Customer Relationship Management, or CRM in short, is the method a company employs to manage its relationship with customers. The method not only involves manpower to undertake a process that builds and strengthens a customer’s relationship with the organization, but also software and internet capabilities.
CRM software is basically a database solution that provide feature to store and retrieve customers' information to great details. The software solution is usually used by management, sales employees and service employees etc. to understand the customer behavior and trends and effective manage their retail business to satisfy the needs of the customers.
CRM features may vary from industry to industry but all will enable:
1. The marketing department to identify their best customer formulates and manages marketing strategies and campaigns, generate sales lead for team.
2. Optimize and ease share of information among multiple employees, streamline existing processes and assist the retail business to improve sales via telemarketing, accounts management and sales management.
3. Identify most profitable customer and provide qualitative information to ensure personalized relationship to improve sales further and generate profit.
4. Provide information to the employees that will help them to understand their customers better, develop a stronger relationship between the customer and the retail business.
History of CRM
With the advancement of technology came ecommerce and with it e-customers. Since online stores are open round the clock customers also expect to reach the store 24 hours. This trend created new demand on the retail business and since traditional ERP did not provide much facility for customer management CRM work formed.
The recent trend of manufacturers producing less distinguishable goods and concentrating more on customer relationship to make sales complemented with the advancement of technology so much so that it is now possible to store all form of information in a single system and share it with remote outlet is driving the CRM system forward.
Why is CRM important?
Consumers now a day have higher spending power then they did a decade ago. This sudden boost of spending power has pushed all retailers and manufacturers to develop products and sell them to customers not only in terms of quality but also in terms of relationship and support. This need for direct marketing to the customers can not only bring in more revenue from the same customer but also build up the customer base through referrals.
To enable your retail business to build a sound customer base it is vital to store customer data and be able to use the information to make vital strategic planning.
Some other benefits:
- Customer queries can be replied faster
- Efficiency increases via automation
- Provides deeper knowledge and understanding on customer behavior
- Increases cross selling and marketing opportunities
- Identify profitable customers
- Accepting and recording customer feedback enabling the retail business to serve their customers better
- Increased one-to-one marketing opportunities
- Gather information to share with retail business partners and develop strategies
See also Make Your Customers Crazy About You.