What Is CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) uses information technology to create a cross-functional enterprise system that integrates and automates many of the customer-serving processes in sales, marketing and customer services that interact with a company’s customers.
Contact and Account Management
CRM software helps sales, marketing, and service professionals capture and track relevant data about every past and planned contact with prospects and customers, as well as other business and life cycle events of customers.
Sales
A CRM system provides sales reps with the software tolls and company data sources they need to support and manage their sales activities and optimize cross-selling and up-selling. Cross-selling is an approach in which a customer of one product or service might also be interested in purchasing a related product of service. Up-selling refers to the process of finding ways to sell a new or existing customer a better product than they are actually seeking.
Marketing and Fulfillment
CRM systems help marketing professionals accomplish direct marketing campaigns by automating such tasks as qualifying leads for targeted marketing and scheduling and tracking direct marketing mailings. Then the CRM software helps marketing professionals capture and manage prospect and customer response data in the CRM database and analyze the customer and business value of a company’s direct marketing campaigns. CRM also assists in the fulfillment of prospect and customer responses and requests by quickly scheduling sales contacts and providing appropriate information about products and services to them, while capturing relevant information for the CRM database.
A CRM system provides service reps with software tolls and real-time access to the common customer database shared by sales and marketing professionals. CRM helps customer service managers create, assign, and manage requests for service by customers.
Retention and Loyalty Programs
Enhancing and optimizing customer retention and loyalty is a major business strategy and primary objective of customer relationship management. CRM systems try to help a company identify, reward, and market to their most loyal and profitable customers.
