Customer Relationship Management(CRM)

When we look at the back-office layer of the technology stack, one of the core components is going to be just how an organization keeps track of its customers. These days that usually means a Customer Relationship Management tool, or a CRM.

Customer Relationship Management or what most people will call as CRM, is a central system to manage customer relationship data. This information is searchable and accessible across the organization. CRM helps you know your customers. Their needs, so you can engage customers. These insights help organizations create relevant messaging and choose the right touch points.

CRM helps by providing lead generation insights about interactions the customers had with other teams within the organization. The CRM knowledge is fast becoming the must have requirements for any Enterprise Business working with Customers in any Industry.

Goal of CRM:

Now the goal of any CRM is to improve business relationships, all while staying productive as you streamline processes, and in the end hopefully improve profitability.

Below are examples of CRM in other areas.

Example1:

Let’s say you own a food catering business that sells high quality meals created by talented chefs that you deliver on site to companies’ events. As your business grows and you have satisfied repeat customers, how will you manage current and new customers? In this example, a CRM solution could be an integrated app for the drivers to accommodate last minute order changes. Or the app could monitor customer satisfaction, track customer’s ordering history, or share feedback with the chefs. Create a CRM system to share insights internally across the organization, know your customer, and provide them with a relevant, superior experience. indispensable.

Example 2: CRM can track social media posts or email click through rates to help you understand which touchpoints and messages are most relevant. CRM data helps customer-facing employees, like customer service representatives, effectively solve problems. They can quickly pull up a customer’s information, like purchase history or product preferences.

Using CRMs does mean that companies must reinforce and require its usage. A CRM, along with revenue and expense reporting, can give a great overall view of the business, individual sales representatives, channels, and accounts. For performance management analysis, a CRM has become such a valuable tool. CRM basically provides the organization with a central pool, which assures simplicity, security, and scaling of customer interactions.

CRM Tools:

Some of the CRM tools that are available in IT market are

Salesforce CRM, SAP CRM, ZOHO CRM, Oracle CRM, MicrosoftDynamics CRM, Nimble CRM, Sugar CRM, Hub spot CRM, PIPEDRIVE CRM, CRM Creatio etc.

Benefits of CRM:

• It provides a better and improved client/customer relationship.
• It supports improved cross-functionality and thereby increases team collaboration.
• CRM offers strong efficiency in serving clients and more staff satisfaction.
• It reduces cost and manual efforts. 

Drawbacks of NOT using a CRM Tool:

• Without CRM it really gets difficult to manage customer contacts in an excel.
• Manual effort will Increases to a great extent.
• Lesser accessibility of data and lesser customer satisfaction.