Posted on Tue, May 15, 2012 @ 12:21 PM
Dependable Support is really what makes us BigContacts. It's our drive to do more than our industry peers. It's our goal to make a difference every day for you and every customer. In addition to all the free support services that we have offered for years…
BigContacts now offers live best practices webinars twice every week.
The webinars are free to all our customers. You can attend one or all of them as many times as you like.
During these short 30 minute webinars we will focus on key aspects of the system and share with you the best practices and tips for maximizing the value of BigContacts in your business. All webinars are presented live and are opened up for questions & answers at the end of each session. We want you to know that we are here to ensure your success with BigContacts and to help make a positive impact on your business.
Click the "Learn More" button below to see a complete listing of topics...along with webinar dates and times.
Not a customer yet, but want to learn more about BigContacts?
We offer live webinars three times each week to introduce you to BigContacts and share with you 4 tools that we think will ensure your success with our web based CRM platform.
CLICK HERE for dates and times and register for a live CRM webinar today!
Dependable Support delivered the way you want it...
The diagram below highlights all the levels and types of support available to you as a customer of BigContacts.
The BigContacts challenge...
Over the years we have had the privilege of working with tens of thousands of small businesses around the globe. This amount of experience has made us very confident that there is not a business problem that we cannot help in some way to solve.
If you face a challenge in your business that you have not found a way to solve with BigContacts, please reach out to us in one of the many supports channels that we offer and put us to the test. We would like to have the opportunity to assist you in solving this challenge.
Posted on Thu, May 03, 2012 @ 08:20 AM
Over the years we have found that there are certain questions that we get asked over and over again. One of the things we have done to address some of these common and very important questions is to develop a complete support library of articles and videos to answer some of these important and frequently asked questions.
For those of you that have not had a chance to visit this library, you can find it in one of two ways.
- While logged in to in your BigContacts account you can click on the "support" tab and in here you can browse the various categories within the support library or search by keyword to find what you're looking for.
- If you are not logged into your BigContacts account or do not yet have a BigContacts account you can CLICK HERE to visit our support library directly.
In addition to this library, I decided to start a Web based CRM "best practices" series of blog posts. The goal of this series is to periodically post key tips and techniques that you can use as a best practice with our CRM system. It is my hope that through this series we can help you maximize the benefit of the BigContacts platform within your business.
Web-based CRM software is a very important and powerful software that should be implemented within any business. We realize that, like any tool, we need to help our customers learn how to best use this very important tool.
I hope that you will find these posts very useful and want to encourage you to comment and provide any feedback and ideas on what you would like to see discussed. Together with your input and our insights… I am confident that we can help you to
maximize the value of BigContacts platform and make a real difference in your business.Today's CRM tip/technique
To kick this series off I thought I would start with a simple yet very useful tip for those that use an iPad. As you may know, BigContacts has an iPhone app that gives you access to some of the core functionality of our system. This app is free and can be found in the app store.
Often times we are asked if we have an iPad app as well. We chose not to develop an iPad app because our full BigContacts application works great and displays very nicely on the iPad. Being able to access the full application on your iPad gives you all of the functionality of BigContacts and does not limit you in any way like a traditional app would. The only real downside is that you have to go through a few steps to get to the site and get logged in to your account. It is not as quick and easy as clicking an icon on your iPad screen that will instantly open your app for you… or is it?
Great news! You can in fact create your own "app like" button on the home screen of your iPad. There are a few simple
one-time steps that you can take to create a button that will take you directly to your BigContacts login page. Below I will show you the steps along with screenshots to help you set up a quick and easy link to your BigContacts application right from your iPad home screen.
Step 1You will want to open your Safari browser and go to the BigContacts website at
www.BigContacts.com. Once the BigContacts website opens you will want to click on the "
account login" link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Step 2
After you click on this "
account login" link you will be brought to the main BigContacts login page. Here you will want to click on the button that corresponds to your system. For example, if you are on the main BigContacts system you will click on the blue button to the left.
Step 3
Here you'll see the familiar login screen for your BigContacts account. This is the screen that we are going to turn into a direct link under a button on your home screen.
Step 4
Now that you are on the login screen you're ready for your final step. Below are two screenshots that will show you where and how to add this as a button to your home screen.
Now that
you have created your bookmark icon, you will see your button for direct access to your login page for your BigContacts account. You now have one step access your login page and you are ready to go!
I hope that did you find this tip to be very helpful and a big timesaver.
I encourage you to post comments here and ideas for the best practices that you would like to dive into and learn more about. Look for more great tips and ideas to come.
Posted on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 @ 04:37 PM
At the beginning of the customer lifecycle, there are various methods you may be using to find qualified prospects. Identifying them is an essential first step, whether you purchase a list of prospects, get their names at a trade show, use social media to attract leads (blogs, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), or capture them directly from your website using a Web form.
The buzzword for this today is “lead generation.” Times have changed, and it has become much less productive to take the same approaches for lead generation that have worked in the past.
The numbers show that response rates aren’t what they used to be, whether you use an unfocused direct mail campaign, generic email blasts, or a good old-fashioned telemarketing campaign. It is easy to spend a lot of time and money on things that worked in the past but don’t work today.
A full discussion on lead generation is beyond the scope of this article, but it is important to consider a few of the basics as we look at the customer lifecycle.
Before you jump into a full-fledged lead generation program, it helps to create a plan. Here are some essential questions to help you define the best approach for your business:
- What is the profile of your ideal customer?
- How would you identify your target market(s)?
- What are the needs of this target market?
- What is the content of your marketing message?
- What media do you plan to use in your marketing plan?
- What activity and revenue goals will you use to measure success?
- What system will you use to track the leads that you generate?
- What lead nurturing plan do you have to handle leads not ready to buy today?
A successful lead generation program is an essential element of any company and will ensure your long-term success.
“Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity,” Michael Dell said, “that you miss the right opportunity.” The goal of any business is to convert as many of the right prospects as possible into paying customers. The more organized and efficient you are in this phase, the more prospects you can effectively move through your sales process so they become customers.
You must be both efficient and persistent in the sales process. Every time I look at a broad set of sales statistics, I am reminded that winning in this stage of the customer lifecycle is not possible without a heavy dose of persistence. You could have the best product and a great value proposition and message, but unless you generate enough “touches” with your prospects, you won’t reach the conversion rates you need to succeed. These touches include actually asking for the order.
It’s estimated that only 19% of sales close in the first four contacts or touches. The remaining 81% close on or after the fifth one. Many businesses I speak to know this, yet few have a plan in place to ensure they are “showing up to the party” often enough to give themselves a chance to break out of the 19% bracket.
According to Dartnell Corp., 90% of businesses follow up with their prospects four times or fewer, and only 10% follow up 5 times or more. It doesn’t take a math wizard to figure out who is getting most of the business. Don’t waste all that time and effort on the front end and stop short of the finish line.
Be sure to get in those 5 or more touches and contacts with your prospects. The only way to ensure success in this area is to have a centralized database that can automate some of these required touches, track the notes and history of interactions with the prospect, and assign tasks at the appropriate time to ensure the sales rep can be visible at the right times to help move the sales process forward to closure.
The more prospects a sales rep must juggle to reach goals, the more precious this commodity of time becomes.
Posted on Thu, Mar 15, 2012 @ 12:54 PM
This blog post is another in a series on how to “KEEP more of your Customers”… 
The best way to prove your commitment to delivering a high level of service is through your actions. When a customer has an issue or needs technical assistance, make it your priority to resolve it immediately. Every time an issue is resolved in a timely manner, you will build the confidence your customers have in your company to deliver what they need. Prompt follow-up is a great opportunity to show your commitment to the customer, and turn a potentially bad situation into a real positive one.
Let’s say you have made all the right changes and have now turned your customer service/support center into an asset for your company. You’re now in a position to turn this into an area that can actually generate more revenue for your company. With the right approach and the right information at their fingertips (by using a good CRM system), your customer service and support team now has the opportunity to cross sell or up-sell the existing customers that they support. If done right, this part of your business can transform from a pure overhead item to a profit center.
An essential part of any client retention program involves direct feedback from your customers. There are a variety of ways to gather feedback from your customers, but one of the most efficient and effective tools we have used is a customer survey. It wasn’t too long ago that the common practice was to send a survey in the mail. You sent it out and then waited for your customers to mail it back to you.
Today, there are a number of great, easy-to-use survey tools that allow you to simply email the survey, collect the data electronically and gain a good picture of where things are. All without licking a stamp or running off to the post office with a box full of envelopes.
This function should be a built-in tool in the suite of tools that you use to manage the customers’ lifecycle. A well-written survey can provide invaluable insights into what your customers like and dislike about your product or service. This information can help shape anything from the direction you take in your product development to the way you deliver customer service.
Listening closely to this feedback and acting upon it will go a long ways to increasing your customer retention over the long run. If your customers share their complaints with you in this process, that’s a very good thing.
What can you gather from a survey?
Customer satisfaction: Find out what your customers think about your product or service.
Company insight: Identify any improvements that you could make to increase satisfaction for both your customers AND employees – as your employees ultimately influence customer satisfaction.
Evaluate the competition: Find out what other companies your customers may like and what they like about them.
According to 1st Financial Training Services, 96 percent of customers don’t complain, they just leave. Of those that leave, 91 percent will never come back.
Finally, surveys are also effective with former customers. If you can find patterns for why they left in the first place, you can work to improve the experience for current customers. No matter how well your product or service ranks in your specific marketplace, you can grow your business by mastering the customer lifecycle.
If you put the right processes and technology in place you can outmaneuver, outsmart and outshine your competition – all without improving one thing about your product. Getting this critically important aspect of your business right will ensure that you have a healthy business for many years to come.
Posted on Tue, Mar 06, 2012 @ 08:27 AM
One of the requests we frequently hear from customers is that they would like one-on-one consultations to help them think through the organization of their contact database and ultimately the customization of their account with BigContacts.
Well, we have listened and just rolled out our one-on-one CRM consulting services. In addition to all of the
FREE "Getting Started" resources that we offer... we now offer our
“QuickStart Program”. Whether you are just getting started with BigContacts or have been using the system for a while and want to improve the way you are doing things…we can now help… in a personalized “One-on-One” setting.
System Setup & Customization
We will work directly with you to get your account setup the way you want it...get your contacts imported...and the system ready to use! Whether you are just getting started with BigContacts or have been with us for a while and would like help in re-organizing a bit…we are here to help.
Contact Import...................................................................................................................................... $95Just send us a properly formatted Excel spreadsheet with your core contact information and we will
import this data for you… Including any custom contact fields that you have included in your spreadsheet!
Contact Import & System Customization......................................................................................... $285 In addition to the contact import, we will schedule a 30 minute one-on-one phone call to review your business processes. (we will send a comprehensive worksheet for your completion prior to the call) during this call we will identify:
- additional custom fields are needed in your contact record
- tasks you will want to add to your system
- sales stages that you will want to customize your sales pipeline
We will then take all of this information and load this information into your system so that it is customize and ready to meet your specific needs.
Best Practices Coaching
We offer best practices coaching that is tailored to meet the specific needs of your business.
Whether you are new to the system or adding some new team members that need to be trained...
we are here to help you get more out of BigContacts.
One of our Advisers will work directly with you to customize a specific plan to cover any aspect of the system and in any level of detail that you need. All coaching sessions are delivered live to you and your team via phone call and webinar format. See it live while we review the best practices for your account!
Each 30 Minute Coaching Session.................................................................................................. $75
To learn more about this service feel free to give us a call at
1.888.286.6578 Ext. 701...or
CLICK HERE and complete the form to request a phone call to discuss how we can customize a program for your company.
Posted on Tue, Feb 28, 2012 @ 08:51 AM
There are many opportunities during the lifecycle of your customers to reach out and show them that you value their business and that you are thinking of them.
New business – Just after your customers place an order or you have provided them with a service, ask for their feedback. Letting them know that you care about their level of satisfaction says a lot about your commitment to their relationship as a customer. It can also provide you with an opportunity to gain insight on other products and services that you could offer to gain new business.
Ongoing education – How complex and involved is your product or service? It’s important to consider the need to re-educate your customers over time. It may be one of the most influential things you can do to ensure that what you offer is adopted and used long term.
Product updates – Whether a customer has already purchased a certain product from you or has never heard of it, it’s a good idea to keep him or her up-to-date on what you are doing and what you have to offer. This will ensure that you will be top-of-mind the next time the customer is ready to make a purchase of this sort.
Special offers – Everyone loves a deal! From time-to-time a well-timed special offer may be just what you need to motivate your customers to make another purchase.
Check in – If a customer has not done business with you in a while, check to see how you can help. It may also serve as a reminder that the customer needs your product or service.
All of this might seem a bit overwhelming. You may be saying to yourself, “I am already maxed out, overworked and overloaded. How on earth can I possibly implement all of this follow-up without hiring more people that I can’t afford to hire?” That’s a valid concern, but you can automate much of this through a good CRM and email marketing program. The combination of these platforms will allow you to place much of the ongoing touch points with your customers on autopilot.
If set up correctly, all of this can run in the background automatically to deliver the following benefits to your company:
- You will be able to effectively handle and stay on top of more customers.
- You can create the impression that you personally sent the email, or newsletter, to each and every one of your customers.
- You can rest assured that nothing will fall through the cracks again as you are now able to deliver a consistent, timely and personalized message to your customers when and how needed.
While it is true that you can manage a lot of your customer communication using email, it’s still important to pick up the phone occasionally and actually call your customers. Nothing can fully replace personal communication when it comes to building long-term relationships.
I have great news for you here, too: A good CRM system will automate the tasks to remind you when to actually pick up the phone and make those important calls.
More on this topic...coming soon.
Contact an experienced CRM Adviser today. They can help you to address your specific needs.
1.888.286.6578Ext. 701
Posted on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 @ 09:40 AM
To compete in today’s markets, most all businesses have faced the challenge of moving from a product-oriented to a customer-oriented model. CRM software can be a very effective tool in making that change.
If implemented correctly, CRM maximizes the lifetime value of the customers you have today and those you will bring on board tomorrow. To succeed, businesses must understand that they will need to design, implement and manage a solution. They must align their people, processes and technology to the new customer-centric model.
An important ingredient for maximizing the lifetime value of each client is in the processes you execute at every customer touch point. CRM software can then consolidate and organize all this information that your company gathers on customers and prospects. Properly organizing it will give you the insights you need to effectively handle these relationships.
CRM software can help you improve your customer service and reduce customer churn in different ways, depending on your company, customers, the product you sell, and the way you sell it. But to effectively leverage CRM in your business you will need the flexibility to tailor the software to more closely align with your overall company strategy.
A company can differentiate itself with a very good product or service, but that rarely lasts forever. Even a great product will eventually run into enough competition to easily become more of a commodity. The best way to defend any position is to employ a good offense. The best offense is to consistently deliver excellent customer service along with a great product.
It’s been documented that many customers find more value in the level of support they receive than in the finer details of the actual product or service. A CRM platform that is well-matched to your particular business needs is a fundamental part of a successful customer service strategy.
- Have you evaluated your customer retention rate?
- Do you have a plan to keep more of your customers?
- Have you implemented any technology solutions to help you in your customer retention efforts?
Below are some statistics that will motivate any business owner to take steps to develop and implement a solid customer service initiative.
- Only one out of 25 dissatisfied customers will express dissatisfaction, so don’t lull yourself into complacency by thinking your business is immune. You have to take action in this area to protect and grow your customer base.
- Happy customers tell four or five others of their positive experience. Dissatisfied customers tell nine to twelve how bad it was. Bad news travels farther and wider than good news. It’s human nature.
- The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year. At that rate you will turn over half of your existing customer base in five years. Whatever you can do to reduce that percentage will greatly impact your bottom line.
- Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers, so do every thing you can to embrace your current customers. Your long-term growth and profitability depend on it.
- The longer you retain customers, the more the profitability tends to increase.
Here is further confirmation of the importance of implementing a successful customer retention strategy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, customers leave for the following reasons:
Why do Customers Leave?68% leave because they are unhappy with the level of customer service.
14% are dissatisfied with the product or service.
9% choose to start doing business with a competitor.
3% move to another area of the country.
1% die.
If you keep in mind that there is more to business than a transaction, and if you work to build a relationship with your customers, you can strengthen your bond with them. As we have seen, the long-term success of your business depends in large part on the percentage of your current customers who choose to stay with you.
The next time they decide to spend money on the kind of services you offer, you want to be their first choice. Your customers may even be willing to pay more for your product or service if they have a personal connection with your company.
The ingredients for building strong relationships with your customers are not a big secret. Most of the principles for success in life are pretty straightforward. Th e costs of implementing a successful retention program are relatively low, as it mainly involves your time.
The challenge lies in the execution of your plan. Successful execution requires a combination of people and technology.
Stay tuned for more on this topic...coming soon.
If you would like to speak with an experienced CRM Advisor today, give us a call and one of our Advisors will be happy to address your specific needs.
1.888.286.6578
Ext. 701
Posted on Wed, Jan 11, 2012 @ 09:49 AM
At BigContacts it
has always been our goal to deliver dependable and timely support to our customers. We feel that a great support experience can never be commoditized and we are committed to delivering the best support in our industry and are driven to do more than our peers.
To deliver on a great support experience… We include email support, live chat, and an extensive knowledge base library to all of our free trials and customers. For most of you this is not news. This is not the "new level of support" that we are offering for our web-based CRM software platform. But what we have done is roll out an entirely new support suite to better deliver our support services.
This new support suite includes all of the services that have grown accustomed to and they are delivered in a much easier to use format.
Some new services we've added...
In addition to this new, easier to use and more modern interface… We have added:
- User forum
- Support satisfaction surveys
- Integrated knowledge base articles with text, screenshots and videos
- Robust keyword search tool
3 ways to access the BigContacts support suite…
- The BigContacts website
From virtually any page on the BigContacts website you will find a live chat button that will allow you to start a live chat with one of our agents Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM EST.
- Your BigContacts CRM account
While logged into your BigContacts CRM account, you can select the "support" tab to access our full library of knowledge base articles, the user forum or start a live chat.
- Your Email
You may have a quick question for us about your account and you are not in front of a computer or log into your account. From any Internet connection (including your mobile phone) simply email us at support@bigcontacts.com and this will instantly create a ticket for you. This ticket will be assigned to a support associate and responded to as soon as possible.
Attention: Registered Support Users...
If you are already a registered user in our old system...we will be sending you an email invitation to establish a password on the new support system.
Some good news for Internet explorer users…
Our new support tab in your BigContacts CRM account is now also fully encrypted just as your BigContacts account has always been. You will no longer see a pop-up asking you if you wish to open the support tab. Simply click on the tab and start searching for your support answers.
Posted on Fri, Jan 06, 2012 @ 09:40 AM
At BigContacts, we are always exploring great ideas in an effort to improve and enhance our web-based CRM software. We are constantly learning from our customers as this is truly where our application meets real-world practice.
We have recently been informed that one of our power users has taken one of their great ideas and actually spent the time and money to put the idea into practice in their business.
If you are a WordPress user and are looking for an easy way to capture leads from your website, then this may be just the plug-in for you.
This new plug-in will allow you to easily create custom Web forms and set them up to automatically load leads into your BigContacts account.Once the lead is loaded into the account...BigContacts then takes over and can manage anything from assigning tasks to users to follow up, creating a sales opportunity for the lead, and can even queue up an automated email marketing campaign.
All of this is designed to help you capture and manage more leads from your website and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. I encourage you to give this new plug-in a look as it is sure to be a tremendous timesaver and ultimately a moneymaker for your business.
Posted on Wed, Jan 04, 2012 @ 02:15 PM
BigContacts has always offered our customers the ability to store an unlimited number of contacts within your account. We have just added a new element to our unlimited capacity.
Not only can you upload an
unlimited number of contacts but you can now
store an unlimited amount of data/files/history for your contacts. It is our goal to make it as easy as possible for you to store as much information as needed about all of your contacts.
So, feel free to start loading all the notes, files and history that you need for your contacts.
Just think...how nice will it be to have access to all of your important contact information from any Internet connection?
Here's to a Happy and Prosperous New Year!