Customer base: how to keep a diary, Excel and CRM

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Humanity has long taken a step into the future and invented CRM systems. But the question of where to keep a customer base is still relevant. Many people still prefer diaries or keep customer records in Excel. We suggest tracing the evolution of methods and programs for maintaining a customer base and comparing the capabilities of a diary, Excel and CRM.

Content

Customer base in the diary
What features can't a diary provide compared to NetHunt CRM?
The Roaring 90s. Customer Accounting in Excel
What to choose for customer management: Excel or CRM?
The third millennium. From CRM and beyond...
What does the future hold for CRM systems?
Conclusions
Popular questions
Customer base in the diary
Once upon a time, instead of programs for recording customers and orders, diaries were used. And stickers. And random sheets of paper. Sometimes the client's phone number had to be written down on whatever came to hand: on a napkin, his son's checkbook, a box of sweets and just on the palm of his hand. Then this record had to be searched for ...

It seems that the paper age is long gone. The world has long since replaced diaries with CRM systems, such as NetHunt CRM , which simplify work with clients and workflows. But there are still people who have not betrayed diaries. Either they believe that no CRM system can handle the entire complicated system of their business. Or they explain that the information is minimal, it is all in their heads and a special program for managing clients is simply not needed.

Maybe fans of diaries are right and CRM systems are created simply to make money? Why is CRM better than a diary and what should you choose: a diary or a CRM? Let's compare.

Want to know what a CRM system is ? We wrote a detailed article about it!

What features can't a diary provide compared to NetHunt CRM?
1. Reliability
“Manuscripts don’t burn,” “What’s written with a pen…” — proverbs and catchphrases convince us that keeping a customer base on paper is much more reliable than… well, unless you keep it in your head. Manuscripts have always been highly valued. And it’s no coincidence: if you use paper instead of a customer management program, the disappearance of just one diary can cause the collapse of all work. A diary can be forgotten or lost. A diary is the property of an afghanistan phone number list employee, not the company. If an employee leaves the company, all his work in the notebook will go with him. In short, if he loses the diary, he loses his business.

This won't happen with a cloud CRM system. It will be available 24/7 anywhere in the world from any device. Data in the CRM is protected from copying and deletion.

Forget about logs and spreadsheets with NetHunt CRM!

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2. Speed
Manual labor is the most expensive labor in the world. If your customer base is in a diary, it will cost much more than automation. How much time does it take to find something in chaotic records? And to make a mailing? And to conduct analysis?

If you need to add something to your diary or, conversely, reorganize the information to get rid of unnecessary entries, you will simply have to rewrite everything again. Or, you may have to carry an entire library with you (of course, the most important entries are always in the diary that you left at home that day).

CRM owners are free from these problems. In CRM, records are created automatically, they are organized in a clear interface, they are easy to find and reorganize if necessary. At the same time, the volume of data is practically unlimited and they are always at hand.

3. Control
A customer base is the main tool for business success, but unless the manager checks the records of customers and orders in the employees' diaries at the end of the working day, then there is simply no control. Information is entered haphazardly, in fragments. And the more records there are, the easier it is to forget or lose something.

This applies not only to external control, but also to self-organization. There simply is no system of records that would allow one to effectively manage one's own work.

CRM looks like a spaceship compared to a diary. Tasks are assigned automatically. The progress and result of the execution are displayed on the dashboard. The manager sees and controls the workload of managers, and reminders allow you not to forget anything.