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.

Pay Per Click Marketing Services

PPC is a mode where the advertiser pays the service provider for the clicks made by various visitors on links to his website. In other words, depending on the number of visitors to the website, the payment is made to the service provider.

What determines the click?

All clicks to the website should not be construed to be a genuine click. One of the driving reasons causing a person to visit the website is the keywords used in the site. To regulate the visitors, the terms should be as clear and crisp as possible. It should be direct and in lucid language. If the advertisement is aimed at a particular group or class of people, then that should be clearly mentioned. This can be achieved by including a proper search term in the advertisement. A well-laid out FAQ with clear cut answers or clarifications will be an added advantage.

Cost:
Many PPC engines allow the advertiser to set the maximum limit for clicks to the website. By this method, the cost can be reduced. Do not bid on keywords and if need be, suitably alter the keywords so that it would result in savings.

Use the search engines:

To have effective PPC, the search engines should be utilized properly. Most of the search engines have provided for proper monitoring of PPC. These mechanisms should be used. The success of PPC depends on how effectively it is monitored.

Small search engines:
Some of the new advertisers try the effectiveness of the advertisement on small search engines. They argue that if there is good response to the website, then it could be rolled on to more popular search engines. But, certainly this is not the right approach.  On the other hand, those small search engines may not have effective Search Engine marketing software and an effective crawling system to improve the quality of their rankings.