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Lunar CRM encompasses all the benefits you’d expect, like safe and secure cloud hosting, extensive MI, enhanced operational control and so much more.
We work closely with you to create the best workflows for your business and create a fully tailored, bespoke CRM solution.
Wrapping Up the Holidays: 5 Campaign Lessons from 2024
The holiday season is the most lucrative time of the year for businesses, but it’s also the most competitive. With campaigns wrapping up, now is the perfect time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons we can carry into next year.
The 2024 holiday season brings unique challenges and opportunities, with evolving customer expectations, new technologies, and economic shifts shaping the retail landscape. Let’s explore five key lessons from this year’s holiday campaigns to help you refine your strategies for 2025.
December 2024 Read more...
2024 in Review: CRM Trends to Watch for the New Year
As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how the CRM landscape evolved in 2024 and look ahead to what’s in store for 2025. This year, businesses embraced technologies that not only enhanced efficiency but also deepened customer relationships. Trends like AI-driven insights, omnichannel CRM strategies, and advanced customer segmentation took centre stage, reshaping how organizations connect with their audiences.
Looking forward, businesses must prepare to adopt these and other innovations to stay competitive and foster lasting engagement. Let’s dive into the trends that defined 2024 and explore emerging developments that will shape CRM in 2025.
November 2024 Read more...
Post-Holiday Customer Retention Strategies: Keeping New Customers Engaged
The holiday shopping season brings a surge of new customers, but the real challenge begins once the festivities are over—keeping those customers coming back. While it’s tempting to focus solely on seasonal sales, businesses that prioritize post-holiday customer retention are more likely to build long-term relationships and steady revenue streams.
Your CRM can play a crucial role in transforming one-time shoppers into loyal customers. By leveraging tools like personalized communication, loyalty programs, and customer satisfaction tracking, you can stay connected with holiday shoppers and encourage them to return. Here’s how to keep the momentum going once the holiday rush winds down.
November 2024 Read more...
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Strategies: Using CRM to Maximize Holiday Revenue
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most critical days in retail, giving businesses a unique opportunity to boost revenue and attract new customers amid the holiday sales rush. But with so many brands vying for attention, it’s essential to go beyond flash promotions and create valuable, memorable interactions.
Your CRM can be instrumental in achieving this by enabling personalized campaigns, real-time analytics, and seamless service across channels. With tools like dashboards, workflow management, and third-party integration, your CRM can streamline your operations to deliver a standout shopping experience. Let’s explore how to set up your CRM to maximize Black Friday and Cyber Monday revenue and ensure a successful holiday season.
November 2024 Read more...
Preparing Your CRM for Holiday Sales: Essential Tips to Start Now
With November here, the holiday shopping season is already gaining momentum. For businesses, it’s the busiest time of the year—a time to maximize revenue, attract new customers, and build long-lasting relationships. With so much competition in the holiday market, however, your ability to stand out and create memorable experiences is crucial. Your CRM can be your greatest asset in achieving this, helping you prepare, organize, and personalize every interaction.
Below, we’ll walk through key strategies to ensure your CRM system is ready to handle holiday demands, streamline sales, and keep customers engaged well beyond the holiday season.
November 2024 Read more...
Customer Retention Tricks, Not Treats: CRM Strategies to Keep Shoppers Coming Back
With the holiday season just around the corner, most businesses are focused on attracting new customers and boosting sales. But here’s a trick: retaining your existing customers is just as important—if not more so—especially during the busiest shopping period of the year. Research shows that returning customers spend more than new ones and are more likely to make repeat purchases, making customer retention a key strategy for long-term success.
As we head into Q4 of 2024, it's time to fine-tune your CRM strategy to ensure you’re not just getting one-off holiday purchases, but also turning those warm leads and seasonal shoppers into loyal customers who keep coming back. Let’s explore how you can use CRM tools to craft effective retention strategies that turn holiday shoppers into lifelong buyers.
October 2024 Read more...
Warm Up Your Leads: How to Use CRM for End-of-Year Sales Push
As the year winds down and we head into Q4, many businesses are looking for ways to close strong and maximize revenue. With the holiday season on the horizon and end-of-year sales targets looming, October is the perfect time to focus on warming up your leads and preparing for that final sales push. A well-implemented CRM system can be your secret weapon, helping you nurture leads, engage with prospects, and ensure your business is ready to seize every opportunity in the coming months.
In this blog, we’ll explore how you can use your CRM to effectively manage and warm up leads, ensuring your business finishes the year on a high note.
October 2024 Read more...
Retail Mastery: Top 10 CRM Best Practices for Retailers
For retailers, customer relationships should always be the top priority. Whether you're running a physical store or managing an e-commerce platform, a well-implemented CRM system can be the key to engaging customers, optimizing operations, and driving revenue. However, just having a CRM isn't enough—it’s about using it effectively to get the most out of your customer data, especially with the holiday season fast approaching.
With Q4 of 2024 just around the corner, now is the perfect time for retailers to fine-tune their CRM strategies and prepare for the busiest shopping period of the year.
Let’s explore why adhering to CRM best practices is essential, and then dive into the top 10 practices to help you make the most of your CRM as you gear up for the holiday rush.
October 2024 Read more...
Loyalty Unlocked: Harnessing CRM for Customer Retention
Customer retention is increasingly vital in today's competitive marketplace, where acquiring new customers often costs far more than keeping existing ones. As businesses focus on maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV), leveraging CRM systems to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction has become a strategic priority.
Let’s explore how your CRM can help you retain customers, identify potential churn risks, and implement strategies that build lasting customer relationships.
September 2024 Read more...
Data Privacy and CRM: Balancing Personalization with Compliance in 2024
Businesses increasingly rely on CRM systems to deliver personalized customer experiences, they are also facing growing pressure to comply with evolving data privacy regulations. Balancing the need for personalization with regulatory compliance has become a critical challenge, especially with new laws and heightened consumer awareness around data protection.
In 2024, businesses need to navigate this delicate balance carefully, ensuring that their CRM systems not only enable tailored customer engagement but also safeguard personal data in accordance with global regulations. Let's explore how to strike that balance and how CRM systems are adapting to meet privacy challenges.
September 2024 Read more...
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) vs. CRMs: Which One is Right for Your Business?
As businesses grow and scale, managing customer data becomes increasingly complex. Two powerful tools that have emerged to address this challenge are CRM systems and CDPs. While both help streamline customer interactions, they serve different purposes and have distinct advantages depending on the business's needs.
Let’s dive into the differences between CDPs and CRMs, their benefits, and how bespoke CRM solutions can offer a more tailored approach for businesses seeking a competitive edge.
September 2024 Read more...
Intelligent Defence: The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Enhancing CRM Data Security
In our increasingly digital world, CRM systems are fairly important for businesses to manage and analyse customer interactions. Safeguarding customer data is essential, especially when accessed through mobile devices.
With artificial intelligence and machine learning having an impact on almost everything we do online lately, understand their impact on CRM data security is important. So let’s find out how AI and ML are revolutionizing CRM data security, ensuring that businesses can protect sensitive information while leveraging advanced technologies to enhance customer relationships.
September 2024 Read more...
Data Security in Mobile CRM: Protecting Your Customer Information On-the-Go
Following our recent discussion on the importance of mobile CRM in enhancing customer relationship management, it's crucial to address one of the most significant aspects of mobile CRM: data security. As businesses increasingly rely on mobile CRM solutions to manage customer data from anywhere, ensuring that this data is secure has become more important than ever.
August 2024 Read more...
Mobile CRM: Enhancing Customer Relationship Management on the Go
In a recent blog, we discussed the top CRM trends for 2024, highlighting the increasing importance of mobile CRM.
Today, we're taking a closer look at how mobile CRM can transform your business by enabling seamless customer relationship management from anywhere.
August 2024 Read more...
Integrating CRM with Social Media: Enhancing Customer Engagement in the Digital Age
Onboarding remote employees effectively is crucial for ensuring a smooth transition and setting the stage for their success within your organization. While the fundamentals of onboarding remain consistent, onboarding remote employees presents unique challenges and opportunities.
In this guide, we’ll explore best practices for onboarding remote employees, highlighting how a robust CRM system like Lunar CRM can streamline the process and enhance the onboarding experience.
July 2024 Read more...
Personalization in CRM: How Bespoke Solutions Can Boost Your Business
Businesses are constantly looking for ways to stand out and build lasting relationships with their customers. One of the most effective strategies is through personalized CRM solutions.
Bespoke CRM systems, tailored to the unique needs of your business, can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Let’s take a look at the importance of personalized CRM solutions and how bespoke CRM offerings can transform your customer interactions and drive business success.
July 2024 Read more...
A Smooth Transition: 7 Tips for Onboarding Remote Employees
Onboarding remote employees effectively is crucial for ensuring a smooth transition and setting the stage for their success within your organization. While the fundamentals of onboarding remain consistent, onboarding remote employees presents unique challenges and opportunities.
In this guide, we’ll explore best practices for onboarding remote employees, highlighting how a robust CRM system like Lunar CRM can streamline the process and enhance the onboarding experience.
July 2024 Read more...
The Role of CRM in Remote Work: Staying Connected with Your Customers
The shift to remote work has transformed how businesses operate, making it essential to maintain strong customer relationships despite physical distance. CRM systems have become invaluable tools for companies navigating this new landscape.
Let’s explore how CRM solutions play a crucial role in remote work environments, helping businesses stay connected with their customers and ensuring seamless operations.
June 2024 Read more...
Top 10 CRM Trends for 2024: What You Need to Know
The CRM landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by technological advancements and changing business needs. Staying ahead of these trends is crucial for businesses aiming to enhance their customer interactions, streamline operations, and remain competitive.
In 2024, several key trends are set to shape the CRM industry, offering exciting opportunities for innovation and growth. Here are the top CRM trends you need to know about and how they can benefit your business.
June 2024 Read more...
Data Privacy and Security in CRM: Best Practices for Protecting Your Customer Information
As data breaches and privacy concerns, sadly, remain increasingly common, ensuring the security of customer information should be a top priority for any business.
At Lunar we understand the critical importance of data privacy and have implemented robust measures to protect your customer data. So let’s explore best practices for safeguarding your customer information and how Lunar CRM can help.
June 2024 Read more...
Customer Portals: What Are They and Why Do You Need One?
Empowering your customers with the tools to handle their own needs is a game-changer for any business. Often, customers prefer to resolve issues on their own before reaching out for help. This is where customer portals come into play.
A customer portal is a dedicated area on your website where customers can manage their account information, access FAQs, and troubleshoot problems independently. By providing this self-service option, businesses can offer 24/7 support, significantly enhancing the customer experience. This approach not only boosts customer satisfaction but also reduces the workload on support agents by deflecting routine inquiries.
In this blog, we will delve into the essentials of a customer portal—what it is, why it is crucial for modern businesses, and how it fits into effective customer relationship management strategies. We'll also guide you on how to implement a customer portal that meets your business needs.
May 2024 Read more...
How to Build Successful Customer Relationship Management Strategies
Customer loyalty isn’t built overnight; it’s the result of consistent and meaningful interactions. A well-designed CRM strategy is essential for nurturing these relationships. This guide delves into practical CRM strategies that businesses can implement to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. From integrating CRM systems with other tools to creating personalized dashboards, these steps will help you forge stronger connections with your customers and drive long-term success.
May 2024 Read more...
Reaching Out: A Guide to Mass E-Mailing
Effective e-mail marketing plays a crucial role in nurturing leads, retaining customers, and driving conversions. Leveraging the power of CRM solutions, businesses can streamline their e-mail marketing efforts, personalize communications, and track performance metrics with precision.
In our handy guide to mass e-mailing, we’ll look at the best practices for executing successful e-mail marketing campaigns, while harnessing the capabilities of bespoke CRM solutions tailored to industry-specific needs.
May 2024 Read more...
Unlocking Business Insights: The Power of Custom Dashboards in CRM
In this data-driven business landscape, the ability to extract actionable insights from vast amounts of information is crucial for staying ahead of the competition. This is where custom dashboards in CRM systems shine, offering a tailored solution to meet the unique needs of every business.
April 2024 Read more...
The Essentials: 8 Essential CRM Integrations for 2024
Efficiency is paramount for any business. To stay competitive, your team needs tools that seamlessly integrate with your CRM system. Integrations not only save time but also enhance productivity and customer satisfaction. In this blog post, we'll explore the top 8 CRM integrations your team needs in 2024.
April 2024 Read more...
Going Bespoke: How to Identify if Your Business Needs a Custom CRM Solution
Choosing the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a crucial decision for any business. While off-the-shelf CRM solutions offer a wide range of features and functionalities, they may not always address the unique needs and requirements of your business. In such cases, opting for a custom CRM solution can be a game-changer. But how do you determine if your business truly needs a bespoke CRM? Here are some key indicators to consider:
April 2024 Read more...
Elevate Your Business: Top CRM Features for Small Businesses
When starting out as a small business, having the right tools can make all the difference. A CRM is one such tool that can empower businesses to efficiently manage customer interactions, improve productivity, and drive growth. But with a plethora of options available, it's crucial to understand which features are essential for small businesses. Let's delve into the top features that can take your business to the next level:
March 2024 Read more...
Data Science Unveiled: A Gateway to Generative AI and CRM Success
In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, the fusion of data science stands out as a triumvirate reshaping the contours of innovation and business triumphs. This blog ventures into the profound impact of data science, its pivotal role in propelling generative AI, and the transformative waves it's creating within CRM systems.
March 2024 Read more...
Tailoring CRM Solutions: Breaking Down Industry-Specific Needs
CRM has become an indispensable tool for companies aiming to build and maintain strong connections with their clientele. However, the one-size-fits-all approach doesn't always suffice, as different industries have unique requirements.
Let's delve into the importance of breaking down CRM needs by industry.
February 2024 Read more...
Keep Them Happy: How to Monitor and Improve Customer Satisfaction
Introduction: Customer satisfaction is the heartbeat of any successful business. Satisfied customers not only become loyal patrons but also serve as brand advocates, contributing to long-term success. In this blog post, we will delve into the importance of customer satisfaction, its benefits, and ways to measure it, popular metrics, and provide you with five easy steps to enhance customer satisfaction. We'll also explore how Lunar CRM can play a pivotal role in improving customer satisfaction.
February 2024 Read more...
Navigating the CRM Pipeline: Transforming Leads into Loyal Customers
Embarking on the journey from customer awareness to loyalty involves a meticulous orchestration of strategic stages. At the forefront of this transformative process lies the pivotal stage of building awareness, where innovative initiatives play a crucial role in shaping perceptions and attracting potential customers.
February 2024 Read more...
The Ultimate Guide to Launching Successful CRM Projects
CRM projects are pivotal for businesses striving to enhance customer interactions and streamline operations. As businesses increasingly turn to CRM solutions, understanding the nuances of initiating and managing these projects becomes crucial. In this guide, we'll walk you through key considerations, the role of a bespoke CRM, and how Lunar CRM's features can contribute to your project's success.
February 2024 Read more...
A Quick Guide to Lead Management
Lead management stands as a crucial aspect of business success, offering a systematic approach to capturing, nurturing, and converting leads into customers. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the lead management process, its importance in scaling your business, the key stages involved, different types of leads, and practical tips to enhance your lead management strategy.
January 2024 Read more...
Work Smarter: The Applications for AI in CRM
Embarking on a transformative journey, businesses are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reshape how they interact with customers. In this era of constant innovation, we delve into the myriad ways AI is influencing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies. As we explore the dynamic applications of AI in CRM, it becomes clear that these technologies are becoming instrumental in revolutionizing customer engagement practices across industries.
January 2024 Read more...
Making the Right Choice: Selecting the Perfect CRM Solution for Your Non-Profit Organization
Effectively managing donor relationships, streamlining communication, and optimizing operations are paramount for non-profit organizations. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution tailored for non-profits can be a game-changer, but how do you choose the right one for your organization? Here are five essential steps to guide you through the decision-making process.
January 2024 Read more...
Planning for 2024: CRM Strategies for the Future
As the business landscape continues to evolve, effective CRM strategies are crucial for staying competitive and meeting customer expectations. In this blog post, we'll explore key strategies to shape your CRM approach in 2024, leveraging insights and recommendations to navigate the dynamic changes ahead.
January 2024 Read more...
Here’s to a Stellar New Year: Lunar CRM's Predications for CRM Trends in 2024
As the clock struck midnight and the world collectively welcomed a brand new year, the entire Lunar CRM team erupted in joyous celebration! Happy New Year to all our readers!
This isn't just a change in the calendar; it's a moment brimming with possibilities, fresh starts, and the thrill of what lies ahead. So, as we embark on this exciting journey into 2024, join us in raising a virtual toast to the endless opportunities awaiting us!
Now, let's dive into the exhilarating world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and explore the trends that will shape the landscape in the coming months. The future is bright, and Lunar CRM is here to guide you through every exciting development.
January 2024 Read more...
Navigating the Future: Top 5 Considerations Before Choosing Your CRM Solution in 2024
In the fast-evolving landscape of business technology, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution is no longer a luxury but a strategic necessity. As we step into 2024, the need for a bespoke CRM solution has never been more pronounced. With the market flooded with options, selecting the right CRM requires careful consideration of several key factors. Lunar CRM, a trailblazer in bespoke CRM solutions, understands the dynamic needs of businesses and offers tailored solutions. Let's delve into the top 5 considerations before investing in a new CRM solution and explore how Lunar CRM stands out in each aspect.
December 2023 Read more...
Transforming Call Centre Operations: The Power of Bespoke CRMs
At Lunar CRM, we understand the critical role call centres play in shaping customer experiences. Our bespoke CRM solutions, featuring seamless dialler integration, have been designed to transform call centre operations, delivering tailored features that go beyond the limitations of generic alternatives. In this blog, we explore the unique advantages of bespoke CRMs, with a spotlight on Lunar CRM's success in revolutionizing our client's approach.
December 2023 Read more...
Avoiding Mistakes: 5 E-mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Email marketing remains unparalleled in its effectiveness as a communication channel. However, despite its prominence, numerous companies consistently fall prey to the same email marketing mistakes. Drawing on our extensive experience of handling millions of email campaigns and collaborating with countless businesses leveraging email marketing, we've pinpointed five critical mistakes that businesses often make. These insights, incorporating best practices for sender identity, mobile optimization, audience segmentation, simplicity, and subscriber management, are your guide to transforming email marketing into your top-performing channel.
November 2023 Read more...
Unlocking Success: User Adoption Strategies for Custom CRM Solutions
Implementing a bespoke CRM solution can be a game-changer for businesses, offering tailored features that align perfectly with organizational needs. However, the success of any CRM system hinges on one critical factor: user adoption. Even the most feature-rich CRM is only as powerful as its users allow it to be. In this blog post, we'll delve into effective strategies to ensure widespread acceptance and usage of your custom CRM solution.
November 2023 Read more...
The Role of CRM in Non-profit Organizations: Building Stronger Donor Relationships
Non-profit organizations thrive on the support of donors who believe in their mission, and cultivating strong relationships with these contributors is paramount for sustainable growth. In this blog post, we explore the pivotal role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the non-profit sector, shedding light on how it can be a catalyst for building enduring and meaningful connections with donors.
November 2023 Read more...
The Human Touch in CRM: Balancing Automation with Personalization
In the age of automation and digital transformation, it's easy to get carried away with the efficiency and speed that technology offers in managing customer relationships. However, there's a fundamental element that must not be overlooked—the human touch. In this blog post, we'll explore the importance of balancing automation with personalization in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and how it can be a game-changer for your business.
November 2023 Read more...
Measuring CRM Success: Key Metrics and KPIs for Your Business
Implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a significant step in improving your business's customer relationships, but how do you know if it's really working for you? In this blog post, we explore the vital aspect of measuring CRM success by focusing on key metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge your CRM's impact and ensure it's helping your business thrive.
October 2023 Read more...
CRM for B2B Sales: Strategies for Nurturing and Closing Deals
In the world of B2B sales, managing and closing deals efficiently is of paramount importance. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have proven to be invaluable tools in this endeavour, providing businesses with the means to track, nurture, and ultimately convert leads into loyal customers. In this blog post, we'll explore the strategies for effectively using CRM in the context of B2B sales.
October 2023 Read more...
Somewhere to Start: Customer Relationship Management Strategies for Beginners
We’ve all got to start somewhere, right? If you’re managing a new business, you may have heard about CRM strategies and may be a little overwhelmed by the idea of implementing them. But don’t panic, with just a few simple steps you can get started on your CRM strategies.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy that helps businesses effectively manage their interactions with customers to foster loyalty and drive growth. While it may seem daunting, CRM strategies can be both accessible and highly effective, even for beginners. In this blog, we will explore some top-performing CRM strategies tailored for newcomers to the field.
October 2023 Read more...
Just Between Us: The Secret to Monitoring KPIs
Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are the compass that guides businesses towards success. In this blog post, we will delve into the world of KPI monitoring and explore why it's crucial for your organization's growth and stability. We'll also discuss the best practices for KPI monitoring, and by the end of this article, you'll be equipped with four easy steps to efficiently monitor your KPIs. So, let's start by understanding what KPIs are.
October 2023 Read more...
Keeping Social: 5 Easy Steps to Create a Social Media Content Calendar
In the fast-paced world of social media, staying organized and consistent with your content is key to building a strong online presence. A social media content calendar is a powerful tool that can help you achieve just that. In this blog, we will explore what a social media content calendar is, why it's important, and provide you with five straightforward steps to create your own.
September 2023 Read more...
Unbeatable Support: Understanding the Distinction between Customer Service and Customer Support
The terms "customer service" and "customer support" are often used interchangeably, but they represent two distinct aspects of the customer experience. Both are vital for building strong customer relationships, but they serve different purposes.
To truly excel in meeting customer needs, many businesses are turning to bespoke Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. In this blog, we will delve into the differences between customer service and customer support and explore how a bespoke CRM can assist in managing and improving both these crucial aspects.
September 2023 Read more...
Still Got Time: Top Lead Generation Tips for a Strong Q4
As we find ourselves on the cusp of the final quarter of 2023, it's important to note that there's still ample time to generate meaningful leads and finish the year on a high note.
Let’s explore some valuable lead generation strategies to help you make the most of the remaining months of the year and set the stage for a successful 2024. Lead generation is a pivotal aspect of business growth, and these strategies can make a significant impact on your bottom line.
September 2023 Read more...
Giving Meaning: Creating Meaningful Work for Your Remote Team
In recent times, remote work has become the norm for many businesses. While it offers flexibility, it can sometimes leave your team feeling a bit detached from their work's purpose. But fear not, because we're here to show you how to keep things meaningful in the virtual office. Let's dive into some handy tips!
September 2023 Read more...
Keep It Simple: An Easy Guide to Lead Management
Welcome to the world of lead management, where simplicity meets efficiency. In this blog, we'll explore what lead management is, why it should be a priority for your business, the various kinds of leads you'll encounter, six essential lead management steps, and the incredible benefits of streamlining your lead management process. Plus, discover how Lunar CRM can be your guiding star in this journey.
August 2023 Read more...
Embracing AI for Enhanced Focus and Efficiency: How Automation Can Be Your Team's Ally in 2023
"Will automation render my job obsolete?"
"Will machines replace me?"
These are the common concerns that often arise when employees hear about automation in the context of their work. However, the good news is that automation doesn't necessarily mean job replacement. In fact, AI-powered automation can empower employees to perform their roles even better!
The automation integrated into most customized CRM solutions can significantly reduce the time spent on mundane tasks. While setting up automation requires some initial input, it ultimately grants you and your team the freedom to concentrate on more significant aspects of your work.
Here are four ways AI-driven automation can provide your team with that much-needed freedom:
August 2023 Read more...
Flexibility and Adaptability: Future-Proofing Your Business with a Custom CRM
In today's fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, staying ahead of the competition requires more than just a static CRM solution. To truly future-proof your business, you need a custom CRM that offers unparalleled flexibility and adaptability. In this blog, we'll explore how a bespoke CRM can empower your organization to thrive amidst uncertainty and evolving customer demands.
July 2023 Read more...
The Power of Feedback: How CRMs Have Evolved with Customer Feedback
In the fast-paced world of business, customers play a pivotal role in its success. Not only do they drive revenue, but they also hold the key to valuable insights that can propel your business forward. The era of social media and online reviews has made customer feedback more significant than ever before. In 2023, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have undergone some exciting developments to harness the power of customer feedback and drive business growth.
Let's explore how these advancements can benefit your business:
July 2023 Read more...
Custom CRM vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions: Making the Right Choice for Your Business
Introduction: When it comes to implementing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution, businesses often face the decision between custom CRM development and opting for off-the-shelf solutions. Each approach has its own benefits and considerations. In this blog post, we will explore the factors to consider when making this choice and help you determine the right CRM solution for your business needs. We'll discuss the advantages of customization, the benefits of off-the-shelf solutions, and key considerations to guide your decision-making process.
July 2023 Read more...
Embracing the Future: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Bespoke CRM Solutions
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various industries, and the world of customer relationship management (CRM) is no exception. By integrating AI capabilities into bespoke CRM solutions, businesses can unlock new levels of efficiency, personalization, and predictive insights. In this blog post, we will explore the potential benefits and strategies for leveraging AI in custom CRM solutions, focusing on how it can enhance customer support, sales forecasting, sentiment analysis, and overall user experience.
July 2023 Read more...
Why Lead Qualification Matters: Leveraging CRM for Sales Success
In today's competitive business world, lead qualification is a game-changer when it comes to driving sales success. And for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) providers like us, understanding the importance of lead qualification and how it can supercharge our systems is absolutely crucial. This blog post aims to shed light on why lead qualification matters from the perspective of a CRM provider and how we can leverage it to take our sales to the next level. So, get ready as we dive into the exciting world of lead qualification and its impact on sales success!
July 2023 Read more...
Make it Your Own: 10 Best Practices for Customizing CRM Solutions to Fit Your Business Needs
Customizing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to match your business's unique requirements is crucial for maximizing its effectiveness and driving business growth. In this blog post, we will explore ten best practices that developers can follow to ensure a successful customization process. From data modelling to user interface customization, these practices will help you tailor your CRM solution to fit your business needs seamlessly.
June 2023 Read more...
Know The Signs: 5 Signs You've Outgrown Your Off-the-Shelf CRM
With expenses on the rise and competition fiercer than ever, organizations are constantly on the lookout for smart strategies to optimize operations and curb costs. One solution that has caught the attention of savvy businesses is the implementation of a custom or bespoke CRM.
Not only does a tailored CRM enhance customer interactions, but it also provides ample opportunities for businesses to save money. Let’s delve into the cost-saving advantages that a custom CRM can offer in the context of escalating prices in 2023.
June 2023 Read more...
Maximising Value: The Benefits of Tracking Customer Lifetime Value with Your CRM
In today's highly competitive business landscape, understanding and leveraging customer lifetime value (CLV) has become crucial for sustained success. Customer lifetime value is a powerful metric that measures the total worth of a customer to a business over their entire relationship. By tracking and increasing CLV, businesses can optimise their marketing strategies, enhance customer experiences, and drive long-term profitability.
Let’s delve into the importance of CLV, strategies for tracking CLV, and effective techniques to increase CLV.
June 2023 Read more...
Navigating Rising Costs: The Cost-Saving Edge of a Custom CRM in 2023
With expenses on the rise and competition fiercer than ever, organizations are constantly on the lookout for smart strategies to optimize operations and curb costs. One solution that has caught the attention of savvy businesses is the implementation of a custom or bespoke CRM.
Not only does a tailored CRM enhance customer interactions, but it also provides ample opportunities for businesses to save money. Let’s delve into the cost-saving advantages that a custom CRM can offer in the context of escalating prices in 2023.
June 2023 Read more...
Happy Together: 6 Ways to Foster Long-Lasting Customer Relationships
In today's highly competitive business landscape, building and maintaining strong customer relationships is essential for long-term success. Cultivating lasting connections with your customers not only leads to repeat business but also helps you gain loyal advocates who can fuel your brand's growth.
May 2023 Read more...
Going Shopping: Finding the Right CRM on the Market for Your Business
Choosing the right CRM for your business is a critical decision that can have a significant impact on your sales and customer service success. To help you make an informed decision, we'll explore some of the key factors to consider when shopping around for a CRM system.
May 2023 Read more...
Bouncing Around: Email Bounce Rate and Its Impact on Your Sales
As a business owner, you're always looking for ways to increase sales and grow your customer base. One of the most effective ways to do this is through email marketing. However, if your emails are not reaching your subscribers' inboxes, you won't be able to generate leads and sales. This is where email bounce rate comes into play.
Email bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that were not delivered to your subscribers' inboxes. This can happen for various reasons such as the recipient's email address no longer exists, their mailbox is full, or your email was flagged as spam. A high email bounce rate can negatively impact your email deliverability and your sender reputation, which can ultimately hurt your sales.
May 2023 Read more...
Stress Reduction: How to Reduce Stress in Your Workplace and How It Can Benefit Your Business
Stress in the workplace has become a growing issue over the years, and as we move into 2023, it's even more critical to focus on reducing stress in the workplace.
While Stress Awareness Month is still celebrated every April, it's essential to make stress awareness a year-round effort. By implementing a few simple steps, you can make your workplace a haven of calm and positivity.
May 2023 Read more...
Some You Time: Why Resting is More Important Than Ever in 2023
April is stress awareness month, and we want to help you switch off!
The world has been changing rapidly over the past few years, and we've all had to adapt quickly to keep up. With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, our work lives have become more fast-paced and demanding than ever before. In addition, the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life can make it hard to switch off and relax.
In the midst of all this chaos, it's easy to forget the importance of taking time to rest and recharge. However, in 2023, making time for relaxation is more important than ever. Here are just a few reasons why:
April 2023 Read more...
Take the Test: The Power of Email A/B Testing and How You Can Use It
Email marketing is an essential tool for businesses looking to connect with their customers and drive sales. However, crafting the perfect email campaign can be a challenge. How do you know if your email content, subject line, or design will resonate with your audience? This is where A/B testing comes in.
April 2023 Read more...
Continued Nurturing: How CRMs have continued to Improve Customer Relationships
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been around for quite some time, their importance in maintaining strong customer relationships has only increased in recent years.
We’ve talked before about how CRMs have improved customer relations and been a real game changer. With advancements in technology and changes in customer behaviour, businesses must leverage CRM systems to stay competitive and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
March 2023 Read more...
Email with Ease: Email Marketing Campaigns - A Must-Have for Digital Businesses in Today's Competitive Landscape
Email marketing is a powerful way to reach your target audience and generate leads, but building an effective campaign can be challenging. With a bespoke CRM solution, you can create personalized email campaigns that are tailored to your customers' needs and preferences.
March 2023 Read more...
Know Your Customer: How Effective Customer Profiles can Improve Sales for Your Business
In today’s competitive business environment, it's essential for companies to have a deep understanding of their customers. Knowing what their customers want, how they behave, how to stop customers from switching to another brand, and what motivates them can help businesses tailor their marketing strategies to increase sales. One effective tool for gaining this understanding is creating customer profiles.
Let’s explore what customer profiles are, how they can be created, and some examples of customer profiles in action.
March 2023 Read more...
The Future of CRM: AI Developments and Their Impact on CRM
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way businesses interact with customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, which have traditionally been used to store and analyse customer data, are now being enhanced with AI technology.
Let’s look at some of the developments in AI and their impact on CRM, and how you can use them to improve efficiency and customer experience.
March 2023 Read more...
Reporting to You: How Your Bespoke CRM’s Real-Time Reports Can Boost your Business
Having all of your sales, marketing and customer data in one place with a bespoke CRM solution isn’t just efficient – you can use it to do some powerful report building. And you can do it all at the click of a button.
Your bespoke CRM solution can build real-time reports that can do anything from tracking marketing campaign performance to measuring ROI. You can use this to adapt and improve your marketing efforts, identify success and focus your business efforts.
So let’s take a look at some of the most powerful reports you can build with your bespoke CRM solution…
February 2023 Read more...
Stand Out from The Crowd: How your Bespoke CRM can Nurture your Company Culture
When it comes to attracting new talent to your business you need to stand out from the crowd. Why should a prospective new team member choose your business over others?
Showing off your company culture can be one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd. And to do that publicly, you need to embed your company culture in your website, social media, blogging and news updates.
So how does a CRM fit into developing and showing off your company culture? Well, the Lunar Team have gathered some insights for you…
February 2023 Read more...
Stop the Brand Switch: How to Keep Customers Engaged with Your Brand
The best thing you can do for your business is keep your customers happy, especially right now. Brand switching has become common during the cost of living crisis as customers make the leap to more affordable options or cut out certain services completely.
The importance of the happy customer can’t be understated right now. Customers need to feel valued, and they need an option that’s worth what they’re paying for. If they have an issue with the service it needs to be resolved quickly, or you could find yourself as one of the brands caught up in the brand switch.
There are some simple ways to keep customers happy and keep in contact should they need you quickly, let’s take a look…
February 2023 Read more...
Beat the Chase: Invoicing Efficiently with Automation
Invoicing can be stressful, whether your business is just starting up or you’re years into the game. Especially as the cost of living crisis continues to hit us all hard, chasing invoices can feel both desperate and insensitive. But, your business needs money to keep ticking and you’re within your right to charge what you’ve offered for your services.
So how can you make invoicing easier? Well, automation can certainly help…
January 2023 Read more...
Following Trends: 3 Data Sets to Pay Attention to in Your Bespoke CRM
Your bespoke CRM is packed full of data that can identify trends in how your customers are interacting with your business and your products. So how can you use that data? To inform your business strategy and make sound, informed business decisions of course!
Here are three different data sets that Lunar CRM stores for you, and how to use them effectively…
January 2023 Read more...
Keep Track: Our Guide to Customer Tracking and 3 Ways to Track Customers Effectively
When it comes to identifying opportunities, challenges and customer sentiment, the importance of customer tracking can’t be understated.
You can gather better insight on your customers by tracking data like traffic channels, email metrics, support tickets and communications. This customer tracking data can enable you to: ...
January 2023 Read more...
New Year, Better Business: 5 New Year’s Resolutions to Improve Your Business in 2023
It’s never too late to work on self-improvement. After the first week of 2023, how are things looking for your business this year?
Difficult times are ahead for a lot of us as the cost of living crisis continues to impact customers and businesses. So setting out a plan to make the most out of the year couldn’t be more important for your business.
But there’s no reason you can’t give this plan a festive touch. See it as making New Year’s resolutions for your business. We’ve got some great idea for New Year’s resolutions that can help improve your business in 2023…
January 2023 Read more...
Festive Motivation: 5 Tips to Keep up Productivity during the Festive Period
When it comes to the festive period a lot of businesses are accustomed to a little bit of a dip in productivity. After all a lot of the team might have taken time away, and those that are left can only do so much on their own (and are probably ready for a good break, who can blame them for working a bit slower?).
However this time of year can be a great opportunity to prepare for the year ahead. So although that productivity dip may seem tempting, you and your team will thank yourselves if you keep up the hard work right up until the holidays officially start. So with that in mind, here are five tips to keep up productivity during the festive period (without having to be a complete Scrooge)…
December 2022 Read more...
An Accurate Measure: The Top 5 CRM Metrics to Measure for Success
Understanding how to measure success for your business is an important part of running it efficiently and profitably. While success can look different for every business, there are some metrics that can consistently be measured across any service offering business to determine whether or not your current tactics are successful.
Fortunately, with a powerful bespoke CRM solution at the heart of your business you can generate detailed reports quickly and easily to see how your business is performing against these metrics. So which metrics should you be keeping an eye on for your business? Here’s Lunar CRM’s top 5 metrics to measure for success…
December 2022 Read more...
4 Simple Steps to Boost Customer Happiness and Retention with Lunar CRM
Any savvy business owner knows that it’s easier to retain customers and get repeat business than it is to attract new customers. And the best way to retain customers is to ensure that they’re happy and willing to keep coming back.
Ensuring your services are at their best and customer experience is placed at the heart of your business can lead to a huge boost in retention. With the right CRM solution in place, you can keep your existing customers happy and ready to come back for more.
So let’s take a look at four simple steps that you can action with a bespoke CRM to boost customer happiness and retention…
December 2022 Read more...
More for Less: 4 Reasons a Four Day Work Week Could Spell Success for Your Accountancy Firm
Accountancy is a field that’s been drastically changing and evolving for some time now. Flexible working arrangements were already becoming more in demand pre-pandemic, and that demand is only growing stronger.
With cloud-based CRM solutions, automation and accounting software, the completion of financial tasks can really be handled anytime, anywhere these days. So a shift to flexible and hybrid working has become a natural evolution in the accountancy industry. But what about an even more radical change?
As many businesses gear up to trial the four day working week in the UK, could this be the answer to the your recruitment and efficiency troubles? It might seem unlikely, with less time in the working week, but if you look at the bigger picture the benefits are clear. Here are 4 reasons a four day work week could spell success for your accountancy firm…
December 2022 Read more...
Data Drive: 5 Ways Lunar CRM Can Boost Your Sales with Customer Data Insights
Your CRM is a data goldmine, and that data can be the most useful tool for your business. The way you use that data can be a game changer for your sales and your business.
With a bespoke CRM solution like Lunar operating at the heart of your business, you’ll be opened to a whole word of possibilities. Let’s take a look at the 5 top ways Lunar CRM can help you use your customer data to boost sales…
November 2022 Read more...
Perfect Partners: Combining Your Marketing Strategy and CRM Data
Without good marketing automation, the usefulness of your CRM efforts are drastically limited. That’s why it’s so important to have your marketing automation efforts work in tandem with your CRM solution, to get most out of both processes.
With a bespoke CRM solution operating at the heart of your business, you can effortlessly gather and maintain customer data, managing sales opportunities with ease. Marketing automation can help by generating leads and using that customer data to nurture and prioritise them, and exclude unwanted leads, before your sales team has to get involved.
Let’s take a deeper dive into marketing automation and CRM solutions are the perfect partners…
November 2022 Read more...
Keeping Spirits Up: Looking After a Remote Team in Trying Times
Winter is looming, nights are coming in earlier and darker, and for a lot of us that can bring in some low moods. Couple that with the cost of living crisis causing many people to experience a decline in people’s mental health, and you could have a team that are struggling this winter.
For teams that work entirely at home, despite the freedom and flexibility there can occasionally be some feelings of isolation. Apart from this potentially having a huge impact on company morale, ultimately impacting productivity, you should really care about the wellbeing of your team. Especially if they work remotely, you need to put in some time to help make them feel involved with the company community.
There’s a lot you can do to make trying times a little more bearable for a remote team, so let’s take a look at that…
November 2022 Read more...
Run Around the Clock: The Top 5 Automations to Keep Your Business Running 24/7
Everyone needs to switch off sometimes, that’s why it’s important to not work around the clock. However, if you run your own business sometimes it feels like you might have to work at all hours. With the right automations in place, you won’t have to!
It’s not just about getting your business to run on autopilot, or keep going while you’re asleep. Things like an automated rules engine can help with things like lead generation, ensuring your sales team can focus solely on relevant prospects. So with automation in place you won’t need to downsize your team, they’ll just be able to work more efficiently towards the bigger picture.
So here are Lunar’s top 5 automations that will keep your business running 24/7, so you don’t have to…
October 2022 Read more...
Try on for size: the importance of trying a demo before you invest in a new CRM solution
There are a lot of CRM solutions on that market, and with rising costs hitting every business, you want to make sure you’re getting the best for your money. So trying a CRM solution on for size is always a good idea before your invest.
With so many CRM features available a bespoke CRM solution might be the best option for your business. With the third party integrations allowing you to incorporate many of your existing software packages into one place for ease-of-use, a bespoke CRM solution could be your best time and money saving friend. And the best way to find that out is to try it before your buy it.
Here’s why we recommend trying out a bespoke CRM solution before you buy…
October 2022 Read more...
Weathering the storm: how to survive as a small business in the UK in 2022
It’s no secret that costs are rising across the UK, particularly for small business as many are forced to close their doors for good. As the winter rolls in, small businesses will really feel the squeeze this year.
To help you keep everything in order, we’ve put together some tips to help keep track of your financial situation, so you can have some peace of mind this winter.
October 2022 Read more...
Avoiding a Business Financial Crisis: How a Bespoke CRM Solution Can Solve Your Money Saving Problem
When it comes to financial stability for people or businesses, things are looking a little bleak in the UK right now. While we hold out hope that things will turn around before the situation becomes dire, ensuring you have good control of your finances is always good business practice, impending financial crisis or not.
Often one of the ways businesses free up capital for investment in some areas is to cut back on others, but before you start downsizing the office, cancelling subscriptions or laying off the workforce, consider an easier money saver: a bespoke CRM solution. With a bespoke CRM solution operating at the heart of your business you could potentially save thousands. Here are four ways a bespoke CRM solution can help your business save money…
September 2022 Read more...
The Choice is Clear: Why a Bespoke CRM Still Beats an Off-The-Shelf Alternative
If there’s one thing we know about, it’s bespoke CRM solutions. During our time out in the wild, the Lunar team have been responsible for pairing up businesses from across a plethora of industries with a CRM tailored to their needs and challenges.
If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll recall one of our earliest blogs tackled the ten reasons bespoke is best. That was back in March 2015, and in the three years since, very little has changed when it comes to why people choose bespoke over off-the-shelf.
September 2022 Read more...
Keeping Costs Down: How a Bespoke CRM Solution Can Keep Your Business Costs Down
It’s important to keep an eye on outgoings when running a business, particularly as the cost of running a business continues to climb.
Unfortunately, making smart, financially sound decisions can often be a little on the taxing side when you’re constantly battling against a stretched schedule, expensive suppliers and the day-to-day costs of running a business.
If you’ve got the power of a bespoke CRM solution on your side, however, you might find more cost saving opportunities open up to you…
September 2022 Read more...
Top Safety: Top 3 Security Tips to Keep Customer Data Safe
Keeping your customer’s data safe should always be a top priority for your CRM. When you keep so much data on your customers, letting it fall into the wrong hands could land you in some very hot water.
With that in mind, the Lunar Team have come up with three safety tips you can implement to keep your customers’ data safe, and your business out of trouble…
September 2022 Read more...
Freedom to Focus: How Automation Can Be Your Team’s Best Friend
“If my duties can be automated, what happens to my role? Will I lose my job to a machine?”
That’s one of the big questions that often come to employees minds when they hear about automation in relation to their jobs. Fortunately for them, automation doesn’t have to mean they’re getting replaced. In fact, automation can actually help them do their jobs better!
The automation that comes as a standard with most bespoke CRM solutions can minimise the tedium in tasks, but setting up that automation still requires a bit of input. Also, once that automation is in place, it actually gives you and your team more freedom to focus on the bigger picture.
Here are four ways that automation can give you that freedom…
August 2022 Read more...
Cool Off: How a Bespoke CRM Can Keep Your Business Stress Free This Summer
The heat is on as far as the weather goes this summer, but it doesn’t have to be with your business. Keep things cool with a CRM solution that’ll keep your business running smoothly.
At Lunar CRM the last thing we want is you getting stressed by tech that’s not up to scratch. So that’s why we’ve ensured our bespoke CRM solution has these 5 qualities to help keep your head cool…
August 2022 Read more...
Keep on Running: How a Bespoke CRM Keeps Your Business Going Around the Clock
It’s important to have a plan in place for any kind of disaster your business may face. Why? Because the speed at which your business recovers from a disaster could make all the difference between said recovery and never bouncing back.
Of course, not every disaster your business faces will be a global pandemic. Some localised disasters will happen specifically around or within your business, so it’s best to be prepared.
August 2022 Read more...
A Big Saving: Four Ways A Bespoke CRM Can Save You Big Bucks
It’s always good to know where your money’s going. As a business owner you need to know everything about your company’s outgoings, so you can make financially sound decisions moving forward.
However sometimes it can seem like everything is adding up to be too much. That’s where a bespoke CRM solution comes in handy – rather than paying for several different services and software packages, with a bespoke CRM solution you can have everything in one place, and save money in the process.
Let’s look at four ways that Lunar CRM can do just that…
August 2022 Read more...
Full Recovery: Why You Need a Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Business
It’s important to have a plan in place for any kind of disaster your business may face. Why? Because the speed at which your business recovers from a disaster could make all the difference between said recovery and never bouncing back.
Of course, not every disaster your business faces will be a global pandemic. Some localised disasters will happen specifically around or within your business, so it’s best to be prepared.
July 2022 Read more...
Best of the Best: Top 5 Best Features to Look for in a CRM Solution
If you’re thinking it’s time to invest in a new CRM solution, you’ll definitely want to consider what exactly you need from a CRM solution. Looking through all the different features and pricing points can cause a lot of stress. There are a lot of options to choose from, some might be a perfect price but lacking in necessary features whilst others might be so overly complex they border on useless to you.
When you’re looking for your next CRM, you want to go in prepared. That’s why the Lunar Team have put together this list of the 5 features you’ll want to look for…
July 2022 Read more...
More to Learn: The Things Your Bespoke CRM Can Teach You
It’s never too late to learn something new. And there’s a lot you can learn from your bespoke CRM about the way your business can and should work. Just as your bespoke CRM solution will evolve with your business, your knowledge can develop and evolve with it. Let’s take a look at some of the things you can learn from your CRM...
July 2022 Read more...
Come Back Soon: How to Keep Your Customers Happy so They Come Back for More
It goes without saying that keeping your customers happy is good for your business. Happy customers feel valued, listened to and respected. However even with the best business practice in the world, sometimes customers can run in to issues with your product or service and it’s down to you to resolve the issue as sensitively as you can.
People now have access to bigger platforms that ever before, with brands readily available for public contact on social media and review sites everywhere. One bad review can very quickly become many bad reviews, having a huge impact on your business. So you want to be sure your customers are happy. With that in mind, here are four ways to help do just that…
June 2022 Read more...
Two-Way Street: Why It’s Important to Trust Your Team
Trust plays a huge role in business: it’s the cornerstone upon which you build your services, and in return, you must trust that clients will pay their invoices. But trust and its universal importance extends way beyond customers and suppliers, with employees needing your trust in order to do the best possible job, move your business forward, and to be happy.
In the 21st century, that trust has never been more crucial, thanks to the arrival of many workplace distractions and wearable gadgets. It is possible, however, to make it work.
June 2022 Read more...
Going Green? Ditching the Office to Save Money and the Planet
We all have a responsibility to our business but what about our responsibilities to the planet?
So many businesses opted to ditch the office or downsize in the last couple of years, but have you considered the benefits to both your business and the planet if you choose to go fully remote?
With a bespoke cloud-based CRM solution, you could enable your team to work fully remotely while having all the tools they need for customer calls, reporting and more in one place. So let’s take a look at how ditching the office could help save you money while also saving the planet…
Map 2022 Read more...
Smart Marketing: How a Bespoke CRM Can Improve Your Marketing
Your bespoke CRM is full of all sorts of handy data provided by your customer base. So it makes perfect sense to use that data to inform your marketing efforts – with a strong data-driven strategy you’ll generate new leads and help keep existing leads nice and warm.
So, how does the data in your bespoke CRM help with your marketing efforts? Well, read on to find out…
May 2022 Read more...
One Size Fits All: How a Bespoke CRM Solution Can Benefit Any Business
Every business is different (just call us Captain Obvious), so finding a CRM solution that perfectly works for yours can be incredibly time consuming. There are many options out there and you want to make sure you pick one that suits your business’ needs. Being a cost effective solution wouldn’t hurt either.
Whatever your business, a bespoke CRM solution is the perfect option. With its customisability and adaptability, a bespoke solution could be the answer to all of your problems (business problems, at least). Whether you’re a small business, a growing business or already well established, a bespoke CRM solution could be just the ticket to run things smoothly, let’s take a look at how…
Map 2022 Read more...
Staying Social: Why Your Social Media Should Be Integrated With Your Marketing Strategy
Social media is a large part of everyone’s lives in 2019. Almost half of the world’s population are using some form of social media (that’s approximately 3.96 billion people!). If you’re not using social media strategy as part of your CRM, you’re missing out on the potential to reach those people.
People are moving away from contacting customer services through other means, no longer wanting to wait on the phone in a queue (and who can blame them?). Now people prefer to contact their brands on social media, seeking faster response times from social media teams. So it makes perfect sense to integrate your CRM solution with your social media strategy.
May 2022 Read more...
Got Your Back: Three Ways We Keep Your Data Safe so You Don’t Have to Worry
Working remotely and having a team based all over the place can be great – you’ve got access to talent up and down the country and you can work anytime, anywhere. But sometimes when you’re physically on the business premises, it can be easy to worry about security. Especially data security when it’s hosted in the Cloud so everyone in your team can access it.
Luckily at Lunar we’ve got some great security measure in place to ensure your data is always kept safe and up to date. Here are three ways that we keep your data safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything else…
April 2022 Read more...
Don’t Stress: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Help Manage Your Workload
We all love a nice break, but trying to fit everything in after a long weekend can be a bit of a struggle. With a couple of four-day weeks in a row, it’s easy for the workload to get on top of you and instantly undo all that rest and relaxation from the Easter weekend.
However, with a bespoke CRM operating at the heart of your business you can ease the stress of shortened weeks for both you and your team, while still enjoying those breaks. Let’s take a look at 5 ways a bespoke CRM solution can help manage your workload, even in short weeks…
April 2022 Read more...
Money Matters: How your Bespoke CRM can Prevent Accounting Woes
It goes without saying that money is vital to keep your business going. However, managing the financial side of your business can be a job in itself, and accounting software can be quite pricey. So what are your options?
With a bespoke CRM solution at the heart of your business acting as a powerful accounting tool, you can save a lot of time, stress and, most importantly, money. Let’s take a look at how you can use a CRM solution to help with your accounting…
April 2022 Read more...
Making the Offer: 5 Considerations Before Offering Remote Working
The option to work remotely remains a popular demand for job seekers in this candidate led market. For many businesses, it’s an option worth considering – it could save you time and money, not to mention granting you access to a much wider talent pool. It’s also worth considering that many people still have anxiety about returning to offices, even now.
However, before you take the leap to offering remote working, it’s good to take stock. Take a look at the reality of offering remote working, and see what you can reasonably do with the resources available to you. That’s why we’ve put together this list of considerations before you being offering remote working…
April 2022 Read more...
A Spring Clean: Is Your CRM Doing its Job?
When it comes to cleaning up your business, your CRM should be a focal point. Your CRM is the most effective tool you can use towards helping your business reach the goals you’ve set. It’s also vital for supporting future growth and keeping both customers and employees happy.
So, is your CRM doing its job, or is it time for a clean-up? Here are 4 questions to ask yourself about your CRM.
March 2022 Read more...
How It Works: How We Make your Bespoke CRM Work for You
The best part about any brilliant gadget is finding out how it works – your bespoke CRM is just such a handy gadget. So how does it work then?
While there’s a lot of innovative tech at the heart of your bespoke CRM package, it ultimately boils down in to four parts. Each are equally important, and the Lunar Team is here to share a little insight in to how your CRM works for you…
March 2022 Read more...
Simply the Best: 5 Reasons Customer Feedback is The Best
It’s as simple as this – without customers, it’s quite difficult to run a business. Customers are, after all, a vital part of your business machine – no customers means no revenue, and how do you pay yourself or your staff without revenue?
Financial gain isn’t the only benefit of maintaining customers. Customers are big fans of leaving feedback, it’s become something of a trend in the age of social media and Google Reviews. You might worry about customer feedback, but it’s actually a vital tool for gathering information and really improving your business’ performance. There are many ways to encourage customer feedback – e-mail campaigns, surveys, simply having a social media presence. Here are 5 ways customer feedback is the best thing for your business:
March 2022 Read more...
Looking Ahead: The Future of Content Marketing
Times are changing rapidly, and with them the landscape of content marketing is changing too. At Lunar we’re aware of how important developing strong content is when it comes to raising brand awareness and developing a marketing strategy.
When done right, content marketing drives demand and revenue for your business. So we want to make sure you’re keeping these key points in mind when developing your content strategy, so you can join the future of content marketing…
February 2022 Read more...
We Love It: Why Remote Working Remains So Popular
It’s no secret that at Lunar we love remote working and the freedom it grants people to strike a healthy work life balance. In the last few years, albeit out of necessity, remote working gigs has gone from something experienced by a lucky few to a must have option when it comes to filling many job roles.
Still, a few businesses are yet to adapt and we understand that it can seem intimidating to really let go and trust your workforce out there. So we want to talk about remote working, how it became so popular, and why we love it.
February 2022 Read more...
Keep Them Smiling: Ensuring Your Customers Stay Happy
Keeping your customers happy is always good business practice. After all, happy customers feel valued and respected, and are much more likely to keep coming back for more. However even with the best customer relationships, sometimes problems arise and they need to be dealt with in a timely and sensitive manner.
With brands readily available at everyone’s fingertips, owing to social media platforms growing ever more present in our lives, it’s easy for customer opinion to sway the success of your business. So with that in mind, let’s look at some ways to keep customers happy and resolve issues should they arise.
February 2022 Read more...
Knowing Yourself: How to Boost your Business with Data Analysis
How well do you know your business? Are you putting your data to good use to ensure you understand how to help your business grow?
At Lunar, we believe every business owner should regularly get to know their business better as it grows and evolves. Knowing your business inside and out is the key to gaining an advantage over the competition.
January 2022 Read more...
Get It On Time: Invoicing Made Simple with Lunar CRM
January is a tough month for everyone – with such a lengthy wait between paydays and Christmas in between, it can be difficult to make ends meet. So the last thing you want is clients paying late or invoices slipping between the cracks due to human error. So with that in mind, we’ve got some great ways to make invoicing more efficient…
January 2022 Read more...
Where the Heart Is: 4 Reasons to Love Working from Home
When it comes to your sales pipeline, lead generation is should be integral. Without warm leads you’ll definitely still make a few nice sales here and there, but if you’re looking for loyal, repeating and long-term business you’ll want to keep those leads toasty warm. After all it’s getting cold outside, and you want to keep your business running hot over winter!
With a bespoke CRM solution (hosted in the cloud for maximum anytime, anywhere effectiveness) at the heart of your business, you can organise and prioritise warm leads that’ll see your business through the winter and beyond. Let’s take a look at how a bespoke CRM can help you do that.
January 2022 Read more...
A Year to Remember: 5 Resolutions to Make 2022 Your Year for Business
Chances are, come January 1st you already had your 2018 New Year’s resolution in mind, be it to lose weight, learn a new skill or simply to look after yourself better. But have you considered giving your business its own set of resolutions to see it through the next twelve months, and ensure that it grows to new heights by the end of the year?
With so many potential business resolutions to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming. Don’t worry, though: we’ve got some ideas for you below, all of which require small, manageable changes to encourage bigger successes. Enjoy!
January 2022 Read more...
Keep the Heat In: Attracting and Organising Warm Leads with a Bespoke CRM
When it comes to your sales pipeline, lead generation is should be integral. Without warm leads you’ll definitely still make a few nice sales here and there, but if you’re looking for loyal, repeating and long-term business you’ll want to keep those leads toasty warm. After all it’s getting cold outside, and you want to keep your business running hot over winter!
With a bespoke CRM solution (hosted in the cloud for maximum anytime, anywhere effectiveness) at the heart of your business, you can organise and prioritise warm leads that’ll see your business through the winter and beyond. Let’s take a look at how a bespoke CRM can help you do that.
December 2021 Read more...
Up & Up: How a Cloud-Based CRM Solution can help a Small Business Keep Growing
It seems the cost of running a business just keeps on going up these, although there are a few tricks to keep costs down. Running your business remotely, for example, will save on the cost of an office an IT equipment. But then what about data security and ensuring your staff have the right tools for the job?
Many small businesses are turning to fully cloud-based CRM solutions due to their low-cost and robust security (at least, in the case of Lunar CRM).
Let’s take a look at how a cloud-based CRM solution could work for you.
December 2021 Read more...
The Digital Age: Remote Working, The Future of the Tech Industry?
In 2020 many businesses around the world were forced to embrace the digital age, closing their offices and moving to remote working. However, for a lot of businesses this proved to only be a temporary measure.
In 2021 though, this change up doesn’t need to be temporary. It’s been proven time and again that offering remote working not only makes your business a more appealing prospect to would be employees, but can also be a real money saver and efficiency boost.
So let’s take a look at why remote working will benefit your business, and how it’s becoming the future for tech firms.
November 2021 Read more...
Great Teamwork: A Bespoke CRM and Marketing Automation
Teamwork makes the dream work, so people say, and nothing could more true of marketing efforts and your bespoke CRM solution. By implementing your bespoke CRM solution as part of your marketing automation strategy, you’re opening up your business to some juicy opportunities and you’ll be saving your sales team plenty of frustration.
Marketing automation will allow you to easily generate leads and use that data to nurture and prioritise them, before even involving your sales team. With your CRM automatically gathering customer data to manage sales opportunities, you’ll be saving your marketing department plenty of admin work. Let’s take a closer look at how your bespoke CRM can help automate your marketing efforts…
November 2021 Read more...
Life of the Party: Third Party Integration and your CRM
Third-party integration is an essential part of any CRM solution, keeping everything in one place can save time, help considerably with organisation, gives your team all the tools they need and ultimately saves you money. That’s why Lunar offers, on top of a list of existing features, extensive third-party integration to bring you a truly bespoke CRM solution. But with so many third-party options out there, which apps are you going to need as part of your bespoke CRM solution? The Lunar Team has a few suggestions to start you off…
November 2021 Read more...
Keep Them Happy: Keeping on Top of Your Teams’ Mental Health
As darker days start to roll in, a lot of us can start to struggle with our mental health, particularly at work. Whether your team is working at home or in the office, it’s important to ask what you’re doing for your team’s mental wellbeing. After all, statistics show that 1 in 4 of us will face mental health struggles, mean it’s likely someone on your team may need a little help from time to time.
There are some simple things you can do and considerations you can take as an employer to help keep your team happy and healthy. Let’s take a look at those…
November 2021 Read more...
Clean up Your Act: 4 Simple Steps to Organise and Clean Your Data
When it comes to your sales data, the phrase quantity over quality should always come to mind. Nothing plugs up a sales pipeline quite like poor quality data management. Whether it’s data duplicates, outdated information and incorrect data as a result of human error, bad data can slow your business down and prove costly in the long run.
So how can you clean up your act when it comes to data? The Lunar Team has the answers for you, with these four simple steps to organise and clean your data.
October 2021 Read more...
Hit the Ground Running: 4 Ways a Bespoke CRM Will Help Your Business Achieve an Early Growth Spurt
Getting a head start with growth can make a huge difference for a fledgling business. That’s why it’s important to have the right tools when you start out, like a bespoke CRM solution that works perfectly for your business.
To see how a bespoke CRM can help your business hit the ground running, we’ve put together a quick list for you. Here are four ways a bespoke CRM will help your business achieve an early growth spurt…
October 2021 Read more...
Staying Prepared: Keeping Your Business Ready for Hard Times
As the country plunges into uncertain times, it’s important to ensure your business is ready to weather any potential storms. With that in mind, it’s important to take stock of your current situation, and what you can do to save money if you need to.
Don’t worry if that sounds overwhelming, the Lunar Team have got you covered with some great tips…
October 2021 Read more...
Great Power, Great Responsibility: Keeping Your Customers’ Data Safe
We’ve seen more than enough data leak scandals to know that keeping your customers’ data is of the upmost importance. After all, if someone held a lot of your personal data and let it fall into the wrong hands, you’d be a little upset.
If you don’t keep your customers’ data safe, you could find yourself in some legal trouble and facing hefty costs. So, with that in mind, the Lunar Team have three safety tips to keep yours and your customers’ data safe…
September 2021 Read more...
Keep Them Smiling: 4 Ways to Improve your Customer Service
Customers sit at the heart of any business, and it’s important to keep that in mind. Keeping customers happy is a challenge, it’s no secret. So it’s important to ensure your customer service is top notch, especially when social media is thrown into the mix – the last thing you want is to be that brand that shouts back at customers online.
With that in mind, we’ve come up with these four ways to up your customer service game:
September 2021 Read more...
Up in the Clouds: How Cloud Computing Has Enabled Small Businesses to Keep Up with the Competition
As more of us choose to move away to the office and towards working anytime, anywhere, cloud computing has become king.
Getting to the point of cloud computing becoming more popular among businesses has been a long game, and the last couple of years have certainly made it a more popular option. Now businesses of any size are able to keep up with the competition easily thanks to the technology the cloud has to offer.
What about businesses that haven’t fully embraced cloud computing yet? If you’ve yet to fully take the leap, or you’re new to the game, let’s take a look at how cloud computing became so popular…
September 2021 Read more...
Out of Office On: Remote Working and How It Can Benefit Your Business
Ever the hot topic, remote working remains a huge talking point. Many businesses have embraced remaining remote after having to adapt to working through 2020 and most of 2021 out of the office.
It’s not hard to see why many businesses are opting to stay remote after having to make sudden adaptations last year. However, for those that have remained tentative about making the change permanent (or at least offering it), we’ve got some answer to the question: why should I offer remote working?
September 2021 Read more...
A Real Time-Saver: How to Up Your Team’s Efficiency
You know what they say: time is money, and if your team isn’t using their time effectively, it’s money down the drain.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your team isn’t working hard, but if perhaps they’re not working towards the same goals or there isn’t a clear plan in place for collaboration, they may not be working effectively. That means, as hard-working as they are, they may be wasting time.
So how do you turn your team into time saving experts? Well, there may not be an easy solution, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work towards it. With just a little advice, guidance and planning your team can help boost your business’ productivity.
To give you a starting point, the Lunar Team have put together this quick list of advice to help turn your team into efficient time savers:
August 2021 Read more...
Help it Grow: Our Checklist to Help Your Business Grow
Speaking honestly, growth is one of the goals of any business in the long term, even if short term goals don’t include it. It’s almost part of the DNA of any business, as a business owner you want to nurture the business you’ve created and help it grow.
Ambition will take you far in the business world, however it will only get you so far. You need a solid plan, to include the right people through hiring diversely and, perhaps most importantly, the right tools at the heart of your business to achieve growth.
While it may sound overwhelming, planning your whole business’ journey, with the right plan in place it’s not as daunting as you think. To help out, the Lunar Team have put our years of experience to good use here, to provide you with the technology checklist for a growing business….
August 2021 Read more...
Hate the Chase? Using Automated and Efficient Invoicing with your Bespoke CRM
Is there any better feeling than an invoice being paid on time (or even early)? We don’t think so. However, sometimes chasing invoices and getting paid on time can be a little bit tricky, especially when you’ve got lots of clients on the go.
It’s not always a case that a client is dragging their heels when it comes to paying up (sometimes it might be and we’ll get to that). If your business is handling invoicing manually, it may be a case of human error or simple inefficiency, leading to invoices being forgotten of sent late.
Whether it is a client putting their own cash flow needs ahead of yours, or complications with invoicing software, to keep your business happy you need to keep on top of invoicing and cash flow. So how can you do that without it being a costly time sink in itself? With the handy features included in a bespoke CRM, of course.
It’s important to get in to a good flow with invoicing, but doing it manually can be time consuming and especially frustrating if clients then don’t pay on time. So, here are some steps you can take, using your bespoke CRM, to keep invoicing simple…
August 2021 Read more...
Still a Hot Topic: Considerations for Offering Remote Working
Remote working continues to be a hot topic as many businesses are still navigating the return (or lack of return) to the office as restrictions eased off in the UK last month. Is remote working a permanent option you should consider for your business?
Remote working has many rewards for both employers and employees – a better work life balance, more scope for hiring talent far and wide, reduced running costs and occasionally greater efficiency, among many other benefits. Of course, as with any big change there are some challenges for a business to overcome before they can cash in on the benefits.
If you’re ready to take on the challenges to cash in on the remote working benefits, we’re here to help. We’ve gone over the key details you’ll need to consider before you offer remote working as a permanent option for your team
August 2021 Read more...
Informed Decisions: The Importance of Using Data to Drive Decision Making for your Busimess
Some things never change, like the importance of cash flow in a business, for example. Money will always be the blood pumping life into an organisation – it’s the very foundation of what we know about business, after all.
But some things do change, among them our reliance on data. That’s not to say that data hasn’t always played an important role in business. After all, even Victorian market traders needed to know which of their products was the most popular, and whether or not they were getting the best deal from their supplier.
It’s the 21st Century, however, and our supply of data – as well as our reliance on it – has grown exponentially. But how does data affect a business’ journey? Has it really become one of the crucial building blocks of success?
August 2021 Read more...
Stay Relaxed: How We Keep Your Data Safe, So You Can Relax
The last thing you want going into the summer holidays is the safety of your business and its data. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a big notable data breach, but don’t let that stop you from taking data protection seriously. Especially as a bulk of your data will likely be customer data – the last thing you want is a customer data breach scandal.
With Lunar CRM you’ll have a huge amount of customer data to utilise towards improving your business practices, but with great power comes great responsibility – keeping that data safe. So here’s how we ensure your customers’ data is kept safe…
July 2021 Read more...
Keep Talking: Improve Calls and Customer Communication with a Bespoke CRM Solution
Last week we talked about staying on the line and keeping the phone as an option for customers to easily get in touch with you. Even with the continuing popularity of social media as many customers’ go-to contact method, it helps to provide additional options for customers that prefer the tried and tested phone call method. Similarly, it’s also beneficial for you to record (within GDPR guidelines) customer data, like phone numbers, to get in touch should the need arise.
As your business grows, and your customer base with it, keeping track of all your customer data can become a bit difficult. Tracking down a phone number and manually typing it into a handset is just a bit too much of a hassle for a fast moving business, we get it.
So what if your CRM could keep accurate records of all that information for you? Call records, phone numbers and a whole host of other data sets can easily be captured and found and the click of a button, with a bespoke CRM solution. Let’s take a look at how…
July 2021 Read more...
Stay on the Line: Dialler Integration and Keeping Phones Relevant for your Business
You’d think after a long period of a lot of us not being able to see each other in person we’d be eager to end that, and yet the telephone remains an ever popular way for customers to get in touch with businesses. Even as social media and live-chat continues to grow in popularity, dropping the phone really limits your customers’ options to get in touch, and in a lot of cases can really turn people off your business.
There’s reassurance in seeing you can get right in touch with a business (during business hours) when you see a phone number on their website, isn’t there? So why wouldn’t you leave this communication channel open? So let’s talk dialler integration, and why so many businesses are considering it as part of their bespoke CRM package.
July 2021 Read more...
Working in Real-Time: How a Bespoke CRM Makes Your Business Work Around the Clock
When offices had to temporarily close in 2020, many businesses had to unfortunately temporarily grind to a halt. However, for many other businesses, operations continued online in the Cloud and around the clock.
So how can you make your business not only work remotely, but around the clock too? Well, with a powerful CRM at the heart of your businesses, you can. Let’s take a look at the specifics of keeping your business ticking and working in real-time, all the time…
June 2021 Read more...
New Tricks: How a Bespoke CRM Can Be a Great Learning Tool
Whether you’re just starting out or the owner of an established business, it’s never too late to learn something new. There’s a lot you can pick up from a bespoke CRM solution, with plenty of tools to inform you of ways you can improve your business practices – automated reporting for example.
The phrase "you can’t teach an old dog new tricks" doesn’t apply to businesses. Even if you’ve been around for a while, there’s always time to learn, evolve and adapt. Your bespoke CRM solution can help you do just that. Let’s take a look at some of the ways it can…
June 2021 Read more...
Let's Talk About Trust: Why Trusting Your Team Matters Most
One of the most important things in any business is trust. Your whole business is built on it – trust between you and clients, you’ll provide the services they paid for and they’ll pay for said services. Then there’s trust between you and your team. You need to trust that they’ll do their jobs, and they need to trust that you’ll treat them with respect and allow them to perform well in their roles (no micro-managing!).
At the moment in England, government advice is to still work from home if you can. Allowing your team to work remotely requires a lot of trust, both ways. In this instance you want to trust that your team won’t drop productivity, and they want to trust that you’ll be understanding of circumstance where that may happen for legitimate reasons (it is, after all, still quite a stressful time). A lot of your team are also probably trusting you to not unnecessarily force them into an office if they don’t feel safe to do so.
If, however, after just over a year of your team proving they deserve your trust by working from home you’re still having trust issues, perhaps we can help? Let’s talk about trust…
June 2021 Read more...
Workplace Woes: 4 Ways Technology Can Resolve These Workplace Issues
With the UK potentially opening back up this month, and many of us heading back to the office, it’s easy to look at the potential workplace woes we’re heading back to. However, heading back into the office (or not, as some businesses are choosing to remain remote) doesn’t have to be hard.
Technology has become a huge problem solver for us, both at home and in the office – in fact it’s helped turn many of our homes into offices in 2020 and 2021. Whether your businesses is heading back to the office, staying remote or taking a flexible approach, there are many ways to put modern technology to good use to solve the following workplace woes:
June 2021 Read more...
More Savings: How a Bespoke CRM can Reduce IT Costs so you can Save More
IT plays a vital role in our workplaces (and homes for those that have had to work from home for the last year or so), so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the cost of IT equipment and software has started to mount up. This can be a serious limiting factor for a lot of small businesses that really need to be investing that money into growth, or just maintaining a healthy cash flow.
So how can IT costs be reduced by a bespoke CRM solution, a tool primarily focused on improving customer service and workflow? Let’s take a look at how…
May 2021 Read more...
A Perfect Fit: A CRM Solution for Any Business
Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and offer a variety of different services and products – just to state the obvious. As such, every business has different needs. Finding a CRM solution that fits your business perfectly can be a tedious and potentially costly task.
However, that doesn’t mean a CRM solution that fits your business like a glove doesn’t exist. A bespoke CRM solution may be just the thing you need. Whatever the size and scope of your business, a bespoke CRM solution could help you achieve growth or maintain consistent profit. Let’s take a look at how…
May 2021 Read more...
Stay Home, Still: Will Ditching the Office Help Your Business Go Green?
We’ve talked a lot recently about how remote working has been forced on a lot of business – during and beyond 2020 many businesses have had to adapt to the still ongoing pandemic. But what about making the conscious choice to ditch the office to go green?
As restrictions ease in the UK a lot of businesses have started to open up their offices again. That means more travelling, more pollution and more time away from home (not just including working hours). Some businesses, on the other hand, made the decision to ditch their offices after realising they could function just as well without, and that they could do their bit for the planet (and their employees) in the process.
But how does ditching the office do the environment any favours? Let’s take look…
May 2021 Read more...
Shopping Around: The Lunar Team’s Shopping List for a CRM Solution
Last week we talked about getting the most out of your investment in a bespoke CRM solution. Before you buy and get to the point of getting the most out of your CRM, though, you’ve got to take a look at what you want. Like any purchase, you need to make sure your bespoke CRM will suit your needs.
With that in mind, the Lunar Team have put together a shopping list for you, so you know what to look out for when shopping around for a CRM solution…
May 2021 Read more...
Worth the Investment: Getting the Most Out Of Your Bespoke CRM
It’s been a difficult year or so for businesses, and saving money has become a top priority for many. So, of course, it makes sense that you’re probably not considering investing in any fancy software anytime soon.
That list of fancy software usually includes a bespoke CRM solution. However, investing in such a tool can not only elevate your business to new heights, it can also be a fantastic money saver in the long run. Long story short, a bespoke CRM solution is well worth the investment.
Let’s take a quick look at why…
April 2021 Read more...
Keep Them Smiling: Keeping Your Team Happy on a Budget
The best way to keep your team productive is to keep them happy. While the UK’s productivity problem still lingers, there are some steps you can take to keep your workplace running happily and efficiently. This isn’t to say you can force your teams to be happy all the time, dismissing valid concerns and creating a toxic positivity culture won’t help. There are steps you can take to keep your team smiling, at least most of the time.
A lot of big businesses will offer their employees perks, and sometimes those perks can be costly. For small business, this isn’t always an option. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer some simple perks that don’t really come at a cost for you (they may even save you money in the long run), that will make the lives of your team a bit easier and happier. Let’s take a look at some perks that won’t cost the earth…
April 2021 Read more...
Time to Relax: 5 Ways to Cultivate a Low-Stress Working Environment
April is stress awareness month, and it’s safe to say that after the last year or so most of us are probably quite stressed. Especially as everything in the UK begins to open up again and people return to work or offices.
Instead of promoting stress-reduction for this one month, however, it’s something we should consider permanently. After all, stress is not conducive to productivity.
So to help you out as we all start going back to work, the Lunar team have come up with 5 ways you can cultivate a low-stress working environment…
April 2021 Read more...
Regenerate Relationships: 5 Simple Steps for Renewed Customer Interest This Spring
Winter is finally starting to shift and as lockdown restrictions in the UK begin to slowly shift, businesses are starting to open up again. While many businesses have been operating online throughout, what better time to refresh your customer relationships than at this point of renewed potential customer interest?
Bringing back the interest of customers doesn’t have to be a daunting task, far from it in fact. We’ve put together these 5 simple steps to regenerate customer relationships this spring…
March 2021 Read more...
What You Need: 4 Key Components that Go Into Your Bespoke CRM Package
What is it that makes a bespoke CRM solution such an amazing tool? There’s a lot of innovative tech behind a bespoke CRM package, and it’s all built around your needs.
At Lunar CRM, we have 4 key components when it comes to building a bespoke CRM package for you. Let’s take a look at what those are…
March 2021 Read more...
Tech Works for You: Addressing the UK’s Productivity Issues with Technology and Innovation
In the UK productivity has been an ongoing issue for a long time now. It’s not too hard to see why, especially in this previous year – many studies have examined the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of people UK. That’s not to mention a number of other factors that pre-existed the pandemic, such as burnout, low wages, austerity and the anxiety (now realities) of Brexit.
While those issues are going to require work on a much higher level than most businesses will be able to, there are still ways to deal with low productivity for small businesses. We believe that the key to improving productivity lies with technology…
March 2021 Read more...
One Year On: Making Remote Working Work for You
For many office workers across the UK, remote working has been their new normal for that past 12 months after the pandemic saw the UK government instructing people to work from home where they can. In response, some businesses even went as far as not renewing rented office spaces (or selling space), with plans to keep their teams remote in future.
If you’re among the many UK businesses now considering offering remote working as a possibility, or perhaps your business is now entirely remotely operated, you may be wonder how to get the most out of it for your business. From freelance talent to time saving tools and security, there’s still a lot to consider improving, even if you’ve been doing this a while now.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of remote working, and how to ensure it’s working for you…
March 2021 Read more...
No More Waiting: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Will Deliver ROI
There’s always one resounding question when it comes to new workplace solutions – will it provide a solid ROI?
It’s an important question, without a doubt. When you invest in a change-up for your business, you need to ensure it delivers a return on that investment, otherwise it’ll just be adding to the already mounting costs of running a business.
When it comes to a CRM solution for your business, this ROI consideration is compounded by other considerations such as whether or not your team will adjust well to it. That’s where a bespoke CRM solution, built specifically for your business and team comes in.
Let’s take a look at how a bespoke CRM can provide instant ROI…
February 2021 Read more...
Love is in The Air: 5 Ways the Cloud Has Strengthened Brand-Customer Relationships
It’s no secret that we LOVE the Cloud over here at Lunar. This last year especially it’s been an integral part of many businesses, allowing us to keep in touch with our teams while many of us work remotely. The Cloud has also helped us grow closer to our customers.
In a time when many of us are still kept apart from others, the Cloud has helped many businesses form stronger relationships with their customers. The Cloud has also helped improve the perception of businesses by customers.
So how did this perfect match begin? How does the Cloud bring businesses and customers together? We’ve got the answers, with these 5 ways that the Cloud has strengthened the relationship between customers and brands…
February 2021 Read more...
Remote Working and Why We Love It So Much
Over the past year remote working has become a necessity for many businesses. While there is some understandable eagerness to return to the office once “normality” returns, we believe it’s worth considering remote working for your business in the long run.
It’s no secret that we love remote working, but we do understand it’s a difficult transition and that puts off many business owners. We get it – working in an office provides a routine, and encourages strong relationships with other team members through direct interaction. However, there are many reasons to consider at least partial remote working for your business, even when it’s not enforced by lockdowns.
February 2021 Read more...
Keep Up With the Times: Harnessing Technology and Social Media for Better Customer Service
It’s 2021 and some businesses still aren’t taking advantage of technologies and a social media presence that could bolster their business, and reputation. If that’s you, there’s a good reason to change that and start embracing new technologies for your business.
Why? To improve your customer service. It’s no secret that social media is a brilliant customer service tool, providing legitimacy and an easy presence for your business, as well as another way for customers to contact you. There are also other technical resources that could help boost your customer service and productivity.
Here’s Lunar’s take on why you need to be embracing new technology to keep your business up with the times…
February 2021 Read more...
Look Within: The Key to Success in your Business’ Data and Trends
Sometimes the answer to your problems can be found within. In the case of your business, if you’re struggling to achieve the growth you’re aiming for, it might be worth looking within your business to see if you can gain a competitive advantage in the market.
January 2021 Read more...
A Meaningful Connection: The Top 5 Qualities to Look for in a CRM Developer
Building a bespoke CRM to sit at the heart of your business is a very involved task. It involves a deep understanding of your business and its specific needs.
As such, it’s important to make a good connection with your CRM developer. Without a meaningful relationship between your business and your CRM developer, you’ll quickly find yourself without the tools you need to succeed.
We’ve talked to our clients to find out what qualities they look for in a CRM developer. Here are a few of them…
January 2021 Read more...
Start The Year Right: 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Business
We’re already over a week into the new year, and while the world may seemingly be going through a prolonged difficult patch, that doesn’t mean you have to drop the new year’s resolutions for your business – and it’s never too late to decide on those resolutions.
So, as we look forward to a hopefully better year than the last, let’s look at 5 New Year’s resolutions to get you off to a good start.
January 2021 Read more...
A Gift for Everyone: 5 Tips to Give Your Customers What They Want This Christmas
Christmas can be a bit of a stressful time, but we think 2020 has been stressful enough.
Keep your customers happy this holiday season with the gift of quality customer service. Nothing better ensures customer loyalty, making for a more stress-free Christmas for everyone. So, with that in mind, here’s some handy advice from the Lunar team to help keep your customers happy this Christmas.
December 2020 Read more...
Staying Connected: The Cloud and Weathering the Brexit Storm
For better or for worse, from the 1st of January 2020, the UK will end the transition period of Brexit and we’ll officially be on our own. While it’s a little late to be making huge business preparations for Brexit, there are still a few things you can do to your business prepare for the years to come. Once crucial thing you can do is implement a bespoke CRM solution into your business, that will enable your business to fully take advantage of the Cloud.
December 2020 Read more...
An Early Christmas Present: 3 Reasons a Bespoke CRM Solution is the Perfect Gift for your Team
2020 has been a difficult year, and while the festive season might not be the same that doesn’t mean that Christmas has to be cancelled. If you’re looking to treat your team to something that’ll see 2021 starts on a positive note, we’ve got the perfect idea.
A new bespoke CRM solution could really up they joy for your team in the new year, improving productivity and minimising stress. Here are a few reasons to consider a bespoke CRM for this holiday season…
December 2020 Read more...
Ask Data: 5 Ways to Up Your Business Game with Your CRM Data
Data is the most important tool for any business, ask any business owner. However, the way you use that data makes all the difference.
With a bespoke CRM at the heart of your business, a world of possibilities opens up to improve everything your business is doing. With the rich data offered by a bespoke CRM solution you can really up your game, here a five ways you can do just that…
November 2020 Read more...
Three’s A Party: The Benefits of Third Party CRM Integrations
Changing your business’ CRM solution can often be a hassle as your team has to learn how to do everything they used to do with a new piece of software. However, with a bespoke CRM solution, you don’t have to worry about relearning new software thanks to third party integration. With a bespoke CRM sitting at the heart of your business, your team will have access to all their usual third party apps in one place.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of a third-party CRM solution…
November 2020 Read more...
Freelance Opportunities: How to Attract Temporary Freelance Talent to Your Business
2020 has been a difficult year for employers and employees alike. For many looking for work this year, the range of exciting opportunities is limited as companies freeze hiring to manage stretched budgets. However, with a little bit of forward planning, you may be able to offer manageable temporary freelance opportunities.
November 2020 Read more...
Steering to Success: The Importance of Driving Your Business Towards Long-Term Goals
It’s important to have long-term goals when running a business, however with the day-to-day of running a business comes lots of small obstacles – short-term goals. While it’s important to maintain that day-to-day management of short-term goals, ensuring daily admin doesn’t become a mountain of tasks, it’s essential to keep an eye on those seemingly far off long-term goals. Otherwise, how will you know where to steer your business?
Driving towards success isn’t as huge a task as you might expect. Through careful planning and management, long-term planning could produce a number of benefits for your business.
November 2020 Read more...
Stick with Us: Using Your CRM to Win Customer Loyalty
A CRM is much more than just a customer service tool. Your CRM is an effective marketing, database and workflow management tool, with even further capabilities due to third party integration. Your CRM is also an important tool when it comes to encouraging customer loyalty, and that loyalty is an essential part of your business. So how can you encourage this loyalty, and why is it so important?
November 2020 Read more...
Working From Home: 3 Reasons Why Working Remotely May Be Better for Business
This year a lot of workplaces have had to quickly adjust to working remotely. While many are looking forward to returning to the office, and some already have, is it not worth considering how well your business can function working remotely?
Allowing remotely working for employees, even if not full-time remote, will leave you better prepared for any future situations that see us forced to avoid offices. However, there are also a number of other benefits to remote working if you can feasibly make it work for your business. Here are three ways remote working works…
October 2020 Read more...
Clean It Up: 4 Ways to Clean Up Your Sales Data
There’s no need to wait until next spring to clean up your data!
Nothing puts a plug in your sales pipeline quite like poor quality data, limiting the abilities of your sales team by taking up precious time and resources. From duplicate data to outdated information, bad data can cost you both time and money. So how can you clean up your data? The Lunar team have 4 steps that can help you clear out the old, and bring in the new, whilst keeping everything clean in the long term.
October 2020 Read more...
Wellbeing from Home: How to Help Keep Your Remote Team Happy in Uncertain Times
While your team works from home, have you stopped to consider their wellbeing from home? As the UK braces for further lockdown measures and more people face indefinitely working remotely on their own, it’s important to stop and consider your mental health. The psychological impact of the pandemic can’t be understated, with many feeling disconnected.
There’s a lot you can do to help make this time a little more bearable for your remote teams, particularly if they are experiencing problems with their mental wellbeing.
October 2020 Read more...
Try it On: Why You Should Try a Free Demo of Lunar CRM
When it comes to CRM solutions, there’s a lot on the market. So picking out a bespoke CRM can be a bit overwhelming. With so many features available, changing your CRM to a bespoke CRM solution can be a big switch up for your business. Of course, you also want to ensure your team can make heads or tails of it.
Fortunately, we can help with your decision by letting your try before you buy.
September 2020 Read more...
Top Notch: 4 Secrets to Customer Service That’ll Have Your Customers Singing Your Praise
Customers sit at the heart of your company, no matter what size your industry or organisation is. Keeping those customers happy is vital to the success of your business, and doing so is becoming more of a challenge as customer have more access to your business through online reviews and social media. However, that also means your customers can now publicly big you up and really help boost your brand in the public eye.
So, with that in mind, here are 4 key ways to keep your customers happy, so they’ll sing your praises thanks to top notch customer service…
September 2020 Read more...
Level Up: 4 Ways Robust Reporting Features Help Your Business Succeed and Grow
It’s natural for any business owner to want their business to succeed and grow. In order to do that, you’ll want to be able to oversee every element of your business, from the bigger strategies to the smallest process. The best way to see that bigger picture is to have a powerful reporting tool in place.
That’s why Lunar’s bespoke CRM tool is built with real-time reporting as a central feature. With such powerful reporting available, this allows our clients to go to climb to the next level and keep climbing the business ladder. All of this is thanks to the confidence offered in business owners being able to get an accurate picture of where their business is growing and where they need to focus their efforts.
Let’s take a look at 4 ways a bespoke CRM with robust reporting features can help you reach the next level…
September 2020 Read more...
No Need to Rush Back: 5 Reasons Remote Working Could Be a Benefit to Your Business
Remote working is still a hot topic in 2020, more so than ever. While many news outlets, and the government, are trying to encourage people to go back to the office, a lot of people say they’re just fine continuing to work from home. Many employees are reluctant to return to the office, not only fearing for their safety (though an incredibly justified concern), but also the cost of commuting and other work related costs. Convincing people to give up working from home now that they’ve seen how efficiently they can work, without a lot of the costs associated with working away from home is going to be difficult.
So, perhaps you don’t need to? We absolutely don’t want to tell you how to run your business or manage your team, however remote working may not actually be a detriment to your business. In fact, it might just help your business run a bit more smoothly.
Take a look at these 5 ways that remote working can benefit your business, and consider if it’s worth rushing back just yet…
September 2020 Read more...
The Bigger Picture: How Automation Gives Your Team the Freedom to Focus
It’s been a tough year for sure, but with the right automation in place for your business you could be making things much easier. Yet automation does sometimes still set off alarm bells for some.
“If my duties can be automated, what happens to my role? Will I lose my job to a machine?”
Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case. The automation that comes as a standard with most bespoke CRM solutions can minimise the tedium in tasks, but setting up that automation still requires a bit of input. Also, once that automation is in place, it actually gives you and your team more freedom to focus on the bigger picture. Here are four ways that automation can give you that freedom…
August 2020 Read more...
Keeping Safe: 3 Methods to Keep Your CRM Data Safe
Safety has, or should have been, everyone’s top priority this year. That includes keeping your data safe, particularly with so many people accessing your business remotely as they work from home.
With access to customers’ data and confidential information, such as card details and addresses, comes great responsibility. You, and your team, need to ensure that data remains safe. That’s why the Lunar Team have put together this list of methods to help you keep your customers’ data safe and sound…
August 2020 Read more...
Bringing the Joy: 7 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Make Your Team Happier
2020 has been a long year, and your staff could use a little joy. Ordinarily, introducing a new factor to your business doesn’t automatically spark joy – in fact it can cause complications. However, a bespoke CRM like Lunar is designed to integrate seamlessly with your business, with features like third party integration.
That means that there’s no awkward transition period when it comes to using a CRM like Lunar, meaning your team can begin to enjoy its useful features. Speaking of those features, here are 7 ways that Lunar CRM can make your team happier…
August 2020 Read more...
Saving Up: 4 Ways a Bespoke CRM Saves You Money
Business owners need to constantly keep an eye on company outgoings and make financially sound decisions in order to be a success. However, while keeping track of every other aspect of your business, this can be a little difficult.
Especially in the last few months of the pandemic, where both profits and productivity may have taken a very understandable dip, running a profitable business can feel like an uphill struggle.
However, a bespoke CRM solution could prove to be the solution to that struggle. With the right bespoke CRM at the heart of your business, you could have a much easier time keeping on top of your finances and save money in many other areas. Here are 4 ways that Lunar CRM can do just that…
July 2020 Read more...
Keep Listening: 5 Reasons You Should Always Listen to Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is vital to the success of your business. Your customers, after all, are what really drive your business. So if you ever need to shake things up and make changes with your business, your first step should be turning to your customers.
For a lot of businesses, the last few months have been a time of huge changes. So now is the perfect time to really start listening to your customers, figure out what they want from your business and how you can realistically deliver that.
With your customers in mind, here are five reasons you should always be listening to your customers…
July 2020 Read more...
Swift Recovery: Disaster Recovery Plans and Why You Need Them
If there’s one thing that we can learn from the still ongoing pandemic, it’s that no amount of planning can fully prepare any business for unprecedented adversity and disasters. However, it’s important to have a plan in place for any kind of disaster your business may face. Why? Because the speed at which your business recovers from a disaster could make all the difference between said recovery and never bouncing back.
Of course, not every disaster your business faces will be a global pandemic. Some localised disasters will happen specifically around or within your business, so it’s best to be prepared.
July 2020 Read more...
Take the Wheel: Taking Back Control of Your Workflow in 4 Ways with a Bespoke CRM
In the early days of the pandemic a popular topic was how much the environment seemed to be recovering, with us all being indoors. People are now beginning to return to work, and some of us have been working remotely throughout this period. However, is it possible that those of us that have been working remotely could keep up that trend? After all working remotely and green living go hand in hand.
Can remote working be just as beneficial for your business as it is for the planet?
June 2020 Read more...
Trust Us: The 4 Pillars of Trust for Remote Working
We’ve talked a lot about remote working lately, as more businesses than ever have had to very quickly adapt to this method of keeping things going. One important thing that is worth touching on when it comes to remote working is trust.
As business owners aren’t seeing their employees every day, it can be difficult to keep track of what everyone’s doing. So it can be a bit tricky to trust that everyone is still working to the best of their ability. Of course, it’ll take time for employees to reach the same level of productivity at home as they have in the office – it’s an adjustment process for everyone. However you need to be able to trust your team to still do their best, and they need to trust you to allow them to get on with it.
June 2020 Read more...
Staying Home: How Remote Working Can Benefit Business and the Planet
In the early days of the pandemic a popular topic was how much the environment seemed to be recovering, with us all being indoors. People are now beginning to return to work, and some of us have been working remotely throughout this period. However, is it possible that those of us that have been working remotely could keep up that trend? After all working remotely and green living go hand in hand.
Can remote working be just as beneficial for your business as it is for the planet?
June 2020 Read more...
Healthy, Happy Heads: Maintaining Your Team’s Mental Health
We’re just coming out of Mental Health Awareness month, and these last few months in particular have been very taxing on our mental health. Many people are having their first real experiences with mental health struggles, so it’s worth checking in with our teams to ensure they’re not struggling with their mental health.
June 2020 Read more...
Start Saving: How Does a Bespoke CRM Lower Business Costs?
When it comes to saving money, this pandemic has had a huge impact on a lot of people. Some people are now saving money thanks to reduced travel costs, while others and most businesses are reporting a loss in revenue. So it’s important to look at how to save money for your business to weather this storm.
For example, with a bespoke CRM solution in place your could save in a number of areas. Reduced subscription costs, IT expenses and more will be on offer to you with the right tools. So how does it work? How can a customer service tool drastically reduce your business’ outgoings?
May 2020 Read more...
Looking Forward: Is Remote Working the New Normal for Business?
With the ongoing pandemic a lot of standard business rules, such as turning up at the office, have been suspended. Remote working has saved many UK businesses that are able to allow their staff to work from home, while the government’s furlough scheme has prevented many from going out of business.
So is working remotely the new normal for these businesses? After all, many businesses that had resisted the remote work revolution have had to change rapidly overnight to adapt. The reasoning many businesses had for not allowing their staff the flexibility to work remotely is now out of the window, as teams up and down the country prove that they are perfectly capable of working out of the office.
May 2020 Read more...
Smiles All Around: 4 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Make Your Team Happier
A good CRM solution can mean all the difference between a happy and a frustrated team. In a time when there aren’t many smiles to be found, it’s important to make sure your team is happy.
With handy live reporting features and ease of access anytime, anywhere, there’s a lot to smile about when it comes to a bespoke CRM solution from Lunar. So, we’ve put together a quick list of the 4 ways your bespoke CRM solution will make your team happy.
May 2020 Read more...
Shoot for The Stars: 4 Ways Lunar CRM’s Reporting Tools Help Your Business Aim Higher
Every businesses owner wants success for their business. That goes without saying. In order for a business to be successful, you need to have a good strategy in place. To put a good strategy in place, you need to have good reporting tools that can identify where your business is doing well, and where you can improve.
Thanks to the real time reporting features at the heart of Lunar CRM, our clients are able to shoot for the stars successfully. Here are four ways Lunar CRM has made reaching for the stars a possibility for our clients:
April 2020 Read more...
In High Regard: 5 Ways the Cloud Helps Better Treat Our Customers
With everyone currently working remotely if they can, there’s no better time than to reflect on what the Cloud has done for our businesses, and our customers. In addition to improving the way businesses run, and in fact a vital part of maintaining communication between teams right now, the Cloud has helped improve the relationship between customers and brands.
How did The Cloud help customers fall in love with our brands all over again? Whether they have directly or indirectly made an impact, here are the 5 ways customer relationships have improved thanks to the Cloud.
April 2020 Read more...
Stress Buster: 5 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Can Reduce Stress
There’s nothing like a long weekend to step up your relaxation. However, the problem arises when it comes to the following four-day week – trying to fit in all of your work for the week in to one less day can cause a lot of extra stress for you and your team. Especially when you’re already adjusting to recent work-from-home measures.
The world is already an anxious enough place right now, so luckily our bespoke CRM is here to help. Here are 5 ways Lunar CRM can help bust your team’s stress levels…
April 2020 Read more...
Safety First: 3 Ways We Keep Your Data Safe
When you can’t physically access your business in these times, it’s easy to become anxious about the safety of your data. So while you’re looking after your own safety, we want you to know that we’ve got your data safe.
Here are three ways that we keep your data safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything else…
April 2020 Read more...
Light in the Dark: Keeping Up Team Morale in Troubling Times
All of us, and all business are currently going through some difficult times. Many businesses have had to invest in remote working, as a means of reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus. While some of us are lucky to still be able to operate and work through these conditions, that doesn’t mean the impact hasn’t been felt.
Now, more than ever, it’s important to look after your team and their mental health as well as their safety. While every business is different, there are some simple ways to show your team that you care, and that you’re there for them.
March 2020 Read more...
Spring Cleaning: 5 Questions to Identify Your CRM Needs
Spring is right around the corner, the sun is shining a little longer and the weather is (slowly) getting a little warmer. You know what that means? It’s time for a spring clean!
When it comes to cleaning up your business, your CRM should be a focal point. Your CRM is the most effective tool you can use towards helping your business reach the goals you’ve set. It’s also vital for supporting future growth and keeping both customers and employees happy.
So, is your CRM doing its job, or is it time for a clean-up? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself about your CRM:
March 2020 Read more...
At a Distance: 5 Considerations for Remote Working
There are plenty of benefits to offering remote working to your team – particularly at the moment as some employers are taking steps to minimise the risk to their employees amid the current coronavirus pandemic. Though many start-up teams are still left demanding the option to work remotely as a precaution.
It’s good to act fast to reduce anxiety among your team during these times. However, you’ll want to consider a few things before you offer remote working to members of your staff. In fact, you may already be able to offer this, or perhaps are only a few simple steps away.
Here are 5 considerations for offering remote working…
March 2020 Read more...
Stay on The Line: 6 Ways to Improve Customer Calls with your CRM
You may think that calls aren’t a popular option for contacting customer services anymore, now that most brands have dedicated customer service social media channels. However, many customers still find that picking up the phone and calling in is the most comforting option when it comes to ensuring a response without the wait.
February 2020
Getting Cultured: How your Bespoke CRM Plays a Vital Role in Company Culture
One of the best ways to make your business stand out from the crowd when it comes to attracting new talent is to really show off your amazing company culture. You can do that through an engaging website, social media presence, blogging and more. The question is, how do you develop and promote an engaging company culture?
Did you know your bespoke CRM can serve as a key component in developing such a brilliant company culture? The Lunar Team have gathered some insights from our clients to find out.
February 2020 Read more...
More to Love: Why Lunar CRM is the Perfect Valentine’s Gift
Valentine’s Day is coming up, and you want to pick the perfect gift for your loyal team. A bespoke CRM solution, like Lunar CRM, will help keep your customers in love with your business as your team is able to deliver their best.
A bespoke CRM solution is the perfect love letter to your team and your customers, built specifically to meet their desires and needs. Here’s how Lunar CRM gives everyone more to love…
February 2020 Read more...
Stay on Trend: Important CRM Trends and Stats for 2020
We’ve made it through the first, and seemingly the longest, month of 2020. Now, it’s time to look for ways you can enhance the sales boosting power of your CRM. The Lunar Team have put together a few ways in which CRM trends in 2020 could help your business.
February 2020 Read more...
Data Driven: Using your Bespoke CRM to Boost Business Strategy
Your bespoke CRM solution is an incredibly useful tool to help inform your business decisions. With that data available to you with a bespoke CRM, you can inform your business’ strategy for years in advance.
With all that in mind, the Lunar Team have some great ideas for using the data within you bespoke CRM to inform your business strategy.
January 2020 Read more...
Tired of the Chase: Efficient Invoicing with a Bespoke CRM
Whether you’re feeling festive or not this year, it’s important for you and your team to feel happy. Especially as we go in to the New Year, you’ll want to keep up morale and productivity.
In less than two weeks, we’ll be in 2020! Obviously you and your team want to go a take a hard earned break, but before that you’ll need to get your business in order. It’s tempting for both you and your team to ease up and slow down a bit, but think how much sweeter that break will be knowing you’ve worked your best to leave your business in good shape for next year. That’s why we’ve come up with four ways to keep up morale and productivity, ready for the New Year.
January 2020 Read more...
New Year, Better Business: Lunar’s New Year’s Resolutions for Better Business in 2020
We’re almost two weeks in to a new decade, so how are the Roaring Twenties shaping up for your business?
It’s a new year so take the opportunity to make a new start on achieving success for your business. The Lunar Team have a few ideas for new business resolutions you could stick to this year, to ensure you make the most of this decade…
January 2020 Read more...
Planning Ahead: 4 Ways to Prepare Your Business for the New Year
Whether you’re feeling festive or not this year, it’s important for you and your team to feel happy. Especially as we go in to the New Year, you’ll want to keep up morale and productivity.
In less than two weeks, we’ll be in 2020! Obviously you and your team want to go a take a hard earned break, but before that you’ll need to get your business in order. It’s tempting for both you and your team to ease up and slow down a bit, but think how much sweeter that break will be knowing you’ve worked your best to leave your business in good shape for next year. That’s why we’ve come up with four ways to keep up morale and productivity, ready for the New Year.
December 2019 Read more...
Boost Customer Retention in 4 Easy Steps with your CRM
Retaining customers is vital for any business. Acquiring new customers can be quite costly so it’s important for you to keep your existing customers engaged and happy. Even a small increase in customer retention can see a huge increase in revenue, and with the right CRM you have all the tools you need to boost that retention rate.
So here are a few easy steps you can take to boost your customer retention with your CRM…
December 2019 Read more...
Made to Measure: Lunar’s Top 5 CRM Metrics to Measure Success
When planning for success with your business, it’s important to understand how to measure success. That’s why it’s important to have a CRM solution with the capability to produce robust reports at the heart of your business.
Before getting lost in detailed reports, however, it’s a good idea to start simple. If you’re new to using analytics and data to informing your business strategy, we’ve put together a list of good starting points. The Lunar team recommends these five metrics as good measures of success for your business:
December 2019 Read more...
What You Need: Identifying the CRM Features your Business Needs
At Lunar we create bespoke CRM solutions that are tailored individually, so that any business can have a CRM to suit their needs. It’s always a good idea to have a think about the features your CRM will need to include in order to best fit your business’ needs.
Do you need your CRM to integrate with CMS (content management systems), e-mail management, reporting or something else entirely?
Ask yourself, and your team and business partners: what solutions are available and what solutions does the business require?
November 2019 Read more...
Room to Grow: Cloud CRM Solutions and Scalability
Growth – it’s the primary objective of any business. More staff, more clients, more cash flow. However, you need to be sure your business has room to grow, and that means having a scalable CRM solution.
For any digital business, the cloud presents a perfect solution to scalability.
November 2019 Read more...
Remote Working: The Future of IT and Tech Start Ups
Your business should be like a well-functioning clock, with all the right gears meshing together to keep things running smoothly. That means having a powerful bespoke CRM solution at the heart of your business, with all the right tools in place from the moment you integrate it.
Gears turning independently won’t make things tick. For your clockwork business to run efficiently, you’re going to need all the parts to be in the right place so one gear can move another and so on. That means automating some of the smaller processes that feed in to the larger operations of your business.
November 2019 Read more...
A Pattern of Inclusivity: How Lunar Tailors a Bespoke CRM for Any Business
Ensuring everyone feels included is an important part of what we do at Lunar – we know that every business has different needs, and we want our bespoke solutions to work for everyone. We’ve worked with so many different people and businesses, but we always follow the same pattern for a bespoke CRM that fits anyone…
November 2019 Read more...
Like Clockwork: 5 CRM Automations to Keep Your Business Ticking
Your business should be like a well-functioning clock, with all the right gears meshing together to keep things running smoothly. That means having a powerful bespoke CRM solution at the heart of your business, with all the right tools in place from the moment you integrate it.
Gears turning independently won’t make things tick. For your clockwork business to run efficiently, you’re going to need all the parts to be in the right place so one gear can move another and so on. That means automating some of the smaller processes that feed in to the larger operations of your business.
October 2019 Read more...
There’s Still Time: Preparing the Skills to Survive Brexit
It’s dominated the news all weekend – Brexit has been delayed again. Whilst that may mean more waiting and worrying for your business, there is good news here. You’ve got more time to prepare and get your business ready, and find the skills you’ll need to get through the difficult times.
October 2019 Read more...
Early Growth Spurt: 4 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Help Grow your Business
A bespoke CRM isn’t just for big businesses. Of course, any big business needs a good CRM solution, but a bespoke CRM can do wonders for small businesses too.
In fact with a bespoke CRM in place, you could find your small business achieving higher growth rates, even in your early days. So, how can a bespoke CRM help here?
October 2019 Read more...
Planning for Trouble: Preparing your Business for Difficult Times
It’s an uncertain time for businesses in the UK – Brexit looms with no clear deal in sight, is your business ready?
We don’t want to dictate politics but we do want you to be ready for uncertainty, so your business can thrive. Here are a few ways you can take to keep your business going in uncertain times.
October 2019 Read more...
Making Introductions: 5 Ways to Smoothly Introduce a New CRM to Your Team
Besides a powerful CRM, a strong business has a strong team of people at its heart. When it comes to making decisions for that business, you’ll want that team on your side. So, you want to listen to them, and their concerns to keep things running smoothly.
Making new introductions to your business will impact your team. New introductions like a new CRM solution, for example. So, how can you help keep your team’s concerns to a minimum, and ensure everyone is happy, when you introduce a new CRM solution?
September 2019 Read more...
Quick Demonstration: Trying a Free Demo of Lunar CRM
There’s a lot to think about and a lot to choose from when it comes to a new CRM solution for your business. That’s why choosing a new one can be quite a troubling experience, from features to usability (you don’t want to drive your team crazy with poor functionality, after all) you really need to be selective. It can be a little tricky to do that, however, when you don’t really know what you’re signing up for.
That’s why we like to put our money where our mouth is, allowing you to try a free demo of Lunar CRM before you commit. So what are the benefits of trying before you buy?
September 2019 Read more...
Follow Your Lead: Generating New Business with Your Bespoke CRM
Your bespoke CRM solution is a powerful little tool – you may just see it as a way to manage customer data, and to make and receive customer calls but your CRM is much more capable than that. In fact, your bespoke CRM can generate new leads to grow your business on your behalf. That’s sure to see a nice boost to your sales figures, don’t you think?
The best part? Setting up your bespoke CRM to generate new business leads is a pretty easy process.
September 2019 Read more...
Kept Under Lock and Key: 3 Security Measures to Keep Your Data Safe
You know what they say; with great power comes great responsibility. When you hold a vast amount of data from your customers in your CRM tool, you need to keep it safe or your business could end up in very hot water.
With that in mind, the Lunar Team have come up with three safety tips you can implement to keep your customers’ data safe, and your business out of trouble…
September 2019 Read more...
Saving Up: How a Bespoke CRM Can Help You Save
It’s important to keep an eye on outgoings when running a business, every penny counts after all. Unfortunately, making smart, financially sound decisions can often be a little on the taxing side when you’re constantly battling against a stretched schedule, expensive suppliers and the day-to-day costs of running a business.
If you’ve got the power of a bespoke CRM solution on your side, however, you might find more cost saving opportunities open up to you…
September 2019 Read more...
Run your Business Round the Clock
Time is money for a business, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day, right? Whilst you can’t add more hours to the day, you can make life a little easier with a powerful bespoke CRM solution at the heart of your business working in real-time.
So how do you make that happen?
August 2019 Read more...
Go with the Flow: Efficient Invoicing & Cash Flow with your Bespoke CRM
It’s great when clients pay their invoices on time. Sometimes, getting payments out of clients can be a little trickier. It’s not always down to a client dragging their heels though – inefficiency in getting paid on time can come from internal invoicing procedures and the use of a clunky external invoicing software.
Whether it is a client putting their own cash flow needs ahead of yours, or complications with invoicing software, to keep your business happy you need to keep on top of invoicing and cash flow. So how can you do that without it being a costly time sink in itself? With the handy features included in a bespoke CRM, of course.
August 2019 Read more...
Cool Off: 5 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Solution can Keep Your Stress Levels Down this summer
For sun lovers, the heatwave in the UK is putting smiles on faces. But there’s nothing worse than getting hot-headed and stressed out by a CRM that isn’t cutting it, especially when all you want to do is get out of the office and in to the sun.
That’s where Lunar’s bespoke CRM solution comes in to save the day. The last thing we want is you getting stressed by tech that’s not up to scratch. So that’s why we’ve ensured our bespoke CRM solution has these 5 qualities to help keep your head cool…
July 2019 Read more...
Communicating Effectively: 6 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Solution Improves Calls and Communication with Customers
Social media’s popularity continues to rise as the go to method for customers to contact your business, however for a more direct approach the phone remains the most popular contact option. And you definitely want to give your customers options when it comes to getting in touch with you to keep that customer satisfaction up. However, as your business grows it can become a bit of a hassle to keep on top of customer call data. You want to keep accurate records of calls, numbers as well as actually being able to answer and make calls with ease. Managing all of that with an external, clunky dialling platform can result in wasted time for both your business and your customers.
July 2019 Read more...
Simply the Best: Top 5 Features to Look for in a CRM
If you’re thinking it’s time to invest in a new CRM solution, you’ll definitely want to consider what exactly you need from a CRM solution. Looking through all the different features and pricing points can cause a lot of stress. There are a lot of options to choose from, some might be a perfect price but lacking in necessary features whilst others might be so overly complex they border on useless to you.
When you’re looking for your next CRM, you want to go in prepared. That’s why the Lunar Team have put together this list of the 5 features you’ll want to look for…
July 2019 Read more...
Keep it Interesting: Improve ROI from the Start with a Bespoke CRM
Ensuring that every expense to your business sees an equal or greater return of investment is always going to be one of your top priorities. And ideally you want the majority of expenses to see greater ROI rather than just equal. Sadly the fear of not seeing that great ROI is what puts many businesses off trying something new, like a bespoke CRM solution.
So, we thought we’d give you some reassurance on how Lunar’s bespoke CRM solution could keep things interesting for your business…
July 2019 Read more...
Staying Secure: How We Keep Your Data Safe
It’s been since we’ve seen any huge data breaches, like Facebook’s 2018 breach. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still take your data security seriously. Especially if you want to keep your customers happy knowing that their data is kept secure.
With Lunar CRM you’ll have a huge amount of customer data to utilise towards improving your business practices, but with great power comes great responsibility – keeping that data safe. So here’s how we ensure your customers’ data is kept safe…
July 2019 Read more...
Customer Service: Four Ways to Keep Your Customers Happy
Customer service is a constantly changing and evolving landscape, and it’s never been easier for a customer to get in touch with your business. It’s also never been easier for bad customer service to damage your brand. With social media keeping everything online for the world to see, you need to ensure your team’s customer service is on point.
Customers have plenty of choice when it comes to brands for their products. So to keep your customers loyal, you need to be delivering your consistent best. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at your customer service. Here are the four aspects of great customer service your team needs to be focusing on…
June 2019 Read more...
Never Fear, Automation is here: Why Your Team Should Embrace Automation
Is your team still worried that automation could see them replaced by a piece of software? Well, there’s a lot you could be doing to reassure them that automation isn’t just beneficial for your business, but also for them and their position within it.
A happy team is a productive team, so you need to ensure any anxiety caused by talk of automation is nipped in the bud. So to ensure your bespoke CRM solution is welcomed by your team, here are just a few ways that automation could help them with their day to day…
June 2019 Read more...
Lessons to Learn: What Your Bespoke CRM can Teach You
It’s never too late to learn something new. And there’s a lot you can learn from your bespoke CRM about the way your business can and should work. Just as your bespoke CRM solution will evolve with your business, your knowledge can develop and evolve with it. Let’s take a look at some of the things you can learn from your CRM...
June 2019 Read more...
Go Green: Ditch the Office and Go Remote for the Planet
As Bill Nighy recently said, the planet is on fire. As business owners we have certain responsibilities to limit our impact on the planet. One way we can do that is by ditching the office and going with a remote office, limiting our collective consumption of resources. Because you bespoke CRM solution is cloud-based, you can do just that with a team working from anywhere in the world.
May 2019 Read more...
Marketing to the Max: How your Bespoke CRM Data can optimise your Marketing
Your bespoke CRM is full of all sorts of handy data provided by your customer base. So it makes perfect sense to use that data to inform your marketing efforts – with a strong data-driven strategy you’ll generate new leads and help keep existing leads nice and warm.
May 2019 Read more...
Third Party Integration: A Business Must-Have
Third party integration is a must have for any CRM. That’s why it’s an integral part of Lunar, giving you enhanced customisability over your bespoke CRM solution. Whether you’re fresh out of the gate, or an established business third party integration is crucial in ensuring your CRM can offer you everything you need in one easy package.
May 2019 Read more...
A Plan for Everything: A CRM solution for all Your Business’ Needs
Every business is different (just call us Captain Obvious), so finding a CRM solution that perfectly works for yours can be incredibly time consuming. There are many options out there and you want to make sure you pick one that suits your business’ needs. Being a cost effective solution wouldn’t hurt either.
Whatever your business, a bespoke CRM solution is the perfect option. With its customisability and adaptability, a bespoke solution could be the answer to all of your problems (business problems, at least). Whether you’re a small business, a growing business or already well established, a bespoke CRM solution could be just the ticket to run things smoothly, let’s take a look at how…
May 2019 Read more...
Saving time, saving money: How your Bespoke CRM Saves Both
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, in business time is money. Losing out on profits and business hours by focusing on tedious processes is irritating, three’s no question of that. So if this is something your business struggles with, perhaps it’s time to consider a bespoke CRM to simplify or even automate some of these processes? Here are some of the ways a bespoke CRM solution could do just that.
May 2019 Read more...
Looking Up: Why You CRM Should Be in the Cloud
In 2019 more and more businesses are ditching off-the-shelf, hard-install CRM solutions. Instead, businesses are embracing the convenience of Cloud-based solutions, and it’s easy to see why. The Cloud allows you easy access to your business on the go, saving you both time and money in the long run. If you’ve not already taken to The Cloud for your CRM solution, here’s a few reasons why you might want to consider taking the leap.
April 2019 Read more...
Happiness on a Budget: Keeping your Team Happy Without Breaking the Bank
We all know that a happy team is a productive team, that’s business management 101. That means a lot of businesses are splashing out on their employees with all sorts of weird and wonderful office perks – video games in the kitchen, ping pong tables in the meeting rooms, bean bags everywhere… The list goes on.
Not all businesses can afford to keep their employees happy with these perks though. And really, you can’t buy happiness. So how can you improve your team’s happiness if you’re on a limited budget?
April 2019 Read more...
Money, Money, Money: 3 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Helps with Accounting
Money. Cold hard cash. Dinero. Whatever you call it, it’s vital for your business to keep going. However, keeping a handle on the financial side of your business can get overwhelming. If you don’t keep track, you could find yourself in big trouble. When you’re already running your own business, accounting can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
You’ve already got a lot on your plate trying to track down leads and keep existing customers happy. You could hire an account, of course. Or you could use your bespoke CRM solution as a powerful accounting tool. Let’s see how your CRM can help with your accounting...
April 2019 Read more...
Now Hear This: 5 Reasons You Should Be Listening to Customer Feedback
It’s as simple as this – without customers, it’s quite difficult to run a business. Customers are, after all, a vital part of your business machine – no customers means no revenue, and how do you pay yourself or your staff without revenue?
Financial gain isn’t the only benefit of maintaining customers. Customers are big fans of leaving feedback, it’s become something of a trend in the age of social media and Google Reviews. You might worry about customer feedback, but it’s actually a vital tool for gathering information and really improving your business’ performance. There are many ways to encourage customer feedback – e-mail campaigns, surveys, simply having a social media presence. Here are five ways you can benefit from gathering customer feedback:
March 2019 Read more...
Time is Ticking: Is Your Business Brexit Ready?
Brexit is not far away now, and whether it happens or not you need to ensure your business is ready for the potential impact of the biggest economic shake-up of a generation. There’s still a lot of uncertainty around the big B, and as far as government advice goes many businesses are still feeling let down by the government.
That’s where the Lunar Team comes in – independent businesses need to look after one another in this difficult time. We’ve come up with a few tips that you’ve still got a little time to put in to practice before the big day.
March 2019 Read more...
How it Works: What Makes Your Bespoke CRM Tick?
The best part about any brilliant gadget is finding out how it works – your bespoke CRM is just such a handy gadget. So how does it work then?
While there’s a lot of innovative tech at the heart of your bespoke CRM package, it ultimately boils down in to four parts. Each are equally important, and the Lunar Team is here to share a little insight in to how your CRM works for you…
March 2019 Read more...
Reports and Your CRM: The Most Powerful Reports to Build with Your Bespoke CRM
The largest benefit to using a bespoke CRM solution is having all of your sales, marketing and customer data in one place. Not only does this save you time and money, limiting swapping between different pieces of software and paying for said software, but having all this data in one place allows you to build powerful reports at the click of a button. Your bespoke CRM can generate a variety of reports that will assist you in tracking marketing campaign performance and measure ROI.
February 2019 Read more...
Integrating Social Media Strategy with your CRM
Social media is a large part of everyone’s lives in 2019. Almost half of the world’s population are using some form of social media (that’s approximately 3.03 billion people!). If you’re not using social media strategy as part of your CRM, you’re missing out on the potential to reach those people.
People are moving away from contacting customer services through other means, no longer wanting to wait on the phone in a queue (and who can blame them?). Now people prefer to contact their brands on social media, seeking faster response times from social media teams. So it makes perfect sense to integrate your CRM solution with your social media strategy.
February 2019 Read more...
Stay on Top: Using your Bespoke CRM to keep on Top of Organisation
As your business grows, your CRM is going to fill up with a lot of data, so it’s not difficult to get overwhelmed. When you have a whole team to manage as well, things can become even more complicated.
If you want to keep your head, your bespoke CRM has plenty of options to organise your data and your team. The Lunar Team has some great tips to organise your CRM data and your team, and keep it that way. Here are the four key aspects of organisation you’ll want to keep in mind when using your CRM…
February 2019 Read more...
Putting Customers First: 4 Ways to Keep Your Customers Happy
It goes without saying that keeping your customers happy is good for your business. Happy customers feel valued, listened to and respected. However even with the best business practice in the world, sometimes customers can run in to issues with your product or service and it’s down to you to resolve the issue as sensitively as you can.
People now have access to bigger platforms that ever before, with brands readily available for public contact on social media and review sites everywhere. One bad review can very quickly become many bad reviews, having a huge impact on your business. So you want to be sure your customers are happy. With that in mind, here are four ways to help do just that…
February 2019 Read more...
Here, There and Everywhere: 4 Reasons to Love Remote Working
Switching to the remote working life gives you, and your team, the freedom to work anywhere. You can choose your own hours and spend more time with your friends and family. You’ll also be able to save yourself time and money on travel costs, no more to and from the office. Thanks to the power of a cloud-based bespoke CRM you’ll be able to access your business from anywhere with a WiFi connection.
January 2019 Read more...
Going on Auto Pilot: How Automation will Benefit Your Team
When we, the workforce, hear “automation” a lot of us often think of our jobs being taken over by machines. With automation being part of the bespoke CRM package, it can be potentially anxiety inducing for your team to hear you’re upgrading.
A bespoke CRM solution with automation won’t replace jobs, however. Actually, it’ll make them considerably easier so your team can truly excel. To ease your team in to the change, and put their minds at ease, The Lunar Team have put together this quick list of ways a bespoke CRM solution with automated processes can really benefit your team.
January 2019 Read more...
Closed-Loop Reports and Why You Need Them
The easiest way to succeed as a business in 2019 is to acquire valuable customers at a low cost. That’s much easier said than done without much market research and testing however.
So is there a solution to the problem of throwing marketing money at a varied and diverse market without seeing much return? If your marketing team isn’t using Closed-Loop Reports to solve this problem yet, now is the time.
January 2019 Read more...
Why a Bespoke CRM will Make Your Customers Happy
Switching over to a bespoke CRM solution will definitely make you and your team happy by simplifying your workflow and making your business more efficient. But what about your customers? Will they notice the difference?
The simple answer is, yes. Your customers will notice a huge increase in efficiency and company morale from the moment you switch over. Here’s why…
January 2019 Read more...
Preparing for 2019: The New Year and your Independent Business
Can you believe the year has gone so quickly? Plenty happened last year that has made the lives of us with independent businesses tougher, namely Brexit negations (with Brexit set to actually happen early this year). Needless to say, there’s a lot for small independent businesses to prepare for in 2019, and what better time to start than now? Here are a few aspects of your business that you’ll want to consider addressing going in to the New Year:
January 2019 Read more...
A Bespoke Gift: The CRM Christmas List
It’s only a few short days until Christmas! While most of are done with our gift buying by now, have you thought about you might treat yourself, your team and your business this Christmas? Whether your business is e-commerce dealing with a busy festive period or service-based looking to efficiently build new business connection in the New Year, a bespoke CRM solution might be just the gift to top your Christmas list.
December 2018 Read more...
Connect to the Cloud: Preparing for Brexit
Brexit is dominating the headlines this week, and uncertainty is only growing after a particularly difficult week for the UK government. Small business are being left mostly in the dark about what the Brexit deal will mean for them, their spending, their access to skilled workers and their viability to continue in a post-Brexit UK. That’s where the Cloud comes in to play.
Many small businesses are already harnessing the potential of the Cloud, with Cloud-based CRM solutions really opening up options for sourcing talent and reaching potential customers beyond borders. So how could the Cloud help you and your business not just survive, but thrive after Brexit?
December 2018 Read more...
Keep it Hot: Prioritizing and Attracting Warm Leads
Lead generation is the bread and butter of sales, but things can get quite overwhelming when you’re bringing in high volumes of leads. Not all leads are warm, and a cold lead can be a waste of time and money for you and your sales team. So it’s important to not only prioritise those warm leads, but figure out how to attract fewer cold leads.
Whilst you bespoke CRM can offer marketing automation it’s important to develop a marketing strategy to inform that automation. Take your marketing efforts one step further with these tips.
December 2018 Read more...
How a Cloud-based CRM can help a Growing Business
The cost of running a business is always climbing, and as your business grows so do the demands you’ll need to meet to keep it afloat. As your team grows you’ll also be needing a CRM that’s both easy to access and has top notch security. That’s why many small businesses are turning to a cloud-based CRM solution that offer a low-cost, secure solution. But what else can a cloud-based CRM solution offer to small businesses?
December 2018 Read more...
Join the Party: Third Party Integrations and your CRM
Third-party integration is an essential part of any CRM solution, keeping everything in one place can save time, help considerably with organisation, gives your team all the tools they need and ultimately saves you money. That’s why Lunar offers, on top of a list of existing features, extensive third-party integration to bring you a truly bespoke CRM solution. But with so many third-party options out there, which apps are you going to need as part of your bespoke CRM solution? The Lunar Team has a few suggestions to start you off…
November 2018 Read more...
What Freelancers Want and How to Attract Them
In our last blog we touched on how mental health struggles can have a very be impact on productivity in the workplace. Mental health is something that a lot of us in the UK are struggling with, approximately 1 in 4 of us will face these problems on a regular basis. Particularly with a remote working team with limited separation form work and life, it can be easy to fall in to a slump.
It doesn’t have to be that way – there’s plenty that can be done to keep your remote team happy. Whether it’s the right tools to work efficiently or just an open mind, The Lunar team have a few tips for a healthy and happy team.
November 2018 Read more...
Working Together: CRM Solutions and Marketing Automation
CRM tools and marketing automation processes are two vastly different things, however you can’t achieve the full potential of one without the other. Your bespoke CRM solution will help gather customer data and manage sales opportunities. Marketing automation will allow you to easily generate leads and use that data to nurture and prioritise them, before even involving your sales team.
November 2018 Read more...
Work and Wellbeing: Keeping your Remote Team Happy
In our last blog we touched on how mental health struggles can have a very be impact on productivity in the workplace. Mental health is something that a lot of us in the UK are struggling with, approximately 1 in 4 of us will face these problems on a regular basis. Particularly with a remote working team with limited separation form work and life, it can be easy to fall in to a slump.
It doesn’t have to be that way – there’s plenty that can be done to keep your remote team happy. Whether it’s the right tools to work efficiently or just an open mind, The Lunar team have a few tips for a healthy and happy team.
October 2018 Read more...
Winter is coming: Preparing your Business tough times
British Summer Time officially ends this weekend. Autumn and winter can be a tricky time for all of us, nights are getting longer, days are getting darker and the cold snaps are rolling in. Small businesses in particular can feel the winter crunch as the new year comes rolling in. Particularly with the uncertainty of Brexit’s approach, you might be left wondering if it’s even safe to take a festive break this year. That’s certainly not going to do your physical or mental wellbeing any good, so let’s not be all doom and gloom this year – let’s prepare for everything, for your peace of mind.
October 2018 Read more...
Keep Organised: 4 Steps to Clean Up your data
You know what they say, quality over quantity. No phrase rings truer when it comes to your sales database. There’s no easier way to sabotage your sales pipeline and limit the effectiveness of your CRM solution than with poor quality data.
From duplicate data to outdated information, bad data can cost you both time and money. So how can you clean up your data? The Lunar team have 4 steps that can help you clear out the old, and bring in the new, whilst keeping everything clean in the long term.
October 2018 Read more...
Just For You: Why a Bespoke CRM Solution is The One for You
A bespoke CRM solution is an investment in to what you love – your business. An off-the-shelf solution might help in the short-term, but a bespoke software will provide you with the adaptability to meet your ever growing and changing business needs.
With sophisticated data management options, ease of target marketing campaigns and a simple interface that will keep you and your team happy, there are many reasons you should go bespoke with your CRM solution. But what really makes a bespoke solution the right one for you?
October 2018 Read more...
Keeping Active: 4 Ways to Ensure Remote Working is Working for You
We all have a place we work best, whether that’s at home, at a coffee shop, or even in bed. Remote working is perfect way to let your team figure out which environment suits them best. If you’re an avid reader of our blog, you’ll also know that we’ve discussed remote working before and how the practice can make your office greener and cleaner. Don’t you want to help the planet?
October 2018 Read more...
Bespoke vs. Off the Shelf – Why the Choice is Still Very Clear
If there’s one thing we know about, it’s bespoke CRM solutions. During our time out in the wild, the Lunar team have been responsible for pairing up businesses from across a plethora of industries with a CRM tailored to their needs and challenges.
If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll recall one of our earliest blogs tackled the ten reasons bespoke is best. That was back in March 2015, and in the three years since, very little has changed when it comes to why people choose bespoke over off-the-shelf.
September 2018 Read more...
Why Teams Love Third Party Integration in Their Bespoke CRM
In the software world, you might think it peculiar that so many applications are open to third party integration – that is, external software connecting with a solution, such as a bespoke CRM or cloud-based network.
Surely, you might be wondering, that goes against their best interests? Why not create a native solution and cut out the third party?
September 2018 Read more...
How the Cloud Changed the Game for Small Businesses
Of all the transformative technological innovations shifting the small business landscape over the last decade or so, cloud computing is, without a doubt, the undisputed champion.
Operations, savings, and developments which, once upon a time, would have seemed out of the grasp of business owners, have all become attainable thanks to the introduction of cloud computing.
September 2018 Read more...
How Can Businesses Prepare for the Predicted Brexit Skills Shortage?
It’s dominated the headlines for so long now, that it seems almost odd to think of a time when we weren’t talking about Brexit. Unlike when the conversation first sprouted, however, the idea of Britain leaving the EU is now only months away from becoming a reality.
As with any great change that takes place in the world, there’s an understandable amount of anxiety and trepidation. Among those fears is one which is seemingly universal across most industries: an exacerbated skills shortage caused by Brexit.
September 2018 Read more...
How to Turn Your Team into Time-Saving Experts
Time is money. No, really: your team’s time costs actual money, so it makes sense to keep an eye on how they’re spending their time, and whether they’re working efficiently towards the same goals as the business.
But how do you make this happen? How can you make sure all your employees are on the same page and making every second count? By making them into time-saving experts, of course!
August 2018 Read more...
The Technology Checklist Every Growing Business Needs
Let’s speak candidly for a moment here: growth is very much on the mind of every business owner – even if they’re not immediately aware of it. The ambition to create something and nurture it until it grows into a success is almost certainly encoded into the DNA of business owners, and that’s a great precursor to a growth mindset.
But when it comes to actually expanding the business – employing new members of the team, offering new services, even just switching up the work environment – owners need more than just their ambition to grow successfully. Indeed, they need the right people, the right plans, and the right tools (and often, a lot of patience while things come to fruition).
August 2018 Read more...
Offering Your Employees Remote Working? Here’s What You Need to Consider First
Remote working is becoming hugely popular, with technology and a new model of living encouraging employees to work from coffee shops, home and even abroad for more freedom and a fulfilling career.
For employers, remote working has its own rewards – as we’ve outlined before on our blog – including a leaner operation, greater scope for attracting talent and lower costs. But before businesses can cash in on these benefits, they need to make sure that they’re totally prepared to introduce remote working, which means being aware of challenges and asking difficult questions.
August 2018 Read more...
Everything You Need: 4 Features We Built to Support the Success of Our Financial Sector Clients
One of the questions our team encounters most often is “how can a bespoke CRM help somebody in my industry?” As we’ve mentioned in a previous blog, we use a special recipe to ensure our bespoke CRM solutions cater to everybody – and every industry.
For businesses in the financial sector, this is especially pertinent. When handling money, investments and assets totalling a staggering amount, they can be concerned that the solutions on offer can’t adequately cope with the pressures of their sector.
August 2018 Read more...
Special Connections: How Businesses Can Benefit from the Government’s Connectivity Promises
Ever since the advent of email, the internet has grown to be a hugely in-demand resource for businesses. Now, it’s incredibly rare to come across a business that doesn’t utilise the internet in some way, whether it’s to manage their marketing, communicating with customers, or just sending messages between the team.
With such importance placed on the internet, it’s surprising to find out that we’re seriously lagging behind other countries. Previous research published in 2017 had us at 31st in the global ranking of internet speeds, trailing countries like Spain, France, New Zealand and the US. Updated figures have seen us slip to 35th – so what are we going to do about it?
July 2018 Read more...
Building Blocks: The Important Roles Data Plays in Your Business
Some things never change, like the importance of cash flow in a business, for example. Money will always be the blood pumping life into an organisation – it’s the very foundation of what we know about business, after all.
But some things do change, among them our reliance on data. That’s not to say that data hasn’t always played an important role in business. After all, even Victorian market traders needed to know which of their products was the most popular, and whether or not they were getting the best deal from their supplier.
July 2018 Read more...
Recipe for Brilliance: What Goes into a Bespoke CRM?
Question: what does a brilliant bespoke CRM have in common with the tastiest of cakes? Answer: a heady blend of the perfect recipe and a whole lot of devotion from the people in the kitchen.
Whilst our hardworking Lunar Development Team put a lot into making a bespoke CRM solution to rival even Mary Berry’s cakes, they’re one part of a two-part mix, with our recipe providing the foundations to a successful bespoke CRM.
July 2018 Read more...
Happy Payday: The Joy of Getting Paid on Time with a Bespoke CRM
In business, there are few things more annoying that when an invoice becomes due and the payment is late – and continues to go unpaid for several more days, weeks or months.
When cash is the lifeblood of your business, such an inconvenience can quickly grow into a major challenge, as your suppliers go unpaid and you struggle to pay your staff. But what can be done about it?
July 2018 Read more...
Office Improvements: 4 Workplace Woes Technology Can Overcome
If you’ve ever heard the words (or uttered them yourself) “there’s an app for that”, then you’re already halfway towards figuring out how influential technology has become in modern day problem-solving.
Throughout human history, we’ve applied innovative thinking to our problems, overcoming shortcomings and limitations in the process – and in the 21st century that process has been expedited by how far technology has leapt in recent years.
June 2018 Read more...
Good Together: The Importance of Trusting Your Team
Trust plays a huge role in business: it’s the cornerstone upon which you build your services, and in return, you must trust that clients will pay their invoices. But trust and its universal importance extends way beyond customers and suppliers, with employees needing your trust in order to do the best possible job, move your business forward, and to be happy.
In the 21st century, that trust has never been more crucial, thanks to the arrival of many workplace distractions and wearable gadgets. It is possible, however, to make it work.
June 2018 Read more...
Green Alert: How Remote Working Can Make for a Planet-Friendly Office
Remote working and living green: two very popular topics in our modern era. We’ve realised that we only have one planet and we should look after it, whilst also embracing the idea of knocking down boundaries and working from anywhere on Earth. Neat!
But how do these two movements work together? Is there an untold relationship which might benefit businesses and the planet? The answer is a resounding yes.
June 2018 Read more...
Jumping the Hurdles: 4 Challenges Facing Insurance Brokers in 2018
We’re fast approaching the second half of 2018, and what a year it’s been already! From political upheaval and preparing for Brexit, to a royal wedding and a BitCoin learning curve, it’s been an exciting six months.
For insurance brokers, however, the first half of the year has also seen industry-specific challenges coming to the fore. With six more months to go, these could very well be the hurdles brokers find themselves working to overcome before 2019:
June 2018 Read more...
One Week Later: 5 Things We Learnt from the First Few Days of GDPR
After all the hype (and a lot of anxiety for small businesses) GDPR finally came into effect on Friday 25th May – and what a few days it’s been!
The new data guidelines provide members of the public the greatest amount of privacy protection they’ve experienced in the 21st century so far, and replaces an outdated and rigid data protection law. In short, it’s a great thing for everybody even remotely concerned about who knows what about them.
May 2018 Read more...
CRM Shopping List: 6 Things to Demand from Your New Bespoke Solution
So, you’ve decided to embrace the bespoke CRM – great! But as with many purchases in your everyday life – a house, a car, a new phone – choosing the right bespoke CRM solution for your business requires some thought. After all, you wouldn’t buy a car without checking it suited your needs, would you?
May 2018 Read more...
Big Smiles: 5 Ways Bespoke CRMs Can Make Employees Happier
CRMs have come a long way in recent years, and their popularity has a lot to do with how they can help businesses to streamline their operations and help them to succeed. But despite their growing reputation as the go-to tool for 21st century businesses, many are still hesitant to embrace what’s on offer.
May 2018 Read more...
Systems Gone Wrong: What Can Businesses Learn from the Recent TSB Crisis?
In recent weeks, the front pages have been splashed with yet another high-profile IT disaster, taking the spotlight away from the embattled Facebook to focus on TSB’s own crisis instead. The bank’s attempted database migration saw customers reportedly unable to access online banking, whilst those who could saw other customers’ data and even had mortgages and savings wiped out.
May 2018 Read more...
Fly or Fall: The Importance of Cementing Operations Before Leaping into Growth
A key part of the small business experience is undoubtedly the moment when you realise that it’s time to grow: and you stand on the edge of change wondering if you’ll fly or fall. What can make or break that journey, however, is the strength of your operational foundation – how steady is yours?
May 2018 Read more...
The Final Countdown: Are You Prepared for Incoming GDPR Guidelines?
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that we’re supposedly in the midst of Spring, thanks to the recent weather. But despite what the grey skies outside might suggest, we’re rapidly approaching the Summer, and with it the introduction of the EU’s new GDPR guidelines. Are you ready for the changes that are coming?
April 2018 Read more...
Worth Every Penny: How to Get Your Money’s Worth with a Bespoke CRM
It’s an unavoidable fact of business: money is the lifeblood which keeps your organisation alive. From paying hardworking employees to dealing with the direct costs associated with servicing clients, money ensures everything keeps ticking along.
April 2018 Read more...
And Relax…: 5 Ways to Promote a Stress-Free Office
In case you missed the memo, April has played host to Stress Awareness Month since 1992, and after the Winter we’ve had, it’s come not a moment too soon! But forget limiting an anxiety-free existence to just one month – why not bring stress awareness into your office all year round?
April 2018 Read more...
Safe and Sound: 3 Ways We Provide Peace of Mind Around Your Data
First Facebook, and now MyFitnessPal – it’s not going well for the tech giants of the world when it comes to recent data breaches! That’s why there’s never been a better time for businesses to consider how they’re keeping their customers’ data safe and sound.
April 2018 Read more...
In the Hot Seat: What Can We Learn from Facebook's Recent Data Scandal?
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock recently, you’ll have noticed Facebook taking up a lot of headline space once again. As with so many scandals in the 21st century, the latest controversy all about how much data Facebook is collecting on users, how it’s using it, and the unscrupulous activities of their partners (particularly, Cambridge Analytica).
March 2018 Read more...
Update & Innovate: How Technology Could Solve the UK's Productivity Problem
It’s no secret that the UK is in a little bit of a bind when it comes to productivity. Although we’ve seen a positive start to 2018 with the greatest increase in productivity since the recession, we’re still trailing behind other countries. Thanks to snow days and technical difficulties, the recent visit from the ‘Beast from the East’ is likely to have put its own dent in that progress as well.
March 2018 Read more...
Playing Favourites: 5 Lunar CRM Features Our Clients Love (and Why)
Valentine’s Day may now be a distant dream (or nightmare, depending on how many cards you got), but that doesn’t mean the love has to stop!
That’s why this week, we thought we’d turn the lens on ourselves and share just a few of the features our clients love about Lunar CRM’s bespoke solution. You never know – there might be something in there for you to love too!
March 2018 Read more...
Time for a Sprucing: 5 Questions to Help Spring Clean Your CRM
The snow has finally melted and the temperature is on the rise - which means spring is just around the corner! Of course, the changing season isn’t just about sunshine and fresh daffodils: there’s also the traditional spring clean to consider.
March 2018 Read more...
On the Rise: Exploring the Growing Popularity of Insurtech
Insurers currently find themselves standing at an exciting crossroads: the old ways of working are falling out of favour, and insurtech innovations are sweeping the board in terms of practicality, efficiency, and competitive advantage.
February 2018 Read more...
A Sky-High Love Story: 5 Ways the Cloud Has Improved Customer-Brand Relationships
Here at Lunar HQ, the love for the cloud is very real. Not only has it changed how businesses run and improved their offering, but it’s also helped us and our clients to grow closer to customers.
February 2018 Read more...
Don’t Wait Around: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Provide Instant ROI
When it comes to introducing a new solution to the workplace, there are so many details to consider that it can often cause a headache. Will the team react well to the change? Can it really do what it says on the tin? And perhaps the most often asked question, will this new solution provide a solid ROI?
February 2018 Read more...
Home & Away: Why Do We Love Remote Working So Much?
Over the last few years, remote working has transformed from a ‘special exception’ for the privileged few employees, to an expected aspect of most roles. Its rise in popularity has brought with it the chance for businesses to thrive, tapping into new skills and revolutionising the fundamental way we get work done.
February 2018 Read more...
Know Yourself: How to Use Data and Trends in Your Business to Succeed
Aristotle once said, “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. Many, many years later, and the Lunar Team find ourselves imploring every business leader to take his words to heart - for knowing your business inside out is the key to gaining a competitive advantage which even your closest rivals could never dream of.
January 2018 Read more...
Sign of the Times: How Technology & Social Media Have Changed Customer Service
Customer service has always been a fickle beast. From the unenviable task of firefighting, to keeping in mind that the customer is always right, maintaining customer relationships can be a complex and challenging task.
January 2018 Read more...
Update Failed: Should Brands Really Woo Millennials with Gimmicks to Stave off Remote Working?
It’s no secret that many professionals – especially millennials and those with young families – are attracted to the tempting idea of working from home, a café or even abroad. In fact, whole schemes have been set up offering young people the opportunity to travel the world in a large group whilst working remotely. They can tick off a few places from their bucket list and build their skills simultaneously.
January 2018 Read more...
New Year, New Start: 5 2018 Resolutions for Your Business and the Key to Making Them Happen
Chances are, come January 1st you already had your 2018 New Year’s resolution in mind, be it to lose weight, learn a new skill or simply to look after yourself better. But have you considered giving your business its own set of resolutions to see it through the next twelve months, and ensure that it grows to new heights by the end of the year?
January 2018 Read more...
Prepare the Champagne: Why 2018 Could Be the Year of the Bespoke CRM
Since their debut many moons ago, CRMs have come a long way. No longer are organisations and their people restricted to homemade spreadsheets or software that requires physical installation, nor are they cornered into using a particular brand name out of a lack of diversity within the market.
December 2017 Read more...
In Pursuit of the Best: 5 Features to Look Out for in the Ideal CRM
With the new year right around the corner, you may be thinking about investing in a CRM solution to take your business further in 2018. The search for a new CRM, however, is one that is often fraught with stress, with some options having too few features but at the right price, and others being overwhelming in their complexity but capable of delivering on business goals; then there are some that simply aren’t worth the code they’re made up of.
December 2017 Read more...
5 Ways to Give Your Customers What They Really Want This Christmas: Great Service
With the holidays looming ever closer, keeping customers happy becomes paramount, as the new and the loyal flock to your brand. And what they really want this Christmas is a smooth customer service experience from someone who will make things that little bit less stressful in the lead up to the big day.
December 2017 Read more...
The Cloud’s Calling: 5 Benefits of Cloud Dialling for Your Business
Social media may be the cool new kid on the customer service block, but telephones have been servicing businesses since the days of the switchboard – and they remain crucial even in the face of the digital revolution.
November 2017 Read more...
Best of the Bunch: How a Bespoke CRM Can Attract Great Millennial Talent
Millennials are now officially the largest generation within the workforce today – and that means that employers need to take notice of the talent available. Attracting that talent can seem like an uphill struggle at times, especially as some employers have turned to flashy office spaces and lucrative remuneration packages in a bid to court the younger generation.
November 2017 Read more...
Admire the View: Why it Pays to Look at the Bigger Picture in Your Business
With the day-to-day running of a business raising all sorts of small challenges and hurdles, it’s easy to become distracted from long-term goals and organisation-wide sentiment. But no matter how difficult it may become, it’s always essential to keep an eye on the bigger picture – where does your business want to go, and how is it faring on that journey?
November 2017 Read more...
Preparing for Tomorrow: Insurers Urge Government to Clarify Blame in Self-Driving Accidents
Like it or not, we’ll be seeing autonomous vehicles ruling UK roads by 2021 – an exciting prospect for anybody who spent their childhood dreaming of the futuristic highways of tomorrow.
November 2017 Read more...
Getting More from Work: 4 Reasons Why Your Employees Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Automation
We’ve all been there as small business owners: faced with invoices, ledgers and payments galore, it can get a little overwhelming keeping on top of accounting. You can at least rest assured that you’re not alone. Many small businesses find themselves struggling to juggle paying bills, chasing debtors and keeping a close eye on cash flow, all whilst trying to manage and grow a small business..
November 2017 Read more...
Don’t Scream: 5 Business Horrors a Bespoke CRM Can Overcome This Halloween
Whenever late October comes around, the Lunar team can’t resist getting into the spirit of Halloween. But rather than trading ghost stories by torchlight, we decided to do something even scarier this year: taking a look at the truly frightening horrors which have plagued our clients, only to be resolved by a bespoke CRM tool. At least there’s a happy ending to these tales!
October 2017 Read more...
Not Out for the Count: How a Bespoke CRM Can Ease Your Small Business’ Accounting Woes
We’ve all been there as small business owners: faced with invoices, ledgers and payments galore, it can get a little overwhelming keeping on top of accounting. You can at least rest assured that you’re not alone. Many small businesses find themselves struggling to juggle paying bills, chasing debtors and keeping a close eye on cash flow, all whilst trying to manage and grow a small business..
October 2017 Read more...
Keep Reaching Higher: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Help Your Small Business to Grow
Despite what you might have heard on the grapevine, a bespoke CRM isn’t just for larger, more established businesses. Yes, it has its place amongst the biggest and the best, but the bespoke CRM is more than suitable for small businesses too. What’s more, smaller businesses have an additional benefit in adopting a bespoke CRM: the tool encourages growth from an early stage.
October 2017 Read more...
The Answer is Time: How Can Your Team’s Improved Workflow Benefit Customers?
The efficacy of your team’s workflow has an effect on every area of the business: it dictates the workload they can take on, drives results, and provides insights into which areas of your business could do with some tweaking. In short, workflow is important, and how it functions can have a profound impact on your employees.
October 2017 Read more...
Try Before You Buy: Why it Pays to Request a Free Demo from Lunar CRM
Selecting and implementing a new bespoke CRM can be a daunting experience; there are so many features available, huge changes in functionality from your off-the-shelf solution, and – of course – you’ve got to make sure your team actually enjoy using it. But when the shopping list is a mile long and you’re in desperate need of a bespoke solution, making the right choice can seem like a daunting affair.
September 2017 Read more...
Didn’t Think of That: 5 Unexpected Ways Remote Working Can Benefit Your Business
We’ve all heard about how remote working can keep your team happy – hey, we even wrote about it ourselves. But remote working brings more benefits than just those that come off the top of your head: there are some unexpected positives to letting your team work remotely, which often make for a nice surprise for employers.
September 2017 Read more...
Reach for More: 4 Ways Innovative CRM Reporting Can Help Your Business to Fly
Every owner wants their business to be successful, but to do that, they need to be able to oversee everything, whilst also focusing on smaller elements crucial to strategies. As such, reporting tools have become increasingly popular amongst small business owners looking to smarten up and take their businesses further.
September 2017 Read more...
Protect the Net: Is Cyber-Insurance the Future of the Industry?
With cyber-attacks on the rise and ransomware proving to be a persistent threat, there’s more pressure than ever before on companies to prevent the worst from happening. Of course, that’s not always possible when going up against sophisticated viruses and highly-skilled hackers - and that’s where preparation for the worst is playing a huge role in businesses’ approach to cyber-security.
August 2017 Read more...
3 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Keep Generation Z Happy in the Workplace
Move over Millennials: Generation Z have started to enter the workforce, and employers are preparing themselves to meet the expectations and demands of a generation that grew up surrounded by instant updates and technology.
August 2017 Read more...
GDPR: Are You Ready for the Changes?
The General Data Protection Regulation – or GDPR, as it’s more commonly known – is set to come into effect from May 25th 2018. With less than a year to go until the new sheriff of data protection arrives in town, it’s more essential than ever for businesses to get ready for the change it’ll bring.
August 2017 Read more...
All Smiles: 7 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Make Your Team Happier
When it comes to introducing a new resource into the business, results can sometimes be a bit mixed – even more so when those results are whether or not your team are happy with the change. Unfortunately, this is a challenge that comes part and parcel with running a business. That’s why we always recommend talking to your team before introducing a new process or solution, in order to get them on side and make sure the entire venture is an unmitigated success.
August 2017 Read more...
A United Front: 4 Ways to Help Your Team to Embrace Process Automation
Despite the rising popularity around process automation – not least because it saves businesses money and time – there’s often a strained relationship between frontline staff and the innovative solutions which make automating small tasks possible.
August 2017 Read more...
Doctor in the House: The Importance of Keeping Your Email List Healthy
Data has become the undisputed lifeblood of many a business in our modern world: it powers CRMs, informs strategic decisions, and helps organisations to better know their clients. In order to make that data valuable and work properly, however, businesses need to keep it healthy.
July 2017 Read more...
Weathering the Storm: How to Make Sure Your Business Thrives in Uncertainty
With the likes of Brexit dominating the headlines, there’s been a lot of arguing around whether leaving the EU will be a disaster for businesses across the country or not. Whilst we aren’t here to dictate politics – and we definitely don’t keep a crystal ball to see the future in our stationery cupboard – we can impart a little wisdom on surviving a period of uncertainty as a business.
July 2017 Read more...
All for One: How a Bespoke CRM Can Help Align Your Team with Your Goals
As with any success in life, to win at business, you need to have goals to work towards. But once you’ve conceived of your business’ goals, what’s to keep your team from heading off-track, or putting different priorities ahead of the business’?
July 2017 Read more...
One Click to Success: How Dialler Integration Can Keep the Telephone Relevant
Despite the takeover of email and social media, when it comes to communicating with customers, the telephone remains an important aspect of any business. That’s not to say, however, that it doesn’t need a little boost to stay ahead of other forms of communication. That’s why so many businesses are turning to dialler integration with their bespoke CRM – and enjoying all the benefits it comes with.
July 2017 Read more...
On the Same Team: Why Automation Isn’t the Bad Guy
Automation is nothing new – we’ve seen machines replicate and replace human roles on a large scale since the Industrial Revolution. It’s also an aspect of business which is certainly gaining a lot of attention at the moment, finding its way into businesses of all shapes and sizes, as well as financial institutions and governmental services.
July 2017 Read more...
Around the Clock: Making Your Business Work in Real Time
In business, there never seems to be enough time – it’s the one commodity we sadly can’t make more of. Even with a powerful bespoke CRM solution at the heart of their business, some owners still struggle to find time for everything, including measuring the organisation’s current position within the strategy.
June 2017 Read more...
Is RegTech About to Take FinTech’s Spotlight?
Regulation Technology – or RegTech as it’s come to be known among its proponents – is quickly gaining in popularity among start-ups and financial institutions alike. Now, with its cousin, FinTech, earning a place in the mainstream, is RegTech preparing to claim the spotlight?
June 2017 Read more...
Going Hands Free: How Insurers Will Adapt to the Reality of Driverless Cars
After a startling revelation from Amanda Blanc, Axa’s chief executive, the insurance industry is waking up to the reality that the driverless revolution is just around the corner – and the industry must keep up.
June 2017 Read more...
A Timely Upgrade: 3 Ways Technology is Revolutionising the Mortgage Industry
Technology: it’s a marvellous thing that we’ve all come to embrace on a day-to-day basis. Some industries, however, have been slower to adopt new technologies, leaving it to disruptors to shake things up.
June 2017 Read more...
Savings, Savings, Savings: How Can a Bespoke CRM Lower IT Costs?
With IT playing such a fundamental role in the 21st Century workplace, it’s no surprise that budgets for equipment, software and hosting are starting to mount up. For small businesses, however, that’s a cost which could be better invested in growth, resources or just maintaining a health cash flow.
May 2017 Read more...
Changing the Game: How AI Could Revolutionise Insurance Technology
Last year, we blogged about the technology causing disruptions in insurance, such as self-driving cars and app-based policies. A year on, and the chatter around InsurTech disruption has reached new levels as Artificial Intelligence comes into play in the industry. But how could AI revolutionise how insurance works?
May 2017 Read more...
Blue Sky Thinking: How the Cloud is Helping Businesses to Thrive
With news that HSBC is finally looking to implement a Cloud-first strategy across its entire organisation, it looks like even the great bastion of tradition which is banking will soon be adopting Cloud technology.
May 2017 Read more...
Service with a Smile: Has Your Team Mastered These 4 Aspects of Great Customer Service?
In a world where a single tweet can see a brand fall overnight and companies must ensure a clean record on every review site, customer service has become more important than ever. It’s not just that consumers can demand more from businesses either: the level of competition, driven by innovation and changing technology, means that consumers deserve better now.
May 2017 Read more...
A Perfect Partnership: The Six Essential Elements of a Bespoke CRM
When it comes to creating CRMs for our clients, the Lunar team are well-versed in what makes for a perfect pairing. Much more than simply flashy designs and exciting plug-ins, a bespoke CRM should incorporate a number of essential elements in order to bring the most benefit to a business. During our time working with clients from a range of industries and sizes, we’ve come to understand what those essential elements are (and we’re not keeping it a secret):
April 2017 Read more...
Chill Out: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Cut Your Team’s Stress Levels
We’re not sure about you, but long weekends seem to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, there are only four days until the weekend - but on the other side of the weekend, when the festivities are over, there are only four days in which to cram five days’ worth of work. Cue the inevitable panic from your team, come Tuesday morning.
April 2017 Read more...
Stay on the Line: What Makes Call Centres So Essential to Your Business?
Don’t believe the critics: call centres are far from going out of fashion among UK businesses. In fact, businesses such as BT and various mobile phone providers continue to invest in new call centres across the country, all in an effort to improve relations with customers. But what has brought about this renewed interest, and why are call centres still essential to businesses?
March 2017 Read more...
A Steady Aim: The Importance of Goal Setting for Your Team
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business that’s starting to grow, or a well-established household name: goal setting is an important ingredient in your business’ future success. Although there may be some misgivings that there’s no time to set goals for your employees and their teams, you’ll soon begin to reap the rewards – making it an activity worth your time.
April 2017 Read more...
Beating the Fear: 3 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Help You to Navigate Business Growth
There’s an exciting point in every business’ life where everything goes up a gear, and the owner can clearly see that growth is taking place. But as with many other exciting things – bungie jumps, swimming with sharks, rollercoasters – there’s an element of fear, which is natural when risks are being taken and there’s more to lose.
March 2017 Read more...
Smiles All Round: How to Keep Your Team Happy Without Breaking the Bank
Perhaps it’s because everybody knows that a happy team is a productive team that we now live in a world where offices have ball pits, and organisations strive to have the most impressive benefits package possible. Unfortunately, not all businesses have the spare cash to essentially ‘buy’ their employees’ happiness. So how do you reap the benefits of a happy team without breaking the bank?
March 2017 Read more...
5 Ways to Refresh Your Customer Relationships This Spring
Rejoice! Winter has finally started to loosen its icy grip on us, meaning spring is officially just around the corner. And with the country diving into spring cleaning mode, what better time is there to refresh your customer relationships than now? We’ve put together some useful advice to help you to prepare for a relationship refresh – give it a go and let us know the results!
March 2017 Read more...
GDPR: How it’ll Affect Your Marketing Efforts
Last April, a new regulation was announced across the European Union: the GDPR (or General Data Protection Regulation. It’s a nifty – and much welcomed – idea which will see the protection of individuals’ personal data increased, as well as introducing more up-to-date definitions for what constitutes ‘personal data’ in our increasingly online world.
March 2017 Read more...
Operator, Please: 6 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Can Improve Your Customer Calls
Despite the advent of social media and email, the telephone remains the most popular method for getting in touch with your customers. As your business grows and your customer numbers swell, it can become challenging for your team to juggle telephone duties with records of previous calls, misdialled numbers and clunky dialling platforms. The results are unhappy customers and a lot of wasted time.
February 2017 Read more...
Part of the Team: How a Bespoke CRM Can Become Central to Your Company’s Culture
Although it’s been around for as long as businesses have, the idea of ‘company culture’ has become a much more prominent talking point in the twenty first century. This is partly due to the public success stories of tech startups like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as a response to a gradually shifting power dynamic between employees and employers.
February 2017 Read more...
Be Our Valentine: 4 Reasons It’s So Easy to Fall in Love with a CRM Made Just for You
This year, you’d be forgiven for thinking Valentine’s Day began the day after Boxing Day, what with the sudden and unrelenting influx of heart-shaped goods in the shops! But whereas this day is traditionally reserved for lovers, Team Lunar has decided to play Cupid between businesses and the perfect bespoke CRM solution for them. After all, there are so many reasons to feel love struck when it comes to a system built to address your needs. So without further ado, let’s make some magic happen!
February 2017 Read more...
Great Results, Anywhere: How to Make Working from Home a Success for Your Team
In our modern day work culture, embracing remote working for whatever reason – be it to take into account family commitments, to work with freelancers around the world, or simply to allow for some occasional relief from commuting – has become an essential trend among employers.
February 2017 Read more...
Planning Ahead: How to Use CRM Data to Boost Your Business Strategy
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: your bespoke CRM is a fantastic tool when it comes to supporting your business decisions. With well-maintained CRM data, you have in your hands the tool to guide your business’ strategy for the next 12 months and beyond, taking into consideration customer feedback, sales and a whole slew of other pieces of information.
January 2017 Read more...
Quit the Chase: How to Use a Bespoke CRM for More Efficient Invoicing
Getting clients to pay on time can quite easily be one of the most frustrating and resource-heavy experiences for a business owner. On one hand, there are the great clients who pay on the due date (sometimes even a few days earlier) whilst others seem to drag their heels, slowing down your cash flow and making it more difficult to run your business – leaving your team to chase them up.
January 2017 Read more...
Back to School: How to Use Lessons from Last Year to Achieve Success in 2017
Ask anyone to describe 2016 and you’re sure to be met with a groan, a sigh or a slew of negativity. Unsurprising, really, as globally it was a year of many ups and many, many more downs. That’s not to say, however, that we can’t apply what we learned in 2016 to how we navigate the next twelve months in order to achieve great business success – and there are three lessons in particular we can draw on this year.
January 2017 Read more...
New Year, New Outlook: 5 Tips for Beating the Back to Work Blues
It’s that time of year again: January. Back to work season has begun once more, and it feels like your team are forcing themselves out of bed every morning just to drag themselves into the office. For a business owner, this can be a disheartening scene – one which hopefully clears up as everyone gets back into their routine.
January 2017 Read more...
Don’t Stop Now: 5 Ways to Ensure Employee Productivity This Close to Christmas
It doesn’t matter if you’re a big fan of the festive period or a complete Scrooge: it’s important to keep your team’s morale and productivity up as we draw closer to the end of the year.
December 2016 Read more...
Call Us Santa Claus: How a Bespoke CRM Could be the Best Gift You Give Your Team This Christmas
The city centre is decked out in extensive decorative lights, wooden market stalls have popped up across Europe, and advent calendars everywhere are being scoffed: yes, the festive season is well and truly upon us!
December 2016 Read more...
Not Just a Pretty Face: 5 Essential Qualities You Need in a Great CRM Developer
When building a bespoke CRM around your business and its needs, you’ll often find that the relationship between you and your developer is an important and potentially fruitful connection. Making this relationship work will ensure that your organisation benefits from the best bespoke CRM solution available, saving you the hassle and expense of an off-the-shelf system.
December 2016 Read more...
Making the Minutes Count: How to Make Better Use of Your Team’s Time
As your biggest outgoing expense, every minute of your team’s time is extremely valuable – which is why it pays to regularly re-evaluate how to best make use of their time in the workplace! For some businesses, this can seem like an uphill struggle, but it doesn’t have to be. With our range of bespoke CRM solutions, we’ve helped our clients’ teams to save hundreds of hours – making huge cost savings in the process. Follow the advice below, taken from our work with clients, and you’ll find your team making the most of every second in no time at all!
November 2016 Read more...
That’s Your Cue: How Automation Can Revolutionise Customer Relationship Management
As 2016 has progressed, and our obsession with AI continues, it’s become harder and harder to ignore the tidal wave of interest which automation has enjoyed across every industry. No longer is automation exclusive to areas such as manufacturing or simple data entry tasks either: businesses are harnessing the power of automation to clean up processes, increase productivity, and – perhaps most interestingly of all – to improve relationships with customers.
November 2016 Read more...
People Problems: Tackling Human Error to Protect Client Data
Although technology continues to make leaps and bounds – especially in areas such as automation and security – we still, unfortunately, don’t live in a world where client data is always safe. But rather than focusing solely on the software you’re employing and the technology at your fingertips, it also pays to consider that a bigger threat to the safety of client data are people themselves.
November 2016 Read more...
Never Too Late for a Spring Clean: Why It’s Important to Keep up with Your Data Housekeeping
Yes, we’re well aware it’s now November – we can tell by the dropping temperature, the huge Halloween decoration discounts, and the amount of leftover pumpkin we’re still cooking up in the kitchen. But just because Autumn is well and truly here, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a spring clean of your data to keep your CRM in tip-top condition!
November 2016 Read more...
Stand by Me: How to Use Your CRM to Encourage Customer Loyalty
Over the years, CRMs have come to mean so much more than simply customer service tools, now serving as marketing systems, databases and workflow management tools as well. Although they now have more capabilities than ever, CRMs still remain a key tool in encouraging customer loyalty – but how? And why is loyalty so essential?
October 2016 Read more...
Still Out of Office: 3 More Ways Remote Working Can Benefit Your Business (and Your Team)
If you’re an avid reader of our blog, you’ll remember that a few weeks ago, we were talking about the joys of remote working for your business. For business owners, allowing their teams the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world (including on sandy beaches and in cosy coffee shops) offers up benefits such as being able to hire more widely, and saving money on office space.
October 2016 Read more...
Smooth Introductions: 7 Golden Tips to Get Your Team Rallying Behind a New CRM
In running a business, you’ll often find that carrying out decisions and implementing new initiatives is nigh on impossible without the support of your team – which is exactly how it should be!
October 2016 Read more...
Safety in (Binary) Numbers: Is the Cloud Really All That Secure?
Cloud computing: it’s difficult not to have heard about it at this point. A substantial number of businesses have moved their systems and documents onto the Cloud, whilst teenagers look to the sky when storing photos and music.
October 2016 Read more...
Out of Office: How Remote Working Can Benefit Your Business
Remote working has become a point of contention in recent years, with many businesses embracing the idea, whilst others actively distance themselves from the suggestion of allowing their team to work from anywhere but their offices.
September 2016 Read more...
More Money in the Bank: The Top 4 Savings Your Business Can Make with a Bespoke CRM
When it comes to running a successful business, having control of the finances is essential – and often times the only way to grow the organisation is to cut back on some areas to free up the capital for investment in other areas. But before you start cancelling subscriptions, downsizing the office and laying off the workforce, consider a much easier money-saving exercise: convert to a bespoke CRM solution. Here are four ways that one decision could potentially save you thousands:
September 2016 Read more...
Keeping People Happy: 4 Key Aspects of Great Customer Service
No matter your company’s industry or size, it’s important to remember that the customer sits at the heart of your organisation’s operations. As we’ve seen in recent months and years, keeping customers happy has become all the more challenging with the event of social media – a platform where the critics can out-shout the fans, and some brands mistakenly find themselves shouting back. Of course that means ensuring your customer service is top-notch has never been more valuable in the race to the top – and taking these four key aspects on board can help you get there in no time.
September 2016 Read more...
Making a Swift Brexit: How Are Insurance Firms Coping Post-Referendum?
If you had asked at the beginning of the year what impact a ‘Brexit’ vote would have on insurance firms, you would be greeted with horror stories of rising costs, greater EU competition, and sanctions galore. Now that we live in a post-referendum world, we can see that the reality isn’t too varied from the pessimistic vision of the future people had at the beginning of the year – but with a few key differences.
September 2016 Read more...
Back to School: 3 Lessons to Learn from Your Bespoke CRM
September has managed to creep up on us quickly this year, bringing an end to the summer holidays for children up and down the country. This year, however, Team Lunar decided that maybe parents should be heading back to the classroom as well – we can tell how excited you are about that prospect! So without further ado, class is in session. Today’s topic? Bespoke CRMs, of course!
August 2016 Read more...
3 Safety Measures to Keep Your CRM Data in Tip Top Condition
Having access to customers’ confidential information – including addresses and credit card details – brings a certain level of responsibility into the lives of a business and its owner. It’s up to you and your team to keep that data secure and out of reach of harm. Make sure you’re doing exactly that with these three useful tips and show your customers that their confidence in you is well placed!
August 2016 Read more...
Money Talks: 5 Ways Your Bespoke CRM Keeps You in Touch with Accounting
A robust bespoke CRM solution can make a difference in so many areas of your business - including marketing and operations – but what about keeping your financial team happy? In this week’s blog, we’re turning the focus towards money, the lifeblood of any business, and what a bespoke CRM can do to keep the cash flowing and the debtors paying. We can already hear your Finance Director sighing with relief!
August 2016 Read more...
Show Me the ROI: How a Bespoke CRM Can Instantly Earn its Keep
Regardless of the industry or size of your business, one of your primary goals when taking on a new system or process will always be getting the best return on investment possible. Why? Because everything that comes into your business needs to ‘earn its keep’ to prevent funds from simply being wasted.
August 2016 Read more...
The Millennials Are Here: How Can Insurance Firms Use Technology to Keep Up?
The rise of the millennials is complete: they’re driving, they’re settling into the working world, and they’re now a huge demographic begging to be tapped into by insurance firms. But as news breaks of a mobile app set to change how the younger generation approaches insurance, it’s never been more important to embrace new ideas and technologies to keep up with the competition.
August 2016 Read more...
Looking After the People Who Count: How Customers Benefit from Your Choice of CRM
As you can probably tell from our other blogs, we’re big fans of choosing a bespoke solution for your business – and we often highlight the benefits to your team, your bottom line and your company’s overall growth. But in business, the most important individuals are arguably customers – so what advantage does your choice of CRM have for them? Well, we’ll tell you!
July 2016 Read more...
Every Penny Counts: How a Bespoke CRM Can Save Your Business Money
When it comes to running a business, keeping an eye on the company’s outgoings is essential to success. That’s why owners need to make smart, financially sound decisions which will serve the business both in the long and short-term.
July 2016 Read more...
Back on Your Feet: Why it’s Important to Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place
At a time when businesses find their IT under threat from the twin demons of hackers and malfunction, it’s important to be ready when a crisis strikes. That’s where your disaster recovery plan comes into play; and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve only got one laptop and a bespoke CRM or an entire office full of Macbooks – you’ll definitely benefit from being ready!
July 2016 Read more...
Tell Us How You Feel: 5 Reasons Why Customer Feedback is Vital to Your Business
Customers: sometimes you love them and sometimes you hate them – but we can all agree that they’re essential for your business to run. Without customers, you have no revenue, and without revenue you can’t pay yourself, your landlord, or your staff. But it’s not just their capital which makes customers an invaluable asset to your business – they’re also a great source of information, ready to be tapped into.
July 2016 Read more...
Keep Moving Forward: 4 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Help You to Take Control of Your Workflow
A tight, effective workflow strategy underpins more aspects of your business than you might first realise – from saving on wasted resources and steering your teams in the right direction, to ensuring progressive and steady growth. Despite the evident importance, workflow management can often be overlooked in favour of more immediate matters. As a result, issues with staff productivity and complex processes tend to worsen, affecting the business’ overall performance and success.
July 2016 Read more...
Breaking the Mould: How Lunar Helped a Life Insurance Firm to Craft Their Ideal Solution
In a market as competitive and long-lasting as life insurance, it pays to be ahead of the competition and on top of your operational efforts. Some firms approach this strategy with an off-the-shelf solution, however they soon find that they’re restricted by a lack of features or technical limitations. Previously, Team Lunar had the pleasure of working with a life insurance firm who simply couldn’t find the singular solution they needed to boost their operational efforts - here’s how we helped…
June 2016 Read more...
Sizing Up: Can Smaller Businesses Benefit from a Bespoke CRM?
In this week’s blog, we thought we’d touch upon one of the more common questions the Lunar Team hears from business owners: ‘can my small business really benefit from a bespoke CRM?’. The obvious answer would be to shout a resounding ‘yes!’, but in reality it depends on one of two things: are you happy how you are, and do you wish to grow your business?
June 2016 Read more...
Tick Tock: 6 Signs it’s Time to Invest in a Bespoke CRM
Bringing any new software into the business can be a daunting prospect – and when you’ve considered the cost, time and effort involved, it becomes an even trickier decision. That’s why getting your timing absolutely spot on is the best thing you can do. If any (or all) of the following signs sound familiar to you, then it’s more than likely you’re in need of a bespoke CRM to pick up the slack – read on and judge for yourself!
May 2016 Read more...
Take the Lead: The Why & How of Generating New Business with Your Bespoke CRM
Although initial assumptions of what a CRM is capable of tend to stop at idea of managing current customers and facilitating phone calls, in reality a bespoke CRM is able to achieve much, much more - not least the ability to generate new business on your behalf. Making the most of such tool can guarantee your organisation some healthy sales figures – and you’ll be glad to hear that, with a little nifty thinking, it’s a pretty straightforward process!
June 2016 Read more...
Unlikely Friends: How to Partner Your CRM with Social Media for Great Results
As unlikely partnerships go, social media and a bespoke CRM are probably not a pairing you’d expect to work – they don’t immediately jump out as an obvious choice, right? In actuality, by bringing the two together, you can enhance both your business’ digital marketing efforts, and its customer service and sales offerings. Read on to find out how this pairing can really benefit your business, and then see for yourself!
May 2016 Read more...
Sticking With It: Why Discipline is Key to CRM Success
Introducing a new system into the workplace isn’t always an easy task – and as with establishing any new habit, it takes time and discipline to get things rolling properly. But whereas your organisation may have an abundance of time, it’s often the discipline of using a new tool which is more difficult to secure.
May 2016 Read more...
Maturity in the Mortgage Market: Are We Seeing a Fairer Property Game at Last?
Following the financial crisis that blighted the early years of the twenty-first century, strict rules were put in place to prevent another global meltdown – including the introduction of tougher mortgage checks. These new, more thorough investigations placed a restriction on mature property owners looking to buy, but now the shackles are seemingly being lifted. So is the property market about to become fairer as a result?
May 2016 Read more...
Rise of the Machines: Are Self-Driving Cars Set to Disrupt the Motor Insurance Industry?
Recently, we spoke about how the advent of new technology could improve insurance policies; the likes of black boxes, assistive brake controls, and social media investigations are already significantly lowering premiums for a number of policy holders across the land. But what of the other side of the coin, where tech is actually set to disrupt the balance? With new emerging technologies on the horizon insurance firms may have a fight on their hands after all – and there’s one area in particular which needs to be addressed.
May 2016 Read more...
Working from the Beach: How to Make Remote Working Work for Your Business
In recent years, the idea of working remotely has become a dream for millions of 9-5 workers the world over. It provides individuals with a sense of freedom that can reinvigorate their passion for their career, all the while ensuring employers are still benefiting from the skilled employees they’ve invested in. And let’s face it: the idea of working from a tropical beach makes it a very appealing prospect! But before you shut down the office and prepare your team for a workday consisting of free Wi-Fi and unlimited lattes, we recommend taking a moment or two to read the following tips to make sure you’re making remote working work for your business.
May 2016 Read more...
One Size Fits All: How a Bespoke CRM Can Give Your Business the Happily Ever After It Deserves
Finding a great CRM which fits the size of your business can feel a bit like hunting for the owner of a certain glass slipper; it’s elusive at best and downright frustrating at worst. But there’s no need to fret: Team Lunar has the solution you need for a truly fairytale ending. So give up the searchyou’re your one true CRM tool – because a bespoke solution is all you need, whether you have a…
April 2016 Read more...
Strategy, Strategy, Strategy: 5 Ways Bespoke CRM Data Can Maximise Your Marketing Efforts
CRMs are all about customer communication, and they’re full of data provided by the ideal individuals who have become your trusted customer base. With that in mind, it makes absolute sense to pair a bespoke CRM with your marketing efforts to create a data-driven strategy that will help to generate new leads, nurture new ones, and show the world that you’re serious about marketing your business correctly. Not convinced? Read on for 5 very convincing reasons to take heed from the Lunar team themselves. Enjoy!
April 2016 Read more...
In the News: Flat Rate Scheme Faces Fresh Criticism – But is it Really All Doom & Gloom?
The new tax year has arrived, and with it all eyes have turned to the government’s latest pensions upheaval. Replacing the complex multi-tiered system is a simple flat-rate scheme, potentially evening out the playing field for savers everywhere. Despite the well-advertised advantages of the new system, however, there has been plenty of criticism - with one think tank now reporting that young workers will be worse off than before. But is it really all negative, or are there advantages to be had?
April 2016 Read more...
Keep ‘Em Coming: 5 Ways a Bespoke CRM Can Boost Your Sales Capabilities
It goes without saying that a business is nothing without sales, and generating those sales plays an integral part in running a successful organisation. Although in the past you may have relied on word of mouth referrals to secure work, it’s not always enough to pay the bills - and one way or another your team is eventually going to have to generate new clients themselves.
March 2016 Read more...
Introducing LISA: The Ups & Downs of the New Lifetime ISA
Last week’s Budget announcement – and its subsequent aftermath in the halls of Westminster and beyond – came packed with more than a few surprises, with not all of them being well received. But falling in the camp of public favour was news of the Lifetime ISA for under 40’s. But what exactly is the Lifetime ISA – or LISA, for short – and is it a good thing or not? Team Lunar decided to investigate!
March 2016 Read more...
Peeping Premiums: Is Snooping Tech the Future of Fairer Insurance?
It goes without saying that advances in technology have benefited just about every industry there is – and now it looks like it’s the turn of insurance to undergo a technological revolution. Thanks to the introduction of wearable tech that monitors customers and better social media communications, firms are able to create a truly reactive service for their target markets. It sounds like a match made in heaven – and from what we’ve heard, it actually might be.
March 2016 Read more...
Clean & Simple: 4 Tips for Tackling Timely Business Processes This Spring
March couldn’t have come soon enough if you ask us – we’ve got an early Easter to look forward to and the promise of Spring just around the corner (even if it is still cold and snowing). There’s no better time than the changing of a season to have a good old fashioned clear out. But before you reach for the duster, consider instead that your business’ internal processes could benefit the most from a Spring clean, rather than your workspace. As the mechanisms which keep your organisation ticking over, it’s important that they’re working at their most efficiently – and those that are less than useful are cleared out. Below you’ll find some of our suggestions for how to freshen up your processes this Spring – do you have any of your own to share? Happy cleaning!
March 2016 Read more...
Keep Your Team Close: How You Can Look After Staff Better with a Bespoke CRM
Throughout our blog, we’ve regularly talked about how a bespoke CRM solution can help your business, your customers and even your bottom line – but what about the people who make your organisation what it is? How can a piece of software, tailored to your business and its culture, help you and your managers to look after staff? Well, Team Lunar is all about working together, so we thought we’d give you the tour of how it works. Enjoy!
March 2016 Read more...
Staying or Going: What Might a ‘Brexit’ from the EU Mean for the Economy?
You only have to pick up a newspaper, turn on the news, or open up your internet browser to be immediately inundated with the latest in the impending European Union referendum. The vote – scheduled for 23rd June 2016 – will give everyone a chance to decide whether they want the UK to stay in the EU or leave.
February 2016 Read more...
Flat Rate or Flat Out: Could the UK Pensions System About to Be Turned on its Head?
As ever, news of Chancellor Osborne’s upcoming budget announcement has brought with it a myriad of questions and speculations – are more cuts coming? How will our day-to-day finances change? Will lessons be learned from Google’s flagrant tax evasion? All of these topics have been banded around over the last few weeks, but perhaps the loudest issue – and possibly the most worrying – is that of a pensions system overhaul.
February 2016 Read more...
Thoughts: Why Great Customer Service Has Never Been More Important
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that some businesses are referring to this as the 'Age of the Consumer' – in a world full of crowdsourcing and loud public opinions, it’s more important than ever to deliver the best customer service possible. But as the barriers between consumers and businesses continues to break down, is it possible to keep a consistently high standard of quality when your customers are only 140 characters away?
February 2016 Read more...
In The News: Insurance Firms Release Data Detailing Why Claims Are Rejected
It’s fair to say that insurance firms have dominated the spotlight over the last few months, with homeowners still reeling from recent floods and news that the IFT’s final report has been released – and it doesn’t look like they’ll be out of the headlines anytime soon!
January 2016 Read more...
Thoughts: New IFT Recommendations Take the First Steps Towards Eradicating Insurance Fraud
Since its inception early last year, the Insurance Fraud Taskforce has been busy conducting valuable research and creating ground-breaking dialogue in an effort to make the insurance sector work for consumers. Twelve months later, and the IFT have presented their final report, which includes a list of recommendations on how the sector can tackle insurance fraud together – but is it enough?
January 2016 Read more...
Ditch the Spreadsheet: How Lunar Helped a Home Insurance Firm to Break a Habit
Home insurance firms have found themselves firmly in the spotlight over the last few weeks – especially with the news that the post-flood insurance bill is set to reach a high of £1.3billion. With so much attention on their performance, it’s no surprise that some firms have decided to reinvent their internal processes in the coming year. Previously, the Lunar team had the pleasure of working alongside a home insurance firm to provide a bespoke CRM solution with the power to take them to the next level – but first, they had a certain habit they needed to break…
January 2016 Read more...
Happy New Year: The 5 New Year’s Resolutions a CRM Can Help You to Keep
We’ve officially made it to 2016 – and there’s no time like the present to start thinking ahead to what your business could achieve this year. But as with any New Year’s resolutions, it’s not always easy to keep to the goals you set for your team and the business in January for the whole twelve months. We can’t help you to cut office coffee consumption, but if you’ve picked any of the five resolutions below, then we’re confident a CRM could be exactly what you need to keep them up:
January 2016 Read more...
Jolly Solutions: How Santa Could Benefit from a Bespoke CRM
A question that the Lunar team gets asked a lot is whether or not a bespoke CRM can work for a particular business that’s outside of the realms of typical CRM using industries, such as insurance and call centres. The answer, of course, is a resounding YES - and to prove it, we’ve got into the Christmas spirit and targeted ol’ Saint Nick to see how he could benefit from a bespoke Lunar CRM solution. Ho ho ho!
December 2015 Read more...
Thoughts: How Insurance Firms Are Helping to Clear Up Storm Desmond
You need only have looked out of the window recently to clock that the weather hasn’t exactly been very festive, with Storm Desmond instead ruining the Christmas spirit for many families. Whilst many debate the part global warming has to play in the disaster and subsequent floods, the insurance industry has been hard at work helping families hit the hardest.
December 2015 Read more...
Finding Your Way onto Santa’s Good List: How a Bespoke CRM Can Keep You Compliant in 2016
December is officially here, which means that (almost) everyone is on their best behaviour ahead of Santa Claus’ visit. For kids this is a simple affair, and just means keeping their bedrooms tidied and no back-chatting. But for many businesses to stay off the big guy’s naughty list (not to mention saving face with the law), it’s all about the complicated world of staying compliant.
December 2015 Read more...
Thoughts: For & Against the FCA’s Investigation into ‘Snooping’ Insurers
Yesterday, it was announced that the FCA would be launching an investigation into UK insurance firms, to determine whether or not these companies are crossing lines in how they research their customers. At a time when privacy and security are precious and prone to violation, it’s obviously a hot topic – but that won’t put the Lunar team off from exploring the issue!
November 2015 Read more...
5 Brilliant Things You Could Be Doing Much Better by Using Great CRM Data
Ask people what makes the world go round and their answer will range anywhere from wild things such as love or money, to the always sensible ‘gravity’. For businesses in the 21st century, however, it can be argued that data – and intelligent use of said data – is what keeps the world spinning and the cash flowing. With great CRM data at your fingertips, more is possible for your business than ever before – which means the chance to improve everything you’ve been doing already, including (but not limited to):
November 2015 Read more...
Keep on Growing: Target Processes & Workflow for Greater Business Growth
As a business develops, the time will eventually come for you to focus on growth, making it a priority in your daily efforts to keep ahead of the competition. Thus begins the never fun search for speedy solutions and convincing ‘growth hacks’. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy – nothing worth having ever is. But don’t despair, as there’s an immediate area you can improve on to up your game almost instantly: workflow and processes. How exactly will this help your business to reach to the moon and back, you ask? The Lunar team are on hand to tell you!
November 2015 Read more...
Hack Attack: 5 Lessons on Data Security We Learned from the TalkTalk Leak
Unless you’ve been very much hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, it is nigh on impossible to have missed word about the TalkTalk attack – or the subsequent Marks & Spencer website glitch, or Vodafone’s own data loss. With huge firms being held to task by customers for not keeping their data safe, now is the perfect time for smaller companies to learn some valuable lessons. So settle down, because class is in session!
October 2015 Read more...
Don’t Hang Up Just Yet: Call Centres Are a Long Way from Dead
As many panicked TalkTalk customers will have discovered this week, there’s nothing more reassuring than picking up the phone and hearing an actual human voice tell you that everything is going to be OK. Yes, customers have been openly warned about scams on Twitter and have had the situation explained to them a dozen times by the evening news, but it doesn’t quite put your mind at ease in the same way – it’s simply a fact of being human. So why, then, do people believe call centres are ‘going out of fashion’?
October 2015 Read more...
Thoughts: Could Pensions be the Next Big Mis-selling Scandal?
Since the 2008 recession, consumer faith in financial institutions has undoubtedly dropped – the decline in consumer loyalty certainly hasn’t been helped by scandal after scandal, including bankers’ bonuses, fraud and product mis-selling. It’s the latter, however, that has arguably had the largest impact on consumers, and it seems that it’s the turn of those saving for their pensions to be on the receiving end of a scandal.
October 2015 Read more...
One Giant Leap for Working Together: Lunar’s Stellar Approach to Clients
A big worry that many businesses have when investing in a CRM solution is that the company they’re dealing with will simply switch the system on and leave them to it. Whereas this is probably a great learning curb, it’s more than a little bit annoying/terrifying when it comes to figuring everything out for yourself. The Lunar team, however, like to think a bit differently – we take our client approach seriously (and in the friendliest way possible).
October 2015 Read more...
Leave the Papercuts Behind: 8 Reasons You Should Go Digital with a Cloud CRM
Picture this: an office without a dozen filing cabinets, no more dusty servers and an end to the days of multiple sheets of paper cluttering your desk. No, this isn’t an impossibility – in fact, it’s very much possible with the use of a Cloud-based CRM. But why would you want to swap hard copies for something more digital? We’ll tell you why!
October 2015 Read more...
Show Me the Money: 3 Reasons to Use a Bespoke CRM for Your Accounting
Money doesn’t necessarily make the world go round (we’ll leave that to gravity and/or love, depending on your sensibilities), but it’s certainly the essential lifeblood flowing through your business. Without a proper handle on your finances then, you can expect to be facing many, many troubles ahead – but that’s where things get tricky, because dealing with your own accounting isn’t exactly an easy task when you’ve got limited time and a business to run. But before you spring for an outsourced accountant or buy into an off-the-shelf solution, why not consider your CRM options?
October 2015 Read more...
4 Reasons Why Your Operations Manager Would Love a Bespoke Lunar CRM
Operations managers live and breathe efficiency, procedures and the smooth-running of the business. To achieve this to the best of their abilities, they need to be supported by internal policies, rigorous structure and a robust CRM solution. Whereas the first two are up to you, Lunar has you covered when it comes to creating the CRM tool that your Operations Manager will fall in love with!
September 2015 Read more...
Pensions Are Changing – And You Need a CRM That Can Keep Up!
If you’re in the pensions industry, chances are you’ve already heard about the various changes being made to the entire process – and we’re not just talking about the rolling out of auto-enrolment. Now, people have far more freedom in choosing their pensions, deciding how they’re used and even opting for taking a lump sum over a monthly allowance – and those in the pensions industry need a tool that can keep up with these changes. Enter a specialist, bespoke pensions CRM tool!
September 2015 Read more...
Leaving No One Out: Lunar’s Unique Recipe for Catering CRMs to Everyone
At Lunar CRM we really don’t like the thought of anyone being left out – it’s an important value of ours! As a team that makes bespoke solutions for businesses, this fits perfectly with the job as we know that we can offer something truly unique to everyone, with a tool that takes care of an entire business and its needs. We also believe in sharing, which is why we thought we’d let you in on our secret recipe for inclusion. Enjoy!
September 2015 Read more...
3 Reasons Why CRMs & Claims Are a Match Made in Heaven
You only have to turn on the TV these days to know that PPI is far from dead. The oft-harped on about financial bungle, which saw banks owe customers thousands of pounds, has become somewhat of a bone of contention for the poor viewers settling down for their soaps – but to the customers who get money back, PPI claim firms are a Godsend. So where does a CRM come into it? How is it that a bespoke piece of relationship management software and a crusade against consumer misdemeanours can be a match made in heaven? Well, let us tell you!
August 2015 Read more...
Why Third Party Integration is a Must for Your CRM
Our Lunar team are a talented bunch: they’re experts in creating fantastic bespoke CRMs (naturally), doing the moonwalk at office parties (of course), and in ensuring that our clients have their favourite third party apps seamlessly integrated into their Lunar CRM solution.
August 2015 Read more...
Lost Opportunities: Are You Following Up On Your Customers?
We’ve had a lot of businesses tell us their organisational problems – it helps to get it off their chests, and it helps us to figure out what solution would best fit them. One of the most common problems to occur is ‘our team’s not following up on clients and we feel we’re losing opportunities because of it’. If this sounds like something you’ve thought recently, then you’re right: you are losing out on opportunities, but there’s a solution!
August 2015 Read more...
Are You Making the Most of Your CRM When Reporting?
A great CRM can be a universally useful tool, allowing businesses to streamline processes and understand their customers in greater detail. Unfortunately, when it comes to reporting, not every CRM user is making the most of the tools at hand. This week, the Lunar Team has decided to talk you through two very useful ways CRMs can help you with your reports – and one reason to really make the most of your CRM. Enjoy!
August 2015 Read more...
Watch the Second Hand: How CRMs Help Teams to Save Time
At Lunar CRM, we’re not just about space: we like to think about time as well. In the business world, we find that time really is money, and many teams we’ve encountered have been losing out on profits and hours for a whole variety of very avoidable reasons. We’re obviously biased, but we’re going to say it anyway: a CRM could really help to save them all that time (and in most cases, it did). How? Find out below!
August 2015 Read more...
At Last! A Pensions CRM Just for You
By Jove, they’ve done it! The boffins of Team Lunar have put a lot of effort into creating a whole new product for our clients, resulting in the long-awaited Pensions CRM – a specialist CRM solution designed to revolutionise the way LOA Providers and review companies conduct business. Read on to find out more!
July 2015 Read more...
Data Validation: You Get Out What You Put In
As with many things in life, what you put into your CRM is what you’ll get out of it – if low quality data is finding its way into your CRM then you can expect to be disappointed with the output. The best way to prevent this – and to make sure things run smoothly – is to use data validation. Not sure what that is? The Lunar crew are here to help!
July 2015 Read more...
Look to the Sky: Why Your CRM Should be in the Cloud
The popularity of the Cloud has exploded in recent years due to the convenience it brings to businesses and internet users across the globe. In particular, the Cloud has been used to revamp existing technologies and tools to give them better value and a renewed purpose. This week, we’re looking at why the Cloud is such a great place to take your CRM – and how looking to the sky could be benefiting your business.
July 2015 Read more...
Keeping in Touch: How CRMs Solutions Can Benefit Your Communications Strategy
No matter what industry you’re in, keeping in touch with your clients is an essential part of your day-to-day professional life. Without doing so, you might lose their trust, miss important opportunities, or forget to follow up on important stages of their engagement with you. That’s why businesses use a communications strategy to ensure their customers are being kept in touch with, but is there a way to make such a strategy even better? The answer is, of course, a big yes!
July 2015 Read more...
Back to the Roots: How CRMs Improve Customer Relations
It’s in the name really: Customer Relationship Management – this type of system was originally built exclusively to assist users in managing their customers to keep them happy. Of course, CRMs have evolved now to cover features such as workflow management and Cloud-based security, but we thought we’d go back to our roots this week and take a look at how exactly CRMs are helping businesses with relationship management. After all, this is what they were made for!
July 2015 Read more...
Make the Rules, Don’t Break the Rules: How Lunar’s Rules Engine Makes for a Happier Team
Some rules are definitely not made to be broken – and this has never been truer than when utilising a rules engine on your bespoke CRM. The Lunar team is so confident in the usefulness of our built-in rules engine, that we can pretty much guarantee a happier team. How you ask? Well, read on and find out!
June 2015 Read more...
Delivering Success: How Bespoke CRM Tools Benefit Courier Services
When thinking about what kind of businesses may employ a customer relations management tool, courier services probably don’t come immediately to mind. The reality, however, is that courier businesses are often among those most in need of a CRM solution fit for their purposes. Lunar CRM has had plenty of previous experience delivering an integrated, bespoke solution to courier services, giving us a unique perspective on how to best solve the issues faced. This week, we’ll be taking a look at what those challenges are and how a bespoke CRM tool helped our courier client to improve their offering.
June 2015 Read more...
'Will it Work for Us?' The 3 Requirements of Businesses Benefitting from Bespoke CRMs
As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, Lunar CRM has had the privilege of working alongside clients from a whole range of industries. It’s still common, however, for business owners to dismiss bespoke CRM solutions as something their team simply doesn’t need. Of course, that isn’t true – any business with the following 3 requirements would benefit from such a solution. Take a look at our examples below and ask yourself ‘does this apply to my business?’ – you’ll be surprised by the answer!
June 2015 Read more...
Keep it Safe: 3 Reasons to Put CRM Security First
Employing a CRM means placing a lot of trust in a piece of software that will be housing and analysing your business’ data, as well as sensitive client information. With that in mind, it’s essential that businesses understand the necessity for tight security on their CRMs. We’ve pulled together a handful of reasons you should put your CRM’s security first – and included some advice about tackling the issue head on.
June 2015 Read more...
Different Place, Same Page: Using a CRM for Outsourced Call Centres
The rise and rise of call centres (and TV shows about call centres) in recent years has contributed to the deconstruction of various stereotypes, but there’s one that still pervades outbound callers the world over: it’s not always as cheap as people believe. At Lunar CRM, we’ve had experience working with outsourced call centres, employing CRMs in the hopes of reducing prices and raising quality. The results have been remarkable, and this week, we’d like to share them with you – and let you in on how we did it (we spoil you!).
June 2015 Read more...
Ditch the Paperwork: How Lunar Streamlined a Business for Success
Over the years, the Lunar Team has had the pleasure of working with clients in a huge variety of different industries and sectors, helping businesses to find a personalised CRM solution that suits them. This week, we wanted to take a look at a particular project where we helped a debt management business to achieve greatness through streamlining their processes – and how this can also benefit your business.
May 2015 Read more...
No Man is an Island: Use a Bespoke CRM to Unite Your Team
It’s a well-known fact that a strong team is made up of brilliant individuals, all moving towards the same goal - and that no single employee should ever be considered an island in the workplace.
May 2015 Read more...
4 Brilliant Reasons for Referring Lunar CRM
If you’ve read any of our previous blogs, you’ll know that the team at Lunar CRM are big fans of bespoke solutions to CRM needs – as are our clients. But have you considered that some of your contacts might also benefit from a bespoke CRM tool? If someone comes to mind, then you could be onto a winner by referring them to Lunar CRM. But what’s in it for you? We’ll tell you!
May 2015 Read more...
4 Reasons Why Analytics & Data are Essential to Business Success
Whether or not you’re a fan of numbers, data and statistics, keeping an eye on business analytics is undeniably important. For some businesses, data could come from a brief spreadsheet, while in others it’s found on an advanced CRM tool – either way, keeping up to date with that information is going to help your business achieve success in ways you may not have considered.
April 2015 Read more...
Why Are CRM Solutions so Important to Finance & Insurance?
It’s hard to think of an industry that a CRM solution can’t benefit – but there are those industries which reap more advantages than others, and two in particular are the insurance and finance industries. Insurance companies alone could find a million uses for a CRM, and both have found such tools to be proving more and more important to their continued survival in recent years. This week, we took a look at a few reasons why CRMs have such importance in these industries – and what issues CRMs could be resolving for them.
April 2015 Read more...
LunarCRM: 9 Reasons You Should be Using a CRM
When starting up efforts to keep track of customers and activity, some organisations are happy to rely on an excel spreadsheet. The humble spreadsheet, however, is limited in what it’s able to achieve – it’ll never be a CRM, no matter how many functions you managed to include. Finding yourself heading into double figured columns is the red flag you need to warn you that it’s time to use a CRM. If that doesn’t work, then we’ve also put together 9 other great reasons why you should be using a CRM instead.
April 2015 Read more...
Let the CRM do the Talking: 3 Reasons to Order a Free Lunar Demo
At Lunar CRM, we’re firm believers in trying everything once – from unusual cake ingredients to a Netflix account, everything deserves at least one chance. Because it’s a colourful way to live life, we’ve also taken to encouraging our prospective clients and friends to live by the same rule – which is why we offer a free demo.
April 2015 Read more...
Embracing a New CRM: 10 Reasons Why Bespoke is Best
A good Customer Relations Management tool is safe, secure and packed full of useful features; a great CRM system, however, is bespoke. Why, you ask? Because bespoke CRMs have that special key ingredient: your business. We’ve chosen ten great reasons to go bespoke – we hope you’ll agree!
March 2015 Read more...
Here’s why Cloud based CRMs are critical for business growth
Installing a Cloud based CRM lowers your capital expenditure because there’s no need to keep buying and maintaining expensive hardware. Your data is hosted on high performance systems and automatically updated, so all you have to concentrate on is improving your products and services to keep your customers coming back!
March 2014 Read more...