Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is defined as an information system which integrates such aspects as planning, scheduling as well as the control of pre and post-sale activities within various businesses. It is also a series of business strategies and technologies used to create intimate client/customer relationships.
CRM analysts and statisticians study valuable information related to different customer habits and behaviour so they are able to create methods aimed at increasing productivity, popularity and of course profit. Meanwhile, automated CRM converts analysed data into marketing strategies for firms.
CRM is beneficial in a number of different ways. For instance, it provides managers with critical tools used to analyse consumer behaviour, improve business integration and provide valuable feedback to fully understand the corporation’s return on investment or ROI.
Both large and small businesses do use CRM as an absolute methodology for pursuing goals which complement the principles and philosophy of a company.
As far as career prospects are concerned, CRM plays a major role in technology, marketing, administration as well as professional services. Interested individuals can study the very basic concepts of CRM, technical aspects, CRM Architecture, function and potential of CRM, integration and maintenance of CRM in all areas of business solutions etc.
Technology Consideration
Whilst CRM is not a technology, it is noteworthy that there are a whole range of technical issues which need considering when a firm embarks on implementing a CRM system. Scalability is the very first technical issue that needs analysing. Put simply, the system must be extremely scalable and information value within the CRM system should be infinite. It must also be able to constantly grow as more information is collected by the company.
The most scalable CRM systems are naturally the most valuable. The company must also pay close attention to communication. The major goal of CRM is to build and maintain a strong bond with the customers.
In order to be successful with this, a company must be able to effectively communicate with their customers. It simply is not enough to employ one method of communication. In fact, they should try and use multiple forms of business communication, including the telephone, television, magazine, radio, Internet etc.
When a company can effectively communicate with those they serve, they’re bound to become successful. In addition, it is also quite important companies look at workflow, which simply means the business processes used to track and maintain beneficial information.
Getting information is not quite enough for a company to become successful and established in the market. They must also be able to process and analyse the information received. Apart from that, it is also vitally important for companies to take into account the assignment, a term used to provide particular requests to a group or individual. The correct assignments given to the proper entities will enable a company to reach their goals once such assignments have been completed.
Operational CRM
In a nutshell, Operational CRM is all about supporting business processes in the front office, including customer contact e.g. marketing, sales, service etc. Resulting tasks and relevant information are then forwarded to responsible employees to carry them out. Various interfaces to many back-end applications are instantly provided and customer activities are thoroughly documented for future reference.
Operational CRM typically entails 3 areas of business:
Sales force automation or SFA – this one automates the company’s critical sales and functions, for instance, contact management, account management, forecasting, quote management, sales administration, demographics, buying habits and performance management. Critical tools are design to boost sales productivity. Mobile synchronisation as well as integrated product configuration
Customer service and support or CSS – here, complaints, service requests, information request and product returns are automated. Traditional help desk and call-centre support for all sorts of enquiries are evolved into the so-called ‘customer interaction centre’ or CIC, which uses such multiple channels as phone, fax, web, kiosk, face-to-face etc. One of the key infrastructure requirements is computer telephony integration or CTI, providing high processing capability as well as reliability.
Enterprise marketing automation or EMA – this type of operational CRM provides information about all aspects of the business environment, from competitors to industry trends and macroeconomic variables. Put simply, it’s the execution side of lead and campaign management. EMA applications are intended to improve and maintain marketing campaign efficiencies. Some of the most notable functions include variable segmentation, demographic analysis and predictive modelling on the Business Intelligence side.
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM consists of customer migration analysis, segmentation studies, new customer models, cross-sell analysis, merchandising analysis, customer contact optimisation, customer attrition, credit risk scoring and much, much more. Analytical CRM is totally different from its brother – operation CRM, which is mainly focused on interaction systems and refers to touch point.
Analytical CRM is also a major source of great power. For instance, the majority of marketers promote to the customer based upon their present value, but customer value changes all the time. It is not easy to predict how your customers will move or modify that particular movement in a satisfying direction. Customer analysis can help you to communicate and promote to your many customers in such ways which move them up the long value chain.
As there are countless analytical application options, it’s important to the right application and model which will pay worthwhile dividends over the long short and long run. Everyone wants to locate technologies which have the potential to grow and evolve with their business. To accommodate the many analytic tools needed to execute their strategy, they will need a fully integrated knowledge base.
Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM is an important approach to CRM, in which the many departments of a company, be it marketing, sales and technical support share any kind of information collected from interactions with various customers.
For instance, customer feedback collected from a customer support session could be used to update marketing staff about services and products which might be of interest to prospective customers.
The main purpose of collaborative CRM is to improve the customer service quality and consequently maximise customer satisfaction and most importantly loyalty.