How To Use Zoho Crm

These are just a few mistakes people brand when using Zoho CRM, but it's actually easy to get from "frustrating" to "flying". Become it right, and Zoho CRM is like an efficient personal banana nudging you lot with timely alerts and reminders to win more business. You won't understand how y'all always managed without information technology 🙂

i. Forgetting almost the search push button

Many people who use Zoho CRM forget the basics of navigating around information technology. I however meet users with thousands of records in their system scrolling through looking for a specific record by eye.

Stop! Utilize the built-in search.

The search field is vital for using your organization efficiently, and information technology'south a global search for your CRM records. There's some other global search within Zoho One, merely I'm not talking about that one here.

The search field is in the superlative right of your Zoho CRM and is visible almost all of the time. It's an autocomplete field like Google search. Autocomplete tin be risky if you're on a slow cyberspace connectedness considering it won't go along up with what you're typing – but don't let that put you off.

If the issue you lot're looking for doesn't appear in the auto-consummate list, don't worry. Merely hitting [Enter] to get a listing of records that match your search term. If y'all've searched for something generic like "John", you may get too many results. The organisation searches all records for the information you enter.

Yous tin can use the filter on the peak left to reduce the modules to search within, but the simple mode is to search for something unique. Surnames tend to be amend search terms, every bit are company names, postcodes, and reference numbers. Retrieve, if the discussion you're searching for is in more than one module, it will show up in that section too.

You lot can utilise wildcard searches to search the organization using part of a word. Again this risks bringing back too many results if you're not specific.

Ane other reason you should utilise the global search and non but the local search is that it helps forestall you from creating a duplicate record. With local searches, looking in i module may not show any results, but the information could be in some other module.

This leads me to the next thing you might be doing wrong.

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2. Creating a Lead when you already have an existing Business relationship and Contact

A mutual issue of not using the Leads, Accounts, and Contacts modules correctly is having duplicate records. Duplicate Leads tin can as well exist created via webforms, roles, and territories. But allow's focus on the most common crusade of duplicate records. The user simply didn't search before creating a record.

There'south a simple rule in Zoho CRM – if you can't find a record, so create information technology. Nevertheless, users don't oftentimes sympathize whether to create a Lead or an Account. This is because they don't know what a Lead actually is in Zoho CRM.

A Lead is an unqualified prospect. This means y'all shouldn't create a Lead if you lot already take an existing Account or Contact. Create a Bargain instead against the existing Account or Contact.

If you've imported your data into Accounts and Contacts, but it should have gone into the Leads, or you've out it into Leads, only information technology should have gone into Accounts and Contacts, you lot tin easily motion it to the correct location.

Before you practice this, you may want to cheque your CRM structure is correct, and you have the right fields in place. You must as well have a qualification process so that the new enquires go through the Leads module and then into Accounts, Contacts, and Deals correctly.

Don't add a lead record if there's an existing account. The lead might already be a customer or a current prospect in your sales pipeline.

Recollect, marketing is nearly getting theright message to theright person at theright time. Emails to leads volition have a dissimilar tone and objective to customers. Make sure you put the data in the right place.

3. Not integrating your emails into the CRM

I of the best channels to communicate with prospects and existing customers is electronic mail. Zoho CRM is corking for coordinating messaging and email communications, so integrate your CRM with your email provider to make certain all email conversations are recorded in the CRM.

If you await at a Pb, practice yous know what emails were sent to that person and what they've sent to your business?

Go to Settings and under Channels, select Email, and cull an email provider. If you tin't notice yours, and so select "Other" and follow the on-screen instructions. I suggest using IMAP to integrate your emails.
There are a lot of settings here, so brand sure you check out my Zoho User Training course where I cover this topic. Call back, each user needs to exercise this themselves.

This leads me to the fourth common fault.

4. Non sending emails from Zoho CRM, and non using templates or "Best time to Email"

When you send an email from Zoho CRM, it goes out from your integrated email account. The emails are besides tracked, so if the recipient isn't blocking images, then you'll know that they opened it. This often eliminates the need for read receipts.

The information on whether someone opened your email is saved in 3 places:

The sales signals in the notification push at the top of the page
Within a record's electronic mail section
In the sales inbox feature

Zoho CRM uses the tracking feature and sending times to build upwardly a picture of when to best send an email. You tin can use this information to maximise the response to your email. It volition even tell y'all what the best time to phone call recipients is. It shows this data on the Contact and Lead records so y'all can programme your communications.

When sending out emails from the arrangement, brand certain you use the template feature. Don't rewrite the same message; use a templated email stored in your Zoho CRM instead.

Make emails dynamic by using the fields in the CRM as merge tags. Use the [#] primal when building the templates to add together the merge fields.

You tin send emails from transactional modules such as Quotes and Invoices too. Information technology'due south best practise to send templated emails from these modules.

five. Neglecting the activities modules

Yous should program your activities with prospects and customers in Zoho CRM. Many users fail to do this, and some people think it'due south unnecessary admin. Not so!

Program tasks in your Zoho CRM for yourself and other users.

Tasks are internal to your organisation, create them confronting the record you're working on. For example, when working with a new client, a new task may be to practise a credit check on them. You can create this task and assign it to the finance team to complete. You lot can fifty-fifty automate task creation, and I'll hash out that a fiddling subsequently.

Events are external and are where you're interacting with people outside your organization ? for case, meetings with prospects or client visits. Yous can send out agenda invitations to people, and they will show upwardly in their Outlook or other calendars. They can even take the invitation and yous'll see their RSVP response in Zoho CRM. Result records in the CRM are non the same as marketing events as these are handled in the campaign module and the Backstage App.

Just a quick note, recording marketing activities is a whole other topic and very specific to your business so I won't cover that here. However, get in touch if you need more information on this.

If you lot need to call a customer or prospect, create a phone call record in the CRM for the specific time you're going to call, inside their tape. The CRM will alarm you when it's time to make the call. If you've got a phone system continued to Zoho CRM, then it'll prove a dialer so y'all can brand the call direct. Some phone systems fifty-fifty have a link to the call recording in the CRM to review later. If you don't have a phone connected to the CRM, then you tin use the Zoho CRM mobile app instead.

If you find recording activity in your CRM time consuming, use the CRM mobile apps to help y'all.

half-dozen. Failing to exploit Zoho Mobile Apps

Zoho has wholeheartedly adopted mobility of data, and there are lots of Zoho mobile apps. Yet, I'll briefly discuss the Zoho CRM app and the Card Scanner app hither.

The Zoho CRM app is great for accessing all your CRM data while you're away from your computer. Some people actually prefer the mobile app because information technology includes a few extra features, such equally talking to your CRM's Bogus Intelligence, ZIA. It's a bit like Siri or Google Banana.

Zoho CRM Mobile App

Zoho Carte du jour Scanner Mobile App

Brand sure you accept information encryption prepare upwards on your mobile. You may want to consider mobile device management (MDM) software if your data is sensitive considering you tin remotely wipe information technology if y'all lose your device. Even if yous choose not to, ever utilise a strong password or enable other access security to admission your device your mobile. You don't want to put customer data at gamble if you lose your mobile phone.

The Zoho Card Scanner app allows you to scan business cards into your system which is perfect when you're at events and don't accept time to access your computer. Information technology takes a picture of the carte (or omnipresence bluecoat) and then converts the words into editable text using optical character recognition (OCR). The information y'all just scanned is added to your CRM every bit a record.

Print the pants off your new contact by sending an automated welcome or thanks message whilst you're withal talking to them.

Both apps are bachelor for Android and iOS devices.

7. Getting record buying wrong

Every record in the CRM system is endemic by a user. If modules default access is ready to "private", access is limited to the owner of the tape. Record privacy can be overridden if there are sharing rules set up upwardly, and so make sure to gear up the roles in your CRM to best match your sharing rules.

It'southward best practise is to set records containing customer information such as Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Quotes, Sales Orders and Invoices to "public". Other modules, such as Vendors and Purchase Orders, are only needed past a few users so don't need to be "public".

If you want to separate access to records based on your organisation's structure, y'all can use roles to fix dissimilar tiers of information admission.

Territory management

Territories have a big bear upon on the arrangement because a territory operates at the Business relationship record level. If you lot employ territory management, any user who doesn't accept admission to a territory tin't see the Accounts, Contacts, and transactional records underneath information technology.

This tin can exist bad from a information-sharing perspective and can effect in indistinguishable records existence created if someone can't see records considering they don't accept admission to a territory. Now simply to exist clear, territories are useful, just exist aware they can have a knock-on issue if not fix correctly

8. Configuring GDPR settings incorrectly

GDPR stands for Full general Data Protection Regulation and is an Eu mandated police. It's used to protect consumers in the EU and limits access to them and their information without their permission. If you've turned on the compliance settings and GDPR in Zoho CRM, then you lot'll notice a lot of new settings.

Exist very careful with these because if you go it wrong, information technology can cripple your power to sell. Most use cases for GDPR relate to B2C businesses, only B2B businesses are affected too. Ensure you've completed an internal information audit with GDPR guidelines in heed.

There are several ways to process data under GDPR, but y'all first need to go consent. In essence, y'all'll demand to have a genuine reason for collecting and using the information.

If y'all've turned on the compliance settings and call up that's enough, then you might be in for a shock! Each Contact and Lead must have a Information Processing Footing, and this can be automated if you know what you're doing.

This has to exist washed correct and so you should get external assistance from someone who tin can requite your organisation legally secure guidance on this topic. As Dr. McCoy from Star Trek might take said "I'thou a CRM trainer, not a lawyer, Jim!", and so I tin can't help with the fine detail.

9. Using the wrong field types

I often get asked to fix problems with systems that organisations have fix themselves. A lot of the fourth dimension, the problems stem from poor processes. These processes don't work unless the correct fields are in the system.

Lot'south of people make the mistake of only using text fields in their organization to hold information. When they desire to create a report on their data, they can't reliably use it because the input data isn't consistent considering the field doesn't stop them adding the incorrect thing.

This makes a organisation actually hard to utilize. You demand to utilise the correct field types. Zoho CRM has lots of different field types to make sure only valid data is entered.

If you desire to capture a date, employ the engagement field. But be conscientious to use the right one because there are two, a standard date field and a date/time field.

If you desire people to put specific values into a field, then use a picklist or multi-select picklist. Depending on the structured vs unstructured data fields in a module, reports, dashboards, and even your automations may not work. If you must use unstructured data fields like text, text expanse or even tags, be beware that automations don't like it.

Talking about automations?

x. Doing things manually

Zoho CRM is there to aid you to secure sales and manage your customers and prospects, not annoy yous with boring admin tasks.

When I hear this complaint from users, information technology's usually considering they don't think of CRM as a process, and they use their system similar a glorified spreadsheet!

Your Zoho CRM should allow y'all to manage your customer'due south interactions or at to the lowest degree tape it. This is chosen the customer journey.

Your system should automate as much of the procedure every bit possible without adding restrictions. Some people hate the idea of putting systems and processes in place because they prefer the thought of flexibility. However, you tin can be too flexible and let the client impose their processes on y'all. You implement a CRM to avoid this.

Earlier building automations in your arrangement, define a process. Call back of your CRM system as a pipeline of activities with the customer. And then identify who's involved in the process. Automate the procedure withWorkflows to move data around the organization. You can even motion information technology outside Zoho CRM to other non-Zoho apps using APIs. Utilise workflows to inform the prospects, customers and users about your sales processes.

Here's a unproblematic workflow I created that sends an email reminder to a customer to renew their warranty 10 months later on a product was installed. An automated process means that you lot won't miss out on sales considering y'all or your team forgot to do something.

Wrap up

I hope that was useful and if you're struggling with automations or annihilation else in Zoho CRM, get in touch, and I'll endeavour my all-time to help.