Do I need a CRM?

[K0608]

Good morning.

I currently run a mountaineering business, and up until now have been using Thunderbird to manage our emails. I run everything myself, from the guiding in the mountains through to managing bookings, looking after the website etc.

However, when it comes to dealing with enquiries and emails, despite my best efforts to use stars (to flag emails that need action) and coloured tags (to indicate what action is required, i.e. awaiting reply from customer, important for me to reply to asap, awaiting payment, awaiting booking forms etc.), it can feel a little overwhelming at times, with a long list of starred items.

Would a CRM help with managing these enquiries and emails? Or will it be unnecessarily complicated?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Why not do a couple of free trials and see how you get on with them, they can be great for returning customers but a bit of a pain for one off customers

 

[WebDesires]

Sounds to me like you really could do with a more user friendly approach to your daily workings. You say you already have a website, does this website take bookings at all or is just informational. Even so, the fact you have a website is good and could be used to host a CRM which will allow you to assign status's to each customer / customer order.

In my opinion what you're doing now is overly complicated and overwhelming. Imagine a nice page where you can view them all in a neatly laid out table and can filter my status's so you can easily find everyone who owes money and so forth.

 

[jamesbaldock]

To me it sounds like you need a help desk system rather than a CRM. This combines all o the benefits of e-mails (easy to send and receive messages to customers) with smart tools such as scheduling due dates and workflows.

I've been using a help desk system for years for various businesses. Over the last couple of weeks I've been making additional changes to it to help improve things even more.

For example, I now have workflows set up (basically automatic routines that are triggered on certain events). This means that it I send an e-mail to a customer (through the help desk) I set the due to to, say, next week so that if they haven't got back to me, I will be reminded to contact them again. With e-mails I tend to send and then delete the message so my inbox doesn't get cluttered.

With the workflows set up in the help desk, when the customer replies to my message the due date automatically changes to today's date. That way, the message bounces straight to the top of my list so that I know that they have replied and that I need to get back to them.

It's a good way to keep track of messages whilst ensuring that I am not scrolling through hundreds of messages trying to work out which ones need attention.

Would be happy to share more or show you how my system works if that helps.

 

[WhizzPeople]

I think you need a 2nd hand

 

[Alan]

As @jamesbaldock says a help desk system may be better, I use Freshdesk, it is free for small businesses / basic functions. Basically you set it up to receive emails e.g. [email protected] and a ticket get created which you can respond to / set to waiting on customer etc etc.

 

[K0608]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. It sounds like helpdesk type software is worth investigating. We currently don't take on-line booking via our website. I'm considering going down this route with some of our trips (as it will ease the admin a bit), but the vast majority of our trips and courses, they really require knowing a bit more detail about the client before offering them a place, i.e. previous experience required.

It's probably not the volume of incoming emails, as we generally wouldn't get more than 5 or 6 emails a day, but I probably do need a second pair of hands, as if I miss a day or two of emails for any reason, they mount up quite quickly, and the thought of then having to tackle them isn't hugely appealing.

Not sure how useful this might be, but I've uploaded a photo of my current inbox, to give you an idea of what I've currently got. https://imgur.com/a/mGC2Hln

 

[David Ross Digital]

Agree help desk software is probably the way to go. It might be worth having a look on YouTube to see if there are any demos / reviews you can check out first. They can sometimes be quite good at highlighting the differences between the different systems so you can pick the best one for you.

 

[antropy]

Demo both a CRM or helpdesk software and see which you prefer and which one fits in with your business model. Alex

 

[ffox]

Before you fully commit to a CRM or HelpDesk system take a look at Microsoft Bookings -

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...Bookings-47403d64-a067-4754-9ae9-00157244c27d

It would require an O365 subscription, but it may suit what you are doing better than tailoring a CRM.

 

[Breffni Potter]

I'd ponder whether as a business owner, you'd benefit from finding a good virtual assistant to do some of this work for you.

Create a new mailbox for general enquiries/busywork that you can forward stuff to from website or stuff you would prefer not to deal with, have the VA take care of it.

 

[EmployMe]

I am using Zoho. The free version is limited to 10 users that is just enough for my team.

 

[K0608]

I am using Zoho. The free version is limited to 10 users that is just enough for my team.

Is that Zoho Desk or CRM?

 

[K0608]

Something that takes up quite a bit of my time currently is checking through the inbox to see which emails/clients need chasing up (I've got them tagged and coloured) and also removing emails if there's been a more recent reply from a particular client. The other issue that can be a pain is that for any particular booking/client, I may have up to 6 (occasionally more) emails from guides saying that they are available for the work. This can soon clog up my inbox.

 

[EmployMe]

Is that Zoho Desk or CRM?

CRM. Recently I've upgraded to the paid plan.

 

[Graham Johnson]

I also need help with a CRM system. Should I post a new tread are can I add my needs here?

 

[K0608]

I also need help with a CRM system. Should I post a new tread are can I add my needs here?

I would start your own thread, I've found that if a thread is left a little whilst (as this has), then replied to, it tends to not get quite so much interaction.

 

[Graham Johnson]

I would start your own thread, I've found that if a thread is left a little whilst (as this has), then replied to, it tends to not get quite so much interaction.

Thank you

 

[iDigLocal]

have a look at odoo - a free crm