The education and migration business is dynamic and it demands building extremely solid and trusted relationships with clients or customers. When an education and migration agency business does decide to invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, it should meet and adapt to the dynamic business operation needs. After all, CRM software should be a powerful tool that can help you boost productivity. Hence, before diving into purchasing one randomly, there are a few key points to remember before selecting a CRM software.
1. Be clear about your needs/ requirements
To start with, first, be clear on what problems and issues you are facing on a daily basis in your workflow. Your CRM system should be able to have the right solutions and should provide an ideal match with your daily business practices.
Many CRMs are specifically designed for different purposes like lead management, task management, marketing tools, and so on. For education and migration agencies, you will need the client’s lead management, visa application management tool, client portal, invoice management, and partner assignment system, and can be much more than that. Write down your needs and expectations. Think about how your current employees’ jobs can be efficient and automated and what are your future plans for your operations.
2. Ease of Use
Most businesses want all kinds of features for their CRM. But little do they know that it can make the system complicated and difficult for employees to understand and use. An easy-to-use CRM is much more likely to create better value for you and your team. It can help employees easily adapt to the new system so that they will use the system often for analyzing, interpreting, and reporting. If they are not easily trained, it will ultimately decrease the productivity which was supposed to be the other way. Thus while selecting a CRM it must be easy to use.
Also, whether your teams work in the same office or you work together from afar, it’s important to have the right workspace setup for everyone to keep up on the same page. That’s why a CRM should be easy to use.
3. Availability online or offline
While selecting a CRM, you need to check whether the CRM software hosts their applications on their online servers or on-premises servers. On-premises servers can be restricted to providing you only on-premises access but are more secure compared to the data in the cloud. However, online lets you access your system from anywhere and anytime. The service provider will handle the backups for maintenance and updates. Also, regarding the safety concerns, the expert team can make the system secure and safe from hackers.
However, you should also consider looking for all the requirements. Other things to consider include database requirements, CPU, RAM requirements, supported devices, and so on.
4. Flexibility and customization
You may not require some features at the moment and some you may require in the future. So, think about your current need and your future goals when selecting a CRM software. Because the software should be flexible and customizable. It should have add-on features you may require in the future and some customizable features which you don’t want to pay for now. Only then it can add value to your investment. Otherwise, a rigid CRM software will be nothing else than your liability.
5. Strong Customer Support and Chat Support
To get you onboard effectively on any agency CRM system, first, you need to get a training session from the CRM support team. The customer success team will provide you and your counselors with training sessions and handle any queries they have. From understanding the features to how to efficiently utilize the system, you get to know everything to successfully implement it in your daily operation. But most businesses often tend to neglect the customer support resources. Make sure to know the hours of the chat support. Many CRMs provide chat support to their clients from Monday to Friday during normal business hours i.e. 9 am to 7 pm.
So, whenever you run into a challenge that you can’t solve on your own, the customer success team will easily solve it once you reach them through chat support. If customer support is not easily accessible, it becomes difficult to operate on the CRM and won’t generate the maximum ROI from your solution.
6. Integrations
Since you are working with multiple stakeholders on multiple platforms, you need to consider integration features. With few CRM systems, you can have software integration that lets you automate multiple tasks of different applications with a single trigger. For example, if your messaging application such as SMS or email is integrated into the CRM, you can instantly send a message automatically to your new lead on the system. You do not need to spend time copying and pasting the same message across different channels.
7. Try it before you buy it
Every other application looks promising on the surface. However, you cannot ensure it before you try the system on your own. When you try it for a demo, you will be able to know not only what the CRM offers, but also how it functions. You will have the idea of the smoothness while functioning, the practicality of the interface, and much more. So, don’t forget to try out a demo version or free trial before buying the CRM software.
8. Affordability
No great CRM can be a great one if you don’t calculate your affordability in order to onboard it. Remember, a CRM is an investment and you should calculate the long-term cost. It should make your work more productive and should reduce your existing operation cost and not the other way round. If a CRM is beyond your budget and you have a high maintenance cost to pay, it will give nothing but losses. So, analyze your budget and analyze the benefits obtained as per the money spent.
If you are looking for a CRM software perfect for your education and migration business, Agentcis is the one. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to find out why our CRM software is an undeniable management asset to help you successfully grow your education & migration agency.
