4 Ways My CRM Handles My Follow Up

A few weeks back I had a post about missing your Follow up Window and a friend of mine commented and asked if I use a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and what my process is. Today I wanted to share 4 ways that I use my CRM to help with my follow up window.

1. Get Contacts in ASAP – Any potential client or colleague gets added into my CRM immediately. I save notes from calls, and with mine (Zoho) you can send emails directly through the platform so it stores the conversations which is handy.
2. Schedule The Follow Up Tasks – Once I send an email I immediately add in my follow up task. Usually it’s simple like “response?” just to remind me in a few days to check in with them if I haven’t heard anything. If there was a referral involved I’ll make a note to send a thank you note to that person once the process is complete. (Often they’ve made the introduction so I don’t need to let them know I heard from the referral).
3. It’s on my task list – Every week I have a notebook with all the tasks I need to accomplish for the week. The first thing says BLOG (see, it works!) and the second thing is Zoho (my CRM). I check my CRM a few times throughout the week, if not daily. Sometimes I adjust my tasks that are due for the week, and sometimes I can get them all done in one day. I will add long term client tasks here too which is handy so I don’t forget (which I started doing after I forgot something a few years ago).
4. It Integrates with MailChimp – This is one of my favorite parts of my CRM, each month before I send out my newsletter I transfer new contacts from my CRM. It’s a quick and seamless process that ensures my prospects get this additional touch point from me. That way if they stop responding or say “not right now,” they’ll continue to hear from me so when it’s the right time, they know where to find me.

Your CRM is a powerful tool to help with your follow up. These are 4 ways that I’ve found they help me to ensure that prospects and clients don’t fall through the cracks. There are a TON of other features in my CRM I’m not talking about here – and a ton of other features I don’t use (and probably should) but this is how it helps with my follow up.

Don’t have a CRM? I had a guest post from a colleague who has some great recommendations.

How do you use your CRM to help with follow up?