What is CRM? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and was first coined in the 1990s. The literal and original meaning of the expression “Customer Relationship Management” was, simply, managing the relationship with your customer. Today it is used to describe IT systems and software designed to help you manage this relationship.
Like many buzzwords, the term CRM has been adopted by IT system vendors to fit their particular product. For example, CRM might be used to describe a Cloud CRM systems for sales people using Sales Force Automation. It might also be used to describe a system for marketers using Marketing Automation. It can even refer to customer Helpdesks systems and such automating technology.
According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, “The generally accepted purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable organizations to better serve their customers through the introduction of reliable processes and procedures for interacting with those customers”. Which is as good a definition as any.
CRM systems were the must-have products at the height of the internet bubble in 2000/2001. There followed a few years of disillusionment as expensive systems were late and then failed to deliver the results to meet the raised expectations of the users. The Gartner Group, a US firm of analysts, have a Hype Cycle graph showing the traditional pattern of a slow start, followed by unjustified euphoria, down to disillusionment and back to a level of realisable sanity. Which is where we are today, at last.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. It helps you stay connected to them, streamline processes and improve your profitability.
More commonly, when people talk about CRM they are usually referring to a CRM system, a tool which helps with contact management, sales management, productivity and more.
Customer Relationship Management enables you to focus on your organisation’s relationships with individual people – whether those are customers, service users, colleagues or suppliers. CRM is not just for sales. Some of the biggest gains in productivity can come from moving beyond CRM as a sales and marketing tool and embedding it in your business – from HR to customer services and supply-chain management.
