CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer information.

There are three aspects of CRM which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:

Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary.

One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact “channels” in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time.

Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call centre agents.

Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for a variety of different purposes, including feedback and issue-reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such as web pages, email, automated phone (Automated Voice Response AVR) or SMS.

The objectives of Collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.

Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM analyses customer data for a variety of purposes

The technology requirements of a CRM strategy can be complex and far reaching. The basic building blocks include

• A database to store customer information. This can be a CRM specific database or an Enterprise Data warehouse.
• Operational CRM requires customer agent support software.
• Collaborative CRM requires customer interaction systems, eg an interactive website, automated phone systems etc.
• Analytical CRM requires statistical analysis software as well as software that manages any specific marketing campaigns.

A typical CRM system is subdivided into three basic sub modules:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Service