The question seems obscure? Maybe but the truth is that there are many companies relying on simple Excel sheets when it comes to customer relationship management. While Excel is a great tool for many calculation based tasks it is simply not the right one to use it everywhere. Simply because many people don’t know that there are many affordable solutions that perfectly meet their needs.

For someone who’s working alone it’s ok to use file base data storage. When leaving the office everything that could get useful is just copied to a thumb drive. Back in the office you could replace all edited files with the new ones. But how would this scenario look when multiple users need to have read and write access to these files? It becomes clear that it’s impossible to merge changed data back into the corresponding files at the office. A better approach would be to use a distributed application that can be accessed from everywhere.

Now let us have look at the major improvements that CRM software will bring to our everyday workflow. With a CRM it is possible to make assignments between appointments and contacts. This way you get a journal that can be looked up by co-workers. Now everyone can check what has been done with a customer before. Since professional CRM applications are network enabled and can handle multiple users, it is possible to manage user restrictions as well. Not everyone needs to have access to your VIP customers.

These are only some benefits you gain by using a CRM that is network enabled. Working in such an environment is totally different from the boring and endless lists of data that get more and more complicated to handle the longer they are. Modern software really energizes your business. All important information becomes visible with a mouse click or some keystrokes. Communication needs to be easy – otherwise it simply won’t take place. You can’t overestimate the power of regularly sent out personalized emails. From a CRM this happens with a few clicks.

So there’s only one thing left for you to do: Find the program that can do all this for you and don’t be afraid: Modern applications can do all this without the need for specialist who will install and configure it.

Dominik Sapinski is lead tech developer at soft-evolution, a software company which has developed the Pimero Free Edition.