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There are a lot of important behind-the-scenes team members across companies of all sizes that quietly keep the company going. They’re critical to your success and bring special skills into your environments to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Your accounting team, for example, helps ensure that you literally keep the lights on, employees get paid, invoices and bills go out, payments come in, and your books are balanced.

If you’re a small or mid-sized business (SMB), your accounting team could be as small as one or two people, who wear many hats to keep the money flowing. From budgeting and forecasting to tracking and completion, there are a lot of moving parts in ensuring your ledgers are always accurate and up-to-date.

Unfortunately, for many SMBs, these processes can be complicated, tedious, and often require manual inputs of data, or a lot of imports and exports of data, to move information from one system or database to another. When you have a small team where the responsibilities fall onto just one or a few people, it can be a headache when just one person gets sick, takes time off, or moves on from the company.

And while many executives see the benefits of using modern accounting software, few have the time or financial resources to make the switch and many fear downtime if they try to innovate. Accounting is often the place within a company where the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” mentality drives business.

But choosing and implementing a new accounting program doesn’t have to be so scary. With the right research and input, you can easily streamline your operations, improve efficiencies, remove duplicated manual tasks from multiple workflows, and even make your employees happier by reducing the stress and worry of human errors and never having enough time to focus on more pressing matters. Often, the reduction in staff time and decreased errors is enough in itself to offset the investment and shore up the ROI on a new accounting solution.

If you’re considering a change and are ready to look at new or upgraded accounting platform, here are 7 features to consider:

Budgeting and Forecasting

Have you ever had to create a departmental or bigger budget and struggled with importing numbers into a spreadsheet or on paper, looking across a growing list of fields and cells, trying to make sense of past performance and guesses about the future? Budgeting and forecasting doesn’t have to be that time-consuming or complicated. When considering a new accounting solution, look for one that also has budget and forecasting features. Having all your financial data in one place — across all your divisions — in one solution can help you do that easily. And, with access management and related controls, you can even share this data with other people, ensuring they can only access exactly what they need, so budgeting is simplified across your entire organization.

Recurring Transactions

All companies have routine and recurring transactions. If you have recurring transactions, stop doing them manually. Instead, look for accounting software that will automate these transactions, enabling you to configure your parameters and approval processes and then let the system handle it for you. Also, consider an accounting solution that will send you alerts or notifications if you encounter anything outside your pre-set baselines so you’re never caught by surprise.

Cloud, On-Prem, or Hybrid Options

An increasing number of businesses are moving solutions and data management to the cloud, especially in light of the coronavirus outbreak and the growing number of remote workforces around the globe. Each business has its own criteria about if it needs a cloud-hosted, on-premises, or hybrid solution, so it’s important to look for an accounting solution that doesn’t just meet those needs now, but is also set to scale and change with you in the future.

Multiple Entity Management

Budgets and ledgers are often complex. How you track your accounting needs is likely unique for your specific business. There are a range of factors, for example, across departments, across divisions, across locations, based on region, or even product or service-based. Whatever your company setup is, if you’re considering a new accounting solution, you’ll want to make sure it supports management of multiple entities and does so in a simplified, easy-to-understand way. Look for an accounting solution that enables you to have both a big picture understanding of your company as a whole, all the way down to a granular level, so you always have comprehensive insight into your company’s financial health.

It’s All About Integrations

Integrations are key for your accounting solution. Many companies won’t even consider a new tool because sometimes purchasing one means other operational systems, for example your invoicing platform, won’t work with it. That’s why it’s critical to look for an accounting system that integrates simply with your existing systems and applications – or replaces them entirely – so you can easily pull data from one area to another and not have to do manual imports, exports, or inputs.

You’ll want a solution that integrates across many parts of your business, for example from sales lead to products and inventory ordering and management, through point-of-sale, billing, accounts receivable, shipping, distribution, and more.

Security and Privacy

If you’re dealing with personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive data, it’s likely your company is subject to a range of compliance and regulatory standards. Your accounting software must meet those same standards, too. When choosing an accounting solution, take a deep dive into its security practices. Select a tool that you can be confident will meet all the requirements in your contract and service level agreement (SLA) and be sure to conduct regular audits to make sure security and privacy always stay front of mind.

Reports and Analytics

Earlier, we touched on the importance of selecting an accounting solution that helps you manage multiple entities from a broad scope all the way down to a granular level. Similarly, you’ll want to look for an accounting solution that will also enable you to create customizable reports based on this and other criteria. Each accounting team needs to produce various report types, some for internal audits, some for external audits, some for compliance, and others just for insight. Be sure the accounting solution you’re considering will let you build the reports you need — quickly and easily — so you can communicate important information to all of your stakeholders.

These are some of the many features you should consider when selecting a new accounting solution, but you may have other requirements that are unique to your organization. Need help? Contact us today to be connected with an aACE partner to help answer your questions and get you headed in the right direction.

aACE seamlessly integrates with ReadyCloud's ReadyShipper, a best-of-breed shipping solution that puts lightning-fast fulfillment at your fingertips. Last month we were joined by guest presenter Brandon Batchelor, Director of Sales and Partnerships at ReadyCloud, to walk our audience through the ReadyCloud side of the aACE+ ReadyShipper integration. We're delighted to share his presentation on-demand.

In this video, you'll see a batch of orders in aACE go through the fulfillment process in ReadyShipper, then see the related costs and tracking numbers have been updated in aACE in real time. You'll also learn:

• How data flows from aACE to ReadyShipper and back
• How to customize views in ReadyCloud to see only the data you need, when you need it
• How to check the status on individual shipments
• How to send Action Alerts to customers based on specific events, like an order going out for delivery
• How to split shipments into multiple boxes
• And more!

Our thanks go out to Brandon for this fantastic presentation! Watch it on-demand below:

 

And to learn more about our aACE+ ReadyShipper integration, check out our short demo video to see the aACE side of the Pick, Pack, and Ship process below, then read our success story on Southwest Auto Accessories to learn how a real small business has increased their velocity thanks to this seamless integration.

"When we first opened, we shipped maybe 20 packages that month, and now we’re probably shipping 20 packages a day. Once the orders are transmitted to ReadyShipper, processing a package to get it ready to ship takes seconds — it doesn’t take minutes, it takes seconds — to complete the transaction and have the package ready to ship." - Lane Carter, Co-Founder, Southwest Auto Accessories

How can manufacturers improve sales tax compliance? Collection, remittance, and reporting requirements can be particularly challenging for manufacturers that make both taxable and exempt sales and use drop shippers. Here are five steps manufacturers can take to streamline sales tax compliance.

1. Understand sales tax nexus

Nexus is the connection between a business and state that allows the state to impose a sales tax obligation on the business. If you have nexus in Texas, for example, you need to register with the Texas Comptroller, obtain all necessary licenses, and comply with all applicable sales and use tax requirements.

Physical presence in a state always creates nexus. Yet businesses with no physical presence can also establish sales tax nexus solely through their economic activity in a state. This is known as economic nexus, and it’s currently enforced in 43 states, plus Washington, D.C., and parts of Alaska.

Most state economic nexus laws provide an exception for small sellers. For example, economic nexus is created in California when a remote seller has $500,000 or more in total combined sales in the state in the current or preceding calendar year (the economic nexus threshold). New York’s threshold is $500,000 and at least 100 separate transactions during the previous four sales tax quarters. In Massachusetts, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000.

Sales tax nexus laws differ from state to state. Determining where nexus exists is the first step toward compliance.

2. Register with the tax authority

Like other businesses, manufacturers must obtain all required licenses and register to collect sales and use tax in states where they have nexus. As with nexus laws, registration and licensing requirements vary by state.

Small manufacturers operating in few states may need only a few licenses. Larger manufacturers operating nationwide likely need spreadsheets and dedicated personnel to ensure all registration and licensing requirements are met. Automating the process can make it go much more smoothly.

3. Calculate and collect sales tax

Manufacturers that make taxable sales of goods or services must collect sales tax for each transaction. Rates vary from state to state; in all but a few, local and/or special district taxes apply on top of the state sales tax. There can also be different rates for different products (e.g., alcohol or soda) or services.

Most (but not all!) states base the rate on the destination of the sale — the location where the consumer took possession of the product or received the service. With more than 13,000 tax jurisdictions, sales tax software helps ensure the right rate is assigned to each transaction.

4. Track exempt sales

Of course, not all transactions are subject to sales tax. Manufacturers often make exempt sales of normally taxable goods to other businesses. Sales to government entities or nonprofit organizations may also be exempt.

Every time a retailer doesn’t collect sales tax on the sale of a statutorily taxable good or service, it must collect an exemption or resale certificate from the consumer. These certificates must be stored and readily accessible so the exempt transaction can be validated in the event of an audit. Tax authorities always examine exempt sales.

5. Remit sales tax and file returns

After the close of each reporting period, registered businesses must report and remit the collected tax to the state (and where applicable, local) tax authority. Due dates and filing frequencies vary by state, as do other requirements: Many states require reports to be filed even when no tax was collected, and some states mandate electronic filing for certain sellers.

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes manage sales tax compliance in all states. To learn more, read 5 Steps to Managing Sales Tax for Manufacturers and check out our feature highlight on the aACE+ Avalara AvaTax integration.

About the Author

Gail Cole has been researching and writing about sales tax for Avalara since 2012. She has a penchant for uncovering unusual tax facts and endeavors to make complex sales tax laws more digestible for experts and laypeople alike. We are delighted to share her expertise with our audience!

As April showers give way to May flowers, join us to learn how aACE can help your business blossom. Last month we covered topics ranging from shipping to documentation; here's what we have in store for May:

Timesheet Administration – May 4th

Discover the many ways to track and record time in aACE. We'll explore time codes, timesheet approval, timesheet management access privileges, and more.

Scheduling (Calendar & Task Groups) – May 18th

Time is money, so learn how aACE can help your team stay on-task and on-schedule in this webinar. And to get a sneak peek at our calendar and scheduling features, check out our feature highlight and success story on the aACE+ DayBack calendar.

Multi-Entity Accounting – May 25th

Manage the financials for multiple locations – or even multiple businesses – in a single aACE solution. Take a sneak peek at this topic by checking out our feature highlight and Special EFX success story before the webinar.

We look forward to seeing you and hearing your questions in each of our presentations! Register now to reserve your spot.

Because of the coronavirus in 2020, which is continuing to affect many regions around the world in 2021, the business world has had to step back and adjust our strategies meeting customer needs. Not only have customers’ expectations evolved, but so have our delivery channels for many products and services. Many countries still have limits on social contact, making the old ways of doing business face-to-face and delivering products in a brick-and-mortar location increasingly challenging.

Many companies weren’t able to effectively adjust, choosing instead to shutter buildings, while others are continually working on new strategies to attract and retain customers. Hopefully, your business has found a way to survive—and thrive—during these challenging times.

Customer retention has always been a critical part of business success, but how do you do it successfully now under these new social conditions? And how can you ensure you’re meeting all of your customer needs while keeping them and your team safe?

If you haven’t already implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) solution for your business, now is the time. And if you have, there are several CRM strategies you can apply to your operations to help keep customers happy, deliver an outstanding personalized experience, and retain them for future business.

First, What Exactly is Customer Retention?

Customer retention encompasses all the ways you get an existing customer to stay engaged with your company, with the goal of getting that customer to purchase additional products or services from you. The longer your customers engage with you, the more you can learn about their behaviors, what they’re interested in, what they engage with most from your company, and what types of products and services they prefer with your company. If you’re using a CRM, especially one that integrates with your content management system (CMS) and your social media accounts, you can gather this and other data from your engagements for better data-driven decisions on how to interact with that customer and keep them engaged with your brand.

What is Customer Churn?

Customer churn is also known as customer attrition, and it represents the loss of customers from your existing customer base. A lot of companies ask the question, “What’s an acceptable churn rate?” The answer depends on your specific business. Basically, just remember you want your customer acquisition and customer retention numbers to be greater than your customer churn, or loss, rates.

Using Your CRM to Help Build Customer Retention

One of the benefits of using a CRM to engage with potential and existing customers is the ability to collect data about the customer that you can use to build a customer profile. By understanding who your customers are and what they want, you can deliver personalized content that leads them on a journey from product or service inquiry to a sale or purchase.

Think of it this way: Every customer has a problem that needs resolution and your company is there to provide that solution. Your product or service should address the customer’s pain point and, if you do so effectively, you can potentially retain that customer for an extended period — as long as the pain point exists and you can keep resolving it. It’s all about the buyer’s journey.

CRMs are great tools to chart a buyer’s journey all the way from a sales or marketing lead through the decision-making process all the way through final sale, and onto returning engagements. Some CRMs even have lead-scoring tools build it, which enables you to score what your company sees as the most valuable types of engagements that are likely to lead your lead to a purchase so you can focus on those and deliver personalized content and experiences that help facilitate that journey.

With your CRM, it’s all about the data—data collection, data analysis, and data-based decisions. Your CRM can collect this data and based on objectives and goals you set for engagements, you can create reports and review analytics to drive customers toward your goal.

On-Demand Communication Customers Want

Have you ever received an email from a business that left you scratching your head about why you got it? That’s a quick way to turn off customers from you. For example, if your data collection tells you that your potential lead is a 30-something, childless, unmarried female, you probably don’t want to send her newsletters with coupons for men’s shoes. You can use the information you collect through your CRM on the lead’s engagements to deliver personalized content about what the customer wants. Maybe in this case, it’s a pair of hiking boots for her next solo excursion outdoors.

And, in addition to helping you deliver personalized content, you can use your CRM to create automated engagements that help you engage with your customers on-demand, even if it’s outside of office hours. Let’s say, for example, you have a list of common questions you get from your customers. In the above example, maybe potential customers have questions about whether your hiking boots fit true to size. You’ve included it on your shop’s page under each item description, but it sometimes gets overlooked. Knowing that it’s an important question that could turn off a person from completing a transaction, you could use your CRM to automate answers to that FAQ in a number of ways, for example a chatbot embedded in your website or a personalized email that immediately recognizes the inquiry and sends out a fast, accurate response.

Other Ways Your CRM Can Help

Here are a few other ways your CRM can help you retain your customers and keep them happy:

• Deliver ongoing, automated communications (delivered how they prefer, such as by text or emails) so you customers don’t forget about you
• Facilitate automated engagements to let customers know about new product features, sales, or other promotions
• Send personalized messages — not just in content delivery, but also addressing the customer by his/her name and acknowledging previous engagements with you
• Engage in a two-way communication loop about customers’ needs, wants, and concerns
• Manage your company’s brand and image by facilitating automated, approved messages and responses
• Build trust with your customers by demonstrating a commitment to regulatory, compliance, and other mandated privacy and security measures to keep their data with your company safe
• Facilitate cross-channel communication methods like email, texts, social media, your website, and more
• Recognize potential points along the buyer’s journey where you may be at risk of losing a customer and facilitate engagements to encourage retention

These are some of the many ways a CRM can help you acquire and retain customers. Do you have questions about using a CRM or need help choosing the right CRM solution for your company’s needs? Register for an aACE webinar today to learn more!

The use of customer relationship management (CRM) software is increasing across many verticals, as a growing number of marketing and sales professionals are seizing opportunities to streamline messaging and workflows, while aligning departmental goals and objectives to the overall business mission.

In 2020, as customer expectations regarding delivery channels changed in light of the coronavirus pandemic, and as a growing number of businesses shifted to remote workforces, customer experience reigned for CRM focus. We can expect that to continue throughout 2021, but what else should we anticipate in terms CRM adoption, usage, and growth? Here are 7 trends we can expect to see:

In 2019, the global CRM market was estimated at more than $40 billion. In the next several years, that growth is expected to continue, with the marketing increasing more than 14% by 2027. In just the next three year, by 2024, it’s estimated the market will surpass $43 billion.

1. More Companies Will Adopt CRM – and SMBs Will Make Gains

Historically, large companies have led CRM adoption. Back in 2016, for example, more than half of CRM users were large enterprises. While small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have been a bit slower to adopt customer relationship management software, it’s on the rise. By 2027, if predictions on market size are accurate, that could level off with more SMBs using CRMs,  matching the usage patterns of large enterprises.

2. More AI and Machine Learning

While CRMs help automate tasks and deliver reports and analytics to help us track a variety of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), many busy professionals still struggle with understanding how to use the data their CRM collects. As a result, we’re likely to see continued momentum with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) integrations within CRM solutions. Not only will your CRM be able to gather the data you want, it will be able to help you make better data-driven business decisions by predicting behaviors and suggesting responses. Predictive analytics can help teams pinpoint customers faster, predict their behaviors, and create content and other deliverables that drive leads to sales.

3. On the Go with Mobile and the Cloud

As the pandemic forced more people out of the office and into working at home, businesses have had to rapidly adjust by adopting mobile and other applications that facilitate full business workflows outside the office. The same is true for CRMs, where team members need access to important customer information from wherever they are, any time, day or night. We can expect to see more CRMs adopt mobile-friendly options, as well as cloud-based solutions, to ensure workforces have access to all their CRM functionality whether in the office, at home, or on the go.

4. More Reliance on Automation

CRM automation not only makes jobs easier for your team members, but automation and ease-of-use for products and services delivery is ever-more important to your customers. By using a CRM with integration into your content management system (CMS) for your website and integrated point-of-sales solutions, you can ensure your customers have a simplified and streamlined way to do business with your company, while your CRM – especially if it’s integrated with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution – can automate everything from estimates to billing to shipping and customer service. Internally, process automation within your CRM will help ensure you’re also delivering consistent, approved messages, on-demand, with trusted repeatable actions to facilitate a sales journey.

5. Continued Emphasis on Experience and Personalization

Customer experience will continue to be front and center for resilient organizations in 2021, regardless of industry. A report from Walker, a customer experience management firm, predicts that customer experience will become the leading differentiator for brands, surpassing product and prices. Personalized experiences will continue to be critical to great customer experiences. According to that same report, almost 90% of respondents say customer expectations for personalized experiences continue to increase, up from only 4% in 2013.

6. Silo Breakdowns

As an increasing number of people now work outside of the office, the need to bring down traditional workflow silos has never been more important. CRM will likely play an important role in this in 2021 and beyond. That’s in part due to the insight your CRM can give you across your customer journey — from market lead to satisfied (and hopefully returning) customer. Your CRM can give team members insight into who’s most likely to become a customer and help guide your engagement, while identifying gaps in your processes.

7. Departmental Alignment with Business Objectives

It can be a struggle for individual department leaders to understand how to align department goals and objectives with overall business priorities. The further away you move across your employees, the more challenging that becomes. With reporting and analytics within your CRM, more businesses will embrace this insight resource to help set goals, measure performance, and establish metrics that help gauge success and improvements.

A great customer experience starts with great data. Register for a webinar today to learn how aACE can help you delight your customers and keep them coming back for more.

Learn how you can help your business grow this spring with our aACE webinars. Last month we covered topics ranging from production to shipping and from CRM to accounting. Here's what we have in store for April:

Templates, Campaigns, and Rate Cards – April 6th

Learn how to save time and prevent errors related to duplicate data entry with standardized orders, purchase orders, pricing, and more. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlights on rate cards and campaigns.

Guest Webinar: aACE+ ReadyCloud Shipping Integration – April 13th

Hear from our guest presenter, Brandon Batchelor of ReadyCloud, on how the aACE+ ReadyCloud ReadyShipper integration can help you revolutionize your shipping process. Before the webinar, check out our aACE+ ReadyCloud demo video and read our success story on Southwest Auto Accessories to learn how a real aACE customer has reaped the benefits of our partnership with ReadyCloud.

Shipping and the aACE Pick App – April 20th

Now that you've seen aACE's ReadyShipper integration in action, join us to learn more about how aACE streamlines the pick, pack, and ship process. You'll get an in-depth look at our Pick App and see how our shipping integrations flow into aACE.

Guest Webinar: aACE+ The BPR – April 27th

Learn how The BPR can help you quickly, easily, and accurately document your company's unique workflows and customized features in this guest presentation from our friends at Optimum Output.

We look forward to seeing you in our April webinars! Register now to reserve your spot.

Business is changing fast. A continued push for more technology adoption — from the desktop computers in our offices to applications for our smartphones and tablets — can sometimes feel overwhelming for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited staff, resources, and finances. How do you decide what you want? How do you separate wants from needs? How do you get the most bang for your buck?

And how can you compete with larger enterprises who have the ability to purchase the latest and greatest in tech when you’re still trying to figure out how to improve your current workflows to reduce burden on overtaxed staff when you may be falling behind on the tech curve?

The answer isn’t continued piecemealing of every tech recommendation your department heads bring to the table. You may be surprised there’s actually a single solution out there—one that can help you do the work you’re already doing right now—faster, more efficiently, and with fewer human errors—leading to happier employees and customers, all with the scalability to grow with you, without breaking the bank.

It’s called enterprise resource planning (ERP), and it’s a great solution for businesses of all sizes, especially SMBs.

What’s an ERP?

An ERP is a software solution you can use to integrate and automate your core business workflows — for example marketing, sales, operations, and accounting — to improve operational efficiencies; decrease the need for manual, repetitive tasks; automate basic functions that free up your staff to tackle more important tasks; and give you insight into all of your operations from an easy-to-understand dashboard.

Process Automation

ERPs are all about processes. Regardless of your industry vertical or how large or small your organization may be, you have core processes that keep it running efficiently.

Unfortunately, sometimes SMBs struggle to find process consistency and efficiency for these workflows. It’s often the result of a growing business that starts small, where a single employee creates a process that works based on his or her tasks and experience. Over time, as the company grows, those processes are passed on verbally or by demonstration, with no real control mechanism to ensure that everyone is doing the workflow the way that’s approved and authorized by your company. It’s like that old game of telephone, where the lead whispers something into one person’s ear and by the time it gets to the end, it’s nowhere near the original intent.

That’s one of the many benefits of using an ERP for process automation, and it’s also why an increasing number of SMBs are turning to ERPs to improve workflow efficiencies.

In one recent survey, for example, almost 60% of respondents (57%) said the goal of automation is to support human performance and improve productivity. Another 24% said it can help decrease costs with 15% using automation to help decrease mistakes.

Automation, often referred to robotic process automation, can help improve the way your company handles common business tasks, often those that are manual and repetitive and aren’t generally complex. If that sounds great to you, you may not be sure where to start or how to do this effectively. Here are a few quick tips.

1. Understand your workflows

Before you can effectively implement an ERP for process automation, you need to understand all of the core operational workflows for your organization. If you have more than one site or location you’ll need to take a look at all of them, not just the ones in your home office. Look for workflows across all your core departments, from marketing and sales, to operations, to production, over to supplies and delivery, accounting, and customer service. These workflows will be unique to your operation.

2. Determine which workflows are most critical for resiliency

Once you’ve outlined your core workflows, determine which of these are most critical for operational success. You might want to consider a business impact analysis (BIA) to help better understand the roles of these workflows in resiliency and what would happen if there were errors, disruptions, or failures.

3. Understand what’s suited for automation and what’s best for people

After you have a good understanding of your workflows and their impact on your business, now is the time to assess which ones can be handled effectively with process automation and which ones need more attention and should be handled by a person on your staff. It’s important to ask yourself here, of all your workflows, which ones will likely have the highest return on investment if you focus automation there first?

Here are a few ideas of some of the many processes you can automate with an ERP:

• Marketing tasks such as emails and newsletters and social media posts
• Sales tasks such as appointment reminders, scheduling, sales follow-ups, and point-of-sales transactions
• Operational tasks such as human resource needs, for example scheduling and time tracking
• Accounting tasks such as cost estimates, purchase orders, billing reminders, routine payment processing, or commission tracking
• Warehouse tasks such as inventory management, inventory tracking, shipping tracking, and reorders
• Customer service and customer relationship management (CRM) tasks such as inquiry response and database management and updates

While these tasks are great examples of ERP efficiencies, there are other tasks that may be better suited for personal interaction, for example, checking the accuracy of invoices and sending them, among other tasks.

4. Prepare for Automation

Once you’ve determined which tasks you can automate, now it’s time to prepare for automation. While this step doesn’t have to be complicated, it should be well thought-out. It’s more than just setting the steps in your ERP for each workflow. Before you begin, you should evaluate your existing processes.

• What are you doing that works well?
• Where do you have performance issues?
• Where can you resolve these issues with automation?

5. Establish Best Practices

After reviewing your existing workflows and evaluating deficiencies, create “best practices” for each workflow you’re going to automate. Test those best practices and ensure they work. It would also be beneficial to document these practices and, if your company uses change management, be sure to get appropriate review and approval before finalizing. Don’t forget to talk directly with the team members responsible for these tasks. You’ll want to hear from them what works and what needs improvement. This is also the time to talk with them about the benefits of automation to bring them onboard with the idea of adopting a new solution or a new way of doing things, reminding them it will help make their jobs easier and give them the opportunity to put their talents to work on more meaningful engagements.

6. Find the Right Vendor

There are a lot of ERP vendors in the market. Once you’ve determined which processes you want to automate and have an understanding of how you want to automate them, look for an ERP vendor that will enable your company to achieve both your short- and long-term automation goals. You’ll also want to review the vendors licensing and pricing models, talk with other clients who use the software, and ask to try the software before you commit to a purchase. Does it work for you in reality, not just in theory? You may find it helpful to work directly with an advisor who understands the ERP market who can help guide you through all the decisions you’ll need to make before finalizing a purchase.

7. Implement and Adopt

Once you’ve selected your ERP, it’s time to implement it and set up those workflow automations. But effective ERP usage isn’t just set-it-and-forget-it. Earlier, we talked about how important it is to engage the employees responsible for these workflows. Now that you have the solution in place, take the time to properly educate them on how it works and how it will make their jobs easier, improve accuracy and efficiencies, and help the company scale and improve over time. Periodically solicit feedback. Does the system work as you intended? Does it need notifications to work better? Are there other workflows that could be automated in the future?

If you think an ERP solution may right for your SMB, register now for an upcoming webinar to see aACE in action and hear from our knowledgeable presenters about some of the many unique benefits that can help your organization today – and as you scale.

Customers want what they want, and while they might not always be “right,” making them feel valued, respected, and heard are important pieces of great customer service.

In today’s digital world, personalization plays an important role in customer service, too. Whether that’s delivering customer-specific content or facilitating speedy ways to engage more frequently, communication is key for attracting and retaining loyal customers.

And customer service is quickly evolving past just meeting customer needs. It’s also all about the total customer experience — everything from what they perceive about your brand and reputation, to how they feel when they engage with you.

In one recent survey, almost 50% of respondents said that customer experience is the top business priority for the next five years, outranking both products and pricing.

Whether you’re a small company gaining new customers or a large enterprise trying to respond to an increasingly long list of customer needs, figuring out how to deliver the best customer service can be challenging, even for customer service pros.

And great customer experiences are increasingly important in today’s competitive markets. One customer experience survey indicated that some 32% of respondents will walk away from a company after just one bad customer service experience. That same survey also revealed that 73% say customer experience is important for purchasing decisions, but sadly, they say less than half (49%) of companies actually provide a good customer experience.

But there is good news. Good customer service not only works, customers say they’re willing to pay more when they have a great customer experience.

So what can you do to improve your customer experience and improve your company’s approach to customer service? You may be surprised to know you already have a great tool in your arsenal, and if you don’t, it’s easy to add it to your operations and get on the right track.

What’s the linchpin? It’s your customer relationship management tool (CRM).

First, what’s a CRM?

CRM stands for customer relationship management. In modern business operations, this is usually a software solution that meets a range of functions, from managing your customer database to delivering customer-specific marketing and sales information.

Beyond serving as a contact database, most companies use their CRMs to manage their customers’ journeys, where everyone starts as an inquiry or lead with the goal of eventually being nurtured into a customer, and, if done well, a returning customer for the long-term.

Insight Leads to Success

CRMs give companies insight into their customers — from demographics to other relevant buying and relationship data — that just can’t be obtained through other client management processes, like simplified email programs or databases.

A CRM is more than an address book. It helps you automate processes, from identifying your relationship with your customers to establishing a persona — or buyer type — for each customer. Knowing who your customer is and what your customer wants and expects from you is a solid foundation for building your customer relationship over time.

Here are 9 ways your CRM can help you deliver exceptional quality customer service:

1. Team-wide customer journey insight: Have you ever worked in a company where one of your top salespeople is working a great lead, where you know about it because he or she shared information in a recent meeting, but, other than tracking that person down, you have no idea where how the lead is being nurtured or where it is in your sales journey? What happens if that sales team member gets sick or gets promoted or leaves the company? How do you get insight into all the emails sent, phone calls exchanged, and meetings set? Understanding that relationship, and what has been communicated to the customer when, is critical for great customer service. A CRM means that anyone with your team's established permissions can check on a customer’s status, and, where appropriate, jump in to take the sale over the finish line as needed.
2. Company-wide sales data: Sales are more than just financing your company. There are a lot of related moving pieces, like purchase orders and billing, accounts receivable, and shipping. A CRM with integration into your business management solution (BMS) can give all of your related teams insight into the status of all your sales, from leads, to processing, to successful deliveries, and even reorders. That means, at any time if a customer has a question and needs service — for example, did you receive payment? — anyone on your team can get the data they need to respond and keep your customer happy.
3. Eliminate redundant tasks and duplicate entries while decreasing human error: As a customer, have you ever patiently waited for a product to arrive, only to be frustrated when it never shows up? You know your order went through because you received a confirmation email and then someone followed up to confirm your order and let you know it would go out soon. When it never arrives, you follow up and realize that when the person who processed your order entered your shipping information into the shipping software, they swapped two numbers, so your product got lost in transit. A CRM with BMS integration can keep your customers (and your employees) happy by eliminating the need to duplicate manual entries throughout disparate systems and automatically share relevant data within all of your related systems — like orders, payment, and shipping.
4. Always in stock: Customers are happiest when they get exactly what they want when they expect to get it, so integrating your CRM into your enterprise resource management (ERP) solution can also help improve your customer experience. By integrating sales information, for example leads and a historical perspective of sales over time, with your ERP that manages inventory, you can feel confident you’ll always have the products you need on hand, when your customers want them. 
5. Respond in real time: Because most CRMs have a gamut of automated communication features, you can improve your customer service by using your CRM to handle a range of customer service issues. For example, look for a CRM that will integrate with your existing website. Instead of having customers open up an email, send it in and wait for a response, you can use your CRM to embed a customer service form right on your website. Then, by setting a range of parameters within the CRM, (for example, if and when rules) you can automatically generate a response for some of your most common customer service issues. You can even use it to automatically escalate more difficult service needs and communicate across a variety of platforms like email, social media, text, chat, and more.
6. Send customized communications: Like the customer service widget we mentioned for response, not only can you speed up communication delivery with a CRM, you can also personalize your communications. By automating and personalizing your emails, for example, you can pull data from a variety of database combinations to deliver customer-specific messages to your leads and clients — you can ensure customers are always delivered relevant and timely information to help them along on their customer journeys.
7. Reports and analytics: One of the greatest benefits of using a CRM is the ability to see and report on customer metrics that matter to your organization. Not only can you use the CRM to see how many new customers you have, where they are in your pipeline, and how you’re doing on retention, you can also use your CRM analytics for insight into your customer experience. Did your customer email a question that’s never gotten a response? Did your customer place an order and it wasn’t received? CRM analytics can give you real-time insight into your entire customer process, enabling you to identify and resolve any gaps or issues long before your customer gets frustrated and complains.
8. Ensure consistency: Even if you prepare your customer service teams with scripts and role-playing exercises, there are commonly varying customer experiences for people based on which employee they engage with. And, regardless of training, it’s difficult to ensure consistent communication and experiences when they’re primarily person-led. Instead, your CRM can help ensure consistency by automating tasks for your employees (for example, sending a pre-approved email) and tracking your required processes with insight and reporting capabilities.
9. Track meetings and other important dates with reminders and alerts: Your CRM can also help ensure customer satisfaction by ensuring you never miss an important date. For example, if you promise a customer you’ll return a call or send a reply email by a certain data, you can use your CRM to send you reminders (or automate the response) so you can be sure you never miss an important task and don’t frustrate customers.

There are a lot of CRM solutions on the market. How do you know which is right for you? How do you know which has the most (and best) integration capabilities with your existing systems, services, and applications? If you need help selecting a new CRM or think your existing CRM is struggling to keep up, register for an aACE webinar today to learn how we can help.