What Is a Web-Based CRM and How Does It Work?
While you may have already heard about CRM systems, you may still not quite understand their power. The reality is that a web-based CRM is one of the best ways that modern businesses have to keep all their sales, customers’ contacts and interactions in the same place so they are easy to manage.
As you can easily understand, these management solutions have been growing in popularity. But let’s take a deeper look at them and understand how you can pick the best one for you.
What Is a Web-Based CRM Software?
Simply put, a web-based customer management software is a system solution where both hardware and software are installed out of your premises. You can find them hosted on third-party servers. But you can access it whenever you want using an interface. Notice that it won’t be installed either on any PCs, laptops, or devices.
With a CRM software, you can easily keep track of your marketing, sales and customer support teams, as well as improve the relationship with your clients and get a new lead via a specific feature like an online form, for example. You may also automate some processes, meet a new collaboration experience with the same goal in mind: gain more clients.
As you can easily understand, this kind of management tool allows you to save a lot of money. However, if you’re looking for a web-based customer relations management system, it’s important that you check all the features offered by the different providers, since they’re not all the same.
For instance, Flowlu is often considered as the best CRM system for all kinds of businesses since it’s extremely flexible and adaptable to all kinds of businesses and business models. It allows you to manage customer base, track leads, automate your client journey and store all the important communications in one place.
7 Benefits of Web-Based CRM Solutions
If you’re still wondering if you should look for the best web-based CRM for your company, here are some of its main benefits:
#1: Easy Access From Anywhere:
One of the main benefits of using a web-based CRM system is that you can access it from anywhere at any time. To use this functionality, the user just needs to have an Internet connection. Besides, some of the best CRMs already have web and mobile versions, including a mobile app that you can use.
This can be incredibly convenient since more and more companies have remote workers, customer support agents or salespeople on the road all the time.
#2: No Initial Hardware Requirements:
Another big advantage of using a web-based CRM system is that your business won’t need to spend any capital on new equipment and its installation and support. Everything is handled by the CRM system provider
#3: Fast Implementation:
The truth is that if you are a small business owner for some years, you have probably already spent a lot of time installing and waiting for some software to be ready to use. However, this is not the case for CRM systems based on the cloud.
After all, they don’t require any installation on your part, and you don’t need to wait for the equipment to be delivered. While you still need to assume that the CRM system has a learning curve, this is nothing compared with traditional software.
#4: Always Online:
One of the things that can happen with traditional software that you use is that it may have some downtime occasionally. And while you may have an IT team ready to work on the problem, it may take some time to have everything working again fast. Again, this is a problem that is prevented with a web-based CRM system.
It is the provider’s job to ensure that there isn’t any downtime and you don’t need to pay more for it, allowing you to focus on more important things — especially when your sales, customer service, and management workflows are ready to go almost instantly.
#5: Upgrades are Free:
When you are using a CRM system like Flowlu, for example, you will have real-time hardware and software upgrades automatically done. This means that you don’t need to worry about any flaws since you still have the support team ready to help in case you need it. This is the kind of service that you can expect from Flowlu, if you're managing sales, customer data, or internal management tasks.
#6: Backups:
Another huge benefit of using cloud-based CRM systems is that you’ll have automatic backups of your data done regularly. Notice that you’re usually the one who needs to set them, but they will be done automatically. Keep in mind that your client data is priceless. So, depending on your business activity, you may consider getting daily backups or two backups a week, for example. Just insert the date and time, and you’re all good to go.
#7: Customization:
Not all businesses are the same. Instead, each business owner has their own preferences in what concerns the platform to use. This is why Flowlu is, in our opinion, one of the best CRM systems you can use since you can fully customize it to your needs.
They have many different plans that you can choose from, and you don’t need to worry about scalability, sales tracking, customer segmentation, task creation, collaboration across the platform and application, or any other significant functionalities.
How to Choose the Best Web-Based CRM System?
Since you have so many options on the market, it may be a bit difficult to choose the best CRM systems for you. So, here are some things you should consider when you’re looking for one:
#1: Decide What You Need:
CRM systems aren’t all the same, and they offer different features. So, you should start by defining the features that your business needs. Some of the most important features that a good CRM system should include are:
- Automations: Some tasks are simply repetitive and monotonous. They can be easily (and usually better) done using automations since there won’t be any errors or mistakes. Your team members may then dedicate their time to more important sales, customer, or management tasks.
- Integrations: It’s important that a CRM system offers integrations with other apps such as documents, calendar, email, ERP, sales platforms, among others.
- Reports & Analytics: As a business owner, you need to be on top of your business all the time. So, you need a CRM system that is customizable enough to deliver the reports on the projects that you’re running and to get insights about your clients on the sales funnel, for example. This information will allow you to make better business decisions.
- Document Management: Dealing with paper documents isn’t easy. They are easy to lose, and they are easily outdated. So, it’s better to centralize their use on the cloud, on your CRM system. This way, you should look for a tool that allows you to create, modify, customize, add, delete, organize, and keep all your sales or customer-related documents arranged as you like.
Notice that features aren’t limited to these ones we just mentioned. In fact, CRMs provide much more.
#2: Set Your Budget:
While using a web-based CRM system can be a cost saver, you still have to pay a fee for it. Notice that the fee that you’ll pay depends on the number of users, especially if you manage sales, customer support, or management teams.
#3: Do a Quick Search:
A quick search will let you know about the CRM systems that fit both your needs and budget. Make a list with 5 CRM systems that you believe are designed to suit your needs.
#4: Use a Free Trial:
The best CRM systems offer free trials. So, you should take advantage of these and try the different options to see what fits you best. As we already mentioned above, Flowlu is one of the CRM systems that you should consider. Just try it out for free for 14 days without adding a credit card. In case you have any doubts, questions, or concerns, you can contact their support team to help you out at first.
Bottom Line
There’s no question that a web-based CRM system is a tool that all businesses, no matter the industry and size, need. Especially when you don’t have an IT team in-house, a web-based CRM tool is perfect since it doesn’t only allow you to save on costs—it also means you don’t need to deal with problems.
Keep in mind that not all web-based CRM systems are the same. So, you should consider only the one that suits your business needs.
While there are many different cloud-based CRM systems on the market, most of them are perfectly secure. Even though we can’t say they all are since we haven’t tested them all, you can rest assured that your sales and client data will be secure with Flowlu.
While the best CRM systems come with many different features, you should look for one that fits your business needs. You should look for a scalable and customizable platform that allows you to come up with your own personalized analytics and reports, a tool that allows integrations and automations, and where you can have all your client, sales, and management data and documents stored and organized the way you like.
