Corie Kaftalovich

Luxor CRM

Corie Kaftalovich is the Marketing Coordinator at Luxor CRM, a web CRM vendor, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. With a background in Communications and Marketing, Corie is a frequent contributor to a variety of industry blogs and business communities covering topics of CRM, marketing, customer service, and social media.

Customizing Your CRM Makes All the Difference

0 comments 1,736 reads

Posted on 2011-05-12

After months of research and demos and sales pitches, you’ve finally decided which CRM software you want to implement in your business. The next question on your mind is…now what? With the manual in hand and the support team just a phone call away, the logical first step is to tailor the system to your business’ precise needs and goals.

However, most CRM systems make customization super easy, which results in adding in lots of unnecessary fields and notifications that you don’t even end up using. So before you go on customization frenzy, take a peek at some of these helpful tips to getting your CRM solution customized to perfection.

1. Always have a plan
Though it’s tempting to just add fields left, right and centre that you think would be of value to input in your CRM database, it is so important for you and your team to first sit down and discuss what you want to achieve with your CRM. Think about what types of reports you want to produce and therefore what...

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How to Boost Team Motivation with CRM

0 comments 974 reads

Posted on 2011-04-21

A primary goal of every manager is to keep themselves and their staff motivated. Whether they provide incentives like bonuses or vacations or create an environment filled with positivity, managers need to find new, inventive ways to keep their staff consistently focused on their goals.

But accomplishing this isn’t as easy as it seems. For one, certain employees would prefer to have incremental goals as oppose to a single large one and for another, some employees like to get a day by day report on their progress towards their goals, which isn’t always readily offered by managers. So what tools could managers use to resolve these issues to keep their staff motivated? In my opinion, one viable solution is Customizable Dashboards offered by some Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions.

What are Dashboards?

Simply put, dashboards provide a real-time snapshot of an organization’s key metrics. They can come in the form of funnels, graphs, charts, and lists...

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How to Sync Your Sales People for Success

0 comments 1,441 reads

Posted on 2011-04-12

Defining a clear and distinct sales process is the first step in creating a cohesive sales team. Because sales people come from different experiential backgrounds and selling styles, implementing and endorsing a specific sales process helps to get everyone on the same page and synced for success. A helpful tool to make this daunting process a lot easier is Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

With the help of a robust CRM tool, companies are able to not only define a clear sales process, but also set specific goals and measure their team’s performance with real numbers. These features not only provide upper management with a 360 degree view of their company, but also provide their sales team with the ability to individually evaluate their daily progress. The goal of this article is to help simplify the task of creating a seamless sales process by outlining how a CRM solution can be used to align your sales process with your sales people.

Combine, Agree and...

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How to Create the Best Customer Experience with CRM

0 comments 1,083 reads

Posted on 2011-02-24

The most vital asset to any company’s success is their customers. Whether a company has 10 customers or 10,000, it is imperative for every one of them to be tended to and kept satisfied. As the business world increasingly gets pulled into Web 2.0, companies have to try harder than ever to build and maintain customer relationships online. The question then is what can companies use to ensure that these relationships are not only created but nurtured for the long-term? The answer is: CRM.

Though CRM is not the answer for everything, it definitely plays a crucial role in managing and optimizing customer relationships. Moreover, the more advanced the features and functionality of CRM solutions become, the more tools companies acquire to create the best customer experience.

Get Out What You Put In

The only way that the use of a CRM solution can contribute to the creation of a customer experience is if the users truly put forth the effort to inputting and updating...

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The Top 3 CRM Features for Becoming More Proactive

0 comments 1,788 reads

Posted on 2011-02-04

There is a fine line between being proactive and reactive in the business world. Although we would like to keep a pace of running things smoothly, planning out our tasks and mishaps in advance, we’re sometimes forced to rush, be unorganized and as a result, face unforeseen problems. Though some business people have mastered the art of being proactive, others require tools that can help to stay on top of the things that matter most. In my opinion, one of the best tools on the market that can enhance our ability to be more proactive is CRM.

Robust CRM tools offer businesses a complete suite of sales, marketing and customer support features and functionalities they need to effectively run their business and be successful. For this blog, I’ve decided to take the time to point out the top 3 CRM features for improving proactivity and ultimately, their business success.

1. Business Alerts

When a new lead visits your website, when a business deal advances to the next...

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The Top 5 Time-Saving Benefits of CRM

0 comments 1,218 reads

Posted on 2011-01-19

Businesses of all types and sizes are approaching the New Year as an opportunity to make more money while spending less. Though budgets have been replenished, companies have become more cost-conscious than ever. The goal is to be strategic about implementing new business ideas, yet pragmatic about what these ideas cost.

With that being said, many companies are considering CRM as a complete solution that will help them save money in the long run. However, companies often forget about the time-saving benefits CRM solutions offer as well. In fact, many of its time-saving benefits directly translate into saving companies BIG money. For this blog, I’ve decided to highlight the top 5 time-savings benefits of CRM that any company can prosper from.

1. Making Your Business Leaner and Greener

One of the most advantageous benefits of using a CRM system is the significant reduction in using paper. All processes that were once facilitated by forms and paperwork can now...

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It's CRM, NOT Magic!

0 comments 1,159 reads

Posted on 2010-12-22

Though created with the utmost advanced technology and packaged with the promise of making your business one smooth-sailing dream, CRM should be viewed as a tool that creates magic and NOT as magic itself.

Too often, CRM is assumed to function like the acclaimed Ronco Rotisserie, with the philosophy of “set it and forget it”. With that mentality, it is no wonder that over 50% of CRM implementations fail before even going live. Businesses alike need to understand that you can’t simply buy a CRM system and expect it to do all the work for you. Instead, companies need to recognize their role as the CRM driver, guiding the system from point A to B, according to their well-thought-out roadmap and clear vision.

Use it or lose it

Companies express a great amount of enthusiasm prior to implementing a CRM system. Once the system goes live, the enthusiasm begins to dwindle as they quickly come to realize that the system is only as good as the people who are using it...

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How to Select the Best CRM Vendor

3 comments 2,020 reads

Posted on 2010-12-09

There is a misguided belief that selecting the best CRM solution is what makes or breaks a CRM project. The truth is that CRM success depends just as much on the selected vendor as it does on the solution’s features suite.

Companies must keep in mind that when committing to a CRM solution, they are simultaneously committing to a long-term partnership with the vendor. But just like the solution, vendors come in all shapes and sizes and finding one that is attentive, reliable and trusted is not a simple task. In attempt to make things easier, this article will serve to highlight 5 elements all companies should consider when selecting the best CRM vendor.

Customer Service & Support Offering

A company can only reap the direct benefits and value of a CRM solution if the users are trained well enough and supported sufficiently. In evaluating CRM vendors, it is imperative for companies to take note of how much support the vendor provides and at what cost. While...

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Adding Education into the CRM Equation

2 comments 1,617 reads

Posted on 2010-10-04

People never like to admit when they are not knowledgeable on a subject, but when it comes to CRM, lacking education can result in choosing the wrong vendor and ultimately, inevitable failure. Though CRM has become a catch phrase, there are many companies out there who don’t readily understand the term. They may recognize their company’s need for a CRM product but without knowing much about its purpose and value, their search for the right solution ends up becoming a big problem.

In this blog, I will explore the value of educating one’s self on CRM so to help those actively seeking a solution, with how to select the right vendor. Though learning something new is never a fun task, adding education into the CRM equation will be your company’s best lesson yet.

Recognize Your Level of CRM Education

Before exploring the immense database of CRM resources, it’s imperative for companies to be aware of their level of education. Those who have used CRM systems in the...

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The Impact of Social Media on CRM

2 comments 4,100 reads

Posted on 2010-09-23

With hundreds of millions of people accessing the variety of online social networks, the world’s ability to connect and share is limitless. From a business standpoint, being able to enter the informal networks that prospective, past and present clients reside in has allowed companies to create a customer experience like never before.

So what does this mean for customer relationship management (CRM)? How has the social media phenomenon changed the way companies interact with customers? This blog will explore some of the possible impacts in attempt to uncover the impact social media has on CRM.

The Lead Generation Machine

I pointed out in my last blog, The Future of CRM Software, that the rapid growth and popularity of social media has fuelled CRM vendors to integrate their software with a variety of social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, some...

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