Customer Relationships Management (CRM) software is a must-have for real estate firms. According to Inman, as many as 70% of real estate agents use a CRM to organize contact information, maintain long-term relationships, automate tasks, and make service more efficient and personalized.
CRMs developed especially for real estate offer an array of features specific to property and deal-oriented tasks. Some of those identified as most important in a recent survey were contact organization, activity management, lead capturing, marketing, document sharing, and more. Assembling all of these functions on a single integrated platform creates a powerful tool that reduces redundancy while it boosts productivity and responsiveness.
The benefits of a CRM are clear, but it’s important to remember that your database is a living thing –or at least should be treated like one. Without an occasional once-over, your data will lose its usefulness. Since it’s full of people and deals, the information is changing constantly. While a good CRM can accomplish a lot automatically, it’s wise to perform some regular maintenance by hand. Get your CRM in top shape for 2017 with these tips.
Sort and prune contacts
Free up space and save yourself time and aggravation by going through your contacts to eliminate duplicates. Make sure that all of the notes related to that contact are attached to the entry that you keep, and that they are still relevant. Remember to look for quality over quantity.
Verify data usefulness
Periodically, you should check for email deliverability, phone connectability and assess any gaps in the record. Remove inaccurate information and track down more current numbers, addresses, and business associations.
Update information
Over time, you may accumulate contact information inside of emails or even jotted down on paper. Before the New Year, gather these together and get them properly entered into your CRM. You’ll be glad you did.
Sharpen your categories
Establishing categories (also called segmenting) in your CRM streamlines marketing efforts and makes your communications crisp and efficient. You might assign contacts to categories based on location, industry, relationship (Client? Vendor? Colleague?), or sphere of influence. Create meaningful networks that make your data useful every day. You can do this by making connections and tying related contacts together. Take the opportunity to verify that contacts are correctly categorized to save yourself time later.
Fill the calendar
Enter recurring tasks and reminders on the calendar. Set yourself up for success by scheduling emails and meeting reminders as far ahead as possible. Create a schedule for follow-ups and other marketing essentials, so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
Integrate
Take full advantage of your CRM’s potential by integrating your data with useful applications. Utilize connections created within the platform to perform analysis and put together marketing documents. You could also schedule marketing emails, check in with established clients, and manage listings and reports.
A lean, well-maintained CRM database makes you more efficient, organized and responsive. Spend a little time on the front end now to clean up and improve your data. You’ll supercharge your work and set yourself up for success in 2017.
The RealNex CRM has been an industry-leader for more than 20 years. It is specifically designed for commercial real estate professionals and serves as the central hub in the RealNex deal management platform. Use the RealNex CRM to manage your people, properties, and projects from end-to-end -- and enjoy more productivity, more connectivity, and more deals.
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