What is a business? Before getting into CRM system, let us start with the basics. First we need to understand that what business refers to and how CRM or customer and customer relations come into play. So, a business is like an organization that is involved in the production of some services or some goods and these are delivered to customers or clients. Thus we have to understand that customers are a major part of this business as the business merely exists just to satisfy their needs and uses. So customer relations should play a vital part in the conduction of a business in proper terms.
Customer Relationship Management is a term used to refer to strategies, policies or technologies that are used by companies to analyse and thus manage customer interactions. Various data is collected throughout the customer lifecycle and this is employed in improving the business relationships with customers. This increases customer retention and increases sales growth.
CRM systems are so designed that they can be used to compile the customer data across various sources and devices or the connection networks between customer and company. They are also used to give the customer executives detailed information about the customer – personal information, history of purchases or preferences and concerns.
A lot of relevant information is generated by the sales team. But they may be noted in a haphazard manner, and information that is not sorted out and kept in a proper fashion can easily get lost. Proper usage of such data can become the key factor in deciding the further sales growth of the company. Furthermore, customers could be contacting with the help of different platforms and giving relevant hints through questions, proper follow-up or complaints. Thus these customer interactions can become the basis of a huge growth of the company or business. Managing all these is what is referred to as Customer Relationship Management.