Brands/Products
Zoho Upgrades Bigin to Redefine Small Business CRM Market
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A leading global technology company, Zoho Corporation, has upgraded its customer relationship management (CRM) solution for small businesses, Bigin, with new features for better performance.
According to the firm, the platform has been fortified with new capabilities like team pipelines, toppings, and developer centres, which will allow users to manage all types of customer operations.
It is believed that the upgrade will redefine the small business CRM market as it would provide small and micro businesses with the tools and insights they need to maintain and grow meaningful and high-value relationships with customers in a challenging economic environment.
“Small businesses face challenges in choosing the right technology for managing their customer-facing operations because of constraints related to time, cost, and software implementation,” the Country Manager for Zoho Nigeria, Kehinde Ogundare, stated.
“Bigin is the only solution that brings together all customer operations like sales, onboarding, delivery, training, advocacy, and more into an intuitive interface that takes only 30 minutes to deploy.
“By bringing together all the facets of customer operations into a single view, Bigin allows small businesses to have a more accurate understanding of the customer’s journey.
“These insights help them attract and retain customers, ultimately growing the business. The fast-growing adoption of Bigin shows the expanding appetite of small businesses who want and need CRM technology suited to their particular needs, helping them move beyond old-school spreadsheets,” Ogundare added.
Since its launch in 2020, Bigin has stood out as a robust, easy-to-use, and welcoming CRM solution thanks to its 30-minute set-up promise. Bigin saw a revenue growth of 161 per cent in 2022 in Nigeria, indicating the revenue has doubled compared to 2021.
Zoho has observed that around 65 per cent of Bigin’s global customers have never used a CRM previously, making it the ideal choice for business owners who are looking to move away from spreadsheets.
When they outgrow Bigin, Zoho also offers them an easy migration to its full-fledged CRM solution. Bigin now boasts 20,000 customers and continues to help small and micro businesses manage all of their customer-facing operations within a unified platform.
The introduction of Team Pipelines allows customer-facing teams to manage their distinctive operations using a set of pipelines and sub-pipelines within a single Bigin account.
Competitive offerings often cater only to a single function — like sales — whereas Bigin is an efficient solution for all customer-facing teams. New features compile customer operations into one place and enable tighter alignment and collaboration between individuals and teams without compromising the simplicity that makes Bigin stand out.
The Connected Pipelines feature automates the flow of customer data across processes, improving the customer experience and saving time on manual data entry, while the Toppings feature allows the addition of additional functionality and third-party integrations to address specific business needs. Examples include the ‘Email-In’ topping, which maps emails to customer records and the ‘File Cabinet’ topping, which automates file collection and management.
The Dynamic Display allows users to customize the appearance of records in their pipelines, while the Developer Centre gives room for global app developers and partners to create custom solutions for unique business needs.
With various tools and components like custom fields, buttons, links, widgets, related lists, and REST APIs, developers can create new Toppings and monetise them in the Bigin Marketplace.
Bigin by Zoho CRM starts at N2,100/user/monthly (billed annually) for the Express edition and goes up to N3,600 user/monthly (billed annually) for the Premier edition, though a free edition is also available.
By: Philip Odiakose
Public relations (PR) is a crucial component of any organization’s communication strategy. It involves the management of communication between an organization and its stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and the media.
PR plays a significant role in shaping an organization’s reputation and can have a direct impact on its success. This is why it is essential for CEOs to understand the value of PR and to incorporate it into their media performance audit.
A media performance audit is a process that assesses an organization’s media coverage and evaluates its impact on the organization’s reputation, brand image, and business performance. The audit involves analyzing media coverage, identifying key messages, measuring the reach and impact of media coverage, and developing recommendations for improving media performance.
The value of PR in a media performance audit lies in its ability to shape the narrative of an organization’s media coverage. By leveraging PR strategies, CEOs can ensure that their organization’s key messages are being communicated effectively to the media and other stakeholders. This can help to enhance the organization’s reputation and brand image, ultimately leading to improved business performance.
One way that PR can be leveraged in a media performance audit is through the development of a media relations strategy. This involves identifying key media outlets and journalists, developing relationships with them, and pitching stories that align with the organization’s key messages. By doing so, CEOs can ensure that their organization is receiving positive coverage in the media, which can help to enhance its reputation and brand image.
Another way that PR can be leveraged in a media performance audit is through the development of a crisis communications plan. A crisis can have a significant impact on an organization’s reputation and business performance. By having a plan in place for how to respond to a crisis, CEOs can minimize the negative impact on their organization’s reputation and brand image. This can include strategies such as issuing statements, conducting media interviews, and engaging with stakeholders to address concerns.
In addition to these strategies, CEOs can also leverage media monitoring and intelligence consultants to track them and their organization’s media coverage and reputation by monitoring CEOs media coverage, which can identify trends, opportunities, and potential threats to their organization’s reputation. Media Intelligence consultants can provide insights into how stakeholders perceive the organization and can help to identify areas where improvements can be made.
In conclusion, the value of PR in a CEO media performance audit cannot be overstated. By leveraging PR strategies and tools, CEOs can ensure that their organization’s key messages are being effectively communicated to the media and other stakeholders. This can help to enhance the organization’s reputation and brand image, ultimately leading to improved business performance.
CEOs should work closely with their PR teams to develop a comprehensive media relations strategy, crisis communications plan, and monitoring and listening program that can help to optimize their organization’s media performance.
Philip Odiakose is the Chief Insights Consultant at P+ Measurement Services, a Media Intelligence Consultancy in Lagos state, Nigeria.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Chairman of Justrite Superstore, Mr Ayodele Patrick Aderinwale, has disclosed that the company’s energy costs in 2022 significantly increased by more than 500 per cent.
Speaking on Friday on Arise TV’s Global Business Report hosted by Mr Aruoture Rotus Oddiri, the Justrite chair said this surge in energy costs was triggered by the rise in the price of diesel in the year under review.
At the beginning of the year, a litre of diesel was selling between N200 and N250, but by the end of the first quarter of 2022, it was going for N650 per litre and later jumped to N800 per litre.
This increase was blamed on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. The price has not moderated to the pre-war period, forcing many companies to source cheaper energy.
But Mr Aderinwale said the company was making efforts to cut these energy expenses, especially with the funds raised from the sale of a minority stake in Justrite to Africinvest recently.
“Last year, our energy costs increased by over 500 per cent and don’t forget that energy is part of our major operational costs. You have to have electricity 24 hours because you cannot afford to be in the dark; that is why we have to embrace solar energy,” he said on the programme monitored by Business Post on Friday morning.
Speaking further, he said, “It is interesting that you raised this issue of renewable energy. One of the things we agreed with Africinvest is that from now henceforth, all our new stores to be opened would be powered solely by solar and the existing 17 stores would be integrated with solar energy.”
He expressed optimism that Justrite would gain immensely from the experience of Africinvest because of its rich pedigree on the continent.
According to him, Africinvest “is not just coming with money, it is coming with insight, corporate governance, repositioning of the company and all manners of strategies.”
“Before they made the final investment, they went through the due diligence process, both legal and commercial, to check the gaps and prospects of the company before signing the deal,” the chairman said.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A partnership designed to reward customers with free shopping vouchers through a campaign tagged Season of Rewards has been entered into between Konga and Verve International.
The promo kicked off on March 1, 2023, and will see shoppers on the leading composite e-commerce platform in Nigeria receive free vouchers when they shop on Konga.com with their Verve cards.
The partnership underpins the commitment of both brands to add value by providing useful incentives for customers who make payments with their Verve cards.
Consequently, Verve cardholders who shop on www.konga.com are in for great rewards, with free shopping vouchers made available to them within a 24-hour period which they can immediately use on their next shopping on the Konga platform.
The vouchers can also apply to any category of product that catches their fancy, ranging from Mobile Phones, Computing, Electronics, Fashion, Home & Kitchen, Groceries, etc.
“We are delighted to partner with Verve to bring this exciting offer to shoppers on the Konga platform,” disclosed Mr Gideon Ayogu, Group Head, Marketing & Communications, Konga Group.
“We are confident that this would deliver more value to Verve card holders in their shopping experience while also encouraging them to shop more,” Mr Ayogu said.
Also commenting on the development, the Group Head of Growth Marketing Payment Tokens and Financial Inclusion Services at Interswitch, Mr Chidi Oluaoha, said Verve was committed to creating rewarding experiences for Verve cardholders while supporting their lifestyle needs.
“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we are always looking for ways to reward them with invaluable payment experiences. It is for this purpose we are partnering with Konga to bring this exciting offer to Verve cardholders while giving them seamless, swifter and more secure payment solutions,” he said.
Mr Oluaoha urged new and existing Verve cardholders to take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy the benefits of shopping on Konga and earning free shopping vouchers.
Through this Season of Rewards promo, Konga and Verve are confident of giving Verve cardholders more reasons to use their cards for e-commerce transactions and avoiding the ongoing hassles with cash availability. Both companies are also committed to improving financial inclusion and convenience for millions of Nigerians.
