When it comes to managing your contacts and customers, the internet is awash with products that can help you, but that do slightly different things. From social CRM right through to shared address books, the features of these products overlap, yet they offer very different things. For any small business looking to manage their contacts and their relationships, knowing the difference is essential to selecting the right product.
So, first off, let’s take the shared address book. In its simplest form, this is a basic form of contact management. Names, telephone numbers and addresses are shared in a central location, easily accessible by any member of a team. Features between shared address books can differ, but fundamentally, it’s about people’s contact details.
More sophisticated forms of contact management systems introduce conversation history and notes that can be linked to each contact. There may be additional social media features, a record of previous communication with that individual or organisation, the ability to assign tasks and even drip feed automated marketing communications. The system actually helps you ‘manage’ your contacts, rather than just see their contact details.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the next step up and is used in organisations where there are multiple people dealing with the same customer. It allows anyone with access to the CRM to see the customer’s communication history, contact information and purchase history. CRM systems are complex beasts that help with selling and retaining customers.
Where does ContactZilla fit in? Well, we’re all about keeping things simple. Heck, we even stripped out some of the CRM functionality to make it simpler. Simply put, we’re a shared address book through and through.
What we do is allow you to share your contacts with whoever you want, simply and easily. You can share your business contacts with your colleagues and keep your personal contacts private. It’s the ideal solution for small businesses who need a shared address book.
ContactZilla isn’t just about sharing your customer’s or client’s contact details with all members of the team. Unlike contact management systems or complex CRM systems, ContactZilla is for all your contacts - including colleagues, suppliers and associates too.
Start sharing your contacts today. Create a shared address book here.