Mangoho - Blog #Zoho CRM

Junk In Junk Out

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:00:30 +0000

The Importance of Accurate Data in a CRM System

There's an old phrase "junk in junk out", which is also true when it comes to CRM systems.

Over the years we have done many projects implementing Zoho CRM as well as Salesforce on Sage CRM, and have come across a wide variety of quality of data within those systems.

Are the key stakeholders the best users?

In our experience often the key stakeholders who push the systems are the worst at maintaining them! And low level employees are absolute champions but not giving enough credit for being so.

All users, even the top stakeholders, need to use a CRM system correctly. CRM championms should be given recognition, even a new role, to coach other users, if necessary, so that a culture of CRM perfection sets into the organisation.

Inability to make decisions

Much of the success of the CRM implementation and end system is reliant on the quality of its data. This is where "junk in junk out" comes into play.

If the corporate policy is to record absolutely everything in a CRM system, no matter how relevant or important to the progression of a sale, even to the point that it penalises users if they do not do this (we have seen this in some organisations!), then it may it is easy for the team to suffer from information overload and searching of data becomes very difficult because it's swamped in meaningless updates. In addition, sales users for example become so focussed on data entry that they do not do as well in what they are emplyed to do - sell.

That said, on the other end of the spectrum, if users do not update data regularly or if the fields in the system configuration are not well customised and do not match what manages need to see in order to make informed decisions then the data is also meaningless to them.

Irrelevant marketing and spam

If you've ever received an email newsletter that is utterly irrelevant to what you do or what you are interested in then there's a high chance it's been sent from an organisation that has harvested data from data sellers without any four thought of whether that information is of relevance to you.

Mostly this is because they do not know you and may have purchased your name and contact information from list providers which is still a legal business model, here in the UK anyway, and list providers although they claim to segment their data really have no idea who you are either.

This means the CRM owner has lots of data but absolutely no way of knowing if it's correct and no real way of really segmenting that data into smaller more focused lists, despite the claims of list providers.

Accuracy of data affects accuracy of analysis

CRMs contain all kinds of information, not just the data that users key in.

For example, sales duration is a key metric that's automatically tracked within a CRM based on the stage progression of a deal and this is important when understanding sales metrics such as pipeline and closed deals.

It's no good addressing one area of the business in the hope it fixes the performance if that is not really the area that needs addressing.

Use all of the fields and other data points generated by your CRM software to make better decisions.

Correct Reports and Dashboards

When considering the quality of the data in a CRM system it is also important to consider the reports and dashboards that it generates.

If the data is inaccurate then the dashboards and the reports will be inaccurate and decisions cannot be made.

For this reason we often recommend the use of the Zoho CRM mobile app to all core users because it allows them to update information in real-time directly from their mobile phone.

For example, if a meeting has just been done then a user can update the meeting notes and also the deal stage and any other related information, immediately after the meeting, whilst in the field so that the reports are as date as possible.

Conclusion

Make sure your users are aware of the data that is required to be captured in each of the CRM modules, and importantly, why it is required and by who. Sometimes you will get more 'buy in' and more accurate data entry if people are aware of what data is used by what team(s) and why.

Make sure the modules have been configured correctly and include all of the key data points as 'fields' that your organisation needs in order to analyse data effectively.

Ensure key fields are set to mandatory so that there are no missing fields and set as many fields as possible to pick lists or drop down fields and add validation to text based or numeric-based fields to avoid human errors.

Set up the relevant dashboards and reports and have regular reviews during the implementation phase and thereafter, on an ongoing and regular basis, so they can be tweaked then refined and improved over time,.

A true CRM system is never finished!

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Zoho CRM Enhancements for 2023

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:04:46 +0000

Zoho CRM gets a plethora of new features in 2023!

Zoho CRM has just gone through another round of updates, including of 150 enhancements to help take your business to the next level.

Sales

Email communication can be both help and hindrance to the sales process but with the new threaded view of emails within Zoho CRM you are now able to see entire conversations rather than looking through emails one by one.

Fields

New field types are now available to help you build a more extensive customized CRM, which include user lookup fields deal look up fields and roll up summaries.

Forms

CRM has had a form management feature for many years but the latest updates include better analytics with the web forms that you create for example sign up forms contact forms and demo requests can now be analysed to understand their effectiveness at creating leads. Example, a complete breakdown of web form performance such as number of submissions, level of completeness, revenue from leads and more.

Smart presentations for sales metrics

Generating reports and dashboards for management is one of the key uses of any CRM and Zoho CRM has taken it one step further. Zia, Zoho CRM's inbuilt AI app, can now automatically capture a variety of sales metrics dashboards and KPIs and insert them into a presentation that can be used to communicate current sales metrics to management and decision makers in your organisation.

Determine the best next step

Sometimes it's difficult to know what to do in a sales process, for example if the sale has stalled or you have not heard back from a prospect in some time. Zoho CRM now uses it's inbuilt AI app to suggest the next best step based on historical data.

Reduce risk of losing customers

After the effort it takes to gain new customers, losing them can be painful. Zoho CRM now has an automated prediction function that allows you to reduce so-called 'customer churn'.

Highly customisable user interface

Zoho CRM's 'canvas' feature is now even more customizable than ever, allowing your users to have attractive user interface for their CRM application which allows them to get the most out of it.

And loads more...!

Above are just a few of the enhancements recently available in Zoho CRM. There are loads more, giving you a huge suite of CRM tools that your disposal.

Zoho CRM is one of the world's leading CRM software solutions that is available as a stand alone application or as part of an entire suite of online business tools under Zoho One.

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Email Automation Using Zoho Campaigns

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:41:46 +0000

Qualify Leads Using Email Automation with Zoho Campaigns

Zoho Campaigns is a fantastic email marketing tool that can be used by businesses of any sizes to carry out simple or complex email marketing campaigns.

The best thing is that Zoho Campaigns synchronises to Zoho CRM so that you can build complex email marketing automation to get the most out of your your prospect and customer database.

One example of a commonly occurring situation is when businesses have lists of leads from various sources, also known as legacy data, which they want to qualify before following up up-do with their sales team using the CRM as a tool for sales follow-up processes.

Zoho Campaigns can be used to do this this by using the workflow automation features which allow you to first start with a subscriber list in campaigns.

Then you can create an email for a qualification type campaign which can be done using the inbuilt email layouts or one of the many email templates that come with Zoho Campaigns.

When the email campaign gets sent the workflow rules will be triggered when they match the criteria you have configured. One search criteria may be when a subscriber clicks a link in an email which could be to an article to read more information which would indicate an expression of interest. Other criteria could be button clicks, email replies, form fills or to a lesser extent email reads.

This workflow can then push that subscriber into your Zoho CRM as a new lead and then this lead can be assigned manually or automatically to one of the Zoho CRM sales users for follow up.

Zoho CRM would then be used for what it is deigned for: sales calls, emails, meetings, follow ups and ultimately conversion of the lead to a closed won sale.

Such automation is really useful in improving working efficiency and for qualifying legacy data that may have come from multiple sources which can result in a more streamlined business process with higher quality Leads in your CRM.

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What is CRM?

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:37:16 +0000

CRM software has been around since the 90s but even though many users understand the need for CRM software in their Sales, Marketing and Support process and even claim to know what CRM software is and how it should be used, they often do not understand the complexities and modules within a CRM system or misunderstand the true strength of the software lies in the users using it, not with massive and all encompassing automation of what are essentially very 'human' processes: customer communications.

CRM standards for:

Customer
Relationship
Management

The internet is full of articles and information about CRM. A few definitions we like are as follows:

“Uses reliable processes to better serve customers”
“A tool, usually internet based, used for interacting with customers and storing customer and sales information”
“Helps a company manage customer relationships in an organized way.”

Typically the departments who make most use of a CRM system are:

Sales - a CRM improves lead tracking, consolidating large volumes of data, client communications and tracking sales pipelines against quotas.
Marketing - can log marketing campaigns and campaign related activities then understand resulting sales compared with marketing costs.
Support - a CRM will allow support teams to log customer complaints and resolutions as well as all complaint related communications.

Zoho CRM is a fantastic cloud based CRM tool that provides all of the above functionality and more; and it is one of 30+ business apps developed by Zoho so you can bolt on many other apps to cover a range of business processes such as accounting, HR, email marketing, helpdesk and more.

Check out this video below to get an overview of what a CRM is and how it should be used...

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Design Data Displays Using Canvas

Fri, 04 May 2018 13:24:21 +0000

Zoho CRM has a very nice new feature called 'Canvas', which allows you to design they way you see your data in an intuitive and easy to use drag and drop interface.

Say for example, you have a CRM containing a list of customers - most of us do! - you can design the customer list view and also the custom single display view to include the image and fields in the exact way you choose. Before that the layout design was quite basic and consisted of one of two column fields in sections down the page.

On top of that you can add icons and colours to fields and text, to make it a truly customised design.

Once you have finalised your design you can add buttons and functions as well as titles and this applies to all of the modules in the CRM.

Once done preview the design and then save it to implement through your organisation.

Watch it in action...

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For more information on Zoho CRM or any of the Zoho online business tools please contact us here.

Zoho CRM Latest Features - Summary & Review

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:40:39 +0000

So it's been a few weeks now since Zoho CRM released their latest feature set to the Enterprise edition, so we thought we'd give a quick review of them to summarise what they're about and give our input on having used them.

License

The first point to note is that the features listed below are Enterprise license features and thus not available if you are on say a Professional license. Zoho are offering a wide range of features in all of their versions, appealing to all levels of users and businesses, especially small to mid sized businesses who may not need such extensive features discussed here. If these features are of interest though, all you need to do is upgrade.

Blueprint

This function allows you to define workflow processes that run within your business, to help structure your sales process around that workflow and thus bring all sales team in line with this methodology, ensuring process complicance from the teams. Take a look at the animation below, it reminds me of the Workflow functionality in SageCRM, which is very useful for compliance related auditing in larger companies.

Zia

'Zia' is Zoho's new Artifical Intelligence function that pushes stats, data and also tips to you one a daily basis. It shows as an unobtrusive icon in the bottom right of the screen and tells you stuff like Task closure rate and whether or not this is down on the week before, Sales closure trends for the week and so on. The user can click the updates to find out more info. This is great for larger organisations with a lot of users; if you have small teams / just a few users you may not need it so much, hence the inclusion on the Enterprise license. Zia's appeal however is that it 'pushes' the information to you and save the trouble of finding the dashboard or report and also builds in trends and predictions as shown below.

SalesSignals

SalesSignals is a centralised integration/feed type function that enables you to centralise all of the information gathered not only from Zoho CRM but also 3rd party apps you may be using such as MailChimp, SurveyMonkey or DocuSign. Notifications from these apps are displayed within Zoho CRM helping to increase productivity. This is something we really love about Zoho: the way they embrace other cloud apps and work together with them, integrating them rather than running as separate applications.

Additional Telephony Integrations

Zoho CRM have increased the suite of telephony apps that integrate to Zoho CRM to include the following:

Conditional Fields

Zoho CRM now allows you to create complex form conditions that will enable you to display different fields and sections to different users based on user profiles. The advantages to this are that users see only what they need to allowing them to work faster and more efficiently.

Lead Scoring

Add scoring points to your leads by building in scroing logic based on the criteria you define allowing faster prioritisation and follow up by sales people.

Office365 Integration

This has been a long standing request from many of our customers and now Zoho CRM integrates seamlessly with Office365, allowing you to integrate all of your Users, Contacts and Calendars in one location.

Slack Integration

Again, Zoho, rather than trying to push all potential project management type users to their own Proiject Management software, Zoho Projects, have integrated the popular project management / collaboration app 'Slack', to Zoho CRM. This allows you to notify everyone instantly on sales wins, meetings and more as well as get reminders from Slack right inside your Zoho CRM calendar.

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If you are interested in exploring these features get in touch with us here for a free, no nonsense consultation.

Centralise and Share Customer Emails in Zoho CRM

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 11:26:13 +0000

Zoho have just rolled out enhancements to their email sharing permissions on accounts implementing the Zoho Mail Addon for Zoho CRM.

Here's a summary in brief of the new features:

Now, the Administrator can decide on the email sharing permission for users - previously this was a user function, so Administrators were unable to override this.
Email sharing can now be on specific user/role basis, which provides a far greater degree of flexibility.
If any domains have been excluded by individual users, these are now visible to the Administrators.
Domain configuration setup by an Administrator is inherited down the hierarchy to all the users for custom domains.

The Zoho Mail addon is a great feature that allows all inbound and outbound emails to be stored/viewed from within Zoho CRM against the relevant Lead or Contact record.

With these improved levels of sharing capability this great addon for Zoho CRM will be even better!

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Old Zoho CRM UI to be Phased Out Mid December 2016

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 20:32:42 +0000

The old and well known user interface of Zoho CRM is set to be phased out soon - 15th December 2016 to be exact - which means the new UI will be rolled out in its entirety from that time.

You may well have been using the new UI for some time - if not, it's great!

Enhancements include many new features and enhancements such as improved screen layout/design, faster searching and filtering, check-in functions and improved reporting and dashboards.

However, if you have not yet seen it here is a 30 minute webinar from Zoho on what the new UI is and what you can expect:

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One Place for All Interactions

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 16:44:42 +0000

In today's world we are only two familiar with all of the various channels that our customers may use to communicate with us about our products or services or when dealing with any one of our sales managers during the sales process as well as support / warranty periods.

The result can be that there is a bewildering number of different channels that your team need to track in order to get a full understanding of the communications received from each lead or customer. For example, email, phone, social networks, chat, website enquiry forms, and many others. With the best intentions in the world, it can be extremely difficult to track all of these.

Zoho aim to reduce this clutter and consolidate all of these channels into Zoho CRM by introducing Zoho SalesSignals.

Available in the new Zoho CRM user interface, this cool new module allows you to see in one snapshot exactly what interactions have taken place from any one of your leads or contacts, neatly presented in a familiar 'feed' type interface.

For example, a response to an email that you sent to a lead following up on a quote, an inbound phone call from your customer that was taken on your mobile, a mention on a Facebook profile of your product, visits to your website by one of your customers...

All of this will be logged and displayed using the SalesSignals module, which combines the data gathered from the other modules in the CRM such as logging calls, email tracking, website visits using sales IQ, social channels using Zoho Social and even survey responses using Zoho Survey.

Check out the video below to get a better idea of how Zoho SalesSignals works.

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Complete Overhaul for Zoho CRM in 2016

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 10:47:25 +0000

So at long last it's here... the new user interface for Zoho CRM!

Zoho CRM has just had a complete overhaul and is now available for general usage and feedback. If you have not already noticed you will be able to switch to the new interface using the link at the top of your CRM.

Click the link to see your CRM transformed into a fantastic new format, including new functionality, which includes:

Filtering by various criteria whilst still on the record list page
Powerful searching with on screen, interactive keyword searches
Better graphs on reports
Kanban style record displays so you can see related records whilst looking at Tasks and other information
Email Insights - get insight on who reads your emails, what email templates are the most popular etc
Gamescope - gamify your sales process to reward your best sales staff, get points for adding notes, tasks, calls and deals.

Personally I find the new searching function one of the most useful and best features of the new interface as it is very intuitive and cuts down so much time finding the information you need.

Plus loads of new features such as

'Sales Inbox' for email tracking
Sales Signals that show you in real time when customers are on your website and what they said in surveys,
iCal synching
Scheduling of routine administration and data cleaning and much, much more.

So much more in fact that we thought you would like to watch it on Zoho's summary video, which gives a good insight into what you're in for!

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Please contact us for more information or to test drive Zoho CRM, or if you are interested in assistance with your CRM project.