All the information relating to a customer forms the basis of a customer relationship package including information in your accounting system, email correspondence and other documents.

CRM is more than technology, it is about easy access to customer data, accessible from one point, presented in a way that is easy to assess to gain an insightful view of your customer . It enables business to serve customers more efficiently and find those prospects who are likely to be interested in what you sell.

For your existing customers, you are able to determine which product and services that would interest them. A good CRM solution builds value by opening up communication channels and creating a common client-focused knowledge base.

Connected

A capable CRM keeps you connected to your other business resources like Outlook®, QuickBooks® Online, Xero and Wufoo for your customer facing website.

Everywhere

CRM goes where you go, enabling you to be productive from wherever you work—the office, home, or the road—whether you’re online or offline.

Adaptable

CRM needs to work with you, having the capability to be configured from lightly personalised to more intensely customised to serve your special requirements.

Provide a higher level of service. By knowing more about your customers’ needs your business is equipped with the knowledge required to respond to queries in a timely and professional manner.

Provide the right product to the right customer. By keeping track of your customer’s preferences you are given the advantage of knowing, or at least anticipating, what they want out of a given product or service.

Keep everyone in the business on the same page. Having information stored in one centralized place means your business can take ownership of your employee’s customer knowledge. This means your business will not suffer if an employee is out for the day or leaves the organisation.

Measure business performance accurately. If everyone in your business is doing their job correctly and they’re feeding the business’s CRM database with the correct information then managers and business analysts can tap into an invaluable resource to analyse and report on how the business is performing. For example, you can analyse the rate of lead-to-customer conversions, why some prospects opt for a competitor’s product, or how quick your staff responds to customer’s enquiries.

Streamlining business processes to achieve greater efficiency and cost savings is important for many businesses. However, integrations between front-office and back-office systems are often overlooked or dismissed due to high up-front costs and security concerns. This whitepaper discusses why businesses should consider integrating CRM (front-office) and Accounting (back-office) software, and how they can do this in a cost efficient and secure way.

Integration

When we set out to develop our accounting links we did so to overcome the following issues:

• Eliminate dual entry of data - update contact information once.
• Improve office workflow experience - encouraging a natural flow to handling data entry and retrieval
• Eliminate the need to move between different applications to do simple tasks.
• Provide controlled access to information for your sales staff, enabling them to access important sales data without compromise to business accounting integrity.