In a world where both your sales force and your customers are highly mobile, having a mobile customer relationship management (CRM) solution makes good business sense. But how do you choose the right mobile CRM system or application for your business? And what questions should you ask CRM vendors?
The following suggestions will help you choose the right mobile CRM solution for your organization.
1. Find the right mobile CRM development tool for the job
No two companies are exactly alike. Business processes cannot be condensed into a one- size-fits-all mobile app. Because companies have varying needs, businesses need to look for platform providers that offer tools and mobile SDKs (software development kits) that let them build custom native, HTML5 or blended apps fast and without the pricey development team. Companies need easy-to-use tools in order to create the variety of apps needed for each department.
2. Choose an application that can easily integrate with existing systems
Look for CRM applications that integrate effectively into your existing back office solutions, as opposed to those that don’t provide real-time information and do batch transfers in between the two systems.
3. Make sure mobile CRM apps have an easy-to-use interface
Users will have a more satisfying experience if the interface for the mobile CRM is well-designed. The interface for the mobile CRM should be simple to learn, efficient to use and easy to accomplish a specific task.
4. Create a mobile CRM strategy
This may sound intuitive, but, more often than not, businesses have a CRM strategy that does not take mobile into consideration. Businesses need to develop a mobile strategy to determine what platforms and delivery options are available to support the direction the business is heading. This then needs to be incorporated into their CRM strategy for successful implementation of mobile CRM plans.
5. Let user needs define the mobile CRM approach
Understand what your CRM users need to be able to do – not just what the business wants them to do. Identify processes that they perform over and over again, or that they struggle with. Then use the mobile interface to make those processes more intuitive. The easier an application is to use, the more likely your sales force (and others) will use it. And the more people who use your CRM solution, the better your data will be.