Customer Relationship Management

April 28, 2015 1:16 pm

Remember the “good ole days”  when businesses used a Rolodex, paper files and index cards?  It really wasn’t all that long ago that those methods were used to store customer information and organize contacts. Now we have CRMs or Customer Relationship Management.  What is this and what are the more popular CRM systems?

What is CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that a company uses to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer’s life cycle. The goal is to improve business relationships with customers.  A CRM system gathers information about the customer from different departments within the company and from across different channels such as social media.  A typical CRM would include information such as: email, company website, phone, live chat, direct mail, social media and any other marketing materials your company uses.  Also included would be the customers buying preference, purchase history and any specific concerns. All this information in one place means it is easier to manage and help customers quickly and professionally during sales visits, phone calls or meetings.

CRM Software –

CRM software consolidates customer information and documents into a single CRM database so business users can more easily access and manage it. Some of the most popular CRMs include: Salesforce, InfusionSoft CRM Software, Snapforce CRM Software, and Sage CRM.  Click on each link to see a demo, find prices and ask questions about each type of software.  Choose depending upon the size of your company, marketing and sales needs and interaction types common in your company. To view the Top Ten CRM Software Packages follow this link to Software Advice online.

CRM Goals –

Customer relationship management is often thought of as a business strategy that allows a company to meet several goals. These include:

  • Understand the customer
  • Retain customers through better customer experience
  • Attract new customers
  • Win new clients and contracts
  • Increase profitably
  • Decrease customer management costs

The biggest benefit most businesses realize when moving to a CRM system comes directly from having all your business data stored and accessed from a single location. Before CRM systems, customer data was spread out through different departments and stored in various computer files.  With CRM, files, contacts and interactions are all stored in the same place thus stopping redundancies and confusion in the workplace.

 

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