Tech Support

What small-business owners need to know about technology.

Courtesy of Empire Builders Group Amy Larrimore of the Empire Builders Group.

As discussed in the small-business guide we have just published, large businesses have long used customer relationship management software to automate sales and marketing and to manage their interactions with customers. In the last several years, though, small businesses have started using this kind of software, too. In part, that’s because the programs have become cheaper and easier to use.

Sorting through all of the options, however, can be a challenge. To discuss those options, we turned to Amy Larrimore, the managing partner of the Empire Builders Group in Philadelphia. Ms. Larrimore, who leads the firm’s information systems and technology division and who helps companies of all sizes choose the right technology for their needs, prepared the graphic below, which compares estimated costs for several customer relationship systems and is based on research Empire did for an actual client. The following conversation has been condensed and edited.

How does a customer relationship management system change things for a small business that traditionally knew many of its customers personally? [Read more…]

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/do-small-businesses-understand-the-c-r-m-systems-they-are-buying/?partner=rss&emc=rss