12 TIPS TO GAIN TIME
One CRM love story per month for sustainable time management
Learn how your “colleague” CRM can help you with time management. Our tips will bring you more freedom, new energy and lots of fun, both for your work and your personal life.
What is particularly important to you and what you would like to gain more time for, you decide for yourself. Whether for the next project or more creativity, for innovative developments, further training or for your family – we show you where a CRM can relieve you and save you time.
Table of Contents
1. Love at first sight
Save time with CRM through intuitive operation and more order
A look at the interface, navigation, and widgets of a CRM application provides clarity about the user experience. It is an important criterion when deciding for or against the purchase of software.
A CRM system that makes it easy for users to find their way around intuitively is more likely to ensure a lasting (love) relationship between user and software than a complicated system. Those who can easily concentrate on their tasks through intuitive operation are in the flow, work faster and thus gain time. For more better time management and order also provide:
The central data management
In a single Customer database centrally collected customer data saves you searching across different systems. In addition, all employees of a company have access to the same information at any time.
Ideally from any device, even on the road. This saves time, but also gives you more freedom. They can decide when and from which location they want to work.
Determine with the CRM Requirements Overview what is important for your CRM.
The 360° view of customers
They can save time by working with a CRM that can display all data about a customer within a browser window. This way you can see all customer data collected in CRM at a glance, saving unnecessary clicks.
In addition to the customer history, you can also see all important documents or processes at the same time, enabling you to respond more quickly to customer conversations on the phone or via chat, for example.
This way, you not only gain time, but also more satisfied customers.
2. Not a day without him
Optimal time management with appointment calendar
A well-organized schedule helps us to cope with our professional and private everyday life every day. Without him, we have pure chaos. But how do you organize your appointments in the best possible way? How do you keep track? Diverse calendar functions support you in almost all planning and in your time management.
The digital CRM calendar
Advantages of use
- You can flexibly enter, move, change, delete appointments
- A reminder function helps against forgetfulness
- You can find past events using the search function – without having to scroll for a long time
- A free time search finds the best date for all parties involved
- Sending invitations to appointments is possible with a mouse click
- You can create reports on the utilization of the week, month or even in a project
- You may even be able to enter appointments by voice command (here in Mobile CRM app possible)
Especially in a company, the electronic CRM calendar as part of a effective CRMs makes sense. All employee appointments are collected and displayed in the company calendar. Private entries remain private.
In this way, colleagues from headquarters, the team or the supervisor can quickly and easily provide information or create appointments themselves. Without losing control over your calendar, because you will be informed immediately and can react.
We guarantee you’ll never want to work without a CRM calendar again. It is the heart of time management.
3. One for you, one for me
The fine art of task distribution
Thank goodness for CRM features today that help when schedules get tight and task completion becomes difficult. To help you stay on top of things, digital task management is important.
Always keeping an eye on your own tasks
You know your tasks and can estimate the time for implementation. In the process, you find that your schedule is too full to get everything done on time. It’s time to delegate some tasks.
Check what are the priorities of your tasks. What tasks or deadlines can you postpone? Which ones do you create yourself, and which ones do you pass on? With digital time management, you have all the information you need at your fingertips with the click of a button.
Transparency for the assignment of tasks
Often, project work takes place across teams and locations. By making the calendar and task management of a CRM work together, you can find the colleagues who can support you not only at your location, but throughout the entire company.
You can see not only who would have time, but also whether employees have the necessary experience to work with you on projects or even take them over completely.
Status on the delegated tasks
As soon as a colleague completes your task, you will receive a message from CRM. If there are any questions about the status in between, the CRM will give you all the information you need ad hoc. But not only for this. What tasks still need to be completed? Which are already overdue? Who else do I need to inform? You always have a 360° view of your tasks and projects.
No running around, no phoning around, no rolling files or interviewing colleagues and instead more time management – thanks to the use of a CRM software.
Time management tip
Do not schedule more than 60% of your work time per day and make sure you have enough buffer between appointments. This applies not only to your own planning, but especially when you delegate tasks. The CRM gives you the necessary information as well as a Time and task management. Otherwise, delays are inevitable.
4. One click to happiness
Live CRM and manage the flood of e-mail
Living CRM means meeting customer expectations. But you can only achieve this through teamwork, because your customers always look at the entire company. That’s why all employees must be able to access central customer information quickly for considered responses. Central also means that all employees file their e-mails from and to the customer in the CRM system.
Your mailbox and CRM merge into one workspace
Look forward to this work relief: you will not lose time researching customer issues. And your mailbox is always kept tiptop.
The No. 1 means of communication in today’s working world is still e-mail. Has the flood of emails already taken hold of you? Don’t be afraid of the Time-eater mailboxbecause technologies have already been developed to help you save time.
In concrete terms, this means that you can see all CRM data for the sender directly in the mailbox and can call it up via a link in CRM. In the same way, you document the e-mail per action to the contact and process in the CRM, from which you can also send your response immediately. Adding new companies and contacts is done in the same simple way based on the sender’s signature.
Time management is wanted
Your mailbox “merges” with the CRM and thus your customer communication immediately ends up in the CRM system. No extra work, but more time for customer relationship management filled with life. And you meet the company’s customer management requirements at the same time.
Time management tip
when working with SAP and email
What is true for the CRM system is also SAP and email appropriate. You save yourself various complex steps when you need SAP data and transactions for the email sender. Another important point for modern time management.
Watch the video now with one click!
5. Mr. postman, is there a letter for me?
Automation in email marketing frees you from routine tasks
Creating the texts for newsletters and mailings takes time. So is the conception of the campaign process. A CRM cannot provide this creative part of your work. But the entire downstream process does.
Sales and marketing in the team
You send newsletters and mailings. You put valuable information on your homepage. But how are you supposed to get in touch with interested parties now – without fishing in the mud? Randomly calling contacts from the recipient group is rather a waste of time.
Today, modern CRM systems work hand-in-hand with specialized email marketing software. With it, the marketing team sends beautifully designed HTML mailings and newsletters to the contacts from the CRM. Afterwards, the system will show you what information your contacts are interested in. Considered quantitatively and also qualitatively for the individual contact. An acquisition call now is promising.
Time gained for more creativity
Based on the click behavior in the newsletter or after a download from your website, further information is automatically sent to the interested readers and website visitors. This does not require any further sifting and selection of contacts on your part.
Thanks to CRM in marketing, sales and marketing can work together perfectly. The constant mailings enrich the contacts with further data (interests) (lead nurturing). You recognize in which phase of the purchase decision your contacts are and address them in a targeted manner. The time-consuming search for sales truffles is a thing of the past. And the time management is optmiert!
6. Everything I do, I do it for you
Digital time management for a -service!
What makes your service customers happy? Quick responses, meeting deadlines and friendliness in conversation! To do this, you need to consider a few factors when scheduling service staff. Especially if you also want to plan economically at the same time. Traditional methods with Excel quickly reach their limits here.
What customers expect from you? Immediate help.
All customers want an appointment as quickly as possible, where you will be helped and preferably without long waiting times.
With a CRM for Service & IT that already contains all customer information, all data is transparently available for resource planning: From addresses and purchased products to contracts and service agreements to any complaints. You can find appointments quickly and easily via a CRM deployment calendar for all service technicians.
The urgency of the job, the importance of the customer, its SLA (Service Level Agreement) and the availability of suitable technicians play the most important role. The CRM already provides information during a telephone call with the customer or when an email is received – for example, about available appointments or the customer’s location.
Deliver perfect work without time stress!
Quick scheduling for the customer is facilitated by a planning cockpit consisting of CRM deployment calendars, created tickets and the list of suitable service technicians. This allows a dispatcher to immediately see who has time to complete an order. The combination with Google Maps also shows which technician is close to the job site.
As soon as a scheduler sets an appointment for a technician in the planning cockpit, this technician not only gets his new appointment, but also all information about the sales order from CRM. If the technician is currently on the road, he can call up his data via mobile devices and use route planning to compile his orders into an efficient tour. Once he has dictated his report into the mobile device after an on-site appointment and sent it to the operations manager, the latter can record the times incurred or record any necessary follow-up appointments. Later, the data can be used directly in the creation of the invoice.
7. I have found you …
Minimize search times, optimize time management: through precise assignment of documents
Your colleague has an important question, your customer urgently needs information or the boss is waiting for relevant information. And you need a specific document right now to provide answers – but can’t find it. The sensible and structured filing of documents is an art in itself.
Your customers in view over 360
A CRM system helps you master this art. This is because it collects all the information about your customers and the relevant transactions centrally and clearly. With just a few clicks, information or documents are assigned to a customer file. About the company, the department and the contact you will find there, for example:
- Emails, mailings, campaigns and event participation
- Telephone notes and visit reports
- Dates and tasks
- Sales opportunities and offers
- Projects and tickets
In addition, automations increase data quality, for example, through the plausibility check of e-mail addresses.
No more XY unsolved files!
Not only your customers, but also your projects are always 360° in view with the CRM system. In the project file, they can easily view all important information, such as project name, project type, project manager, start & end dates, categories, status, budget, description, participants and much more.
Relevant documents, such as catalogs, sketches or organizational charts, can also be simply loaded into the file. CRM processes, from telephone notes to meeting minutes, can also be assigned to the corresponding project file.
In addition, you can follow documents and be automatically informed about new information or activities – optimal time management!
8. I got you, babe!
Clicks saved with the practical Action Panel
A CRM system lives and grows with the requirements of your company. Over time, this can lead to the number of functions increasing and the paths to the goal becoming more complex. With the Action Panel, long click orgies are a thing of the past. From the Home screen, the shortcuts directly provide the functions you need frequently.
- Telephone note
Had an impromptu phone call with customers or partners? You don’t have to search for a long time in CRM during the phone call, but create the phone note with one click in the action panel and file it with the right contact. - Visit report
Just had a client meeting and want to capture thoughts and new info as quickly as possible before details get lost? With the Action Panel, they enter all relevant info directly from your CRM home page – whether you work for Sales or Service.
- Fast entry
With fast capture, you have even more options. Choose which customer it is, what information to capture, and even schedule deadlines if necessary. In a few seconds, everything is recorded – directly from the home page. - Note
Capture thoughts, info or to-dos easily with the note function. Assign them to customers, colleagues and appointments. - Data upload
Create new documents simply by dragging and dropping them into the Action Panel with direct file assignment.
9. Take me with you
Fast visit reports directly on site with CRM app
Have you experienced this before? You’ve had three customer appointments today, finally arrive at the office or home office, and now you need to gather all the details again for the final visit report. This will take even longer, because you still need to remember all the information first – rather not optimal time management.
Visit reports on tour with the CRM app
The CRM app lets you create visit reports virtually on the fly. Directly on site at the customer, you create the report directly in the CRM and enter all relevant information, which is then directly available to your colleagues in the office.
The speech-to-text function even lets you easily dictate the visit report in the car. So you save even more time and don’t have to go to the office in the evening!
Preconfigurations enable individual reports for this, because of course different information is relevant for each industry, strategy or department. Through smart report configuration, employees, whether sales or service, are easily guided through the visit report.
With mobile CRM, you are well informed at all times and are constantly in direct exchange with your colleagues.
10. i just called to say i love you
CTI – telephony at the touch of a button
With CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) you integrate your telephone system directly in the CRM system. This has enormous advantages for customer service as well as for your time management.
Call answering and information with one click
You accept incoming calls with one mouse click. If the contact already exists in the CRM system, you will also be shown directly who the caller is.
Predefinable application actions open in parallel all data that might be relevant for you now, such as the customer file, service tickets or the last phone note. This allows you to focus entirely on your customer and their concerns right from the start.
Faster dialing and saving phone numbers
With just one click on the phone number in the contact profile you start the call. This saves the manual entry of telephone numbers. If an unknown number calls you, simply file it in the CRM system with a few clicks and, if necessary, assign it directly to an existing profile.
Phone calls are more concentrated, multitasking is reduced. Your employees and customers will also be pleased about perfect time management.
11. And I love you both
Dashboards & Reports: Year-end closing without stress
The year is coming to an end and you need to present figures to your supervisor. This often takes a lot of time and turns into stress: Searching for data, collecting it, evaluating it, comparing it and getting it into shape.
Everything always in view with individual dashboards
You’ll want to keep an eye on the numbers not just at the end of the year, but actually all the time. After all, the better prepared you will be for reports and necessary decisions. With practical dashboards, this becomes child’s play.
You configure your own dashboard according to your individual requirements. This then shows you all the KPIs you want to keep an eye on in real time in clear tables and modern graphics.
Use reporting to process information quickly and thoroughly
In addition to many predefined Reportings you can also adapt reports to your needs. Present the current figures in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. Reports can also be easily exported as PDFs and emailed directly from CRM. This makes year-end time management a breeze.
12. All I want for Christmas is you
Help with Christmas mail: use distribution lists and templates
Every year, the Christmas greeting to customers and partners is due. But who should receive the greeting? What should it look like? Even with this annual routine, your CRM helps with time management.
Set distributor
Whether mailing or serial letter – with the address search in your CRM system, you can narrow down your desired distribution group in no time at all based on several individual criteria. You can then export the resulting list, for example, as a CSV file for distribution to external printers or save it as a list for use as an e-mail distribution list that you can access again at any time, saving you repeated searches.
Use templates
Use the MS Word integration in your CRM to create templates for your various mailings, whether e-mail and letter templates or individual text modules. This ensures a uniform corporate design and standardized customer communication. And all this quickly and easily with just a few clicks.