Business owners and executives are always in need of ways to stay organized and keep their contacts up to date. For small businesses, Microsoft’s Outlook can be a good way of creating a light CRM (Contact Relationship Manager) until they grow into a full CRM package. There are fields that can be used for noting information about your contacts, other useful information and places where you can attach notes, keep track of your calls and appointments with that individual and flags for upcoming “to dos” for that contact. The flags would automatically pop up in your calendar of To Do’s for any given day or week.
It can also be used for mail merges with Word, of course, and can easily be used in Excel to upload lists of people for use in other applications such as Constant Contact and Mailchimp. The address books can also be shared amongst staff or other people working with you.
Outlook is the most widely used email client software by companies. Although many small businesses use web mail (ie: gmail over the Internet) you lose the ability to track events with your contacts. Such as phone calls, attachments to their record, follow ups on calls, letters. In addition to the many fields included with Outlook, you can also create customized fields for your company’s use.
If you would like to find out more about using the power of Outlook, please contact us at IMC.