Excel spreadsheets vs. CRM software

If you are just starting a moving company, you probably rely on Excel spreadsheets to manage all the information. This can include everything from client information to your company’s finances. And the truth is that this is a beneficial tool. However, once your business starts to thrive, it will become increasingly difficult to manage everything using Excel spreadsheets. Therefore, it might be time to consider switching to a CRM for movers. Customer relationship management systems offer many great features that simplify your life. Not to mention that they will help keep your clients happy. So, it’s a win-win solution. But if you still have doubts, learn more about Excel spreadsheets vs CRM software from this guide.

What is moving CRM software?

Since you’re probably familiar with Excel spreadsheets, it’s time to better understand CRM software. This tool is designed to help you manage your moving business more effectively. Specifically, you can keep all your client information in one place and provide access to your employees. This way, everyone will have access to it regardless of their location. Moreover, everyone can access the updated information when someone changes the data. As a result, you’ll be able to serve your clients better, make the sales process more effective, and increase productivity. Of course, you might consider hiring a CRM consultant until you get the hang of it.

Excel spreadsheets vs CRM software

To better understand why CRM software is the best option, we’ll make a comparison analysis on Excel spreadsheets vs. CRM software. This will enable you to make a well-informed decision.

Strengths of a CRM software

Every tool has strengths and weaknesses, but in this case, the good outweighs the bad. More precisely, the main disadvantage of CRM software is that you have to pay for it. However, you’ll recover your investment soon enough due to its usefulness. Furthermore, you’ll need time to learn how to use it and then teach your employees how to use it. But this is a small price to pay for all the following advantages.

#1: CRM provides a mobile-friendly experience

Let’s take a look at how movers spend their time. They primarily drive a truck from one location to another and help customers with moving estimates. Managing that data would probably require a couple of different Excel sheets. Those tasks are time-consuming, and your crew members should not waste more time filling in multiple files and managing documentation.

With the help of a mobile-friendly CRM app, they will have all of the data on a single platform. This simplifies their job and helps them care for the technicalities much faster. If this feels like a known situation, you need user-friendly moving CRM.

#2: Visually appealing performance metrics

Besides movers, managers also have a lot of benefits from using a moving CRM. Let’s consider how tedious it would be to use Excel to create dashboards or reports. While this is possible, you will need extensive Excel knowledge and an understanding of many formulas. You should not spend your time on that if you have other more important things to do.

Luckily, CRM software offers a variety of visually appealing dashboards and reports. The best is that they are available just a few clicks away without knowing any formulas. That is an efficient and simplified way to pull reports and create dashboards without spending too much time.

#3: CRM integrates very well with other platforms

We mentioned that a huge benefit of CRM over Excel is that it allows you to move your operations to a single app environment. Nevertheless, CRM still has excellent flexibility regarding integration with other platforms. That means you can boost your CRM experience by including essential APIs.

#4: It improves business communication

Above all else, CRM excels in communication. While Excel mainly uses tables to store data, it has no specific communication tools. On the other hand, CRM focuses on collecting customer data and helping employees to better communicate that information with customers and between themselves.

#5: Better organization of your workforce

One of the joint pain points of every moving company is improving dispatching services. A dispatcher is responsible for creating route schedules, assigning tasks, managing equipment and resources, helping customers move estimates, providing scheduled delivery time, and much more. When discussing Excel spreadsheets vs CRM software, it becomes clear why a single platform has many benefits. Taking care of these tasks is much easier if you have a platform that supports everything. If you are struggling with the performance of dispatchers, that is one of the signs your moving company needs CRM.

Once you implement a CRM solution, you will notice a significant improvement in dispatching tasks. That will eventually lead to reducing delivery time, automating day-to-day processes, and providing exceptional service to your loyal customers.

#6: It helps you manage leads better

Leads management for moving companies is critical. But using Excel spreadsheets for this task can be daunting. You have to introduce the data manually in tiny cells and scroll up and down to see it. Thus, to enhance user experience and efficiency, you should switch to CRM software. This tool is designed to improve lead management. Namely, it enables you to add much information about the leads. For example, apart from names and addresses, you can also include details about your communications with them and the services they are interested in. Furthermore, your employees can even receive automated reminders for follow-ups.

#7: It enables automation

As we all know, time is money. Therefore, wasting time with manual activities that could be automated is terrible for business. Regarding Excel spreadsheets, most of the data must be entered manually. However, CRM software enables automation. For instance, if you’re using web forms on your website to generate leads, that data can be automatically entered into the CRM software.

Another great option is to use CRM with email automation. This entails creating generic emails you can send to customers by pressing a single button. For example, when you get a new client, sending a welcome email is nice. But writing one every time you get a new client is very time-consuming. Thus, automation can increase efficiency and improve customer experience.

#8: It helps you protect your data

Keeping business data secure should be your top priority. As a moving company, you have access to sensitive client information. So, you risk getting sued if unauthorized people access that information. This is a significant concern with Excel spreadsheets because they can be easily shared and downloaded. Once this happens, you cannot control how that information will be used.

CRM software will help you protect all that sensitive data. Every user has to log in using an email and a password. When an employee leaves the company, you can deactivate their CRM account. Furthermore, you can even set up security permissions. This way, only certain employees will have access to specific data.

Strengths of Excel spreadsheets

Don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not trying to convince you that Excel spreadsheets are useless. Excel spreadsheets are a popular choice for many businesses, thanks to their simplicity, affordability, and flexibility. Here’s why they’re still a go-to for managing data:

• Familiarity: Most of us are already comfortable using Excel. Its familiar layout means you can start working with it right away, without needing to learn a whole new system.
• Powerful Tools for Data Analysis: If you know your way around Excel, you can use its advanced formulas and functions to perform complex data analysis, organize information with pivot tables, and customize your data presentation with conditional formatting.
• Cost-Effective: Excel is generally more budget-friendly than specialized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, making it a great option for small businesses or anyone looking to keep costs down.
• Customizable: You can tailor Excel spreadsheets exactly to your needs, creating personalized templates, reports, and dashboards without needing any coding knowledge.
• Works Offline: Unlike many online CRM tools, Excel can be used without an internet connection, offering flexibility in various working conditions.
• Easy to Share and Integrate: Excel files work well with many other applications, making it easy to share data across different platforms and integrate with other tools your business might use.
• Ideal for Prototyping: Excel is fantastic for testing out new ideas or setting up database prototypes quickly, allowing you to experiment without a big investment in specialized software.

Excel isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to handling very large datasets or ensuring data security, but its strengths make it a valuable tool for many businesses, especially for those just starting out or managing smaller amounts of data.

In conclusion

These tools are beneficial, as you’ve seen from this analysis of Excel spreadsheets vs. CRM software. But efficiency and productivity are essential for any successful business. Therefore, you should always opt for a solution that promotes these things. That’s why we strongly advise you to consider CRM software. It has a lot of useful features that help you save time and manage your business better.