Maintaining good customer relations is essential in business. Large organisations use dedicated CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics to handle client interactions, however sole traders and small businesses often rely on mental notes, or cryptic scribbled records, to track activity.
Microsoft’s new Outlook Customer Manager for Office 365 Business Premium helps SMEs improve their customer relationships by providing a full overview of interactions within Outlook, and a new integrated iOS app for iPhones and iPads.
Clicking the Customer Management button in Outlook for PCs opens up a new panel consolidating all the available information about a customer, including:
- Ongoing tasks
- Deadlines
- Deals
- Emails
- Scheduled meetings
- Call logs
- Excel sheets
- Notes
Thanks to the Office Graph, information is automatically pulled into Outlook Customer Manager; meaning you don’t need to manually import details or worry about updating customer records.
Keep focused
Beyond Outlook integration, Outlook Customer Manager presents a focused view of your activity. Keeping you on top of outstanding work, current opportunities, and highlighting the most valuable customers.
One for all
In almost every business, multiple colleagues contact customers. With Outlook Customer Manager you can share client details within teams, meaning anyone can pick up a customer contact and have all the relevant information at their fingertips.
On the road
Outlook Customer Manager’s iOS app provides up-to-date customer information wherever you are. Use it to check recent conversations before a meeting, write a quick note, or scan business cards to easily add new contact details.
Availability
Microsoft Outlook Customer Manager is rolling out to all Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium customers over the coming months. Its a free service, and once activated on your account will show automatically in Outlook for PCs.
Microsoft are also planning to introduce the service to E3 and E5 customers at some point in time.
