For something as important as managing your Zoho system and apps, we know you’d rather deal with real people than a bunch of no-names sitting behind computers (although we still do plenty of that). At ZBrains, we’re an all US-based team and a Zoho Certified Partner. You can meet us here and read our short bio sections below.
In today’s ultra-digital environment with endless information and limitless options, the businesses that provide the best customer experience are king. As you may well know, there are lots of different ways to interact (or not) with your customers, and there are many schools of thought on this. But, generally speaking, people want to feel like they’re buying from a trusted brand, someone with a social media presence, someone able to nurture them from point A to point Z without it feeling like a sales process.
Bearing all that in mind, Zoho Corporation has tuned three of their apps – CRM, Campaigns, and Social – to give your business these very powers and cut away from the myriad others trying to do what you’re doing. The difference truly is in the experience you give your customers with these apps.
Zoho CRM – The Customer Experience HubZoho CRM is your most basic database, the place where you can reach out to your customers and reference past work or projects. You can set tasks and reminders to reach out to your customers in a timely and convenient manner all for the purpose of giving your customers a smoother journey through your sales funnel. You can also use the information inside to plan campaigns: Calling, emailing, social media, or even updating content on your website.
For example, you might see through Zoho CRM web-to-lead forms that only small number of prospects are coming to you through a landing page for one of your most profitable products, so you’d know that you’d need to improve your content around that product. And for another example, you might have received a glut of new leads and want to contact them all at once – perhaps a job for a mass email from the CRM – or something a bit more sophisticated, like an email marketing app.
The benefits of email marketing are abundant. You can improve sales and conversion rates at a reduced cost. Being able to run campaigns easily in Zoho Campaigns helps to simplify your email marketing. Here you can create emails with beautiful customizable templates, track what content your prospects are engaging with, and receive up-to-date reporting and performance data. This information will keep your customers engaged and informed.
Campaigns integrates with Zoho CRM, so you can import your customer lists directly into it. You can create automation and workflows to ensure that your customers can receive personalized content that’s also relevant to them. Additionally, you can compliment your email campaigns with social media posts. Share your email campaigns, invite your subscribers to your pages, and create Facebook landing pages – all on one platform! Check out more on the power of Zoho Campaigns here.
Zoho Campaigns is not the only place that you can place you can manage your social media. Zoho takes it one step further with Zoho Social. Here you can manage all of your platforms in one place. Schedule social media posts as you see fit or by using SmartQ, which will suggest dates and times to post for optimum reach and engagement. Social’s new bulk scheduling tool will allow you to upload multiple posts at once, saving you tons of time!
Track customer engagement and respond to customer messages directly from the app. Did someone like your post or mention you in a tweet? Zoho Social will let you know! Social media marketing can be very valuable for your business when done right. It allows customers to connect with your business without feeling pushed. With in-depth reporting and analytics, you’ll know which posts received more engagement, and on which days. Stay the top of your customers’ minds and give them the knowledge they need to come to you when they need you.
Keeping your customers engaged is important to ensure that they have a positive customer experience. Communicating with them in a timely manner will show that your business is dependable while keeping them engaged through email or social media campaigns will build trust with your business as a reliable source of information. Zoho can help you optimize these processes.
Interested in learning more? Contact a member of the ZBrains team today!
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Hiring an IT consultant, whether for a short-term project or a year-long contract, can be an overwhelming experience. You place so much trust in a consultant to work on critical tasks, the configuration of your software, and more – ultimately, the foundation of your business. While you know what you should look for, have you ever thought about what you shouldn’t look for?
At ZBrains, we’ve partnered with businesses to help understand and enhance efficiencies within companies, so we’ve truly seen it all – including what not to do.
If an IT consultant comes in to assist with your business process or software implementation, they need to train your staff in the process. If a consultant is not open to training your staff, it is a clear indication that you should stay far away. A consultant typically has an end term or a contract. If your staff is not trained on the projects or software that the consultant is implementing, your employees will be unsure of how to move forward once the contract is over and the consultant is gone.
Confidentiality agreements and nondisclosure agreements will help you sleep better at night – plain and simple. They ensure that your business strategies, customer information, and any other sensitive business information remain secret. With access to sensitive information within the IT sphere of your business, it’s important to have a complete and total understanding of confidentiality with your consultant. Ensure your chosen consultant signs on the dotted line.
With adequate knowledge and experience comes a financial investment that you can depend on. Focus on hiring a consultant who has experience within your particular industry and environment. He or she should be able to navigate the complex areas of IT and truly understand what you – and your clients – need. Being attuned to you and your business’s needs will heighten your chances of success when working with a consultant. Be prepared to seek expertise and experience, not always price.
Everyone has different ways on how to do their job – whether it be their process or their approach. Yet, innovation and ambition are key, and you should certainly search for a consultant who can deliver both of these attributes. A plethora of experience combined with an individual who will truly go above and beyond what is required of them will be a perfect match for your business.
The promise of research and adaptability might sound positive, but be careful – a consultant who has yet to work within your industry should be a red flag. They may not be familiar with all of the nuances and common challenges within your industry. Whether you are a marketing firm or a B2C retail business, experience within your existing software and industry is integral to success.
When it comes to hiring an IT consultant, there are plenty of qualities and characteristics to look for. With these 5 tips and recommendations, you will be set to embark on your next search for an IT consultant for your business.
At ZBrains, our Zoho consulting focuses on expertise, impact, and efficiency. Combined with our training services, Zoho deployment, and integrations we are adaptable to your business’s needs. To learn more about how you can get your business operating at its full potential, drop us a line and schedule a time to talk with a chat with a member of our ZBrains team today!
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When new clients come to us at ZBrains, we often hear one of two things – either they have faced significant challenges with a previous CRM software they have used and they’re ready to move on, or they have just signed with Zoho and are unsure where to start. With these two challenges, you could say that we’ve heard it all – from A to Z; so, you can be sure that we have answers to your common CRM issues.
After thousands of conversations with various clients, we’ve wrangled our experts at ZBrains to tell us their top 3 most common CRM issues from new clients. If you’re brand new to CRM management or perhaps you have questions about your current CRM, we’re sure you’ll identify with one (or more) of the challenges below.
Challenge: I can’t access my CRM on-the-go.Imagine you want to access a client contact history while en route to a meeting, or away from your desk – but you can’t access your CRM through your phone. Ugh.
Whether it’s because of lack of process or lack of training, your team just doesn’t understand or know how to use the major features of your CRM, it can be difficult to get your employees on-board entirely with your CRM.
Save time by tracking everything- from emails to phone calls, and meeting logs in between. Zoho has it all – enabling your team to make the most of your CRM. Have a program that educates your team on the benefits and use-cases before diving in head first. In our experience, this has truly made a difference in overall adoption and usage. Develop a solid process for your team and have customizable solutions for your business processes. Get started on the right foot by signing up for one of our Zoho implementation plans.
Are you always flipping through tabs, browsers, applications and spending far too much time logging-in, or recovering lost passwords?Is it just another application that you need to manage?
This is especially true for sales and marketing teams, who certainly use many, many applications on a daily basis. From CRM to email, social media posting applications and more, it can be a challenge to keep track of it all. Zoho One has 35+ integrated applications that encompass everything from CRM, email newsletters, documents, inventory, and more. Here at ZBrains, we offer additional add-ons and custom integrations for your favorite business products, such as QuickBooks, Magento, and more.
It’s important to find a CRM that can integrate with a variety of solutions to optimize the potential of your business. It will keep you on-track and ready to close more, win more, and earn more.
From employees using your CRM (properly) to finding software that works for all teams in your company, these are our top 4 common CRM issues and their solutions. They’ve been compiled by our Zoho certified consultants here at ZBrains who are here to help you with your burning questions. Feel free to drop us a line!
When searching for a partner, whether a marketing agency, software consultancy or strategic contractor, there are three key areas of consideration – expertise, impact and efficiency. Regardless of the type of vendor or partner, every company or contractor your business partners with should focus solving problems and providing the solutions you need. As one of Zoho’s top US partners, we are proud to do just that – ZBrains solves problems, and we consistently provide solutions. We focus on generating ROI and impacting revenue for every single one of our clients.
When we first meet with potential clients, we often hear the same five pain points (so, if you’re reading this and you feel one of the below, you’re not alone):
These are the problems we hear, and these are the solutions we solve.
But, how do we as consultants truly find solutions for our clients? In this blog, we’ll take you through four solutions we use for clients across a plethora of industries and verticals. This will help you and your team consider pivots in process, planning and strategy as we move into the year ahead.
As consultants, we truly focus on bridging the gap between business needs and technology solutions through open collaboration and business process analysis with our clients. We are focused on on enabling your business to make smart technology investments, improve practices, and save time and money. Your in-house team might be comfortable with certain processes over the years – yet, as a Zoho partner, we can provide a different view and a new spectrum of expertise that can be applied on bridging certain gaps in processes and efficiencies. We practice the ‘connector’ approach – if our clients have a pain or need, we provide the solution – bridging the gap between the two, and taking you through every single step of the way.
When planning budgets, especially as companies reach year-end, reducing costs is often key to success. While increasing revenue is the favorable choice for any business in any industry, becoming more efficient is often the key driver to impacting the bottom line.
Whether it’s through software or business process, we bring consultation and expertise to the table – and work with you to provide measurable impacts to your team. Instead of telling us what you need, we become part of your team, offering a consultative approach every step of the way. We are always learning from our clients’ successes and challenges, which is why we ensure that every project is better than the last.
Have you seen the integrations and add-ons we provide? We are proud to have a team of developers and strategists who are focused on solving any problem that comes our way – seriously, any problem. We’re created add-ons for calendar scheduling, invoice and proposal management, integrations for services like Slack, and so much more. If you have a challenge, ZBrains solves problems and provides solutions.
Working with executives is different from working with mid-management – we get that. Executives see things differently from mid-management – they look at data from a 40,000 foot view, whereas mid-management are in the trenches, making changes to tactics and pulling levers to generate results. This is exactly we why provide reporting solutions for executives, while developing apps and integration for mid-management.
At ZBrains, we are proud to be a leader in experience and industry knowledge with Zoho, CRM management, business processes and integrated solutions. As we are planning ahead for 2018, we are excited at the road ahead and can’t wait to bring on new clients to our team – our ZBrains family. ZBrains solves problems and provides solutions every single step of the way – and we’re ready to do it for you!
Here’s how to fill out the signup form for the DIY QuickBooks Online integration. The form’s purpose is to collect some basic information, then let you create a username and password to access the integration dashboard, where you’ll be able to configure mapping from QuickBooks to Zoho by yourself.
First Name, Last Name, Company Name: Hopefully these are self-explanatory! If not, give us a call and we’ll try to help 😉
Email: This can be any email, not necessarily your Zoho email. We’ll use it to send you announcements, links to the integration dashboard and to other integration-related content as necessary (but not too often – don’t worry).
Select Plan: Use the drop-down menu to select the syncing plan you’d like to use. All premium plans require entering a credit card number, but you won’t be charged until after your 15-day free trial.
Create Username: This is what you’ll use to log into the integration dashboard. Make it something you won’t forget!
Create Password: You’ll use this not only to log into the integration dashboard, but also to authenticate the QWC file that the QuickBooks Web Connector will use to run the integration. Again, make sure this is one you won’t easily forget!
Authentication: Just hit the blue “Connect to QBO” button and the system will authenticate your QuickBooks instance for you.
Zoho Email Address, Zoho Password: Please make sure these are the admin’s credentials.
Zoho Authentication Token: You can generate one of these by logging into your Zoho CRM, clicking the “tools” icon (the one with the two wrenches), and clicking Setup.
Sync historical data (for either annual premium customers or monthly or freemium customers who purchased the add-on): The Module options refer to the modules within Zoho you’d like to sync with QuickBooks.
Give us a call: (888) 207-4111, or contact us here.
Thanks for using the DIY QuickBooks integration!
We’re really excited about this DIY Zoho QuickBooks Desktop integration, mostly because it’s so easy to use once you get it going. Here’s how to set it up once you’ve submitted your information for the first time.
Thank you again for choosing us to supply your DIY Zoho QuickBooks integration! Please, let us know if anything in these instructions needs clarification by calling (888) 207-4111.
Here’s how to fill out the signup form for the DIY QuickBooks integration. The form’s purpose is to collect some basic information, then let you create a username and password to access the integration dashboard, where you’ll be able to configure mapping from QuickBooks to Zoho by yourself.
First Name, Last Name, Company Name: Hopefully these are self-explanatory! If not, give us a call and we’ll try to help 😉
Email: This can be any email, not necessarily your Zoho email. We’ll use it to send you announcements, links to the integration dashboard and to other integration-related content as necessary (but not too often – don’t worry).
Select Plan: Use the drop-down menu to select the syncing plan you’d like to use. All premium plans require entering a credit card number, but you won’t be charged until after your 15-day free trial.
Create Username: This is what you’ll use to log into the integration dashboard. Make it something you won’t forget!
Create Password: You’ll use this not only to log into the integration dashboard, but also to authenticate the QWC file that the QuickBooks Web Connector will use to run the integration. Again, make sure this is one you won’t easily forget!
Authentication – file path of QBW: This is the QuickBooks company file path we’ll use to connect to your QuickBooks.
Zoho Email Address, Zoho Password: Please make sure these are the admin’s credentials.
Zoho Authentication Token: You can generate one of these by logging into your Zoho CRM, clicking the “tools” icon (the one with the two wrenches), and clicking Setup.
Sync historical data (for either annual premium customers or monthly or freemium customers who purchased the add-on): The Module options refer to the modules within Zoho you’d like to sync with QuickBooks.
Give us a call: (888) 207-4111, or contact us here.
Thanks for using the DIY QuickBooks integration!
Howdy folks,
We’ve been working on perfecting our do-it-yourself (DIY) freemium QuickBooks integration for Zoho CRM for many months, and we’re really happy to finally announce that it’s complete and ready for you to use!
If you’re not in the loop, the DIY freemium QuickBooks integration is a lighter, free version of our QuickBooks Desktop integration. (And, it also works for QuickBooks Online.) Whereas our premium QuickBooks integration allows for syncing Accounts/Contacts, Products, Invoices, Sales Orders, Quotes, and Purchase Orders (among other items), the DIY freemium integration allows for syncing Accounts/Contacts and Products, perfect for businesses that need some syncing functionality but don’t need Invoices or Quotes passed from Zoho to QuickBooks or vice-versa.
We think there are a lot of great things about this freemium product:
Nothing’s perfect, of course. Allow us to elaborate:
Even if you didn’t ask this question outright, I know you’re wondering why we’d give you the Freemium CRM QuickBooks integration. Are we just really benevolent people? Of course we are! But, that’s not why we’re doing this.
The reality is we know there’s a need for a level of syncing below what we offer for our premium Bronze QuickBooks integration – and, we also know that the integration can be cost-prohibitive for some.
We’re betting that if you’re willing to give our Freemium CRM QuickBooks integration a try, you might be willing to knock on our door if you need other Zoho integration help as well, or if you need help with any other Zoho issue that might arise.
Of course, you’re under no obligation to do so… but, we hope that you’d at least consider us.
Aside from that, Zoho themselves like it when we have customers using our products, regardless of how much they spend to use them, so we’re always keen on acquiring new customers, regardless of how much they end up spending.
So, the long and short of it? No catch!
If you haven’t done so already, try the Freemium integration out with your QuickBooks! Just use this page here to sign up and start syncing.
And, as always, email us or drop us a line – (888) 207-4111 – if you have any questions about anything you see here, or if you think you might need a dose of Zoho consulting, some training, or some support!
Disclaimer: ZBrains customers who use our Zoho QuickBooks integration are NOT affected by this, as our product utilizes the QuickBooks Web Connector (QWC), not the Intuit Sync Manager.
Now that that’s out of the way, you can breathe a little more easily, but the fact still remains that businesspeople using Intuit’s sync manager are going to have to find a new way to sync their data. Intuit warned us about this a good while ago – over a year and half, to be precise – but, it’s still jarring to have a deadline nearly in your face with a software move to make. So, how did Intuit’s Sync Manager come to be, and why has Intuit decided to retire it along with the rest of the QuickBooks Desktop REST API?
Intuit Sync Manager was designed to sync data from QuickBooks (Desktop versions like Pro, Premier, and Enterprise) to the cloud, where it’s easily accessible by developers (or third-party programs) for use in syncing. When QuickBooks Desktop was the only thing around, using Intuit Sync Manager was a great way to get QuickBooks to play nicely with other apps and programs.
As time’s passed, many applications that began life tied to a desktop are seeing their younger brethren sprout wings and head into the cloud; QuickBooks is no exception to this. Cloud-based business programs are much quicker; that statement not only means less time waiting for programs to load, as they don’t use your valuable server space, but it also means no waiting for programs to install or update. It also means the end of limitations brought on by using incompatible OS platforms – for example, Windows vs. Mac – since anyone with a web connection can access a web-based program.
This move to the cloud coincided with the development of the QuickBooks Web Connector. This tool was designed with the same basic functionality as the Intuit Sync Manager, but with the added ability to connect web-based apps directly to one another – and, of course, the superior functionality of the QWC meant the eventual end of the Intuit Sync Manager.
It depends on your relationship with QuickBooks at the moment, as well as your relationship with Zoho or your CRM of choice.
Do you use the Intuit Sync Manager to connect your QuickBooks Desktop to your CRM?
Are you planning to connect your CRM to QuickBooks?
Do you use QuickBooks Online?
Method CRM is an Intuit-endorsed solution that connects seamlessly with QuickBooks. For very simple use cases, it’s not a bad product, but, if you want any sort of customization or even marketing automation in addition to the most basic contact lookup features, you might not like what you see. (We reviewed Method CRM here.)
In sum, the pros are:
And, the cons:
For the lack of a social media and marketing tools alone, Method CRM is probably not a great choice for anything other than a small business – and to boot, if you need any major customization done to your system, Method CRM won’t work at all.
You know what we say…We’re a Zoho CRM consultancy here, so our views are a little skewed. That said, we’re happy to help set you up on a QuickBooks integration with Zoho CRM. We set ourselves apart from the other Zoho firms out there by offering this integration as well as a handful of others, proprietary Zoho add-ons, plus personalized Zoho support and training from a team that eats, drinks, and practically breathes Zoho.
In any event, I hope you found this post informative. The discontinuation of the Intuit Sync Manager will probably affect a great number of users – anyone who hasn’t already migrated over to a different platform or who’s stayed on a program that only used the Intuit Sync Manager – so, we hope to act as a resource for you.
Cheers,
Jeremy
