Losing track of the last time you spoke with prospects? Sensing distance between you and your customers? Forecasting not matching up with the deals you expected to close? Over our years partnering with SugarCRM, we’ve supported clients across all kinds of sectors to solve these issues. And we saw a chance to develop a SugarCRM add-on that would solve them for plenty more businesses — you included.
If you use SugarCRM, you can try the new add-on now: InterAction.
Quick and easy to install, it summarises your client interactions at a glance:
Our team at Provident CRM designed and tested InterAction, and we’ve seen its positive impact across our own Sales and Customer Success teams. So, high time to share it with the world!
Read on for more about the blockers we’ve created InterAction to fix, its features and the benefits it’s designed to bring your business.
If you can evolve with your clients over the long term, it generates a formidable win-win. You know the ins and outs of their business, offering bespoke advice. They know they can rely on you for quality service, at a fair price. There’s mutual trust and respect — which particularly count in the inevitable tougher times. And relationship-building is key to unlocking all the value this kind of commitment creates:
Customer loyalty, driving repeat business & valuable word-of-mouth marketing
Even if competitors undercut you with similar products or services, your clients are likely to stick with you if you’ve nurtured a positive, rewarding relationship with them. For this, every follow-up, every proactive problem-solve and every remembered detail counts. Their repeat business is valuable in itself, and they’re also more likely to recommend you to others.
Feedback & improvement
Regularly checking in with your customers lets you gather a lot of intel:
Your most loyal customers are a fantastic resource for product and service development ideas, strengthening your attractiveness to fresh prospects and your existing client relationships at the same time. This feeds your organisation’s capacity to adapt and innovate, make the right investments and outstrip your competition. Funny what a phone call can do.
The flip side is, predictably, pretty dire. If your customer-facing teams are missing chances to build strong client relationships, the downturn tends to rapidly spread across the business.
So… where were we?
If your customer-facing teams haven’t got the right tracking tools in place, remembering where they’ve got to with each prospect or client is a thankless task. The only way to ensure tailored, timely and well-delivered interactions is rigorous visibility into each customer’s journey and communication history.
To excel, your teams need detailed logs of customer preferences, previous issues, specific commitments made during earlier conversations, etc. Only then can they lead productive, confident conversations that won’t ask your clients to repeat themselves, and proactively address each client’s needs and wants.
Your customers won’t just feel like another name on a call list; they’ll feel heard and valued. Your reps won’t lose time and attention inadvertently repeating information they’ve already shared, or simply forgetting to follow up (of course, it happens). With the right tools in place, you’ll create seamless, frustration-free customer experience — ultimately leading to closing deals with the right people, at the right times.
Satisfied customers are less likely to have their heads turned by your competitors, contributing to lower churn. Plus, positive client relationships put you in a strong position to cross-sell and upsell, as your two-way trust and understanding grow.
Who’s the likeliest lead?
Proper prioritisation primes your customer-facing teams to achieve more, faster. With a clear understanding of each lead’s interaction frequency and history, they won’t waste time chasing after low-value prospects or accidentally neglecting high-potential leads.
Once you have proper insight into the likelihood of conversions — and how quickly they’re really happening — you’ll be able to trust the pipelines and forecasting you’re looking at. They won’t miscalculate your conversion volume or rate, feeding into improved operational management and minimising money left on the table.
Sorry to hear you feel that way…
Strong customer relationships drive revenue and referrals. Disappointing experiences, on the other hand, are tough to work back from. If your prospects or existing customers get the impression that your company is unreliable or indifferent to their needs, negative word-of-mouth can spread. A tarnished brand image makes it much more challenging to attract new customers and retain existing ones in the long run, so prevention is the best cure.
InterAction summarises, in a single place, how and when you last interacted with a client. You’ll see colour-coded indicators for your meetings, calls and email history at a glance, so nothing falls through the cracks.
We’ve built InterAction based on years of helping customers get the most out of SugarCRM, tailoring its capabilities to suit their business needs and individual ways of working.
✓ Streamlined follow-ups and higher conversion rates
The InterAction dashlet summarises your last interactions with prospects, customers and opportunities. It’ll appear on every screen, as a go-to reference to keep your customer-facing teams on track. Its colour-coding nudges actions when they’re needed, helping build your brand’s reputation for consistent, well-timed communication.
✓ Real-time interaction tracking
Hover over each colour-coded indicator in the dashlet and you’ll see the number of days since your last meeting, email or call. Our add-on automatically pulls data from all sources you’ve linked to SugarCRM (email inbox, calendar, etc.)
✓ Integration with SugarCRM modules
You can use InterAction’s last-activity filters in SugarCRM’s workflow tool, SugarBPM. For example, you might set up an automation to schedule a call with any customer you’ve not been in touch with for 30 days. Or, for your VIP customers, automate weekly call reminders to keep that relationship thriving.
InterAction also works with SugarCRM’s customisable Focus Drawers, so you’ll see an immediate summary of every interaction on each of your dashboards.
✓ Filtering and reporting, for better sales pipeline visibility
Fundamentally, InterAction will help make sure you never miss a client follow-up. And the add-on also analyses your interaction trends to help you optimise your strategies. The more data you gather, the better idea you’ll have of your ideal customer profile: which prospects are worth going after, and how should you be communicating with them?
For the C-Level, InterAction enables analysing opportunities, understanding what’s in the pipeline for the weeks and months ahead, and immediately flagging any leads that have had zero interactions. With these insights, you’ll make the best use of your customer-facing team’s time — and their roles will be more rewarding.
Catch a glimpse of InterAction’s power in action by watching the detailed demonstration video below, and witness firsthand how it can seamlessly enhance your SugarCRM experience.
As far as proactive moves go, this is a super-quick win you can bag yourself today! No configuration needed — just download InterAction from the SugarOutfitters store and it’ll get to work for you.
No more missed follow-ups, frustrated clients or deals left on the table: use InterAction for better relationships and stronger business performance.
If you’d like more guidance on making InterAction work for you, reach out to our team. And please do share any feedback you have with us!
