If you can automatically track and organize each customer interaction and keep in touch with customers after they leave the store, that’s the essence of CRM. Which is why Womply’s simple CRM is truly a game-changer for busy small business owners. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!