You may know the expression “What got you here, doesn’t have to get you there.” At first, Excel seems to work. It may even save you some money…
…which you then lose at the same speed due to its ineffectiveness and lost time. Although an Excel spreadsheet can be convenient, it is overused for applications such as customer management, invoicing, and creating item lists. The world’s most famous spreadsheet simply falls short of most of these tasks. And as your business starts to grow, so does the need for more scalable tools.
Excel is great, but as a spreadsheet.
From time to time, it is scornfully said that Excel is the worst CRM tool in the world, simply because that is not what it was designed to do. You can easily enter customer or contact data into Excel, but that’s about it. Who are your clients? What do you know about his profile? How important are they to your company? This information would allow you to better meet your customers’ needs and obtain better sales results.
Well, okay, Excel also has several advantages. It’s easy to use, most people know it, and all the data is on a single page. It is no coincidence that Excel is a fixed mainstay of the MS Office suite. But it won’t take you long to come face to face with its limitations.
time is money
Excel can be used for many things, but you have to do it all manually: either you or one of your colleagues has to enter all the data you want to store in a spreadsheet. Entering and updating customer data is a very time-consuming task. And you are opening the door to human error.
Managing your contacts in Excel is not the only thing that consumes time. If you want to visualize your sales results in a useful statistic, you’d better get to work: select the right data, create rows and columns, draw a chart, and select a format. Do you prefer a bar chart or a nice pie chart? If you create invoices in Excel, you already know that you have to enter the correct formula yourself, there is no type of automation. And remember: what is not done automatically is sometimes done incorrectly or simply forgotten.
The ability to collaborate in Excel is also quite limited. Sure, you can share Excel files, but collaborating in real time? Impossible. Excel does not allow multiple users to be working on the same spreadsheet at the same time. In other words, if you urgently need to access a file that one of your colleagues is working on, you have to stand by and wait your turn. Or create another copy, but then you can’t forget to join those copies. It works, but it really isn’t fast and practical.
The era of the customer
According to Forrester Research, the Age of the Customer began in 2010, meaning that all business strategies and operations should be carefully aligned to increase customer satisfaction.
As your company grows and your relationships with your clients increase, the Excel sheet begins to be insufficient. For example, Excel won’t tell you anything about a given customer’s sales growth opportunities or when you should make a follow-up call. In the age of customer relations, this means missing out on a ton of opportunities.
Excel versus a CRM
As an example, let us show you a list of the disadvantages of Excel and how a CRM tool can help eliminate them.
Additional CRM Advantages
CRM applications work as a central customer database and are made for communication and marketing. In addition, CRM applications allow you to record all interactions between your company and its customers in a single database. As a business, you can collect data from each customer and better meet their individual needs. This allows you a more personal approach based on the wishes of that particular client.
CRM applications allow you to manage your potential new clients in a more efficient way and follow the sales process in a fluid, simple and economical way. Anytime, anywhere, you have the right data at your disposal to make thoughtful strategic decisions.
Oh yes, it is also possible to easily import data from your Excel files.
Why should you choose a CRM application?
Do you really want to keep doing something because it’s what you’ve always done in the past? Change is never easy, but it is the key to growth, success and progress. Choosing a CRM tool can be a big leap forward in this growth process.
With Teamleader, you will obtain valuable information regarding the wishes and preferences of your customers, since customer data and any form of communication with them is stored in a single database. This allows you to focus on satisfying your customers and collaborating more effectively, giving you time to record frequently occurring issues and perform global analysis. CRM applications automate your administrative tasks, saving your team precious time that they can spend on more important and profitable tasks.
Still not completely convinced? Try Teamleader for free for 14 days and see for yourself how much time you can save if you can focus on clients and projects and not just administration.