In a highly competitive market environment, customer relationship management (CRM) systems have become an indispensable tool for businesses. However, for many small businesses, developing or purchasing a full-fledged CRM system often means high costs and complex operations. Luckily, we had a cost-effective and practical solution – using Excel to build a customer management follow-up system.
As a powerful spreadsheet software, Excel can not only process data, but also realize the core functions of CRM such as data visualization, information query, and record tracking through its powerful formula and function functions. Next, we will introduce how to use Excel to build a simple CRM system, including core functions such as customer data visualization, customer information table, customer record form, customer follow-up record form, contract record form, and customer inquiry form.
1. Visualization of customer data on a large screen
With Excel's charting capabilities, we can present customer data in an intuitive way. For example, you can use a pie chart to show the distribution of customer sources, and a bar chart to show the comparison of the number of customers in each status. These data visualization tools not only help us quickly understand the customer's situation, but also support decision-making.
Second, the basic setting table
It is mainly used to summarize the parameter query table and dimension table of various data, and realize the summary and processing of some intermediate data through this intermediate table, and visualize the data source of the large screen
3. Customer information form
The customer information form is the foundation of the CRM system and the master table of the entire system. In Excel, we can create a table with basic customer information such as name, contact details, address, etc. By setting the column name and format reasonably, we can easily enter and view customer information.
Fourth, the customer record form
In addition to the basic information, we need to record every interaction with the customer. The customer record sheet can include information such as the content of the communication, the time, the person in charge, etc. With Excel's filtering and sorting capabilities, we can easily find and organize the records of a specific customer.
5. Customer follow-up record form
Follow-up record forms are a vital part of a CRM system. In Excel, we can create a table with information such as the status of the follow-up, the content of the follow-up, the time of the next follow-up, and more. With conditional formatting, we can quickly identify which customers need urgent follow-up and which ones are going well.
6. Signing record form
The contract record form is used to record the customer's contract information, including the contract time, contract amount, contract number, etc. This data is important for evaluating sales performance and customer value. In Excel, we can utilize functions to calculate the sum or average of the contracted amount for a better analysis of sales.
7. Customer inquiry form
In order to facilitate the quick search of customer information, we can create a customer inquiry form. Through Excel's lookup and reference functions (such as VLOOKUP functions), we can quickly locate and extract the details of a specific customer in a customer information table.
Through the above steps, we can use Excel to build a simple CRM system to achieve centralized management, visual display and efficient query of customer data. Although this system may not be comparable to professional CRM software, it is more than enough for many small businesses to meet their day-to-day customer management needs. What's more, Excel's ease of use and low cost make this system more accessible and usable for small businesses.
In short, Excel, as a powerful spreadsheet software, has a wide range of applications in customer relationship management. By making the right use of its functions and features, we can create an efficient and practical customer management follow-up system for small businesses, helping them stand out in the fierce market competition.