Working within a business you will hear the term Customer Relationship Management or CRM being thrown about everywhere but what actually is it? What is the goal of customer relationship management?
People assume that it is a term used for looking after your customers, creating customer incentives or encouraging them to visit you again. It isn’t. It is much more than that. CRM is a system that allows businesses to manage, track and review their relationships with other businesses as well as their customers. By storing the data collected you are able to access it by multiple users at once, allocate it to various departments and identify prospects, leads and sales opportunities all from the one place. Through having a CRM in place, you are able to deliver the highest level of customer service whilst maximizing your businesses efficiency.
The main goal in any business is customer satisfaction because without the customers, you don’t have a business. Using a CRM to aid you in the process can have excellent results. It is not designed to do the work for you and as we all know, customers like the personal touch and interaction but CRM can definitely help you behind the scenes. It can organize the data that has been inputted, notifying you of any upcoming events or tasks that you need to complete and organize the data so that it is easy for you to read and assess. Through using the CRM effectively you will find that you have extra time to source new leads or to spend with your customers.
Now putting the customers aside, what is the goal of customer relationship management within your business?
Implementing a CRM into your business gives you several areas where vast improvement can be noticed. Data that is entered can be accessed by multiple users over several departments meaning that everyone has access to the most current and accurate information at any one time. I have worked in a few offices where vital information was not shared willingly and it only led to delays, confusion and frustration, for us and the customer. You are also able to save time on your processes by allowing the CRM to automate where possible. If you, as a rule, send out emails to each of your customers on the 1st of each month, allow the CRM to do it for you so that you have an extra 10 minutes to work with that day. CRM can also help the business reduce it’s level of operating costs by retrieving information faster, helping you make better-informed decisions, providing fast accurate responses and lowering overhead costs. No more filling filing cabinets full of paper!
To conclude, the goal of customer relationship management is to:
- Minimize information loss
- Access information quickly and easily
- Allow everyone to work together with shared information
- Cross-sell more effectively
- Reduce costs and save money on supplies
- Discover new customers whilst retaining the old ones
- Provide high levels of customer service