Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to practices, strategies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the, with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention.

CRM systems store customer data across different channels — or points of contact between the customer and the company, which could include the company’s website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social media. CRM systems can also give customer facing staff detailed information on customers’ personal information, purchase history, buying preferences and concerns.

Components of CRM

At the most basic level, CRM software consolidates customer information and documents into a single CRM database. Some functions include recording various customer interactions over email, phone, social media or other channels; depending on system capabilities, automating various workflow automation processes, such as tasks, calendars and alerts; and giving managers the ability to track performance and productivity based on information logged within the system.

CRM challenges

Data sets need to be connected, distributed and organized so that users can easily access the information they need.

Companies may struggle to achieve a single view of the customer if their data sets aren’t connected and organized in a single dashboard or interface.

CRM systems work best when companies spend time cleaning up their existing customer data to eliminate duplicate and incomplete records before they supplement CRM data with external sources of information.