As a new online business, it might be tempting to rush out to launch your website, but without having a custom-built digital back office to go with it, the venture is more risky. In this post we will explain why you shouldn’t make that mistake.
The digital back office is the part of your website which is designed to facilitate and automate the management of leads, orders, payments, marketing and any other business-related activities. Without it, your business will be wasting time doing manually what can be done automatically, and will lose track of each and every lead.
What is a digital back office?
Also known as Customer Relationship Management (or CRM) a digital back office is a software product designed to automate the workflow of back office operations at online businesses.
A CRM (think Salesforce or Hubspot) is a little like a database. Databases are useful for organizing records (like a customer’s name, address, phone number and email) and managing data (such as orders and purchases).
In a digital back office, each module can be made of several components. For example, the Marketing module would include:
- a section to manage all your campaigns (email, digital advertising, social media advertising and posting)
- a section to segment your audience in smaller groups or create ‘circles’ of persona for specific delivered messages
- an email marketing program which can send a suite of emails designed to keep your leads and potential buyers engaged with your brand and your company. This program gathers data and sends emails to your target audiences informing them of new offers or items, or contacts them when their actions trigger a notification (a new visit to the website, a chatbot interaction, etc.).
Advantages of a Digital Back Office
Why would you want to get a custom-built digital back office? There are three main reasons:
- You need to stay up-to-date with current trends in your industry;
- You want to improve customer service;
- You want more control over your internal processes.
Where to get a custom-built digital back office?
If you haven’t created a custom-built CRM yet, it’s time to look into your best options. A well-designed CRM can be part of your marketing strategy and can make or break your business.
In fact, a CRM is the only real tool a startup needs: if you don’t have one, your startup will not get off the ground.
To get a custom-built CRM, you first need to understand what can be done with your customized CRM software, and which specific processes in your business would benefit from being automated.
With that in hand, you’ll need to reach out to an agency that can develop and manage your custom-buit CRM. But before you sit down with them, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your requirement ?
- What type of features would you like?
- How much are you willing to spend on customization?
- Which customization service provider do you want?
- Where do you want it installed?
Then go through all your leads once in awhile and see where they are coming from. What are their goals? What kind of details do they provide? How much time do they spend with the company? What would they pay per lead? Are there any trends that stand out more than others?
One of the biggest problems businesses face when choosing a custom-built CRM system is finding the right learning curve, which is why it’s important to find out what tools and resources are available. If you’re just starting out with a custom-built CRM system, check out the following resources:
If you have any question about how to develop or set up your custom-built digital back office, please contact Digismart now.