• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, January 31, 2017

According to the Salesforce Research “2016 Connected Small Business Report,” with more than 300 small business owners in the nationwide survey commissioned online by Harris Poll, most small business owners still rely on manual, outdated processes, such as email and spreadsheets, to store and track their customer information.

The research found that, while not having enough time is one of the top business-related issues keeping small business owners up at night, the majority are not taking advantage of modern technologies such as CRM, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).

83% of small businesses do not have an IT staff, so it is no surprise that 72% of small business owners are responsible for making their company’s technology buying decisions.

When considering which technologies to purchase, most owners consider

• Price (74%)
• Convenience (43%)
• Compatibility with their current infrastructures (37%)

The majority of their technology spend, which on average accounts for 15% of their annual budgets, goes toward

• Hardware (46%)
• Financial software (33%), such as accounting, bookkeeping and bill payment technologies

There appears to be a gap when it comes to how small business owners manage their relationships with customers, including tracking their information and providing effective service.

For managing sales opportunities, email (39%) and spreadsheets (24%) top the list for owners’ go-to technologies. However, there is still a sizeable percentage (21%) of small businesses that don’t use any technology at all to sell to their customers.

System Or Method Used To Sell To Your Customers (Select All That Apply).

• Email tools (e.g., Outlook, Apple, Gmail contacts)    39%
• Spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Google Sheets)    24%
• Written customer ledger    22%
• Basic database (e.g., Access, Quickbase)    20%
• Customer relationship management (CRM) app or system (on your computer)    15%

For customer service, more than half of small business owners (51%) said they make direct phone calls to customers, followed by direct emails (47%) and social media (32%). Interestingly, a large percentage of small business owners (51%) have turned to social media, such as ads on Facebook and YouTube, to market to customers. Many small businesses also market to their customers through email (37%) and print advertising (34%).

Not having enough time in the day (35%) and the impact of the economy (34%) are among the top business-related issues that small business owners face, followed by having limited resources (31%) and having to pay taxes (31%).

For additional information from SalesForce Research, please visit here