What Exactly is Customer Relationship Management Services?

The definition of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that I favor is "CRM is the business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of an organization's current and potential customers"

 

From this we can learn that CRM is more than just a piece of software; CRM is a business strategy, one that puts the customer at the heart of the business.

"That's nothing new" I hear you say, and you would be right. Good business people have always understood the relationship between happy customers that come back again and again and creating long term, sustainable profitability.

It is said that a successful CRM implementation will allow your Customer Service, Sales and Marketing people (and anyone else in your organization) to have a holistic view of each and everyone of your customers. 

Sound's great doesn't it!

The History of CRM

Following on from Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP (the business strategy that promised to automate the "back-office"), the term CRM was first coined in the mid-1990s. CRM in those days referred to the software used to help businesses manage their customer relationships. 

First Things First

Successful CRM always starts with a business strategy, which drives change in the organization and work processes, enabled by technology. The reverse rarely works. The key here is to create a truly Customer-Centric philosophy that touches every point and more importantly every person in the company. 

At the same time you should look at your which processes could be re-engineered to make them more effective for your customers. Until you have done this, put away your chequebook!

The Future

CRM has already made a big impact in the world of Customer Service and will continue to do so. As more and more companies become customer-centric those that fail to do so will lose competitive advantage. As technology increases to develop at a startling rate the key emphasis will be how we can fully utilise it within our business. However let's not lose sight of the fact that Customer Relationship Management is about people first and and technology second..

CRM may or may not prove to be the answer to providing excellent customer care, but the philosophy of putting customers at the heart of our business is definitely a step in the right direction.