There are a multitude of reasons for a personal CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. In its purest and most literal form, a CRM is a system or strategy for managing client interactions, dealing with future and current customers, optimizing and systematizing relationships. Yes, they are used in business all the time, but are becoming more common for personal use also.
Everyone thinks they have it all stored in their head. There is a strong chance that is does not work as well as you expect. Except for some amazing individuals, human memory is not perfect. With a CRM or a strong address book application one can store and manage hundreds of events and people, and let a computer system handle the task of memory and recall. Take advantage of technology and use it for your personal success. Then your own personal growth is never limited by a brain that can’t remember where you put the car keys.
Also know that eventually, you will realize that your email not the perfect solution to organization. I mean, one can filter and search, but after a while you start to realize something. This was fine at first, but the email has quickly grown, storage space is running out, and overall your email has become unmanageable. Suddenly email is insufficient for your needs. All communication can be kept in one spot, nothing gets lost, and you can now see what you need.
Do you know how many successful or unsuccessful projects you’ve had in the past week, month, or year? It is easy to deceive yourself into thinking you can figure things out with just a little sense, but is that what you want to spend your time doing? My guess is that your time is more valuable than that, and the odds are high you’ll make a mistake in your calculations anyway. I know I do. A CRM will give you instant metrics on dozens of aspects of your life, and you don’t have to do anything. Find out if what you are doing is really worth your time.
Have you ever wanted to look back and see everything on a particular experience, and the stream of communication between you and another person? Relations systems help keep all those conversations in one place, and make it easy to quickly look back in time, and see how things have progressed. Don’t be confused about why a particular person is upset – see for yourself the progression of a relationship you might have otherwise missed. And you can learn from your history.
If you use notepads, memo books, calendars, and other systems for tracking your time, then the odds are high that you are going to lose it at some point. Store everything on your laptop? They can be stolen. A web-based CRM and a good address book app let you effectively protect your data from being lost. Sure, servers can crash and hard drives fail, but with the proper web host and data-backups you’ll never lose your data.
Calendars are important, way more important than emails with dates in them. You’ll never be able to keep track of every task you need to do, and event you need to attend, without a good system. A CRM will help you not only keep track of every task and every event, but also relate them to a person or experience.
You may claim that you can manage your life using email, task management systems, and calendar systems, but you’ll miss the big picture.
Organizing all your information into one system gives you that big picture. A CRM integrates emails, tasks, calendars, and so much more in one easily maintained and managed place.
Access your information from anywhere in the world, and from any Internet accessible device. You’ll learn things about your life you never knew before. By being organized, and storing things in a central location you’ll bring all the pieces together. The key is organization.
