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Upgrade Your Business With A Cloud-Based Contact Management System: A Step-By-Step Guide

Written by Alisa James Jul 15, 2023 · 4 min read

Do you want to upgrade your business and make it tech-savvy to get exponential growth? If your answer is in the affirmative, then you should get a cloud-based contact management system for your business soon.

In this article, you will get to know the step-by-step process through which you can make your business up-to-date with the help of a contact management system.

A step-by-step guide to upgrading your business with a cloud-based contact management system:-

Step 1: Know the specific requirements of your business:-

The first step to upgrading your business is to know the specific requirements of your business. Along with it, you should also know about the expectations that you have with the Contact Management System(CMS).

Here are some of the requirements for your business that you can refer to:-

• First of all, determine the size of your business. You should know whether your finances or workforce are big enough to call your organization a large enterprise. If it’s not that big and relatively new that is working on a new concept, then that must be a startup.
• Then, you should know whether you have the required budget to allocate for investing in a CMS. Also, make sure that the CMS you want is as per your financial resources.
• If you want your employees to collaborate with the help of a CMS, then you should write it down in your requirements list.

• There are two ways through which you can access the contact information. You should choose the method beforehand. These ways are as follows:-

  • Remote access to information
  • Centralized access to information

• You should determine whether you want to integrate the CMS with the business tools that you are using right now in your enterprise.
• It will be really helpful for you later on if you can comprehend the volume of contacts that you need to manage with the help of CMS. This will be really beneficial when you invest in a CMS. It’s because you will only buy the plan then that can incorporate data for all of your contacts.
• One of the important things that you should definitely know about is the security features of the CMS. It will help to protect the data and information of all your contacts.

Step 2: Search for different software and select the best cloud-based contact management system:-

After having the list of your requirements ready, now it’s time to do research about the different contact management software that are available in the market. A lot of systems are available that promise a lot and deliver very less. That’s why you should do an in-depth search about the different software that are made specifically to do contact management. Some of the factors that you should consider to select the best CMS are as follows:-

• First things first, you should search about the various CMS that are available and are under your budget as well. Determine the CMS that will be cost-effect for your business.
• Then, you should shortlist the options that you have across based on their features and determine whether they align with your business needs. Look for specific features like contact tracking and project management.
• After shortlisting two to three CMS, now it’s time to see how easy they will be to use for you and your employees. You should go for the one that has beautiful navigation options, easy to use format for your employees, and simple contact management.
• It’s very important to know about the reputation of these CMS that you have shortlisted. You can easily check it out by reading the reviews of their services on third-party websites. Checking their average rating on Google is another great way to know their credibility. Furthermore, check out what the existing users are saying about the shortlisted software on different social media platforms.
• After that, see whether the CMS that you have selected can integrate into your business or not. Moreover, check if they have good integration capability to work with your existing tools smoothly.
• It’s crucial to look at the security features that are provided by these CMS that you have selected. Ensure that they protect your contact data and protect it against cyber-attacks. Check out whether they provide add-on services like data backups and data encryption.
• At last, select the CMS that provides all the features that are mentioned above, along with serving your expanding business goals and increasing organizational needs.

Step 3: Transfer your business data on the CMS:-

Now that you have chosen the cloud-based Contact Management System of your choice, you can transfer all of your business data to the CMS. It’s imperative to do so if you want to take the benefit of the CMS completely. The steps that you should follow to transfer your business data are written below:-

• Create a backup file of all your data.
• Transfer all your data to the CMS.
• Make sure that the data is correct.
• Check out whether the CMS is functioning properly with all the data transfer and giving the results that you had expected.

Step 4: Take the benefit of all the features of the CMS:-

If, even after following all the above steps, your employees don’t take the benefit of the features of the CMS, then that will be a waste of your resources and effort. That’s why you should keep a check on your employees and know whether they are utilizing all the features of the CMS or not. You should make sure that your employees are using the CMS effectively. If you follow this step diligently, then that will help in the following:-

• Improve the relationships with your clients.
• Keep a check on all the tasks assigned to your employees.
• Have an automatic contact management process in place.
• Grow your business exponentially.

Step 5: Be aware of the system updates and improve the performance accordingly:-

Once the CMS is working correctly and all your employees are using it to grow your business, then you should get aware of all the system updates of the CMS. The moment you get notified about the updates, implement them immediately without any delay. It will ensure the following things:-

• Enhanced performance of the CMS.
• Get the benefits of the latest features of the software.
• Get the bugs fixed and improve security as well.

Step 6: Get the help of support staff and use the CMS optimally:-

The last step is to get the support of the customer care staff of your CMS in case you get any issues while using the software. You shouldn’t hesitate to get the help of the support staff if you want to use the CMS in the most optimum way possible. The CMS company representatives will help you in overcoming your business challenges and improve your business’ productivity. The expertise of the CMS support staff will help you a lot in the proper functioning of the CMS.

Conclusion:

You will be able to exponentially grow your business to greater heights with the help of a cloud-based contact management system. It will not only improve your organization’s efficiency but will satisfy your customers as well. So, getting a CMS is non-negotiable in today’s modern business landscape.