CRM Customer Relationship Management
From makernexuswiki
Even a small maker space might have 50 members; larger spaces could have 1,000. Keeping track of your members is vital. You might start with a spreadsheet of names and email addresses, but you will find that this quickly falls short. There are a number of free CRM systems you can install on your own server, and there are cloud based services that do not cost much for the value they deliver.
Functions of a CRM systems
You should consider which of these functions your organization will need:
- Quickly lookup a member by name (for instance in your reception area)
- Send email blast to all members
- Categorize members so you can email blast only a subset (e.g. Just those who are part of the woodshop team)
- Charge credit cards automatically each month so the membership revenue comes in easily
- Track member training (e.g. Has John taken the laser cutter training class?)
- Maintain a private calendar for your staff to view
- Maintain a public calendar of events
- Provide an easily updated web site
- Track volunteer hours
- Process one-time payments for classes, events, etc
- Export data for use in your accounting system (like Quicken or Quickbooks)
- Export your membership data (so you can use it offline if you want)
- Provide an API to the database so your door/machine access system can validate a member (If there is no API, then you will need to Export your data every week or so to load into your access system)
Some CRM Systems
- CiviCRM
- Open Source, so you could run it on your own server if you want.
- Many cloud hosted services. Current cost is about $100/month for almost unlimited members.
- Offers billing, calendar, events, email campaigns, etc.
- SalesForce
- $150 month for some number of users
- Considered a full blown, high end system
- Highly configurable. May require some programming on your part to configure it to work as you want
- Club Express
- Inexpensive at $24/month for 50 active contacts; $160/month for 500 active contacts. Unlimited non-active contacts.
- Offers billing, web site, calendar, events, etc.
- Wild Apricot
- Offers billing, web site, calendar, events, etc.
- 50 contacts/1 admin is free. 500 contacts/10 admins $63/month. Contacts count both active and non-active.
