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Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Javelin for your Small Business

I had a serious problem.

Since the start of my company, I’d never really had a need to formalize my customer relationship management (CRM) process.  I’d always kind of done things my way, and I was pretty good about tracking opportunities if not by directly using my tools on my computer, then at least by using my head.  Each customer got his/her own folder in a “Prospects” folder, which stored quotes, spreadsheets, and other information that I had gathered in pre-sales.  Once a prospect became a customer, he/she got a new folder in a “Customers” folder, which contained a link to his/her pre-sales folder and any new material that comes in post sales.

The system worked pretty well, except for one thing: I was depending too much on clients to return my inquiries, and after a quote was given I didn’t have any follow-up process in place.

Oh sure, I would occasionally review my “Proposals” folder and figure out which prospects I let slide because I just didn’t carve out the time to follow-up.  Though that didn’t happen often, I am getting more and more requests for proposals now, and since communication is key it’s prompted me to do something about it.

Enter Javelin

I stumbled upon Javelin while doing some research into a CRM solution, though I confess I don’t remember exactly how I came across it.  Javelin is a CRM system that is intended to help you “keep track of the people and companies you do business with, communications with them, opportunities in the pipeline, and what needs to be done when.”  They offer their system in a free and reasonably-priced monthly payment system, which was perfect for me because I wanted the opportunity to try out a CRM solution before I committed money to it.

First Impressions

Javelin seems to take a page out of 37 Signal’s Basecamp online project management system.  Its home page has a very similar look and feel, with information laid out in a clear and concise manner that’s easy to understand.  37 Signals does have a competing product called Highrise, which is their own version of CRM and probably integrates nicely with Basecamp, of which I’m a big fan.  

I didn’t go with this option because Highrise’s free version, not heavily advertised on the web site, is a little more restrictive than Javelin’s free account when it comes to online storage and the amount of opportunities that you can store (Javelin offers 10MB of storage & unlimited opportunities, compared to 1 opportunity and no storage on Highrise).

The sign-up process for Javelin’s free account is very easy, and should be suited to all levels of computer users (unless you try to use your mouse as a paperweight).  You’re given a unique subdomain for your new CRM system based on your business name (e.g. https://yourcompany.javelin.com) where you’ll be directed after you sign-up to log in and begin using the system.  Overall, a simple, straightforward sign-up that isn’t intimidating at all; I liked it.

Contact simplicity, Contact trouble

Javelin prompts you to add or import contacts as your first task in setting up the system.  I, of course, would forgo that advice and set up the colors for my site and upload my logo, but then would return to begin a contact upload.  I took all the client addresses I had in my address book and exported them as a vCard file (if you aren’t familiar with vCard, you can read more about it here).  The vCard file wouldn’t upload at first, and I soon discovered it was because there was a space in the file name itself.  Once I removed the space, the file uploaded quickly and correctly, with all the information I had intended to send.  The process was painless, and there really wasn’t much review that I needed to do once the contacts were in.

You may, of course, add your contacts one-by-one into the system via a straightforward form they provide on the site, but using one of their importing options will likely take you far less time. In addition to vCard, Javelin also supports CSV files and Microsoft Outlook contact lists.

Settings Galore

Aside from the options to customize the look for your new online CRM system, you have a plethora of other options to help make the system fit your business model.  ”Tags and Data Tags,” for example, allow you to uniquely identify your customers according to your line of business and way of thinking; categorize customers as “leads,” “business owners,” or “contacts,” and it might help you find important people more quickly as you navigate the system.  ”Custom fields” allow you to capture information about your clients that are relevant to your business.  For example, if knowing a client’s birthday is important, you can add a field to capture it when you’re entering a new client.

“Tracks” was most interesting to me.  If you follow a specific set of steps when acquiring a new opportunity, you can record them here as a “to do” list for you to follow, so you don’t forget any critical step during that part of your customer process.  I created a track to “quote new projects,” where I list when I should be calling a customer, when I should be entering his/her data in Javelin, when to create a quote and when to follow-up with a customer.  If I define that process and follow it for every customer, at least I’ll now be making a conscious decision when I’m skipping a step, rather than unconsciously forgetting and losing an opportunity.

Opportunities Knock

After I had my customer contacts set up, I added a few opportunities and I have to say it was pretty simple as well.  If you’ve set up a track and select that track when setting up your opportunity, you have a nifty task list that starts with the first item in your track as a to-do.  You can see the status of each project in a variety of views, and the “sales pipeline” dashboard gives you a quick, high-level overview of where your opportunities stand in the sales pipeline and upcoming tasks you’ve defined for the opportunities you have.  This was a key feature for me and I’m sure is something present in most CRMs, but I like the way the data is presented for Javelin.

Cases

Javelin gives you a way to track post-sales work too, though I didn’t get into that too much for this review.  ”Cases” allow you to track post-sales activities, such as customer service, requests and other events.  Like opportunities, you can attach “Tracks” to your cases, allowing for a consistent list of tasks to follow for each case you create.

Don’t work in a bubble…Collaborate!

As part of the free system, you can add a second user that can access and update all of your opportunities.  This is really great, because unlike the way I currently track my opportunities, I can now keep my business partner apprised of bids I’m making without having to send a detailed email every so often or have a meeting just to discuss it.  I can simply set him up on Javelin and ask that he check whenever he wonders what’s going on.  Similarly, he can add his own opportunities and we can assign each other tasks and be able to track those tasks without having to worry about keeping a separate record that could get lost.

Javelin Shortcomings

Javelin is a great first step for me in order to get my customer contacts organized and more accessible to the people that need to see them.  That said, there are a few features that would be really useful in future releases:

• RSS — I didn’t notice any way to get updates for projects via Real Simple Server, or RSS.  I’d like a way to be able to passively follow updates to opportunities using my reader program (which is usually your email program, but can be a number of other programs), so I don’t have to go to the site every time a change is made.  It could be that this feature was disabled for the free account, but still, this shouldn’t be overly complex to implement.
• Quote Templates — I don’t think any other service offers this yet, but my quotes have pretty standard language.  I would love for a system to be able to organize sections in my proposal documents so that whenever a new opportunity is created I can create and attach an associated quote/proposal at the same time.  It would serve as a great reference for anybody accessing the opportunity, and give a great history of interactions with my customers.
• Direct Client Contact — It would be great, along with the quote builder, to be able to email new proposals to clients from directly within Javelin, and be able to record that interaction.  They have a great drop-box functionality which allows you to forward emails from clients and attach them to your contact list on Javelin using a unique mailbox that they maintain, but being able to record without having that extra step would be nice.
• QuickBooks Integration — Though Javelin integrates with two online accounting services, I’ve never heard of either of them and don’t plan on giving up my current QuickBooks addiction.  I don’t know how much trouble it would be to add QuickBooks to the list of services Javelin supports, but it would certainly open up an opportunity with many small businesses that depend on QuickBooks as their financials software.
• More Reports — Javelin tracks project income and cost — I wish there was a way to easily see projected costs and profits for the sales pipeline.  I’m sure there are other possibilities for reports out there, that was just one that immediately came to mind as I was using the system.

The Bottom Line

Javelin is certainly a great tool to use if you discover, like I did, that the CRM solution you’re using (or lack thereof) isn’t working for you anymore.  It is simple, fast, and clear in communicating the kind of information that you can store and visualize.  It is unobtrusive and therefore not as intimidating to someone who might not be comfortable with an online application, but powerful enough to appease users with more complex requirements.

My experience with Javelin would be even better if some of the things I mention above were to be incorporated, but as it stands now it is already a good tool if you’ve got a small business and you’re looking to get your sales pipeline organized.  Ultimately, the purpose of this exercise was to find a tool that would remind me when I needed to follow-up with my clients and prospects.  And in the end, that’s what any good CRM should strive to do.

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