CRM Software can help you touch your Customer base regularly - Story From: BigContacts Product News
This blog post is another in a series on how to “KEEP more of your Customers”… 
The best way to prove your commitment to delivering a high level of service is through your actions. When a customer has an issue or needs technical assistance, make it your priority to resolve it immediately. Every time an issue is resolved in a timely manner, you will build the confidence your customers have in your company to deliver what they need. Prompt follow-up is a great opportunity to show your commitment to the customer, and turn a potentially bad situation into a real positive one.
Let’s say you have made all the right changes and have now turned your customer service/support center into an asset for your company. You’re now in a position to turn this into an area that can actually generate more revenue for your company. With the right approach and the right information at their fingertips (by using a good CRM system), your customer service and support team now has the opportunity to cross sell or up-sell the existing customers that they support. If done right, this part of your business can transform from a pure overhead item to a profit center.
An essential part of any client retention program involves direct feedback from your customers. There are a variety of ways to gather feedback from your customers, but one of the most efficient and effective tools we have used is a customer survey. It wasn’t too long ago that the common practice was to send a survey in the mail. You sent it out and then waited for your customers to mail it back to you.
Today, there are a number of great, easy-to-use survey tools that allow you to simply email the survey, collect the data electronically and gain a good picture of where things are. All without licking a stamp or running off to the post office with a box full of envelopes.
This function should be a built-in tool in the suite of tools that you use to manage the customers’ lifecycle. A well-written survey can provide invaluable insights into what your customers like and dislike about your product or service. This information can help shape anything from the direction you take in your product development to the way you deliver customer service.
Listening closely to this feedback and acting upon it will go a long ways to increasing your customer retention over the long run. If your customers share their complaints with you in this process, that’s a very good thing. 
What can you gather from a survey?
Customer satisfaction: Find out what your customers think about your product or service.
Company insight: Identify any improvements that you could make to increase satisfaction for both your customers AND employees – as your employees ultimately influence customer satisfaction.
Evaluate the competition: Find out what other companies your customers may like and what they like about them.
According to 1st Financial Training Services, 96 percent of customers don’t complain, they just leave. Of those that leave, 91 percent will never come back.
Finally, surveys are also effective with former customers. If you can find patterns for why they left in the first place, you can work to improve the experience for current customers. No matter how well your product or service ranks in your specific marketplace, you can grow your business by mastering the customer lifecycle.
If you put the right processes and technology in place you can outmaneuver, outsmart and outshine your competition – all without improving one thing about your product. Getting this critically important aspect of your business right will ensure that you have a healthy business for many years to come.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
BigContacts now offers personalized CRM Coaching - Story From: BigContacts Product News
One of the requests we frequently hear from customers is that they would like one-on-one consultations to help them think through the organization of their contact database and ultimately the customization of their account with BigContacts.
Well, we have listened and just rolled out our one-on-one CRM consulting services. In addition to all of the FREE "Getting Started" resources that we offer... we now offer our “QuickStart Program”. Whether you are just getting started with BigContacts or have been using the system for a while and want to improve the way you are doing things…we can now help… in a personalized “One-on-One” setting.
System Setup & Customization
We will work directly with you to get your account setup the way you want it...get your contacts imported...and the system ready to use! Whether you are just getting started with BigContacts or have been with us for a while and would like help in re-organizing a bit…we are here to help.Contact Import...................................................................................................................................... $95
Just send us a properly formatted Excel spreadsheet with your core contact information and we will
import this data for you… Including any custom contact fields that you have included in your spreadsheet!
Contact Import & System Customization......................................................................................... $285
In addition to the contact import, we will schedule a 30 minute one-on-one phone call to review your business processes. (we will send a comprehensive worksheet for your completion prior to the call) during this call we will identify:
- additional custom fields are needed in your contact record
- tasks you will want to add to your system
- sales stages that you will want to customize your sales pipeline
Best Practices Coaching
We offer best practices coaching that is tailored to meet the specific needs of your business. Whether you are new to the system or adding some new team members that need to be trained... we are here to help you get more out of BigContacts.One of our Advisers will work directly with you to customize a specific plan to cover any aspect of the system and in any level of detail that you need. All coaching sessions are delivered live to you and your team via phone call and webinar format. See it live while we review the best practices for your account!
Each 30 Minute Coaching Session.................................................................................................. $75
To learn more about this service feel free to give us a call at 1.888.286.6578 Ext. 701...or CLICK HERE and complete the form to request a phone call to discuss how we can customize a program for your company.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
Automate customer touches with Web Based CRM - Story From: BigContacts Product News
There are many opportunities during the lifecycle of your customers to reach out and show them that you value their business and that you are thinking of them.
New business – Just after your customers place an order or you have provided them with a service, ask for their feedback. Letting them know that you care about their level of satisfaction says a lot about your commitment to their relationship as a customer. It can also provide you with an opportunity to gain insight on other products and services that you could offer to gain new business.
Ongoing education – How complex and involved is your product or service? It’s important to consider the need to re-educate your customers over time. It may be one of the most influential things you can do to ensure that what you offer is adopted and used long term.
Product updates – Whether a customer has already purchased a certain product from you or has never heard of it, it’s a good idea to keep him or her up-to-date on what you are doing and what you have to offer. This will ensure that you will be top-of-mind the next time the customer is ready to make a purchase of this sort.
Special offers – Everyone loves a deal! From time-to-time a well-timed special offer may be just what you need to motivate your customers to make another purchase.
Check in – If a customer has not done business with you in a while, check to see how you can help. It may also serve as a reminder that the customer needs your product or service.
All of this might seem a bit overwhelming. You may be saying to yourself, “I am already maxed out, overworked and overloaded. How on earth can I possibly implement all of this follow-up without hiring more people that I can’t afford to hire?” That’s a valid concern, but you can automate much of this through a good CRM and email marketing program. The combination of these platforms will allow you to place much of the ongoing touch points with your customers on autopilot.
If set up correctly, all of this can run in the background automatically to deliver the following benefits to your company:
- You will be able to effectively handle and stay on top of more customers.
- You can create the impression that you personally sent the email, or newsletter, to each and every one of your customers.
- You can rest assured that nothing will fall through the cracks again as you are now able to deliver a consistent, timely and personalized message to your customers when and how needed.
I have great news for you here, too: A good CRM system will automate the tasks to remind you when to actually pick up the phone and make those important calls.
More on this topic...coming soon.
Contact an experienced CRM Adviser today. They can help you to address your specific needs.
1.888.286.6578
Ext. 701
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
Keep more Customers with Web Based CRM Software - Story From: BigContacts Product News
To compete in today’s markets, most all businesses have faced the challenge of moving from a product-oriented to a customer-oriented model. CRM software can be a very effective tool in making that change.
If implemented correctly, CRM maximizes the lifetime value of the customers you have today and those you will bring on board tomorrow. To succeed, businesses must understand that they will need to design, implement and manage a solution. They must align their people, processes and technology to the new customer-centric model.
An important ingredient for maximizing the lifetime value of each client is in the processes you execute at every customer touch point. CRM software can then consolidate and organize all this information that your company gathers on customers and prospects. Properly organizing it will give you the insights you need to effectively handle these relationships.
CRM software can help you improve your customer service and reduce customer churn in different ways, depending on your company, customers, the product you sell, and the way you sell it. But to effectively leverage CRM in your business you will need the flexibility to tailor the software to more closely align with your overall company strategy.
A company can differentiate itself with a very good product or service, but that rarely lasts forever. Even a great product will eventually run into enough competition to easily become more of a commodity. The best way to defend any position is to employ a good offense. The best offense is to consistently deliver excellent customer service along with a great product.
It’s been documented that many customers find more value in the level of support they receive than in the finer details of the actual product or service. A CRM platform that is well-matched to your particular business needs is a fundamental part of a successful customer service strategy.
- Have you evaluated your customer retention rate?
- Do you have a plan to keep more of your customers?
- Have you implemented any technology solutions to help you in your customer retention efforts?
Below are some statistics that will motivate any business owner to take steps to develop and implement a solid customer service initiative.
- Only one out of 25 dissatisfied customers will express dissatisfaction, so don’t lull yourself into complacency by thinking your business is immune. You have to take action in this area to protect and grow your customer base.
- Happy customers tell four or five others of their positive experience. Dissatisfied customers tell nine to twelve how bad it was. Bad news travels farther and wider than good news. It’s human nature.
- The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year. At that rate you will turn over half of your existing customer base in five years. Whatever you can do to reduce that percentage will greatly impact your bottom line.
- Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers, so do every thing you can to embrace your current customers. Your long-term growth and profitability depend on it.
- The longer you retain customers, the more the profitability tends to increase.
Here is further confirmation of the importance of implementing a successful customer retention strategy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, customers leave for the following reasons:
Why do Customers Leave?
68% leave because they are unhappy with the level of customer service.
14% are dissatisfied with the product or service.
9% choose to start doing business with a competitor.
3% move to another area of the country.
1% die.
If you keep in mind that there is more to business than a transaction, and if you work to build a relationship with your customers, you can strengthen your bond with them. As we have seen, the long-term success of your business depends in large part on the percentage of your current customers who choose to stay with you.
The next time they decide to spend money on the kind of services you offer, you want to be their first choice. Your customers may even be willing to pay more for your product or service if they have a personal connection with your company.
The ingredients for building strong relationships with your customers are not a big secret. Most of the principles for success in life are pretty straightforward. Th e costs of implementing a successful retention program are relatively low, as it mainly involves your time.
The challenge lies in the execution of your plan. Successful execution requires a combination of people and technology.
Stay tuned for more on this topic...coming soon.
If you would like to speak with an experienced CRM Advisor today, give us a call and one of our Advisors will be happy to address your specific needs.
1.888.286.6578
Ext. 701
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
A new level of support for web-based CRM - Story From: BigContacts Product News
At BigContacts it has always been our goal to deliver dependable and timely support to our customers. We feel that a great support experience can never be commoditized and we are committed to delivering the best support in our industry and are driven to do more than our peers.
To deliver on a great support experience… We include email support, live chat, and an extensive knowledge base library to all of our free trials and customers. For most of you this is not news. This is not the "new level of support" that we are offering for our web-based CRM software platform. But what we have done is roll out an entirely new support suite to better deliver our support services.
This new support suite includes all of the services that have grown accustomed to and they are delivered in a much easier to use format.
Some new services we've added...
In addition to this new, easier to use and more modern interface… We have added:
- User forum
- Support satisfaction surveys
- Integrated knowledge base articles with text, screenshots and videos
- Robust keyword search tool
3 ways to access the BigContacts support suite…
- The BigContacts website
From virtually any page on the BigContacts website you will find a live chat button that will allow you to start a live chat with one of our agents Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM EST.
- Your BigContacts CRM account
While logged into your BigContacts CRM account, you can select the "support" tab to access our full library of knowledge base articles, the user forum or start a live chat.
- Your Email
You may have a quick question for us about your account and you are not in front of a computer or log into your account. From any Internet connection (including your mobile phone) simply email us at support@bigcontacts.com and this will instantly create a ticket for you. This ticket will be assigned to a support associate and responded to as soon as possible.
Attention: Registered Support Users...
If you are already a registered user in our old system...we will be sending you an email invitation to establish a password on the new support system.Some good news for Internet explorer users…
Our new support tab in your BigContacts CRM account is now also fully encrypted just as your BigContacts account has always been. You will no longer see a pop-up asking you if you wish to open the support tab. Simply click on the tab and start searching for your support answers.Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
Got WordPress? Get the new web form plug-in for BigContacts - Story From: BigContacts Product News
At BigContacts, we are always exploring great ideas in an effort to improve and enhance our web-based CRM software. We are constantly learning from our customers as this is truly where our application meets real-world practice.
We have recently been informed that one of our power users has taken one of their great ideas and actually spent the time and money to put the idea into practice in their business.
If you are a WordPress user and are looking for an easy way to capture leads from your website, then this may be just the plug-in for you.
This new plug-in will allow you to easily create custom Web forms and set them up to automatically load leads into your BigContacts account.Once the lead is loaded into the account...BigContacts then takes over and can manage anything from assigning tasks to users to follow up, creating a sales opportunity for the lead, and can even queue up an automated email marketing campaign.
All of this is designed to help you capture and manage more leads from your website and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. I encourage you to give this new plug-in a look as it is sure to be a tremendous timesaver and ultimately a moneymaker for your business.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
BigContacts… CRM software with no data storage limits - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts has always offered our customers the ability to store an unlimited number of contacts within your account. We have just added a new element to our unlimited capacity.
Not only can you upload an unlimited number of contacts but you can now store an unlimited amount of data/files/history for your contacts. It is our goal to make it as easy as possible for you to store as much information as needed about all of your contacts.
So, feel free to start loading all the notes, files and history that you need for your contacts.
Just think...how nice will it be to have access to all of your important contact information from any Internet connection?
Here's to a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
A revolutionary new CRM platform for Small Business - Story From: BigContacts Product News
As many of you may already know, BigContacts has invested a great deal of time over the past 2 years gathering in-depth feedback and ideas from our customers.
Our research has been focused on better understanding how our customers currently use BigContacts to help you improve your day-to-day operations, and what we can improve with our software to help you even further.
At BigContacts, it has always been our mission to give small businesses an easy-to-use tool that will help you get more organized so that you have more time to focus on:
i) Finding more prospects (marketing)
ii) Converting more prospects to customers (sales management)
iii) Keeping more of the customers you already have (customer retention, operations)
We have recently completed our research, and have begun the development of a revolutionary new platform! We are confident that “BigContacts 2.0” will help small businesses to level the competitive playing field when it comes to attracting and retaining more customers.
It is our goal to complete and release this new platform in the June–July timeframe in 2012. Please note that this is a “target” that we are aiming for and we will keep you updated with more specific dates, as we get closer to this new release.
Over the next several months I will share with you highlights of each of the major modules within this new system. Stay tuned for more information on what we think will become the easiest to use, most powerful and effective small business CRM software on the market today!
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
Affiliate Marketing Opportunity for BigContacts – Web Based CRM - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts has just rolled out a unique opportunity for you to spread the word about our service and get paid for doing so!
As you may already know, BigContacts is a Web-Based Contact Management (CRM) Software designed for small businesses that have outgrown basic solutions like Outlook, Goldmine or ACT but don't want the cost or complexity of CRM solutions like Salesforce.
Our software is helping many thousands of small businesses all over the world to:
-
Organize their business
-
Track More Prospects
-
Close More Sales
-
Retain More Customers
About the BigContacts Affiliate Program
Unlike many affiliate programs we don't require a "sale" in order for you to get paid. All we require is that you refer leads to BigContacts and we will pay you for every lead that starts a verified* 30 day FREE Trial of our software.
You can promote our site with text or banner ads on your site, or spread the word on social network sites like Facebook, and earn a commission for every verified FREE Trial you refer. Access your Affiliate Control Panel to see your results, and get paid monthly...it's that simple!
BigContacts offers a very simple commission structure. You earn $5 for every verified* FREE Trial that you refer. As long as the referral signs up for a FREE Trial within 90 days you get credit for it!
A check will be issued to you at the end of the calendar month following the month your commission account reaches or exceeds this $50 level . For example, if you generate $50 or more in commissions this month, and we will send a check in the mail at the end of the very next month!
* A verified FREE Trial is one that we are able verify/ validate both the phone number and email address on the free trial signup form.
Bonus Offer
Signup today and post your first Affiliate links on your site within 7 days of your application approval...and instead, earn $7 for every verified* FREE Trial that you refer to BigContacts. In order to qualify, you will need to email us (within 7 days of being approved) at affiliate@bigcontacts.com with a link to the page where the text or banners ads have been placed. If you have questions about our program and how to get started, I would be happy to speak with you.Questions?
If you have questions about our program and how to get started, our Affiliate Program Manager, Matthew Smith, would be happy to speak with you.Matthew Smith
Affiliate Program Manager
1.888.286.6578 Ext. 709
Become a BigContacts Affiliate
Start Making Money today!
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, Web-Based Contact Management Software
Internet Explorer users – get an improved Web Based CRM experience - Story From: BigContacts Product News
You may not know this, but every maker of websites, web applications and web browsers has to comply with particular design and usage standards. Its these standards that make the Internet function as a consistent unit.
You may also not know that these standards are constantly ignored by Microsoft for the sake of proprietary.
For this reason, many web-designers find that Internet Explorer is perhaps the hardest browser to work with when it comes to developing a website or web application.
BUT, we realize that many of our users still prefer to use Internet Explorer, and we want you to know that we will never let these difficulties stop us when it comes to delivering a great experience for you when using our Web Based CRM Software.
What's our latest Internet Explorer (IE) fix?
We have just fixed the IE display issue when using the "Admin" tab in our application. We support 4 different browsers in our application - Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple's Safari.
The other 3 browsers (outside of IE) have all worked just fine, but IE users were required to press the "CTRL" and "+" keys simultaneously to get a normal view when in this tab.
This issue with Internet Explorer has now been fixed. If you are using IE currently, pleae give this a try and let us know if you are still experiencing any issues.
For technical assistance with your account, please feel free to reach out to one of our Customer Support Associates. They will be happy to help you.
Want to learn more about BigContacts and how it might help you in your business? Fee Free to contact one of our very knowledgable Small Business Advisers. They will be happy to discuss your particular needs and share with you how BigContacts can work for you in your business.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
Update: Mobile access to BigContacts - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts iPhone App
We wanted to let our iPhone users know that we have just released our latest iPhone App. This has been updated to work properly with Apple’s new iOS5 operating system and is now available in the App Store.
If you already have the BigContacts iPhone app loaded on your phone, you can simply click the App icon on your phone to retrieve the update. If you have yet to download our iPhone App, you will want to go to the App Store and search for “Big Contacts”. (notice the space between the two words) Here you will find the latest download.
BigContacts "Mobile Edition"
We often get asked if we are going to release other apps for all the great smartphones on the market - like the Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile Devices, etc.
We want you to know that we have NOT forgotten about you. After a great deal of research and planning, we have realized that we can deliver much greater value to ALL smartphone users by thinking beyond Apps. 
At BigContacts, we have decided to develop a full “Mobile Edition”.The BigContacts Mobile Edition will do things that an App cannot deliver:
- You will be able to access to ALL the features and functionality of the main application without any restrictions – limitations you may find in a lightweight App.
- You can handle and access more information than your phone will ever handle if the data were all to be downloaded – synced directly to your phone.
The point is that a Smartphone has limits as to the data it can house directly on the device and still perform up to the standards you may demand for speed and efficiency.
With the BigContacts “Mobile Edition”, we can give you access to ALL of your contact information without any capacity issues that your Smartphone may have. We do all the heavy lifting on our end and deliver ONLY the data you need, WHEN you need it - directly to your mobile interface.
The Mobile Edition will work on any web enabled phone (over a 3G or better network) and will always give you access to the latest features & functionality. No updates or upgrades needed!
Stay tuned for more information on this great new addition to the BigContacts family. This new Edition will be avilable when we roll out our new platform - "BigContacts 2.0". We hope to complete this in mid-2012.
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, Web-Based Contact Management Software
BigContacts has a new API for it’s Web Based CRM Software - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts has just released a new API that will make it even easier to integration other applications with our core Contact Management features and functionality.
By using our new API to integrate with other applications, you will now be able to perform a number of key tasks.
Below are some of the highlights of the what you can do with our new API.
- Create an individual contact
- Create a business contact
- Update individual and business contact records
- Link an individual contact record to a business contact record
- Retrieve a list of your contacts
- Search for a specific contact
This release is just the beginning of what we plan to offer regarding API capabilites.
We have begun development on our "next generation" Small Business CRM platform. This new platform will not only deliver a completely new set of features, but will also offer an even more robust API.
We have complete documentation on how to use this API in our Support Suite. You can access the API documentation by clicking the button below.
If you have not had a chance to explore the BigContacts Support Suite, we encourage you to do so. Here you will find all sorts of great information on how to get more out of BigContacts.
Below is a link to our Support Suite, where you will find all sorts of how-to articles, videos and user guides.
If you don't find what you are looking for here, look to the right hand side of the support screen and here you will see a live chat button. Feel free to use this anytime you have a question and one of our Advisers will be happy to assist you.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
BigContacts has eliminated downtime during daily backup window - Story From: BigContacts Product News
As you may already know, BigContacts takes great measures to ensure the safety and security of your important customer data. To protect your data, we perform a system-wide backup every day from 1:00am - 1:45am EDT.
In the past you had very limited access to your BigContacts account during this backup window. We realize that this caused a great inconvenience for some of our customers in certain parts of the world as this was the middle of your business day.
We have recently implemented some changes to our main data center that has eliminated this downtime during our daily backup window! Say goodbye to the daily 45 minute window of limited to no access.
BigContacts is now available to you 24 hours per day – 7 days per week!
If you are in an area of the world that was affected by this daily backup window, we would like to hear from you. Let us know how the system performs for you during this backup window. We think you will be pleased with the new results.
Questions or comments?
Feel free to drop us a note at support@bigcontacts.com
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, Web-Based Contact Management Software
Convert more Prospects to Customers with Web Based CRM Software - Story From: BigContacts Product News
The goal of any business is to convert as many of the right prospects as possible into paying customers. The more organized and efficient you are in the “CONVERT” phase of the customer lifecycle, the more prospects you can effectively move through your sales process so they become customers.
Every time I look at a broad set of sales statistics, I am reminded that winning in this stage of the customer lifecycle is not possible without a heavy dose of persistence. You could have the best product and a great value proposition and message, but unless you generate enough “touches” with your prospects, you won’t reach the conversion rates you need to succeed. These touches include actually asking for the order.
It’s estimated that only 19% of sales close in the first 4 contacts or touches. The remaining 81% close on or after the fifth one. Many businesses I speak to know this, yet few have a plan in place to ensure they are “showing up to the party” often enough to give themselves a chance to break out of the 19% bracket.
According to Dartnell Corp., 90% of businesses follow up with their prospects 4 times or fewer and only 10% follow up 5 times or more. It doesn’t take a math wizard to figure out who is getting most of the business. Don’t waste all that time and effort on the front end and stop short of the finish line.
Be sure to get in those 5 or more touches and contacts with your prospects.
The only way to ensure success in this area is to have a centralized database that can automate some of these required touches, track the notes and history of interactions with the prospect, and assign tasks at the appropriate time to ensure the sales rep can be visible at the right times to help move the sales process forward to closure.
The more prospects a sales rep must juggle to reach goals, the more precious this commodity of time becomes.
With the estimated average cost of an onsite sales call at nearly $400, a good Web Based CRM system is well worth the investment. It will help to increase the productivity of your sales team, while containing or even decreasing your overall cost of sales.
Want to learn more about Web Based CRM Software and how it might help you in your business? Give us a call. One of our CRM Advisors will be happy to assist you.
1.888.286.6578
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts, Web-Based Contact Management Software
Just Released: CRM book for Small Business - Story From: BigContacts Product News
Bob Walton – our Founder and CEO, has just completed a book titled “BIG Contacts – How small business can harness the power of technology to attract and retain more customers”.
Without customers, a business has nothing – regardless of how good the product or service may be. For your business to thrive over the long-term, you need to pay close attention to your biggest asset – your customers. The sobering reality is that the typical business will lose half of its customer base every five years.
CRM software is one of the best tools for strengthening your customer relationships and can transform your business. BIG Contacts gives you what you need to confidently research, review, and choose the CRM software that is right for their business. Learn to identify the features you need, the questions to ask, and the steps to take for success.
In this book, Bob uses his 20 years of business experience to help you better evaluate how you are managing the customer lifecycle today and then shows you how you can leverage CRM technology to get a handle on the entire customer experience.
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts
New CRM Import Wizard makes it easy to add Contacts - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts has always offered a free Import Wizard within our Web Based CRM Software, and this tool has served our customers well over the years - allowing over 10,000 small businesses to import their most important contact data. This tool is a key first step to a quick and productive start with our software.
But, the import process is not always easy and we knew we could make it even better.
One of the biggest challenges when importing a list of contacts is getting all of the fields in your spreadsheet to map to the right fields in your CRM Software. If you count all of the phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and any custom fields you may wish to import, your spreadsheet can easily contain up to 2 dozen columns that need to get mapped somewhere in this new system.
Well, we have just solved this challenge. This Friday we realized a greatly improved Import Wizard that makes this process as easy as "connecting the dots" on a numbered puzzle.
You will find this new Import tool in the same familiar location within our system, but with a much better experience the next time you need to import a list of contacts into BigContacts.
The big change you will notice is our new and very intuitive field mapping section that will appear right after you upload your spreadsheet.
We hope you enjoy this latest enhancement and as always...if you have any questions on this, we encourage you to start a live chat or submit a support ticket and one of our Customer Support Associates will be happy to help.
Categories: BigContacts Tags: Big Contacts, CRM
BigContacts now syncs with Google Calendar & Google Contacts - Story From: BigContacts Product News
At BigContacts we are constantly working to help you streamline your important prospect and customer information. One of the biggest challenges in managing this important data is trying to keep your calendar and contact information "synchronized" across the multiple platforms that you may use to manage your business.
Google Calendar and Gmail are 2 of the most widely used applications by small businesses today. These programs are easy-to-use and are great ways to manage your time, send and receive emails and store basic contact information.
Our new 
function will automatically synchronize all of this important information every 5 minutes - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can now add,edit, or delete a meeting on your Google Calendar or your BigContacts calender and this new information is automatically synchronized. No more copying and pasting to multiple programs and NO more manual synchronization. We take care of all this for you.This applies to your contacts as well. Add or edit any information in either program and rest assured that this data is now current in both programs.
If you use one of these great programs offered by Google, we encourage you to learn more about this new synchronization module.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this new module or general questions about BigContacts.
1.888.286.6578
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts
BigContacts now syncs with Outlook,iPhone,Android,Blackberry and more - Story From: BigContacts Product News
BigContacts has just released our new Sync Module. We are calling this new module "AutoSync". This new module will be in a (BETA) release for the next 30-45 days to allow you to try this great new functionality at no charge and to identify potential bugs that may need to be corrected.
When we first began this journey toward a sync module, it was our goal to only sync with Outlook. The module was initially going to be offered at no additional charge. After months of creating different design options, it was decided that this module was too limited in it's functionality.
We made the decision that this was not the direction that we wanted to take with this important new feature. So after going back to the drawing board and developing an entirely new suite of devices and applications that we now sync to, we are pleased with what has resulted - AutoSync.
What will this new Sync Module do?
This initial release of BigContacts AutoSync will allow you to sync BOTH your contacts and meetings between our software (BigContacts) and any one of a number of desktop applications, mobile devices and tablets that are listed below.
With our initial release, you will be able to seamlessly and automatically perform the following sync functions:
Contact Sync
- Add or Edit a contact on one device or application and have any changes automatically sync/ update to BigContacts or visa versa.
- Add, Edit, or Delete a meeting on one device or application and have it automatically sync/update to BigContacts or visa versa.
What applications and devices do we currently Sync with?
The following clients are currently available for synchronization.
NOTE: When downloading a sync client - if prompted to register for myFunambol, SKIP this step and proceed to the login screen.
NOTE: When downloading a sync client - if prompted to register for myFunambol, SKIP this step and proceed to the login screen.
Don't see a client for your needs listed here? Contact us at support@bigcontacts.com for additional client options.
Who did we partner with to deliver this new sync module?
We work with only the best providers in each area of our industry and chose Funambol (pronounced Fu-NAHM-bol) to help us deliver a first class sync tool for our customers. Funambol's vision is to make it easy to sync billions of mobile phones, personal computers, tablets and connected devices with the systems and websites people use everyday via the cloud.
Funambol has grown to become the leading mobile open source project in the world, with millions of downloads. We feel that they are uniquely positioned to do this using an open source approach that provides the greatest degree of device compatibility as well as flexibility and control.
For more details on this exciting new module and to get started, please visit our website for more details.
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts
BigContacts now offers option of Live Phone Support - Story From: BigContacts Product News
It has always been our mission to deliver a level of support that is superior to what you will find with other Web Based CRM Software companies. We are committed to helping you realize all the benefits that BigContacts has to offer for you and your business.
We think this is one of the things that makes BigContacts different. As many of you know, we already offer a number of support services that are included (at NO additional charge) with your standard subscription of BigContacts.
Over the past several months, we have received a number of requests to add live phone support to what we currently offer. Well, as we always try to do - we listened!
We have now added the additional resources that are necessary to offer live phone support through our Customer Support Center here in Atlanta, GA. Beginning Monday, August 15th, 2011 - you now have the option to contact a live phone support representative at a cost of only $20 per call*. Live phone support is available Monday through Friday (8am – 5pm ET). You can reach one of our support representatives during these hours by dialing 1.866.417.0707.
We are excited to offer this new level of service and hope that you will realize even more value from our software as a result.
* A representative is committed to remaining on the call with you for up to 20 minutes to answer your questions. If you require more intensive assistance and consulting, we offer a full suite of consulting services that the representative will be happy to arrange for you.
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts
3 Customer retention moments & how Web Based CRM can help - Story From: BigContacts Product News
Successful customer retention is interwoven into the entire "Customer Lifecycle". It starts with the first contact you have with a prospect and continues over the lifetime of the relationship. Customer retention is more than giving the customers what they expect; it’s about exceeding their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your product or service.
Harry Beckwith, author of What Clients Love, has a great philosophy that he calls “Your Three Key Moments: 3, 24, 5.” Explaining the numbers, he makes the following points:
Research shows that the first 3 seconds of interaction with a customer influences the level of their satisfaction more than the amount of service time that follows for that interaction.
How can Web Based CRM help?
Whether you're reaching out to a customer or they're calling you, a good Web Based CRM program will allow you to quickly display and review all pertanent information using a "dashboard". This dashboard should display all the important information about this customer in a single view.
Having this information readily available ensures an informed and personal conversation with your customer. And what customer doesn't appreciates feeling like their vendor knows who they are and really undestands their needs?
When customers received a follow-up within 24 hours of any interaction or request, a study found, they enjoyed a 40% higher level of satisfaction.
How can Web Based CRM help?
Often times an email will suffice as a follow up after a service call or sale. A Web Based CRM system can automate much of this for you. A good system will allow you to set certain triggers to have an email (or even a series of emails) go out over a given period of time. The emails can be set to look as if you crafted the email yourself and personally sent it out to them. All of this can happen automatically and is recorded directly in the customer's record for future reference.
Sending a handwritten note within 5 days after a significant interaction is another great way to increase customer satisfaction.
How can Web Based CRM help?
A CRM system can never fully replace you. This is one that you will have to do on your own. (hand-writing the note to the customer)
BUT, your CRM system can generate a task reminding you to actually write and send this letter. Another great way this software can help you to stay organized and deliver "What Clients Love".
Categories: BigContacts, Contact Management Software, Sales and Selling Tags: Big Contacts
