Our view at Stack - Capsule CRM simplifies customer relationship management, streamlines sales processes, and saves time. Features include contact management, customisable sales pipelines, email integration, analytics, and workflow automation. It doesn't provide full email marketing functionality but it does allow you to connect to other tools.
A good customer relationship management (CRM) tool can be used by teams across your company. It should facilitate daily work across the business: from qualifying leads and nurturing prospects to onboarding new customers and providing a quality service.
Your CRM is your most centralized system of customer data and record of interactions. And with so many stakeholders across the business relying on the system, it can only make sense to keep the conversation going without leaving your CRM.
Introducing comments and threads in Capsule CRM. You can add comments to specific records like calls or emails, respond in the same thread, and notify colleagues of actions or updates by mentioning their names as you comment.
So how can you use this feature to improve internal collaboration in your organization? Let’s look into some use cases to make the most of comments and threads.
How can you improve internal communication?
Support your employees with feedback
Whether you’re a new hire or simply looking to improve your skills, you can use a comment to request feedback from your manager on your sales call or customer email.
Your manager can instantly review historical interactions with the lead or customer and immediately contextualize the conversation from the rest of the contact’s record before they reply in a thread.
You no longer need to copy-paste or print screen interactions in order to ask for or provide feedback.
Highlight actionable tasks
This is typical in any environment where you collaborate or communicate with other team members. Let’s imagine you work in an agency: you might have several people with whom you work on the same account, like a data analyst, content writer, and SEO specialist for example.
If you’re the account manager, you could use the comment feature to update your team on the latest customer catch-up, highlighting the necessary tasks required of different people by tagging them with the ‘@’ symbol.
This feature is also handy for salespeople when it comes to handing over a newly won lead to your post-sales team.
Each person is notified when they’re tagged so they won’t miss your message.
Collaborate with colleagues
Let’s say you work with sales and your opportunity is in the negotiations stage. If you’ve just spoken to the contact and logged the call or email in Capsule, you can then add a comment. From there you can @mention the relevant colleagues to keep them in the loop. The thread function comes in here, allowing your coworkers to respond in the same way to discuss the next steps.
With faster, more efficient collaboration, you can move your Opportunities through the sales pipeline quickly and smoothly.
What are the benefits of a collaborative CRM?
Reduce context switching, improve productivity
Ever heard of context switching? It’s what happens when we move from one task to another, or simply from one interface to the next, even if it’s part of the same task. It might not sound significant, but the mere task of moving from, let’s say, a spreadsheet to your communications channel requires users to readjust to the application, its layout, and its purpose. And it takes a toll on our focus, productivity, and mental fatigue.
Harvard Business Review explains that “excessive [content switching] increases the brain’s production of cortisol (the primary stress hormone), slows us down, and makes it harder to focus.” Their research found that each switch ‘costs’ the user just over two seconds, 1,200 times a day. Each week that comes to just under four hours, or 9% of their annual time at work. Not figures to be sniffed at.
By keeping just one of your daily activities on one platform, you’re cutting out dozens, if not hundreds of switches every day.
Keep your data and conversations centralized
Your conversations about a lead or customer often contain important information. While you can already take note of this when you record your activity, tagging stakeholders in the associated comments helps keep everything in one central space.
And if your conversation happens right there in a thread on the record, you’ll never have to dig through documents, tear through your written notes, or chase a colleague for additional information again.
Greater visibility
It’s not just about communication. As an administrator or team leader, you might also browse your team’s individual activities to ensure processes are followed and productivity meets your expectations.
For instance, as the customer success team lead you might use this feature to ensure your employees are following up with your customers and internally sharing their next steps.
On the other hand, reviewing the comments your team leaves for you, each other, or even themselves could offer insight into better ways of making the CRM work for your team and make adjustments accordingly.
What’s more, if you’re looking into a particular contact or opportunity, you no longer need to chase your colleagues for extra information. Whether it’s standard data points or notes from internal or external meetings, everything you need is there in the record.
Conclusion
Comments and threads allows you to keep the conversation going in Capsule without switching applications and systems.
Strong internal communication prevents confusion and avoidable mistakes as well as actively improves feedbacks and handover efficiency.
Use comments and threads to advise colleagues, encourage skill development, and achieve effective communication in Capsule CRM.
Like the look of Capsule’s centralized CRM? Try any plan for free for 14 days and see how comments and threads boosts productivity and collaboration in your team.
If Capsule CRM is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.