CRM Strategy + Zoho: Fast results & Flexibility

Zoho CRM. What can we say? We’ve used a lot of software over the 25 years of being in the business of CRM, and we think Zoho One may be a game changer. Like other application suites, Zoho One has pros and cons, but in our view the sheer volume of applications and capabilities available in the suite is overwhelmingly positive.

We’re not alone in this sentiment either. In this Forbes Article, Zoho ranks highest of all CRMs surveyed in the Emotional Footprint Software Review (2019) for popularity with its users. This reflects our own experience. As we’ve increasingly incorporated Zoho tools into our own workflows, we can confidently state that Zoho is adding real value to our business.

Zoho One is a powerful collection of tools at a seriously attractive price point designed to meet most needs with a minimum of configuration. If you haven’t used a CRM before or are looking to streamline your business systems with a simple to use, effective tool-set then Zoho One may just be the system for you.

Watch this video to find out more

So, why is Zoho One such a game changer?

Let’s start with price

Zoho One gives you access to over 40 independent (but connected) applications for a low per-user monthly or annual fee. For literally less than the price of a cup of coffee per user/day you have access to CRM, Marketing, HR, Ticketing, Document management tools and a host of others.

The suite offers any business all the tools it needs to connect and grow. Don’t be worried about how many solutions there are. Our process helps you turn on packages as you need them, and only when they deliver value. This helps support your business plan and processes as you need them. The Zoho One strategy means everything you do is in one connected family, allowing you and your team to focus on the business rather than tech. Start simple and grow as you need. With the Zoho One family of products, the value for money is tough to beat.

Take control of your costs –

If everyone in the business signs up, get a 50% discount and the gain the benefit of everyone connected and in touch.

Zoho is easy to use

We’ve been surprised at how easy the applications are to configure and use. Interfaces are clean and modern, and since the suite runs from the cloud it’s accessible everywhere.

One of the most noticeable differences we’ve observed between Sugar and Zoho is that our Zoho clients jump into the tools quickly and need little initial training. If we’ve added some customisations this plays out a little differently, as we support our work with user on-boarding, but mostly Zoho clients use the applications almost immediately.

A large part of this ease of use comes from the connections between the applications themselves. For example, a CRM user will see if a contact has mentioned the company on social media, (the ‘Social’ app) or how much a marketing campaign has contributed to a latest sale (the ‘Campaigns’ app).

Using Zoho One is an intuitive experience, backed up by a wealth of documentation and videos.

Little configuration needed

Since the suite is cloud based, there are no deployment complications, meaning the various applications are ready in their raw state once the licenses are assigned.

Providing support and strategy to develop your Zoho CRM is much like staff development; requiring a continual improvement process. The Zoho One family has all the core features you need but as your business is your business, it will need to be tuned to your specific needs and processes. This isn’t tough, but we listen to why you are in business, your values and procedures to then tune Zoho so it’s uniquely yours. After all, aren’t you different?

Our years of experience allow us to coach you through this change to make your life easy, and focus on your business plan and needs, rather than expect you become an application specialist. The process is clean and focused on practical solutions you can use.

Zoho applications are frequently updated

Another noticeable factor in the high level of user satisfaction is the fact that Zoho upgrades the suite frequently. Because of its modular design, each of the applications is an independent entity, meaning that once refinements or new features have been added they can be released to the community without impacting the rest of the suite.

What this means is that as users we get the best of all worlds–an evolving set of tools and a stable platform. This is a win/win scenario.

It’s not uncommon to log into an application we haven’t used in a while to see that Zoho have tuned it in some new way. Our users enjoy this, as the other benefit of the frequent upgrade cycle is that Zoho often act upon user feature requests.

Huge choice of apps

The first thing we noticed when we began using Zoho One was the sheer volume of applications. You can see the full list here. To be honest, this can be initially overwhelming for clients looking for a simple application, but the overwhelm doesn’t last. We’ve found that by focusing on a core business function, say for example–CRM driven marketing–the choice of tools becomes clear. While the full suite is always available, we have hidden those tools we don’t use, knowing we can spin them up whenever we need. Most of our clients settle on a core group of applications that offer a strong baseline experience.

Just to take an example, one of our clients in the marketing industry makes use of the following:

CRM–for all customer management tasks
Campaigns–Email campaigns, including automations such as customer onboarding
Social–Social media integration and management
Pagesense–website heat maps and AB testing
SalesIQ–website chat and chatbot via ZIA AI
Forms–Online and CRM-integrated forms for sign-ups
Survey–Online and CRM-integrated surveys
Analytics–BI and reporting integrated with above tools
Workdrive–Secure online document storage and collaboration

In this client’s case, they were able to cancel their MailChimp, SurveyMonkey and Olark chat subscriptions, while getting the added value from the CRM system.

Other clients have different focuses and gear their systems around other core applications. In our own case, we use the above and add to the list-Projects, Sprints and Desk for development activities.

Zoho one supports your business plan’s needs, allowing you to improve customer engagement, sales, marketing, customer service or web sales. You can start improving any part of the business knowing that the family of products will help improve all parts of the business.

And more on the way…

A.I. isn’t just a term you read about

AI isn’t normally a term applied to everyday business. It’s something we hear about and ignore. Too complex. The Zoho Zia strategy is different-it has applied this technology to daily functions where you gain the benefit and don’t really know AI is helping.

Let’s take reporting. Reporting has always been a specialist skill where you needed to know databases and tables and fields. Wouldn’t you just prefer to ask “show me my sales for the last 30 days” and have a chart appear?

The Zia strategy allows complex tasks to be done simply. Let’s take another example: When is the best time to call someone? Zoho monitors call performance across the board (and specifically with your contacts) looking for patterns. For example-it starts to prompt you to call at 1pm as it’s observed you complete calls more frequently then than at other times.

Why waste your time calling and leaving messages, when you can call when you are more likely to succeed. Earth moving? No. Helpful when you are time poor? Yes.

It plays well with others

The Zoho Market extends the core functionality with plugins into other systems. We’ve found that many of our clients use the market to connect Zoho to their existing tools. For example–we connect our own Sugar CRM to the Campaign application.

While the suite offers capabilities across multiple business activities, Zoho have recognised that many users will only want to use parts of it to augment their existing investments. We have found that if we can’t find a connector on the Market, we can often use the Creator or Flow tools to provide the integrations we need.

Effective automation

With Zoho Blueprints and CommandCentre you have at your disposal powerful tools for making sure that business processes are followed and that the team doesn’t miss important steps. You can use these to guide salespeople through customer-journey style selling scripts, checking off important sales stages as they go, or to ensure that critical checks are always made before allowing staff to go to the next step.

By making use of the drag and drop flowcharts, you can build a visual map that determines how your business processes will flow. And the best part? No technical coding required.

A powerful all-rounder. But is it right for you?

Zoho is a strong fit for many organisations, but not all. While the application suite in Zoho One provides a vast array of capability, Zoho is not as easily customisable as for example, Sugar CRM.

If you’re looking for a fully featured suite that’s ready to use with possibly only a small amount of configuration, then Zoho One is exactly what you’re looking for. It will get you going fast and allow you to expand at your own pace.

If you need to control hosting and expect to customise heavily or add large amounts of bespoke functionality, then you may want to consider it in conjunction with other systems.

Either way, we encourage you to explore Zoho and see what this powerful suite has to offer. And as always, call us or get in touch if you need any advice.

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Lessons Learned

Zoho one is an integrated application suite with over 40 tools
It’s highly price competitive
The applications are user friendly and easy to learn
Cloud based, extensive configuration rarely needed
Frequently upgraded
Powerful AI
Extensible through plugins
A powerful all-round package, but has limitations on hosting and highly bespoke customisations

CRM Strategy is your key ZOHO ONE partner in Australia.

CRM Strategy has been servicing clients in Australia, New Zealand and around the world for more than 25 years. We focus on what you need from a solution and how it supports your business and processes. Our skilled team will listen and design a solution that fits your needs and deliver practical and effective solutions you can use. All this supported by mentoring and support to achieve your goals. Please leverage our hard-won experience and knowledge and join the family of other clients we have helped succeed.