p>Client Management Software
Most businesses today use some type of Client Management Software for keeping track
of their customer information. Many are very simple systems that track basic contact
information such as customer name, address, phone number, and email address. Those
systems may be a card file or Rolodex, some sort of database or spreadsheet program,
or software specifically designed for managing contact information. In a competitive
business environment it is important to have a Client Management Software system
that not only organizes the information for the contacts you work with, but also
for the companies. Your Client Management Software must permit you to easily review
the contact information for the people and companies you work with as well as giving
you access to a history of the communication, events, and actions related to them.
Evolution of the Client Management Software
The first Client Management Software programs were simple paper files with the contact
data (name, address, and phone number) of the people you worked with. Many business
people kept this information in card files or address books. With the development
of day planners and date books many business people found an easy way to keep all
their customer information in one place, with a spot for short notes and a calendar
close at hand. However, their Client Management Software was still on paper making
it cumbersome to update and difficult to share information with colleagues. As computers
and software took over the business world, they took over Contact Management as
well. You could now keep your contact data in a spreadsheet or database.
This made updating the information a bit easier, but could still be cumbersome to
use and often took more than basic knowledge of the software program. With software
programs designed for Contact Management, the business professional finally got
a tool allowing them to easily organize contact data in one location, make it simple
to update and record information not previously available (email and website addresses).
The preeminent Client Management Software in this arena being Microsoft Outlook,
allowing easy collection of contact data with access to your email, calendar, and
daily task lists.
Reviewing Client Management History
Reviewing the history of communication you have had with your clients is a vital
component of Client Management Software, and should be a simple process. When working
in a Client Management Program, you want to be able to see all the activities related
to a specific person or a company. The Prophet Contact Manager allows you to select
a specific contact or company and see all the related emails, appointments, tasks
and even sales opportunities. The Contact Manager presents you with tabbed sections
that allow you to easily switch between viewing emails, appointments, tasks and
attachments for a specific contact or company.
If you are looking for an email from one of your clients just click their name in
the Contact Manager window, then select the "Emails" tab. You can now find that
email from any folder in your Outlook, and with a simple click open it to review
the specifics. That message is opened directly from your Outlook. This can be a
vital function of Client Management Software in providing a consistent and reliable
history of your relationship and communication with a client.
Choosing Client Management Software
Client Management Software will provide your business with the ability to track
the contact information for both the people and the companies you work with, it
will create relationships between the two, and will provide you with a way to see
a comprehensive history of activities in an easy to navigate interface. Prophet
CRM creates all this for you inside a system you are already using, Microsoft Outlook.
You can continue to work in Outlook as you always have, and utilize Prophet's advanced
Client Management features to keep tabs on every communication and activity you
have for a specific client. This can be an important advantage if your company is
already using Outlook, as it dramatically shortens the time it takes for users to
become familiar with the new Contact Management features. Prophet's integration
with Outlook also eliminates the problem of having customer data in two places.
With Prophet your contact data is on only one place... Outlook.
