BlueShift Digital CRM - Customer Relationship Management System / Databases

What we do – our CRM services:

We empower you to serve your customers faster, better and more efficiently. We do this by providing integrated communication solutions to small and medium sized enterprises across the Somerset area and further afield with a total commitment to being your friendly local face on technology.

Customer Relationship Management Systems:

Communication regarding and with all our internal and external customer is the single most important activity of any organisation.

Our totally bespoke, highly secure, completely reliable and very user friendly customer relationship management systems enable your business communication to be consistent, very efficient and highly accessible to those that require it.

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a powerful, interactive data communication and storage facility that allows information to be shared easily across your organisation irrespective of location, method of access or time of day.

A CRM forms an integral part of your organisation’s ability to manage the relationship with your internal and external customers. It can be updated easily with new information and can be searched in many ways to allow information retrieval.

In effect, a CRM is a multi-access database with user authentication and security features which is bespoke created to meet the needs of the individual organisation using it.

The CRM is your company’s client database, your internal bulletin board, your messaging system, audit/compliance system and point of reference for project and account management.

What does it do?

As the system is very flexible it is totally bespoke created to meet the needs and individual requirements/uses of the client organisation. This can therefore be an open-ended question. However, typical recommended uses of the system revolve around keeping records of the interactions between internal and external customers, for example you may like to record that a client telephoned with this message:

“John spoke to the client today who has gained approval to go ahead with the project. They need the project completed by Monday at the latest when there is a big launch. Marketing have said that the company corporate identity is to be changing to red and white so this must be reflected in the project.”

In this 5 second interaction with your client there are many key facts which need to be communicated to the right people at the right time. This can be broken down as follows:

“John spoke to the client today at 9am who has gained approval to go ahead with the project. They need the project completed by Monday at the latest when there is a big launch. Marketing have said that the company corporate identity is to be changing to red and white so this must be reflected in the project.”

Shown in bold are some of the key facts which need passing on to people involved in the project. Typically this may involve a telephone call and possibly E-Mail and faxes. This is often repetitive, resource intensive, labour intensive and not time or cost effective, particularly in a large organisation or where many people are involved. What is required is a single, reliable point of contact to which everyone has access and avoids repetition and errors.

The CRM can be configured to automatically allow users to select that John was involved and to enter the key facts eg.

Project manager currently: John Approval gained? Yes Timescale: Monday Colour scheme: Red & White Notes: Big launch soon Project stage: Started Latest interaction: John spoke to the client today 09:00

Everyone can access the information at a single location without the need to enter unnecessary information and the system will automatically suggest key content e.g.

Project manager: Choose from: John, Mandy, Fred, Saheed, Akil, or Marianne

This removes errors and saves time. It provides the ability to search by project manager e.g. the following query can be run to “Show all projects [not] being managed by Saheed” or even “Show all projects [not] managed by Saheed that are [not] started”.

Obviously it is possible to choose the query you would like to run and what information is automatically populated by the system. You can also choose which users have access to the full information e.g. costs and budgets, client interaction and user management.

Why do I need a CRM?

Interaction with people (especially your customers) is vital to any organisation. It could be argued that it is the single most important part of your company operations. How you deal with the interaction between key parts of your client-company relationship can make the difference between success and failure. Communication is the key to ensuring an efficient, effective and rewarding relationship in any situation. How your organisation handles both internal and external communication (particularly as successful organisations grow in size and complexity) needs to be constantly improved, reviewed and developed.

A CRM is a scalable, dependable, auditable and secure means of communicating the right information to the right people at the right time both proactively and reactively. It is an instant way to communicate with many people at the touch of the button whilst minimising error.

It will save your organisation time in terms of making and receiving numerous long-distance telephone calls and/or E-Mail messages; time in terms of mistakes that can be avoided if only the information was available; money in terms of telecommunications charges and lost productivity; and avoids embarrassing mistakes/confusion.

What do I put in?

The more you put into the system the better your organisation can use it. It is envisaged that the CRM becomes the single point of contact for all of your organisation’s information communications.

As stated, the CRM is your company’s client database, your internal bulletin board, your messaging system, audit/compliance system and point of reference for project and account management.

Who uses CRMs?

Customer relationship management systems can be used in many organisations in many different ways. These include:

(Full and verifiable references are available upon request.)

Umbrella organisation for IFAs

Case study – This company has a network of independent financial advisers (IFAs) across the country working from home in many locations. Communication about individual client account management is essential and FSA regulations require in depth information archival/audit trails.

The CRM has completely revolutionised the client’s ability to record interaction with IFAs and customerss. Previously many telephone calls and separate E-Mail messages were taking place between the individual advisers and the company. All the information is now placed in one, secure, audited and easy-to-access location allowing the business to expand sustainably and quickly. Should a team member be away from the office another member of staff can easily familiarise themselves with all relevant project status and information, allowing them to carry on at the point which had been reached.

Secondary School

The school has over 500 pupils and staff across multiple buildings on the single site. Communication between all staff and pupils was labour intensive and required many resources. It also relied on word of mouth or administration in a busy and sometimes challenging environment. The CRM provides a free-to-use, universally accessible instant method of updateable communication in the style of a local intranet.

Public relations company.

Communication is at the core of this company’s activity. The ability to place a summary of all conversations, project status reports, client notes, source material (such as logos, press releases and brochures) in a single location was an urgent and essential requirement. The CRM provides a universally accessible, reliable method of data storage and internal communication/information retrieval. Furthermore it allows staff to immediately familiarise themselves (and keep up to date) with company and client operations from any location. This saves the company time, provides a higher level of professionalism and

How do I know it is secure?

Access to the system is possible either via local intranet level or public internet access. For publicly accessible CRMs, the system is built to be fully secure by means of 512 or 1024 bit https encryption (this is the equivalent of guessing a single digit from many millions of possible combinations) as used in internet banking, and user authentication (e.g. username and password) is required. Furthermore the system would typically be restricted to access from a single IP address (identifying a specific item of hardware on a computer network) which could prevent access from any other organisations if desired.

What happens if it doesn’t work or is unavailable at some time?

We offer a 100% service level agreement 24x7. This means that we guarantee service availability all the time so your system is there when you need it, any time. We can do this because we have a similar service level agreement in place ourselves and a commitment to regular backups, infrastructure upgrades and service delivery/upgrades.

What is the cost?

The system is normally provisioned on a pay-for-access basis with a setup fee (typically c£500). Ongoing, a monthly access fee (from £100 +VAT) includes the full operation of your system and hosting of all data and services. With the first option any upgrades, modifications, required support and regular backups are included.