What is CRM?

Customer Relationship Management, also called CRM, is a set of technology and techniques for managing a company's customer and potential customer relationships and interactions. It is a customer relationship management system that allows businesses to manage and analyze data and customer interactions across the customer lifecycle. The goal of CRM is to "Improve Business Relationships". CRM helps businesses stay connected, streamline procedures, and increase profitability. CRM systems collect client data from various channels (or contact points) between the customer and the company. It makes use of a company's website, social media pages, telephones, marketing emails, live chat, live video, and so on.

CRM marketing

Customer relationship management marketing refers to the entire ecosystem that helps marketers build and maintain customer relationships. Customer relationship management (CRM) aims to improve and optimize customer interactions in order to increase customer loyalty, retention, revenue, and lifetime value.

What is CRM marketing?

Customer relationship management (CRM) marketing is a phrase that refers to the strategies and techniques that marketers employ to manage their customer relationships throughout the customer lifecycle, as well as the technologies that support the execution of such strategies and tactics.

Types of CRM

The three types of the CRM system are:

1. Operational CRM
2. Analytical CRM
3. Collaborative CRM

The focus of global markets has changed from sellers to customers over the last two decades. If we evaluate the market's driving variables, today's customers are more powerful than sellers. We have many sorts of CRM based on changes in client portfolios, the speed of business operations, the need to handle vast amounts of data, and the need to share information, resources, and efforts together.

1. Operational CRM systems

The operational CRM system is used to make the company's day-to-day processes easy. Some terms in the system include:

Sales automation

It is the core component of the operational CRM system. The sales team uses the system to manage their sales pipeline, track opportunities, nurture leads and win new clients.

Marketing automation

It is a tool or software that automates various everyday tasks to increase the team's efficiency. Many tasks such as lead capture, nurture campaign, newsletter can be automated and defined with custom rules and regulations that define how the system behaves based on user-selected criteria.

Service automation

It is beneficial for the customer service team. Service automation allows service reps to generate automatic answers to common questions via email, text message, or phone. It works in global industries.

2. Analytical CRM systems

The analytical CRM system manages customer acquisition and retention. It is used to keep track of detailed customer information and data. Big companies or businesses have a large amount of detailed customer data handled by this type of CRM. It highlights the areas of your sales funnel that are congested or underperforming in terms of sales and marketing methods.

3. Collaborative CRM systems

The main goal of this CRM is to improve the overall customer experience, which starts with the communication between all parties involved on both sides of sales. The collaborative CRM tracks and shares customer information and data from vendors and suppliers to customer support and even marketing managers. The two main components of marketing CRM are:

Interactive management

Interactive management allows the team to manage all the interactions between the organization and its customers. The customers communicate with specific channels, and interaction management handles all of those communications across the various channels.

Channel management

Channel management is used to reach customers more efficiently and effectively through their preferred interaction channels such as social media, email, phone, or even face-to-face.

So, the fundamentals of customer relationship management are necessary to understand the work of CRM properties.

What is CRM Strategy?

A CRM strategy is a comprehensive plan for your company's revenue and profit growth, cost reduction, and customer relationship enhancement (putting them first). Many people opt to do so with the assistance of CRM technology, in addition to traditional marketing methods and customer service approaches.

The following are seven CRM tactics for getting the most out of your CRM solution and ensuring CRM deployment success.

1. Conduct a thorough audit

The first stage is to conduct a thorough audit of your company. Reviewing external and internal procedures, studying the market, analyzing the competition, and doing a SWOT analysis - a study of your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — are all part of this process.

2. Create a flow chart for your sales process

Then, by identifying the many pipeline stages that prospects go through and clearly defining who is responsible for what on your sales and marketing teams, you can map your customer journey.

3. Define your CRM objectives

After you've examined your current procedures and data, consider your objectives and how a CRM system can assist you in achieving them. Before you even consider looking for new software, define SMART goals for your CRM team. The acronym SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

4. Make use of data to boost productivity

You may use a CRM platform to integrate client data from several departments, such as marketing, sales, and customer support, and give your team access to it all from a single dashboard. The availability of data to all departments involved in the CRM process guarantees that communication is simplified and transparent at all times.

5. Provide unique consumer experiences

A good CRM strategy guarantees that all of your company's activities, from marketing to sales to IT, are coordinated and coordinated. This assists you in gaining a better understanding of who your potential customer is and what they require.

6. Automation can help you save money

By automating repetitive, administrative operations, such as feeding lead data into your pipeline, you may save a lot of time and money with a CRM.

7. Keep tabs on the campaign's progress

Finally, keep an eye on your team's progress to ensure that the CRM system is assisting them in meeting their individual goals as well as the bigger objectives set forth in your CRM strategy.

Benefits of CRM

• Improved Customer Satisfaction
• Increased Revenue and Decreased Overhead
• Marketing Optimization
• Improved Data Insight and Analytics
• Increased Collaboration and Coordination

Common Mistakes

Generally, students are confused about the different types of CRM. The major difference is that operational CRM is focused on customer-facing processes, customer comments, and reviews. At the same time, analytical CRM is more compatible with developing the organization's systems through customer awareness. Collaborative CRM creates communication between different organizations and enterprises related to the customer system. It can include various company divisions, such as marketing, sales, technical support, external customers, and customer service.

Context and Applications

This topic is significant in the professional exams for both graduate and postgraduate courses, especially for:

• Bacholer of technology in Computer Science
• Bacholer of technology in Information Technology
• MBA Customer Relationship Management

Related Topics

• Customer relationship
• Managing and sharing customer data

Practice Problems

Q1- Customer relationship management is about:

1. motivating the employee
2. acquiring the right customer
3. instituting the best processes
4. All of the above

Correct Answer: All of the above

Explanation- Customer Relationship Management is a set of technology and techniques for managing a company's customer and potential customer relationships and interactions. It is about motivating the employee, acquiring the right customer, and instituting the best processes.

Q2- Customer relationship technology helps in:

1. processing transaction faster
2. developing new pricing models
3. designing direct marketing effect
4. All of the above

Correct Answer: All of the above

Explanation- You'll be able to meet your consumers' demands more swiftly and efficiently if you use technology. This relationship technology helps process transactions faster, develop new pricing models, and design direct marketing effects.

Q3- Company's "customer relationship capital" is its:

1. customer conversation
2. dissatisfied customers
3. satisfied customers
4. customer retention

Correct Answer: Satisfied customers

Explanation- The strategies a firm takes to engage with its customers and improve the customer experience are referred to as customer relations.

Q4- What are the fundamental types of CRM?

1. Analytical, collaborative, and operational
2. Channel management and interactive management
3. Both
4. None

Correct Answer: Analytical, collaborative, and operational

Explanation- There are three types of CRM that are analytical, collaborative, and operational.

Q5. What are the features of CRM systems?

1. CRM systems manage the relationship between the customer and the organization.
2. CRM systems are used to improve customer service.
3. CRM systems help the organization to take decisions related to customer service.
4. All of the above

Correct answer: All of the above.

Explanation- CRM is a tool that companies use for developing, retaining, and acquiring customers' information. The enterprise uses a combination of practices, strategies, and technologies to manage or analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.