DSL Telecom - Blog #salesforce

What CRM System Should You Choose in South Africa?

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 16:26:52 +0200

5 Best CRM Softwares for South African Businesses

Now that your organisation is on the look out for a CRM system, you will need to start with gaining a deeper understanding of your software requirements and what features you can expect from CRM software vendors. Although you've probably come here to make your informed decision on which is the best CRM software to choose for South African business, you've probably realised that selecting the perfect CRM system is no simple process.

The challenge lies not only in the fact that there are so many potential CRM solutions and technologies to choose from, but you also have to consider CRM system deployment options, ability to customise, cost, scalability and business value, before you make your choice.

Here is our 2021 guide on how to choose the right CRM software for your business.

1. Factors to consider when comparing CRM Systems

When it comes to customer relationship management (CRM), it’s important to choose the right CRM system with the capabilities that suit your business before embarking on your selection process.

7 important factors to consider in CRM comparisons are:

User-friendly software
Local partner with support, consultation, training and implementation services
Growth and scalability capabilities
Flexible reporting
Affordability
Highly customisable
Integration capabilities

Here is a blog post that details the 7 vital criteria to consider when selecting a CRM system for South African businesses

2. Features South African Businesses need in their CRM Software

A CRM solution opens up amazing opportunities for small businesses and large enterprises alike to thrive. Now more than ever, South African businesses need to expertly manage prospects and existing customers with great care. Using a platform with the best CRM features is an essential part of that strategy, so we compiled a CRM features list to help you get started.

Lead management is the backbone of a successful sales operation. Without effective leads, there’s no need for a CRM or even a sales team in the first place. This concept covers the first step in the sales cycle to create qualified opportunities and ultimately, satisfied customers.

Lead management is the process of tracking and managing prospective customers and CRM Systems should enable you to manage the process of converting prospects into potential customers (leads) by identifying, scoring and moving leads through the sales pipeline.

Follow up with leads automatically with preset emails and tasks or contact them yourself directly from your CRM. CRM Software Systems can nurture prospects all the way through the sales pipeline, from lead generation to closing the sale. Additionally, many CRMs, like Zoho CRM, allow users to create and store sales quotes, track invoices and follow up on documents.

Contact management & Marketing is a vital CRM capability. It allows users to segment contacts into groups to organise and better cater to them. With this CRM capability, you’ll be able to gather crucial customer data and strengthen your marketing strategies. It also improves the personalisation of all contact with customers, making them feel important and catered to. This is a key factor in customer satisfaction!

Many CRM solutions, like Zoho CRM, have built-in marketing tools, including email templates, email marketing pipelines, SMS messaging and lightweight project management tools. Some even offer competition tracking and sales forecasting capabilities.

Business intelligence tools, BI, reporting and dashboards have become some of the top CRM features. Users can view statistics in a highly visual, engaging perspective using customised reports and dashboards. They offer real-time data updates and a platform that can be accessed from various portals, improving ease of access for a variety of personnel. Management can use these reports to make data-driven decisions - an investment in CRM BI is an investment in the future of your business.

Most CRM software includes some reporting functionality, but the best CRM Systems, like Zoho Software, support live, dynamic and customisable dashboards. Make sure any exporting or importing needs you have (for instance, transferring information to and from Excel or QuickBooks) are compatible with the system you choose.

CRM automation refers to a CRM system’s ability to automate repetitive, manual tasks to streamline work and improve productivity. Automation of a CRM can encompass a range of functions across marketing, sales and service activities.

CRM tools are all about making it easier to manage every external interaction and relationship that’s essential for business success. Automation can free up time to focus on more meaningful and strategic work.

3. Top 5 CRM Softwares for South African Businesses

1: Zoho CRM Software

Zoho CRM is one of the larger organisations in the CRM market and is part of the Zoho suite of business management tools. Zoho CRM is an omnichannel cloud-based customer relationship management platform that helps local & global businesses to take control of their business processes to build lasting customer relationships. The web-based platform can be customised to suit industries of all types and sizes. Zoho CRM offers integration with over 50 Zoho products and extends its capacity with more than 300 third-party app extensions, including G Suite, Office 365, Salesforce and many other popular apps.

Businesses can use the Zoho CRM omnichannel CRM to nurture customer relationships anytime, anywhere. From desktop, to phone, to live chat, to email, to social media, businesses can communicate and connect with their clients to enhance the customer experience. Notifications can automatically alert users of each new customer interaction or new contact.

When it comes to a CRM solution, one size doesn't fit all businesses. That's why Zoho CRM lets businesses easily customize the interface to meet the particular requirements of their organisation. Zoho has over 13 million users, a good portion of them being South Africans, due to this Zoho now offers all 45 plus business software applications at a fixed South African rand price. Zoho seeks to make this adoption both simple and affordable by providing its world-class software solutions at a fair price, protected from exchange rate fluctuations.

2. MS Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a multi-language, multi-currency enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The solution is designed for midsize and larger companies, and is fully customisable and extensible through its development platform and tools. Dynamics 365 offers a range of tools for sales, customer service, field service management, talent acquisition, finance and operations, retail, project service automation, marketing, artificial intelligence and more.

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 businesses can unify their operations, projects, workflows and tasks in one centralised platform in order to aid decision making, build relationships with customers and operate efficiently. The individual applications within Microsoft Dynamics 365 can be used as standalone products, combine with one another or integrated with a wide range of external business systems in order to provide a completely customised solution. The platform integrates with third party applications such as Ameyo, Salesforce, DocuSign, PandaDoc, ADP, Gainsight, Tacton CPQ and more.

3. Salesforce CRM

Salesforce is a CRM cloud-based solution which caters towards companies of all sizes – it is a single platform intended to manage all aspects of sales, service, marketing and analytics, through area specific “clouds” in order to meet specific business needs.

With separate “clouds” for each arm of their CRM, Salesforce provides solutions suited for companies who wish to engage in different aspects of the modern consumer space while maintaining the ability to segregate operations between teams, avoiding over-complication while still allowing for cross-communication. Salesforce offers different services through separate price plans, so businesses only looking for partial CRM functionality can adjust their service level and costs to fit their needs.

4. Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive is a deal-driven customer relationship management solution that also works as an account-management tool with the ability to assist with marketing and the entire sales process. Pipedrive's proactive nature automatically tracks and organises calls and emails and synchronises schedules across devices. One capability that might be especially attractive to most small to midsized businesses (SMBs) is Pipedrive's ability to visualise the sales process from start to finish.

Pipedrive's straightforward user interface is simple to pick up quickly. Smaller SMBs and entrepreneurs charged with CRM tasks will welcome its ease of use.

5. Hubspot CRM

HubSpot CRM takes care of all the little details - logging emails, recording calls and managing data - in a very intuitive manner therefore freeing up valuable selling time in the process. HubSpot CRM is used to organise, manage, track contacts and build better relationships with customers.

The CRM will also let your entire company operate off of one source of truth about the contacts in your database instead of sharing spreadsheets or finding emails. Every interaction is stored in a timeline, including notes about the contact and the content they’ve consumed. Organisations that are new to the business or mid-market companies accept the HubSpot CRM tool because it provides secured services and quick functions that are easily understood.

4. Why we highly recommend Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM - with its broad coverage, deep features and intuitive UI - can go head to head against any other big brand name when it comes to technology and functionality. Where other CRMs use predatory business practices and aggressive, multi-year contracts to strong arm users into sticking around, Zoho is so confident in the strength of their CRM System that they offer flexible, month-to-month subscriptions that can grow with your business.

Zoho CRM is a widely adopted customer relationship management (CRM) platform, which has a strong emphasis on increasing leads, accelerating sales and measuring performance. It makes great use of artificial intelligence (AI), and its business intelligence features can empower remote workforces to achieve more together. Advanced options such as Zia, the AI-powered assistant, provide exceptional lead and deal predictions to identify the potential customers who are most likely to convert, helping sales teams focus their efforts in the most efficient way possible. The user-friendly platform integrates with hundreds of popular apps and software, making it easy to build a custom CRM for any business.

Zoho offers transparent pricing based on monthly and annual terms. There are four bundled service options. Free trials are available for each subscription level. The Standard bundle includes everything in the free version plus added features. (Each successive tier includes everything available in the bundles that precede it.)

We recommend Zoho CRM for:

Small businesses looking to implement their first unified CRM software solution.
Any size of business with a sales-focused model that wants to gamify the selling process to build camaraderie and competitiveness as well as increase communication and collaboration across remote teams.
Medium-sized businesses that want to streamline their sales processes with helpful organisation and insights from an AI-powered assistant.
Businesses that need best-in-class analytics for reliable decision-making.
Teams that require a CRM that integrates with existing business applications.
Organisations that want a solution without a steep learning curve and a system that quickly and easily fits right into their business systems.

Since partnering with Software Development Giant, Zoho Corporation in 2012, we at DSL Telecom have stepped up the Zoho Partner Status tiers and this year, we're exhilarated to have been officially recognised as a Zoho Premium Partner - the first and currently the only Zoho Premium Partner in South Africa.

If adopting Zoho's products is a dream for your company, but limited people-power and a tight budget have been holding you back, your best bet is to hire a Zoho Premium Partner like DSL Telecom. From start to finish, we take care of your needs and ensure a seamless, cost-effective solution that promises fast results.

Learn the prime benefits are when dealing with a Zoho partner in South Africa here.

Get in touch with a Zoho Specialist

Discuss your business requirements, get a free demo &
determine if Zoho would be a good fit for your business

Book Your Free Demo

The DSL Telecom Cloud PBX merges voice and data into an all-in-one platform with the all-new Salesforce integration

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:32:48 +0200

Both your CRM software and business phone system are vital tools to help you and your team keep track of business interactions with customers. Merging these two software programs will assist your business to effectively utilise the best of both these programs and more!

The DSL Telecom Cloud PBX is packed with outstanding features including mobility, messaging, presence, 50+ call features and a seamless integration capability to Salesforce CRM. This phone system unites voice and data in an all-in-one platform which will not only keep your customers happy with shortened communication turnaround times, you'll also appreciate easier record-updating processes for your sales teams and agents.

Related blogs that may interest you:

Easily Unfold Customer Insights In Salesforce During Your Calls

Boost your agents, sales representatives' or managers' efficiency with streamlined dialing, auto-call logging, call pickup, detailed call records and call pop ups.

Call customers with just a click

Click-to-call creates an easy and efficient way for your sales and support teams to contact your customers right from your CRM. Dial your customers faster and with fewer mistakes. Stop wasting time dialing phone numbers – simply click to call a customer right from your CRM while you’re looking at all their details and records.

Log all your calls automatically

Automatic call logging makes manual data entry a thing of the past. Your call data from your DSL Telecom Cloud PBX will automatically be synced to your Salesforce CRM in real time, helping you keep track of every conversation.

Know who is calling you with live call pop ups

Now you can improve the quality of your customer interactions by automatically delivering pertinent information along with each call. When the DSL Telecom Cloud PBX & Salesforce CRM is integrated, a “screen pop up” on a call provides a holistic view of the customer. The customer information that will be available will include instant access to the caller' full name, contact details, history of call interactions, customer notes, product interest and social media accounts as well as critical business facts such as the contact’s position held within their company, the language they speak and even their birthdays. With all this information at your fingertips, personalising communication with your customers becomes a breeze!

Easily manage your customers

Rather than collecting handwritten notes or requiring employees to open their CRM system each time a phone call comes in, an integrated system will open a notepad for your employees to instantly take notes and view previous notes. In addition, the time and duration of the call will be displayed plus much more!

Interested in integrating your Salesforce CRM & DSL Telecom Cloud PBX?

Contact Sales

Everything a modern South African business should consider when comparing Cloud PBX Phone Systems

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:32:48 +0200

Making the proper PBX choice

Every business needs a phone system to operate optimally and communicate effectively with each other and their customers, however with the abundance of PBX Phone System options available, choosing a suitable Cloud PBX provider can seem complicated and somewhat overwhelming, especially as a South African business.

To help simplify your decision, we at DSL Telecom through our extensive first-hand Cloud PBX System experience, have gathered up what we consider to be the leading Cloud PBX competitors in the South African professional marketplace and delved into what sets them apart with some insightful PBX comparisons.

But first, let's take a look at what factors you'd want to to consider when comparing Cloud PBX Systems as well as some of the exciting Phone System features.

4 Crucial factors to consider when comparing Cloud PBX Systems

Here are 4 factors to consider when selecting your Cloud Phone System and comparing Cloud PBX comparisons.

#1 Will the Cloud PBX Solution support your business needs?

When selecting a Cloud PBX provider, you should be aware of all your business needs, i.e. number of lines, number of all employees in all offices, location of all employees, broadband specifications, local/long distance needs, conference calling, call volumes and so forth. In knowing these, you'll be able to select a provider who has the appropriate tools and capacity for your business. Another area that should be addressed is accessibility and technical support.

#2 What about sufficient bandwidth?

Since adequate bandwidth is critical to Cloud PBX systems in order to carry both voice traffic and other data, you'll require sizeable bandwidth for your PBX system. Therefore, the size and data requirement of your company dictates how much bandwidth will be required to adequately run a Cloud PBX service. Your company's exact bandwidth requirements depend directly on your call volume, codec, your packets per second capability, and your total packet size over the WAN. Once this information is accounted for, you'll be able to calculate an approximation of the bandwidth needed.

#3 User training

When choosing your business's ideal PBX Phone System, it's important to choose a Cloud PBX Solution that offers hands-on employee training during the initial installation right through to the training of new employees if required. With this, users will benefit from system proficiency, which ultimately leads to a better utilisation of the system, features, and functions.

#4 Scalability and flexibility

As your business grows larger or smaller, it's imperative that you choose a Cloud Phone System that's designed to easily scale users up and down as your business requires. In addition, you should look for a Cloud PBX that offers the optimum amount of flexibility within their service. Aside from support and training, users should be sure that the provider’s service is able to apply to employees that are both in and out of the office.

All the features you need to grow your business

One of the biggest selling points of Cloud PBX Systems is the availability of advanced features which are most often advertised prominently by PBX Competitors hoping to attract new clients. Since PBX features are provided as a service, there is no equipment, installation or maintenance required for any of these advanced PBX features.

Call Routing

Call routing is a call management feature that queues and distributes inbound calls to a team of agents. It is a feature commonly used in call centres to manage a high volume of incoming calls.

Automated Attendant

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a telephony menu system that enables the dial pad for identification, segmentation and routing of calls.

Music On Hold

Music on hold (MOH) is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold.

Call Pickup

Call Pickup feature allows users in the same pickup group to pick up no-answering calls of other extensions without running to the ringing phones.

Conference Rooms

By dialing the conference extension number, Cloud Phone System users will be allowed to join a conference room with other specified users.

Call Recording

Call recording is an automatic system that records all your calls. so you don't have to lift another finger for it to begin working, as it is enabled by default.

Call Detail Record

A call detail record (CDR) is a data record produced by a phone extension containing various attributes of the call, such as time, duration, completion status, source number, and destination number.

Holiday Hours

This feature keeps your customers informed about changes in your business hours during the holidays.

Ring Groups

Ring groups allow members to take turns answering calls. Calls could ring all members of the team until someone answers or you could ring members one at a time, in a random order.

Here's an in-depth PBX comparison into our best picks for Cloud PBX Systems for South African Businesses:

Customisable phone solutions for businesses - Pros:

- Locally developed platform based on open source technology

- Cloud platform

- Prepaid or postpaid billing

- 30+ features to monitor and manage your users and agent

-Mobile-ready, web-based technology + up to 3 devices per extension

-Multiple plans to meet your business requirements

Cons:

Limited range of devices compatible with MS Teams

Native video compatibilities not available
6 month data retention

No Unified Comms application suite

3CX PBX is an open-platform, cloud business phone system - Pros:

- Self host with popular cloud providers offering

- Standard Linux VPS. (Google Cloud, Amazon Lightsail, Microsoft Azure & more)

- Easily move your PBX between cloud providers with

- inbuilt backup & restore

- Pay a low monthly fee per PBX rather than an inflated price per extension.

- No long-term contracts

- Save on monthly call costs using SIP trunks

Cons:

The set up can seem a little daunting, especially if you plan to take it on internally.

Limited integration options with other applications.

Requires a video call feature.

Vox Verto Supreme is an all-inclusive cloud-based cloud PBX-Pros:

- Full feature set at a single per user price

- Pure IP Centrex solution allowing customers to benefit from competitive voice rates

- Scalable and flexible - pay per use

- Flexible contract terms available

- PBX features such as voicemail, conferencing, music on hold, automated attendant and automatic call distribution included with the option to add more

- Excellent SLA agreements are mandatory at a low cost per user to ensure excellent service and uptime

Cons:

- Limited features included as standard

- SLA packages are not included but mandatory.

Vox Verto Supreme is an all-inclusive cloud-based cloud PBX-Pros:

- Full feature set at a single per user price

- Pure IP Centrex solution allowing customers to benefit from competitive voice rates

- Scalable and flexible - pay per use

- Flexible contract terms available

- PBX features such as voicemail, conferencing, music on hold, automated attendant and automatic call distribution included with the option to add more

- Excellent SLA agreements are mandatory at a low cost per user to ensure excellent service and uptime

Cons:

Limited features included as standard

SLA packages are not included but mandatory.

Our top pick for South African businesses

If we take a closer look at all the above Cloud PBX competitors, it can't be argued that the DSL Telecom Cloud PBX system offers truly outstanding value, promising to reduce costs, connect seamlessly, and get more done - even when on the go. In today's business climate, agility, flexibility and great value are all massive factors to consider as competitive advantages. DSL Telecom' Cloud Phone System really does tick all the boxes.

To learn more about how this incredible game-changing Cloud Phone System can transform your business, head over to this website: www.pbxcapetown.co.za

Bye for now, chat again soon 👍 www.pbxcapetown.co.za

Related blogs that may interest you:

DSL Telecom - Blog #salesforce

What CRM System Should You Choose in South Africa?

5 Best CRM Softwares for South African Businesses

5 Best CRM Softwares for South African Businesses

Get in touch with a Zoho Specialist

Discuss your business requirements, get a free demo & ​determine if Zoho would be a good fit for your business

The DSL Telecom Cloud PBX merges voice and data into an all-in-one platform with the all-new Salesforce integration

Easily Unfold Customer Insights In Salesforce During Your Calls

Call customers with just a click

Log all your calls automatically

Know who is calling you with live call pop ups

Easily manage your customers

Interested in integrating your Salesforce CRM & DSL Telecom Cloud PBX?

Everything a modern South African business should consider when comparing Cloud PBX Phone Systems

Call Routing

Automated Attendant

Music On Hold

Call Pickup

Conference Rooms

Call Recording

Call Detail Record

Holiday Hours

Ring Groups

Discuss your business requirements, get a free demo &
determine if Zoho would be a good fit for your business