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Customer Relationship Management (CRM): What It Means

Chidiogo Akaelu

Alliance InfoTech

  A lot of people neglect certain fundamentals in business management and one of these key areas is the customer relationship. It is good that you are producing quality products or rendering top-notch services, but you need to also pay attention to the customers you are serving and have a good B2C (Business to Customer) relationship.
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This is where CRM comes in. According to an article by Tech Target, “Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle”. The main purpose of engaging in CRM is to ensure that there is a healthy and lasting relationship between the business and the customer. It also ensures that the customer does not have a one-off encounter with the business, but is actively retained. Some common ways of maintaining this relationship are through live chats, business websites, email lists and other marketing tools. CRM systems help to compile customer purchase history and reviews which aid the business in gathering necessary data to be able to improve on the quality of service, in regards to the interests and preferences of the customer.

Components Of CRM

Basically, this refers to the systems in place to collate and record customer information on a database for easy access. These components include: This is the process of integrating the details of a prospective customer that has had one contact or the other with the business to the marketing funnel. In turn, the system can automatically shoot marketing emails to the prospective customer. The purpose of this is to fully convert the prospect to an actual customer and to work your way in to retain the customer.
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HRM is a major department in any company. This department is responsible for managing the internal workflow as regards hiring, maintaining and firing employees within the company. It is a vital system for CRM because it ensures effective management from the inside out. You can’t possibly achieve a good customer relationship when the house is in a mess. Therefore, contact information, remuneration and performance reviews are all integrated into this system. Ever had to visit the contact centre of your network provider to resolve an issue? Probably you have. How swift and convenient was it? You would agree that it is not the best way to resolve issues. That is why such network providers have started building systems that respond to customers via calls, websites, chat boxes, etc. It is the same with any business rending services or delivering products. Instead of going through the rigorous processes of the manual contact centres, they should be automated to improve customer experience. This records the sales leads, with respect to the customer’s interaction with the funnel. Here, the sales department is able to collate and analyze the leads in order to ensure viable results. Also referred to as Geolocation Technology, this technology is often employed in the CRM to create geographic marketing campaigns and target customers based on their geographic locations. This is a very effective system as it helps the business to be more focused in terms of providing value-based on location needs. Other explorable CRM components include workflow automation, analytics and project management. To create that B2C relationship that is beneficial to your business, you need to factor in these processes and get your customers hooked and loyal to your brand. Featured Image Source: Alliance InfoTech
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