What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is an information technology industry term for methodologies, strategies, software, and other web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships. For example, "if a marketing department runs an outbound campaign, all of the information about the customers and the program should be retained for the sales staff to follow up on, the customer service representatives to answer any queries, and technical support to provide any field support. The idea is to have the same information available to all in the company so that every product or service need of the customer is met. CRM implies that everyone in the enterprise is focused on the customer."
Why is CRM Necessary?
Several companies are turning to customer-relationship management systems and strategies to gain a better understanding of their customer's wants and needs. Used in association with data warehousing, data mining, call centers and other intelligence-based applications, CRM "allows companies to gather and access information about customers' buying histories, preferences, complaints, and other data so they can better anticipate what customers will want. The goal is to instill greater customer loyalty."
Other benefits include:
* Faster response to customer inquiries
* Increased efficiency through automation
* Deeper understanding of customers
* Increased marketing and selling opportunities
* Identifying the most profitable customers
* Receiving customer feedback that leads to new and improved products or services
* Obtaining information that can be shared with business partners.
Carolina IT and POS offers two versions of CRM. One for the small business with up to 9 users and another for businesses from 10 to 5000 users. Give us a call to try either out.
