A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a software system that helps businesses manage their interactions with customers and potential customers. It is a technology for managing all your companys relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. A CRM system can help businesses stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability. It replaces the multitude of spreadsheets, databases, and apps that many businesses patch together to track client data. A CRM system can give you a clear overview of your customers, including their previous history with you, the status of their orders, any outstanding customer service issues, and more. It can even include information from their public social media activity, such as their likes and dislikes, what they are saying and sharing about you or your competitors.
A CRM system can help businesses in the following ways:
- Organize and centralize customer information for easier access and customer support
- Optimize sales and marketing
- Improve customer retention
- Automate menial, but necessary, sales funnel and customer support tasks
- Track customer sentiments, such as the likelihood they will recommend products and their overall customer satisfaction, to develop marketing and service strategies
- Identify trends and insights about customers through reporting and visualization features
- Enhance the customers overall experience
CRM systems have traditionally been used as sales and marketing tools, but customer service and support is a rising segment of CRM and a critical piece in managing a holistic customer relationship. Today’s customer might raise an issue in one channel, say, Twitter, and then switch to email or telephone to resolve it in private. A CRM system helps businesses track information and interactions between the company and customers, automate parts of the sales cycle, and improve communication.
