Owning your own business offers many rewards – a flexible schedule, the opportunity to hire good people, the opportunity to leave the office just because you can (wouldn’t that be nice?), financial independence and many more. While working for yourself can be full of perks, there are also many difficult decisions to be made as a business owner. Who to hire? Should you offer more services? Do you need to offer more products to be competitive? Can you afford to hire new people? Can you afford not to? Business owners must manage not only their relationship with their employees but their relationship with their customers as well.

One way to manage customer relationships is to utilize Customer Relationship Management software, or CRM software. CRM software allows you to track your business processes throughout their life. You can see how your business interacts with the customer from initial contact, to proposal, sale, follow-up and more. CRM software allows you the opportunity to really see where you’re company is succeeding and where you can improve. A Customer Relationship Management System can help your business in so many ways – by targeting potential customers and generating leads, by tracking you progress with certain customers and more!

A new element to CRM software that has been getting a lot of attention recently is "social CRM". Social media is a huge presence and tool that can be used for your business. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. – Ahhh! With all of the different social media platforms it can be difficult to track how your social media profiles are actually helping you engage your customers and how that engagement is helping your business. Social CRM helps you compartmentalize and track your social relationships. With social CRM you are able to monitor your customers’ conversations around and about your business and respond appropriately. If a customer received a shipped order late or had a difficult time getting support for an issue and has taken to Twitter to vent about being unsatisfied with your services, you want to know that. Social CRM will alert you to these social conversations so that you can respond to both happy and disgruntled customers. If the unhappy Tweeter receives a tweet from one of your customer service representatives with an offer to refund shipping or just to promise to do better in the future, that is an opportunity to change the relationship and dialogue with that person.

Now that you know a little bit more about Customer Relationship Management Systems, you may be a little nervous about the idea of new software – but don’t be. A Customer Relationship Management System doesn’t have to be a headache; in fact it shouldn’t be a headache. There are many Customer Relationship Management companies and providers that are there to help you set up your system and guide you through the process. Most CRM providers offer training and consulting sessions to help make your transition a smooth one. Whether you want to have remote training sessions, on-site training or custom training courses for your business by a CRM expert, you can rest assured that you won’t be left to tread the waters alone.

For small business owners it can be daunting to consider adopting new technology. CRM software solutions are perfect for small businesses because they allow you to track all of your business processes in one place. Another great thing about CRM software is there are many Cloud-based solutions available cutting out the headache of hosting your own system.