When starting an online business, you have a variety of important questions to deal with but the primary question is how you intend to manage your customer relationships. Consumers make buying decisions based on their relationship with the company they are dealing with. Since you are running an ecommerce site, you will need to have an online customer relationship management process in place. There is software specially made for this that is commonly referred to as CRM, however, not all of the CRM options that are out there will be suitable for your particular online business.

Picking the Right CRM Solution

This step will require some time and deep thinking on your part. What you need to do is map out the entire online experience, from the time someone visits your website to the point where they make a purchase (or not) and leave. Once you have that process mapped out, you will need to determine how the online customer relationship software will help you.

For example, when someone fills out a customer support request form on your website, the CRM is going to capture that request and send it to the person you have assigned that task to. When that person responds to the customer’s inquiry it will be noted in the CRM so you or anyone within your team can monitor this progress.

By addressing the needs of your customers in a timely manner you are building a stronger relationship with them which should endear the customer to your company.

Another tool that a CRM provides is the ability to proactively engage your customers by leveraging the power of email marketing. From the CRM you will have the ability to send and receive emails, but what distinguishes the CRM capabilities from bulk emailing solutions is that you can send targeted emails.

Whenever someone visits your website, the CRM is going to note the activity, so if a visitor repeatedly goes to a particular area of your website then you can send the prospective customers customized marketing materials based on their website visiting habits.

Without an appropriate CRM installed it would be very difficult for your online business to gain the insight needed to form a strong rapport with your prospective and current clients. To gain a competitive edge, moving forward with choosing and implementing a CRM solution quickly is the smart decision to make.