CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
3.1 Definition
Customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize 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.
The term CRM, arguably, was first put into the public domain around 1993, when Tom Siebel came up with it. So it is closely connected to Siebel Systems an IT company. Many executives are under the misconception that CRM is principally an IT implementation, which explains many of its failures and there have been many of them. If technology is applied to a faulty business strategy, all that is going to happen is that the company is going to become more efficient at doing the wrong things. If the core business strategy isn't put right first, we'll have failure.
As we view CRM more as a strategy than a process, get the business strategy right first. Decide which customers or segments to target. Develop sensible customer acquisition, retention and development plans. Sort out the channel strategy first (direct or indirect) then sort out which products, services, bundles of value to offer the chosen customers. Once that's in position, then start looking for IT to support it but not until then.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can also refers to the methodologies and tools that help businesses manage customer relationships in an organized way. For small businesses, customer relationship management includes:
- CRM processes that help identify and target their best customers, generate quality sales leads, and plan and implement marketing... [continues]
3.1 Definition
Customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize 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.
The term CRM, arguably, was first put into the public domain around 1993, when Tom Siebel came up with it. So it is closely connected to Siebel Systems an IT company. Many executives are under the misconception that CRM is principally an IT implementation, which explains many of its failures and there have been many of them. If technology is applied to a faulty business strategy, all that is going to happen is that the company is going to become more efficient at doing the wrong things. If the core business strategy isn't put right first, we'll have failure.
As we view CRM more as a strategy than a process, get the business strategy right first. Decide which customers or segments to target. Develop sensible customer acquisition, retention and development plans. Sort out the channel strategy first (direct or indirect) then sort out which products, services, bundles of value to offer the chosen customers. Once that's in position, then start looking for IT to support it but not until then.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can also refers to the methodologies and tools that help businesses manage customer relationships in an organized way. For small businesses, customer relationship management includes:
- CRM processes that help identify and target their best customers, generate quality sales leads, and plan and implement marketing... [continues]
Cite This Essay
- APA
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(2010, 06). Customer Relationship Management. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 06, 2010, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Customer-Relationship-Management-349252.html
- MLA
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"Customer Relationship Management" StudyMode.com. 06 2010. 06 2010 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Customer-Relationship-Management-349252.html>.
- CHICAGO
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"Customer Relationship Management." StudyMode.com. 06, 2010. Accessed 06, 2010. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Customer-Relationship-Management-349252.html.
