Microsoft CRM Workflow Manager
Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management Workflow Manager is often referred to as the "CRM Manager." This program helps business owners and managers coordinate their employee's efforts and streamline regularly performed business tasks.
How the CRM Workflow Manager Helps
- Establishes workflow processes: The CRM Manager allows users to establish workflow processes. Essentially, the user tells the computer what should be done, the order multiple tasks should be performed in, who should perform the tasks and the tasks' specific due dates.
- Creates steps based on business plan: Many times, the program is defined as an encapsulation of an entire business plan. This means it takes the steps contained within a business plan and turns them into daily or periodic tasks. By doing so, it ensures specific, necessary tasks are performed timely.
- Establishes deadlines and assigns tasks: The program is customizable to a specific business' needs. The user, which is usually the business owner or operations manager, establishes the different deadlines for each task and any other requirements pertaining to the specific job. The user can assign those tasks to a specific group or employee and track their completion.
The program mainly uses Outlook to operate. However, users may also establish a private website to use the Manager and make changes to its operations.
The Features of the CRM Manager
The main features of the program are the help it provides with sales, customer relations and marketing.
Sales: The customer interaction feature of the program allows employees and managers to handle current client sales. For example, it may identify the date when a product will expire and need reordering. However, it also helps identify potential new customers and sales opportunities by connecting contacts with the company's services or product offerings.
Customer Service: The Manager permits the ability to track and measure a single employee or team's performance and respond to customer complaints or problems. Additionally, it allows for fixing customer issues faster by allowing users to search for related, previously resolved problems.
Marketing: Because of its collection and maintenance of customer data, the program also allows a company to develop more thorough and comprehensive marketing plans. Spreadsheets can be transferred into the program from Excel and additional information can also be added from other programs. By reviewing current customers and contacts newly entered into the program, users can design a marketing scheme aimed at where they have had the most success in attracting customers.
Program Benefits
The CRM Manager helps a company operate smoothly. Benefits include:
- Defining policies based on established processes
- Ensuring completion of customer commitments
- Notifying management of problems as soon as possible through automatic notifications
- Workload reorganization for balance
- Ensuring consistent processes
- Managing key business policies and procedures
By automating daily business tasks, it enables the company to ensure its operations are performed according to the business plan. Using the program, therefore, might increase customer growth, customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of a company's long-term survival.
Program Drawbacks
The CRM Manager is quite complex. Many users report problems with establishing program rules and responding to changes in their system after updates. Additionally, it is also quite expensive: a 2-year license costs approximately $1,000. Moreover, applications that may make the program more helpful to a particular company are sold separately, and can often cost hundreds of dollars.
CRM Program Users
Although the CRM Manager is customizable to any business circumstance, it is mainly beneficial to businesses with several employees who must perform different tasks on deadline. Therefore, most times it is a multi-employee business that regularly uses the program. Companies with sales representatives who are on the road a lot are the most common groups to utilize the CRM Manager.
Purchasing the CRM Manager
Microsoft offers a free 30-day trial of the Manager. The trial is not limited in its functions, but once it ends must be purchased or all previously inputted data is lost. The program can also be purchased from Microsoft or third-party vendors.
Implementing the CRM Manager in Your Business
The CRM Manager can help you streamline business processes so they conform to company policy. However, the Manager can be difficult to learn how to use and is quite costly. Consider using Microsoft's free trial prior to purchasing it outright to ensure it will suit your business' needs.
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