CRM DEFINITION

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and specifies a procedure implemented by a company to study the needs and behavior of customers so that they can develop and maintain good associations with them.

Overview

Every company has a group of departments and employers that work together to meet customer requirements. But when customers interact with a company, they see it as a single unit. That is why companies design a strategy that employs certain practices and policies to ensure unity in customer interaction. These methods are called CRM and they form a means of tracking information about customers, sales, marketing efficiency, and market trends.

There are a lot of technological details in CRM, but CRM is not just about technological stipulations.
CRM initiatives often fail because implementation was limited to installing the software without providing the proper motivation and guidance for employees to learn, provide information, and get the most out of information systems. 1

Types of CRM software

Different CRM software focus on various aspects of CRM.

OPERATIONAL CRM

Operational CRM is for the people who are directly in contact with the customer: sales, service and marketing people. The application of this software is to record the interaction with the customer and use that history to avoid asking the customer for this information individually.

SALES FORCE AUTOMATION (SFA)

This software maintains sales force-related activities such as sales call scheduling, sales mail scheduling, customer response tracking, and reporting.

ANALYTICAL CRM

This software analyzes customer data for a variety of uses, such as designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns, customer behavior analysis, financial forecasting, and customer profitability analysis.

SALES INTELLIGENCE CRM

This software takes analytical CRM to another level and is more of a direct sales tool. Alerts sales staff to customer issues such as cross-selling (upselling and upselling), sales performance, and customer trends and margins.

COLLABORATIVE CRM

The ultimate goal of Collaborative CRM is to use the information collected by all departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company2. It works by bringing together various departments within a company, allowing them to share collected customer information for their various uses.

CRM STRATEGIES

CRM strategies vary in their complexity and scope, and have different uses and applications for various businesses.

An effective tool to identify technical and human factors before starting a CRM project is a pre-implementation checklist.3

ABSTRACT

CRM stands for Customer Resource Management and is the term used for the processes used to record, analyze and maintain customer data and then put it to various uses through effective software and training. Different types of CRM software deal with various aspects of customer resource management. One of the main reasons for CRM failure is software misuse, lack of training, and poor planning.

1 Rigby, Darrell K.; Frederick F. Reichheld, Phil Schefter (2002). “Avoiding the Four Dangers of CRM”. Harvard Business Review
2 Edwards, John (2007). “Get it together with collaborative CRM.” Inside CRM.Tippit.
3Bligh, Philip; Douglas Turk (2004). Unplugged CRM: Unleashing the strategic value of CRM. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.