What is CRM?

Customer Relationship Management software

CRM is one of the most complex and feature-loaded software tools out in the market. If you asked 20 people what CRM is, chances are, their answers are all fairly different. And that’s alright.

CRM stands for customer relationship management. In a customer relationship, there are many aspects, which is where CRM gets heavy. The main three components involved in CRM are typically sales, marketing, and support.

Sales CRM helps you maintain all customer contact information, track communication history and tasks, funnel management, and analytics. CRMs for sales are great because they lift your business not only for new customer acquisition, but also for post-sale success and up-sell opportunities.

Marketing in CRM helps drive campaigns and gives great insights as to what content and messaging is working to drive business. In the process of bettering your company brand, it can help you develop a stronger value proposition to your followers. Stay engaged with customers through email marketing to help build loyalty and repeat business.

Issues happen in every business. This is where support CRM comes into play and can help you effectively operationalize solving issues and tickets for customers. Whether it is through online chat, submitted support tickets, email, or phone, support within CRM helps you give acknowledgement to your customer of their issue and an ability for quick resolve and team delegation.

CRM is game-changing for your business because it enables you to provide better client experiences and grow these relationships over time. A customer may not move forward now, but they may in a year or two. With strategic added fields and groups in your CRM, you can maintain that information of why the customer was interested 3 years ago and pick up right where you left off for the next interaction.

Yes, CRM can be overwhelming. According to CSO Insights, 43% of CRM customers use fewer than half the features at their disposal in their CRM.

The best thing you can do is simplify. Where is the opportunity for you to grow your business? New customer acquisition? Up-sell? Service? Marketing? Re-engagement?

Start with one area and grow from there.