It pays to take a few minutes to get to know your CRM better and learn more about its features. This is true even if you’ve been using the same CRM software for years. You may have missed an update or a new feature that could benefit your business.

If you’re using the Marketing 360® CRM, take some time to peruse the Help Center. It’s full of helpful resources to teach you everything from how to sync third-party leads to how to connect a CRM list to an email list and beyond.

It also doesn’t hurt to shop around every once in a while to make sure you’re still using the best CRM software for your needs.

A small business CRM can be a powerful tool to have on your side. However, CRM software can’t do much on its own. Small business CRM software is only as effective as the data you put into it.

There’s no point in having a CRM without data, so make it a point to enter customer data into your CRM on a regular basis. How often you add data will depend on how busy you are and how many customers you work with.

Busy businesses with lots of customers may need to enter customer data right away so that nothing is forgotten. But, other businesses may benefit from adding customer data daily or weekly as a part of their administrative duties.

If you try to manage your CRM all on your own, you’re going to have a hard time keeping up with it. You are not the only person within your organization who works with customers or completes tasks or projects, and you can benefit from the input of others on your team.

Get the most of your CRM software by allowing multiple people on your team to enter data. But, before you do, make sure that you assign them the proper account role for the job.

The Marketing 360 CRM offers three account role levels to choose from — user, manager and owner.

Not only can a small business CRM organize customer data, but a CRM can also help you manage deals you’re working out with customers and projects you’re doing for them.

With the Marketing 360 CRM, once a deal is closed, you can save time by converting it into a project. You can also manage big projects by assigning individual tasks to different people on your team.

Avoid repeating tasks and keep projects and deals up to date by making sure that everyone involved is adding important data and notes.

Even if you’re good about entering customer and project data into your CRM on a regular basis, it’s still important to clean it up every once in a while. This is especially important if more than one person at your business is responsible for data entry.

Take a few minutes once a month to look over the information in your CRM, removing any duplicate entries and correcting any information that needs to be fixed.

While it’s incredibly important to keep your CRM up to date with customer data, it can take a lot of time to enter all of that data manually. Taking advantage of CRM automation can help you make the most of your CRM while also saving you time and energy.

Your CRM can automate repetitive tasks that would otherwise require hours of manual entry, helping you streamline the data entry process and drive productivity.

For example, when a lead fills out a contact form on your website, that information will be automatically populated in your CRM. You can also automatically send emails to customers after an appointment or a purchase to follow up about their experience.