Top 5 Signs You Need a CRM For Your Energy Broker Business
In today’s competitive environment, every energy broker needs to be on top of the latest moves in the market, including: how price fluctuations impact their customers both in the short and long term, and how the energy brokerage business can help customers save money. Keeping track of these many moving parts is more than a full-time job, and one misstep can cost you money or, worse, a customer’s loyalty, business, and potential referrals moving forward. If you keep running into these 5 issues, it’s definitely time to get Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for your energy broker business.
You struggle to stay organized and keep track of all the “moving parts”
Between e-mails, excel sheets, and other documents, shuffling between tabs can quickly go from minor annoyance to time drain, and any drain on your time is a drain on your money. Investing in a CRM for your energy broker business will ensure that all that data you need is at your fingertips on a single screen; so you can spend more time working with customers and energy suppliers, and less time figuring out how to tab in and out of the information you need.
You sometimes lose track of customers and they “fall off”
It happens to us all: you forget about an important renewal deadline for a customer and have to scramble to make it right. No broker or businessperson wants to be in the position of letting a customer down; so what if there was a way to help automate the renewal process? A CRM can remind you of each customer’s renewal deadline, so you can pre-empt the problem by working with the customer and negotiating with suppliers to ensure that you get the best deal possible, and your customer feels like an essential part of your business. You can also ensure that the entire contract process can be done online in order to save time, paper, and lock in prices quickly, so every deal with you is a win for your customer.
Communicating with suppliers is onerous and getting paid is troublesome
While many of us operate our businesses at lightning fast speeds and our customers demand even faster work, sometimes communicating with suppliers doesn’t happen at quite the same pace. Undoubtedly, it’s frustrating to have a customer on the phone and not be able to provide quick, accurate quotes so you both can make the best decision possible in order to satisfy their energy needs. Even worse is when through sheer volume of orders, you forget to follow up with the supplier regarding payment leaving money on the table. A CRM will help you with supplier relationships by making communication easier and helping set up a mechanism where you get paid quickly and efficiently.
You never have all the information you need about your business
Commonly, many business owners need custom reports demonstrating how the different parts of their business interact with one another and stand alone. Working off of Excel, Word, and other basic software will only get you so far. Relying on employees to pull and compile reports takes time, effort, and is likely costing you money in lost renewals or new customer sign ups. Getting a CRM like Enerclix retail energy brokerage software that can create specific reports will help you see every part of your business (including new leads, how profitable deals are, and supplier and customer relations) at a glance without sacrificing both you and your employees’ valuable time.
You feel tethered to a vulnerable server
Every businessperson’s worst nightmare is the middle of the night call: the server crashed and we’ve lost all our data. For many, an old-fashioned server at the office might be how their business started, but as it grows and becomes more streamlined, your data solutions have to be just as sophisticated. Investing in a quality CRM will make your data cloud-based, ensuring that even if your server crashes or malware infects your computers, the back-ups upon back-ups will keep your data secure and your business functioning.
Why now?
In a fast-paced business environment, every minute spent on a task not related to maintaining customer relationships or seeking new customers is money lost. Investing in software which automates and streamlines your day isn’t a cost, it’s an investment in growth that will pay dividends for years to come.
