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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

Everything you need to know about electronic signature applications for your business

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 16:19:49 +0200

Requesting document signatures can be a tedious task. You have to wait hours, sometimes even days before you receive documents from your clients or stakeholders. How about getting documents signed within minutes instead of waiting for days or hours? This has been made possible with electronic signature applications. E-signature applications are becoming a fast norm, not only in the South African corporate world but in SME businesses too.

If you don't know much about electronic signatures applications, here's the perfect place to learn about them and the benefits of implementing an e-signature application into your business today.

What do you have to lose? Try the simple, secure and legal E-Signature app for free today!

Start your free Zoho Sign trial here.

What exactly is an electronic signature?

An e-signature or electronic signature is an electronic form of data which can be used to execute signatures on electronic documents or records. This type of signature enjoys the same validity as the standard pen-and-paper signature.

Electronic signatures are a legal way to get consent on electronic documents or forms to validate and verify a document in the same manner as a pen-and-paper signature would. It can replace a handwritten signature in virtually any process.

Are electronic signatures legally binding?

The short answer is yes.

In South Africa, electronic signatures have the same legal standing as handwritten signatures if they meet certain criteria of technical reliability.

For all situations where a document is signed by an electronic signature and where law does not prohibit the document from being signed electronically, the electronic signature will have the same presumption of enforceability as a handwritten signature.

Reasons why you should use an electronic signature application:

Simple & easy to use

The biggest benefit of electronic signatures is that they're simple and easy-to-use. Simply upload a document, declare signers and recipients and deliver a secure link to the recipient. The recipient signs the document and the process is complete. It's that easy!

Real-time notifications

Electronic signatures contain traceable information about who signed the document, when they signed it, and where they signed it. That's much stronger and more enforceable than your average paper-based transaction.

Get signatures faster

The convenience of electronic signatures means there's a much faster turnaround. Instead of sending a document to one party, getting them to print, sign, and scan it, sending it to the next party and then repeating the process down the line, everyone can sign off within seconds. This faster turnaround gives businesses greater versatility in time-sensitive situations and provides your customer with their desired product or service quicker.

Better user experience

No one can ignore that client satisfaction is a key factor which directly influences your the success of any business. Electronic signatures save clients’ time and make the whole signing process much more desirable for them. They can sign documents anywhere, anytime they want and using any internet-enabled device they prefer.

Our top pick for the best E-Signature application in South Africa:

Choosing the right electronic signature application can be hard, so we've made it easy for you and selected the best in the market for South African businesses - Zoho Sign.

With Zoho Sign, you can securely sign, send and manage your business documents from anywhere in a few simple clicks. It's easy to use, quick to learn and simple to implement into your business. What's more, it's now available in ZAR, making it affordable for South African Businesses to adopt so you'll no longer be exposed to fluctuations in the Rand/Dollar exchange rate. Zoho Sign works completely in the cloud and is perfect for anyone that needs to sign business documents - ideal for HR, sales & finance departments.

We've put together the most game-changing features, to help you make the switch to Zoho Sign today:

Easily import- With Zoho Sign, you can easily import and transfer your business document to Zoho Sign from your desktop or cloud application solutions such as Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, Box and Zoho Workdrive. This way, you don't have to create all your documents from scratch, simply migrate your existing documentation straight onto Zoho Sign.

Cloud backup- You will never have to worry about your documents going missing! Zoho Sign enables you to back up your signed documents rapidly. You can even automatically back up signed copies to your favourite cloud app solutions like DropBox, Box, OneDrive and more for improved data protection and to keep your records updated.

Automatic field addition - When you begin the signing process by uploading a document, Zoho Sign will automatically identify if you have text fields and the corresponding fields will automatically be created as digital text fields so that all the fields on your document that you would like the client to fill in will be identified.

Real-time comments - Simply add public or private notes and comments onto your document to elaborate on document information or provide clarity, preventing you from unnecessarily hold ups inclosing your deal or having to send a document back and forth.

Timely reminders- You can see if your recipient has viewed, signed or sent the document back to you. Simply track document status. If your recipient has taken longer than expected to sign the document, you can easily send reminders and automate reminders to expedite the signing process.

Complete control- You can approve, dent or decline documents. If you made a mistake in the document or have sent the wrong document to the wrong person, don't worry, simply recall the document and cancel the signing process.

Templates - Be more productive by saving time and effort by converting frequently-used documents into templates that are easy to send, reuse and maintain forever.

Available in 12 languages- Give your customers the option to view and complete the document signing process in their native language. Zoho Sign is avaiable in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Dutch and Swedish.

Integrations - Zoho Sign integrates with popular third-party services so that you can import users and documents and get your documents signed in a few steps. You can also build custom integrations to meet your requirements with Zoho.

Advanced authentication - Protect your account, documents and your clients documents with multi-factor authentication for that additional level of security.

Legality - All documents that are signed using Zoho Sign are legally binding.

Make it effortless for your clients to sign documents

All in all, electronic signature software, like Zoho Sign is essential for all businesses, whether you're a budding startup, a fast-growing small business or a big enterprise. Why not make it easier to get proposals signed, agreements done, eliminate manual tasks and reduce time spent on following up. Zoho Sign offers powerful features that help you do just that.

If you would like to sign up for a 14-day free trial of Zoho Sign, click here.

Alternatively, request a Zoho Sign demo with one of our Zoho experts, by clicking on the button below.

Book your Zoho Sign Demo

An ideal friendship: DSL Telecom Phone System & Zoho CRM

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:01:28 +0200

In the age of multichannel communications, your customers are communicating to your teams through chat, email, social media and (of course) telephone. Keeping up to date with what a customer requires is even harder when all these channels act like perfect strangers — remaining separate and detached. That is why we suggest you integrate your phone and CRM software. A seamless CRM phone integration, in many ways, turns these two critical communication platforms into best friends: effortlessly in tune and always working together to achieve more than each could alone. The good news is that Zoho CRM & DSL Telecom Phone System have already been introduced and collaborate seamlessly.

In today's blog we'll be discussing what makes the Zoho CRM & DSL Telecom PBX integration the best of companions.

Click here to learn more about DSL Telecom's Cloud Phone System
Click here to start your FREE Zoho CRM trial

Easier tracking

Make manual data entry a thing of the past with DSL Telecom and Zoho CRM's automatic call logging feature. Accurate and descriptive notes on your customer is your team's secret weapon to providing superior service! The call pop-up window enables your team to add notes, create follow-up tasks or assign the contact you spoke with to someone else. You will never lose track or forget about a conversation that you had with a customer.

Call pop-ups to better serve your customers

Zoho's CRM Software can store, access and analyse large amounts of diverse information, including detailed caller identification and call history. Linking your telephony to your CRM gives your sales team quick access to previous call interactions and customer details before the call connects. This enables you to quickly prepare for the customer interaction and ultimately you're now able to assist the customer promptly - saving time for all parties.

Every call from your customer automatically displays a pop-up with the customers information on your screen. Pop-ups provide quick access to customer records which helps to get to the heart of the matter quickly. Having this information handy when a customer calls, gives your team the opportunity to provide a personalised customer service.

Gives you more data

Providing your team with constructive feedback is vital to motivate, improve and enhance your workforce. It is essential to measure KPIs such as call rates, upselling activity and conversion rates. Integrating your telephony with your CRM system helps monitor and analyse staff tendencies and capabilities, providing supervisors and managers with useful, quantifiable data. This integration gives you the opportunity to generate reports. With reports, you can track trends and teams' performance during specific periods and motivate them to improve by providing proof of superb performance or the need to improve on certain aspects of their work. Built-in charts and reports let you visualise your call data and help you figure out how to provide a better customer experience.

Elevate productivity

The ability to accept incoming calls and make outgoing calls with a single click is facilitated through DSL Telecom's Cloud PBX and Zoho's CRM system, enhancing the swiftness of your staff. Stop wasting time searching for contacts' numbers and dialing numbers - make calls straight from Zoho CRM. While you're looking at your leads or contacts, just click the call icon to initiate a call.

What does this integration look like?

Zoho CRM & DSL Telecom Phone Integration: Better Together

The future belongs to companies that maintain strong customer relations and improve efficiency at serving them. Technology is an effective way to help your business achieve both these goals. By integrating your CRM and telephony services, you can make your business stand out even in a hyper-competitive market. Our Zoho Consultants and Cloud PBX Specialists understand how essential communication and building relationships are to businesses. Let us help you unify your communications with your customers.

Try this integration

How we hacked team collaboration using Zoho Cliq

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:44:11 +0200

Zoho Cliq has been an indispensable part of our team's collaboration since the Covid-19 pandemic started. With only a week's notice to a national lockdown, we needed a team communication platform that would allow our teams to communicate seamlessly while being remote.

Zoho Cliq is a business messaging tool that lets teams communicate in real time. Members can create channels for specific projects or teams and make audio and video calls to work more productively with their teams.

Making the choice to use Zoho Cliq as our internal communication platform has vastly benefited our team. It simplified our team communication in the middle of a global crisis. With organised conversations, easy-to-access information and integrating Zoho Cliq to the tools we love, we were able to not only maintain but double our team's productivity.

In this blog, we’ve highlighted some tips that DSL Telecom effectively used with Zoho Cliq to collaborate better. Take a look at our foolproof tips to master effective team collaboration.

Tip #1:

We easily scheduled daily morning and afternoon calls with our teams to stay updated with our projects and productivity.

Every day our team members need to collaborate on projects. Using Cliq, we can easily make a call directly from any personal chat or group chat. For an even stronger team collaboration, we can easily share our screen in the call! This enables us to keep everyone on the same page at all times.

Tip #2:

We created a team-wide channel called #MarketingSuggestions - dedicated to sharing marketing ideas, tips and recommendations.

Using Cliq enables us to streamline our discussions with Channels — a smart, transparent space for synchronous team collaboration. Channels is a great way for our team to make sure our projects and topic ideas, resources and work aligns with our teammates, ensuring that our projects are successfully executed.

Tip #3:

We have preset presence updates to let our teammates know when we are available to collaborate.

Zoho Cliq gives users a good view of who's available, away, or currently in a meeting. Be more efficient with your time by knowing if your team members are available to have a discussion, if they're in a meeting or away from their workspace.

Tip #4:

We use reminders to stay up to date and never miss important messages.

We stay on top of important messages and requests by setting in-chat reminders. This way, Cliq will make sure we never accidentally let something important slip away, while at the same time, organising messages for an easy view of what is important to you.

Tip #5:

We easily organise and stay on top of our messages with Zoho Cliq's message staring feature.

You can bookmark or save important messages, images and videos by starring them in a relevant category that can be accessed anytime.

★ Important ★ To-Do ★ Note ★ Boss ★ Follow-Up

Tip #6:

We continue to build our company culture through lively conversations using Zomojis and GIFs

Something as simple as sharing GIFs and reacting to a message with Zomojis brings your team together, letting your team members know what you think. GIFs are known to be an effective and creative way to communicate and engage.

Tip #7:

We are able to keep up with our teammates on the go

Cliq is available on mobile and tablet devices, in iOS and Android operating systems. Chat your way to productive business communication, wherever you are, on any device.

Transform your team's collaboration with Zoho Cliq

Working remotely shouldn't take away all the little quirks you enjoy about working in the office. From getting into work and greeting your co-workers, to being able to easily check if someone is available for a discussion and taking a quick coffee break together, Cliq's remote work capabilities make sure you don't miss out on the little things.

If you're interested in Zoho Cliq, reach out to DSL Telecom, a Zoho Consulting Partner by clicking the "Speak to a Zoho Expert" button below.

Start Your Free Trial Today

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7 vital criteria to consider when selecting a CRM system for South African businesses

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 10:54:32 +0200

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

No matter what size your company is, or the industry you operate in, the correct CRM software will help you stay competitive by allowing you to:

Keep track of all your interactions with all your customers
Consolidate all your customer data into one easy-to-access location
Maintain powerful customer relationships with greater and faster communication
Sell more products and services
Improve your processes
Enhance communication between sales and marketing teams
Acquire new customers and retain existing customers
Refine your customer segmentation process

As you've probably realised, selecting the perfect CRM system is no simple process.

That‘s precisely why we created this blog—to provide you with the essential information you need to make the best decision possible for your organisation.

Consider the 7 following criteria when selecting a CRM software:

2. Ensure that there is a local partner for Support, Consultation, Training and Implementation

Since a CRM application is such a major investment, it's critical to implement and maintain it effectively. Your software consultant or customer success manager will be a good resource for technical queries or for other questions that may arise. In addition, you may still need to rely on the consultant to assist you with modifications later down the line. Therefore, ensure your consultant is a certified South African partner.

- Here are some important questions to ask regarding support for your CRM software:

How quickly are support calls handled?
Is there an SLA agreement?
What options are available for after-hours questions or concerns?
Are there customer service plans available?
What level of support can I expect?

3. Flexible reporting

Look for a system with the capability to produce the reports your organisation requires. When reviewing your options, find out if customised reports can be created with minimum time and effort, or even automatically updated. Also, find out if the system will allow you to manipulate the data according to your business's needs. Your CRM system needs to show you reports of your data in graphs and statistics that make sense for your business.

- Here are some important questions to ask about reports in your CRM software:

How quickly are reports generated?
Can reports in the CRM system she shared and exported?
It is possible to customise the report dashboard?
Can reports be embedded to third-party dashboards?
Are there analytics features?

4. Are growth and scalability supported?

A good software company invests heavily in engineering and develops new product features and enhancements regularly. It stays abreast of new technologies and makes sure that its customers do too. Often, software upgrades cost far less than the retail price of the full program. Some CRM vendors even provide upgrades within their support programs. A superior CRM software manufacturer will provide product upgrades at reasonable prices or as part of a yearly service agreement. It is imperative to have a CRM software that grows with your business.

5. Does the price of the CRM system fit your budget?

Remember that your CRM system is a business investment. As such, your return on investment (ROI) should be a major component in determining which CRM system you select and how you choose to deploy it. Spending too little could result in an inadequate system that does not meet the needs of your customers or your organisation, while overspending may put your business at risk. If you are honest with your reseller about the factors that will ultimately influence your decision, you should be able to make an informed decision that fits comfortably within your budget.

6. Adopt a highly customisable CRM

A truly customisable solution should be adaptable to fit the needs of your business, such as modifications to fields, buttons and sales cycle processes and managing complex data sets and layouts. For adaption, growth and prospective strategies, focus on getting a CRM System that is a highly adaptable and enables businesses of all sizes and industries to create a platform perfectly tailored to their teams’ processes and unique business needs.

- Questions you should be asking:

Does the software allow you to modify and customise all aspects of the CRM system?
Are the customisation tools easy-to-use?
Do you have the ability to create and modify fields, screens, buttons, tables, views, script, and security settings on the go?

7. Does the CRM software integrate smoothly with the programs you are already using?

A great CRM platform needs to be able to work in harmony with your existing applications. This is one of the most important things to consider when choosing a CRM for your business. You’re not buying a CRM application as yet another item to add to your collection of different work systems. You’re buying it to help streamline and integrate your business operations! It is important to list the third-party software that your company currently uses and look into CRMs that offer the relevant integration tools.

Pro Tip: In order to ensure you're making the right choice for your business, many CRM systems offer a free trial for a sufficient period of time. In this period, you’ll be able to understand if the CRM system match your requirements.

Zoho Software is expanding in South Africa

In 2020, the leading global cloud business software provider, Zoho, announced its plans to expand its footprints in South Africa in order to help African businesses in their digital transformation journey.

DSL Telecom is a South African Zoho Premium Partner. Zoho CRM System covers all of the above criteria and more! Zoho CRM Software empowers a global network of over 150,000 businesses in 180 countries to convert more leads, engage with customers, and grow their revenue. Transform your business with the world’s favourite Customer Relationship Management software.

Try your Zoho CRM Free Trial today:

Start My Free Trial

Make your Customer Service team extraordinary with AI in Zoho Desk

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:40:55 +0200

A typical day in the life of a customer support agent revolves around responding to questions, looking at bug reports, passing on customer feedback, helping sales teams with enquiries, and firefighting when things go south. Amidst all of this, it’s easy for the agent's productivity to slow down. And that’s an area of concern for most large and mid-sized organizations.

How can you improve every agent’s productivity?

The starting point for a lot of companies is to build a self-service culture; set up a knowledge base of frequently asked questions and help customers find answers without raising support tickets. This minimises the load on the service team who can now focus on resolving complex issues more efficiently. Training the service team to use filters and views to organise their tickets is the next step in increasing productivity. It helps the team prioritise their work and see only the tickets that matter to them. This is a point where teams start using smaller utilities like keyboard shortcuts and response templates to save even more time. But there’s a whole lot of things that AI can do to help agents focus on the most important tasks. Zia in Zoho Desk is built to do just that.

Zia is an AI-driven support assistant who makes your customer support team more effective through data mining and machine learning. She provides support agents with analyses, customer forecasting, alerts and suggestions through a pre-configured system of performance analysis and metrics.

Zia also constantly learns and improves.

The more data she has to go on, the smarter she gets. Some of her capabilities are predicting anomalies and trends, analyzing customer sentiments, offering solutions and more.

Zia is a context-aware candidate we've hired for your team. Powered by AI, she can perform crucial tasks like sentiment analysis and anomaly detection. She also doubles as a conversation assistant to help customers find solutions through ASAP, Zoho Desk's in-app customer support tool.

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6 Things that Zia can do for your Customer Service team:

1. Zia can talk.

Customers can speak or chat with Zia from your website or mobile apps. Zia processes customers questions and automatically answers them based on content in your knowledge base. Using a skill builder, Zia can also be trained to perform actions for customers like placing or editing an order.

2. Zia reads between the lines.

When you receive countless tickets on a day, it's not enough to reply “I understand how frustrating this can be.” Understanding whether a customer is happy or not is key to a good response that takes the conversation forward. What if you could figure out the temperament of the customer and accordingly plan your responses. Zia will help you do this.

3. ZIA plays tag.

Zia scans the content of every incoming customer response and categorises them into a positive, negative, or neutral tone and shows the keyword aspects that convey this tone. Zia processes incoming tickets and assigns them appropriate tags. She scans every incoming response and identifies the key phrases from the response. These key phrases are added to the incoming ticket threads. Tags help your agents identify tickets that match their skill sets, and draw on past tickets for reference. When Zia is unsure of what tags to assign a ticket, she asks you. And that's how she learns, so she can help you better the next time.

4. She is one step ahead.

Zia acts as a smart reply assistant for tickets that makes the task of replying to them seem like a walk in the park. Zia intercepts the incoming ticket to identify the key terms from each conversation and suggests the most appropriate solution from your knowledge base. You can add these suggestions to a response with a single click and send the same to the customer. Zia is smart enough that even when an article is long and has many headings, she suggests specific paragraphs and sentences to use in a tailored response. Before an agent can start drafting their response, Zia has one typed out and ready for them. All it takes is a single click to send this out.

5. Nothing escapes ZIA.

A sudden spike or a dip from what is normal to your help desk is called an anomaly. Anomaly prediction is an effective means of identifying unusual or unexpected events that happen within Zoho Desk. Zia - your data intelligence assistant, relies on a broad spectrum of measures and methodologies to detect significant events that affect customer service experience and therefore require your attention. Zia analyses and identifies anomalies in your team's performance 24*7. When there's a sudden surge in incoming tickets, Zia warns you so you can get more hands on deck. Multiple irritated responses on a ticket? You'll hear from Zia. She even identifies issues that get the most tickets, and helps you improve the strength of your Knowledge Base.

6. Teach ZIA the skills you need.

Through a Skill Builder interface, you can teach Zia to perform actions that are relevant to your customers. This could be placing or editing an order, checking order status, or just about anything else she needs to be familiar with.

Zia brings together predictions across anomalies, sentiment, trending ticket tags, and more into a common dashboard for decision-makers to consume. They can drill down further into the details from the same dashboard to investigate further.

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Easily work remotely with these 11 Zoho apps

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:28:27 +0200

Remote work is the future and distributed teams are the new normal. The world is moving past the concept of centralised office operations. Make remote work easy by using the right set of applications which allows you to stay connected with your team and be productive, no matter where you are based.

DSL Telecom was able to make the shift quickly when moving our team of 40 to remote using Zoho's remote working applications. Zoho's suite of applications was designed specifically to support and foster remote collaboration. Since more and more companies are adopting similar work from home/remote work policies, we wanted to give you the top Zoho apps you need to easily shift to remote work.

Here is a list of Zoho apps that will make working remotely easy and productive for your business and team members:

Meet online and communicate anywhere

We all know there is nothing like sitting face to face with your team members, collaborating on a project, but with remote work we have to shift to the next best thing which is a digital solution. These communication tools are key when working remotely;

1. Cliq

Zoho Cliq serves as a central hub for remote work, allowing you to manage multiple chats, jump on a video or audio call with team members, host training or meeting sessions and convert messages into tasks.

2. Meeting

Schedule meetings online across time zones through hosting video or audio calls. You are also able to share your screen for contextual discussion.

3. ShowTime

Design and lead online training courses allowing you to pass on your knowledge remotely, receive feedback and reach audience members all across the world.

Make collaborative tasks and projects easier and more effective for yourself

The following 3 tools makes collaboration super easy and effective:

4. WorkDrive

Zoho WorkDrive allows you to work effectively from any location. Plan, monitor and share tasks, projects and documents with team members in real time to get things done.

5. Projects

Zoho Projects makes collaborative work much easier. You can launch projects and add relevant people and tasks, allowing team members to keep track of task progress and efficiency.

6. Sprints

Zoho Sprints allows you to create customised boards and incorporate live feedback while executing projects .

Provide remote assistance anywhere

Zoho Remotely allows you to assist customers and your service agents at the same time through these 2 applications:

7. Assist

Help your customers or employees from anywhere through an application that acts as remote hands & eyes to assist with and resolve queries.

8. Lens

With Zoho Lens you are able to see what your customer sees. Click and comment on images, draw insights with reality tech and deliver remote assistance.

Achieve productivity

These productivity tools enable you to create and collaborate anywhere.

9. Writer

Zoho Writer allows you to create, share and edit documents together as a team, each from their own mobile devices or laptops, wherever they are.

10. Sheet

With Zoho Sheet, you are able to manage and analyse data and present information to your colleagues.

11. Show

Design perfectly flowing slide show presentations and share these with your team members even if you are located remotely.

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