What is a CRM System?

By Kevin Chan, Director of Sales, Lava Protocols

I recently asked this question to a few people and generally they tell me, “Oh, CRM has got something to do with customer service”. Six out of ten of my friends have said this and well, they aren’t wrong, just inaccurate.

According to Wikipedia:

Customer  relationship  management (CRM) is a widely implemented model for managing a company’s interactions with  customers,  clients,  and  sales prospects. It involves using technology to organise, automate, and synchronise business  processes—principally  sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.

The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients; nurture and retain those the company already has; entice former clients back into the fold; and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.

Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business  strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments. Measuring and valuing customer relationships is critical to implementing this strategy.

According to destinationcrm. com :

And while the definition by Wikipedia is correct, I feel that the editors of destinationcrm.com have a better interpretation. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a company-wide business strategy designed to reduce costs  and increase profitability by solidifying customer satisfaction, loyalty, and  advocacy.

Watch This: Cloud Horizon – Ep.1 – What is a CRM System?

True CRM brings together information from all data sources within an organisation (and where appropriate, from outside the organisation) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real-time. This allows customer-facing employees in such areas as sales, customer support, and marketing to make quick  yet informed decisions on everything from cross selling and up-selling opportunities to target marketing strategies  to  competitive positioning tactics.

CRM in today’s world has evolved from just keeping track of who your customers are, to truly managing the  ever changing markets where retention of customers is as important as increasing ArPus (average revenue per user) through cross-selling and up-selling.

The people throughout a company —  from the CEO to each and every employee or customer  service  rep — need to trust, support, and believe the effectiveness of a good CRM system. At some point, a company’s business process must  be re-engineered  to bolster its CRM initiative, often from the view of, how can this process better serve the customer or how can the company’s new product benefits the current base of customers?

Firms must select the right technology to drive these improved processes, provide the best data to the employees, and it must be easy enough to operate such that users won’t feel frustrated and give up.

For CRM to be truly effective, an organisation must convince its staff that change is good and that CRM will benefit them. Then it must analyse its business processes to decide which needs to be re-engineered and how best to go about it.

Next is to decide what kind of customer information is relevant and how it will be used.

Finally, a team of carefully selected executives must choose the right technology to automate what needs to be automated.

CRM in today’s world has evolved from just keeping track of who your customers are, to truly managing the ever changing markets where retention of customers is as important as increasing ARPUs through cross-selling and up-selling.”

Here are five ways in which CRM can boost a company’s customer relationship:

1. Get more out of established customers.

Even when money is tight, there are opportunities to sell more to some of your existing customers. The trick is to use effective techniques and offer the right merchandise or service at the right time.

One of CRM’s greatest strengths is that it collects and organizes information about customers and allows a company to analyze the data for future opportunities.

For example, use CRM data to do a needs-based segment analysis of various classes of customers. Needs-based analysis involves taking the customers’ perspective and identifying what they need but aren’t purchasing.

Using this information, companies can develop a sales strategy that will allow the company to offer products in an appealing way. This can mean packaging new goods and services along with products the customers have already purchased and offering them at an attractive price or with other incentives.

2. Identify and concentrate on the company’s best customers.

While every customer is important when business is slow, some are worth more than others. By allocating your sales efforts accordingly, a company can produce more revenue per sales hour and higher average sales.

CRM systems also contain tools for analyzing a company’s customer base so that a company can categorise its customers. Sometimes the analysis will turn up surprising, and even counter-intuitive. The customer who gives you an order on every sales call may not be worth as much as the customer who orders infrequently but buys larger quantities.

Companies can also use CRM analytical tools to slice and dice your customer base beyond simply ranking by revenue.

3.  Target customer development efforts.

Just because the economy is in a slump, it doesn’t mean that the company should stop trying to attract new customers. However, like everything else in a recession, this must be done more efficiently. This implies paying closer attention to lead analysis such as using CRM data to determine where a lead is at the buying cycle.

4.  Keep existing customers loyal.

In a recession, existing customers are gold. Customer satisfaction covers a lot of ground, but basically it involves two ideas: keep your promises to customers and also meet their demonstrated needs.

CRM can help you with both of these. CRM can be used to ensure you’re meeting customers’ needs as much as possible. This includes efficient handling of after-sales contacts such as service calls, resolving customer concerns or offering the customer the right mix of products at the right prices.

5.  Work smarter, not harder.

CRM lets a company sales and customer support reps work smarter. With better information at their finger tips and best practices codified into your business policies, companies can optimise service for customers and maximize revenue.

Want to know what’s the best CRM system for your business? Email us at asklava@lavaprotocols.com or call us at 03-7885 9720.

Lava is a cloud solutions provider and an authorised Salesforce Partner in Malaysia. We have more than a decade of experience in cloud solutions which includes marketing automation, CRM implementation, change management, and consultation. We pride ourselves in not just being a CRM partner but in also understanding the needs of our customers and taking their business to the next level.