CRM Tutorial
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is an information system that integrates planning, scheduling and the control of pre-sale and post-sale activities within businesses. CRM is a series of technologies and business strategies used to create formidable customer/client relationships. CRM Analysts study stored information related to customer’s habits and behaviors to create methods that increase productivity, profit and popularity. Marketing Strategies are created out of analyzed data from automated CRM.
CRM provides businesses with tools that can be used to analyze customer behavior, improve integration and provide beneficial feedback to understand the return on investment (ROI) within the corporation. Glen Peterson, well respected author of “ROI: Building the CRM Business Case”, explains that businesses reformatting their business model in addition to their information systems are apt to return profitability and to successively use CRM systems. Large and small business use CRM as a methodology for achieving goals that complement the philosophy and principles of a company.
CRM careers exist in Marketing, Technology, Administration and Professional Services. An individual interested in learning more about CRM can study the basic CRM concepts, CRM Architecture, technical aspects, the potential and function of CRM, Maintenance and integration of CRM in business solutions made available as a series of online tutorials in this section.
CRM Introduction CRM, or Customer relationship management, is a number of strategies and technologies that are used to build stronger relationships between companies and their customers. A company will store information that is related to their customers, and they will spend time analyzing it so that it can be used for this purpose. Some of the methods connected with CRM are automated, and the purpose of this is to create marketing strategies which are targeted towards specific customers. The strategies used will be dependent on the information that is contained within the system. Customer relationship management is commonly used by…
CRM Basics Customer relationship management is a business strategy that companies will use to enhance both their customer service and profits. By increasing the satisfaction of their customers by building a stronger relationship with them, the company can gain new customers, and it can also become highly competitive in the market. While many people use the term CRM to refer to software programs, it is more correctly applied to a broad business strategy. The software is merely a tool that is used to achieve the goals of the company. To understand the basics of CRM, you must first learn a…
CRM Architecture The Customer relationship management architecture can be broken down into three categories, and these are operational, collaborative, and analytical. Each plays an important role in Customer relationship management, and a company that wants to success must understand the importance of using these three components successfully. Operational CRM deals with the automation of certain business processes. An example of business processes that are connected to operational CRM are marketing and sales. When a connection is made to a customer, the information related to this interaction will be automatically stored in a database, and the company can pull up specific…
December 10, 2006
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The History of CRM Customer relationship management is a concept that became very popular during the 1990s. It offered long term changes and benefits to businesses that chose to use it. The reason for this is because it allowed companies to interact with their customers on a whole new level. While CRM is excellent in the long term, those who are looking for short term results may not see much progress. One of the reasons for this is because it was difficult to effectively track customers and their purchases. It is also important to realize that large companies were responsible…
December 10, 2006
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Technical Aspects of CRM While it must be emphasized that CRM is not a technology, there are a number of technical issues that need to be considered when a company decides to implement a CRM system. The first technical issue that needs to be analyzed is scalability. In a nutshell, the CRM system must be very scalable, and the volue of information within the system should never reach an end. It must be able to grow over time as the company collects more information. The CRM systems which are the most scalable are also the most valuable. Another thing that…
December 13, 2006
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Understanding the Potential of CRM An evolution has occured in the CRM industry over the last ten years. While most Customer relationship management systems started out as mere department server systems, the have now become much more integrated. Much of the CRM software available today will function on a portfolio level, and information will be shared between a number of different programs. The newest CRM tools have become very functional with the Internet, and these tools are responsible for the integration of a number of different online services. When CRM systems were first introduced, they were very useful for the…
December 13, 2006
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Understanding The Function of CRM Even though CRM stands for Customer relationship management, there is more to this system than the name suggests. To understand how this system can benefit your business, it is first important to understand the many functions that are connected to it. Customer relationship management is not a linear term, not matter what the name may indicate. In a nutshell, CRM deals with the many interactions a company will have with their customers. The central goal of this system is to improve the relationship that a company has with its customers, and the goal of doing…
December 16, 2006
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Understanding CRM Forums A company that wants to succeed can use forums for the purpose of building a stronger relationship with their customers. At the same time, there are a number of disadvantages to forums that should also be mentioned. If you fail to use them properly, or you abuse them, a forum can become your worst enemy, and can actually hurt your marketing efforts. Overall, forums are a powerful tool that has become very popular with the advent of the Internet. There are a number of reasons for this. First, customers can get together and discuss issues that are…
December 16, 2006
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Guidelines For Using CRM With Financial Products Technology and business practices have continued to change over the last few years. It is not enough for a company to simply implement a CRM system and begin cross selling products. If a company wants to remain competitive, they must take the long term approach that plays an important role in Customer relationship management. If a company is selling financial services, there are a number of guidelines they will want to follow. The first rule is to stop trying to push products on your customers and create relationships which will make them want…
December 19, 2006
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CRM with Internet Chat While CRM is not a technology within itself, it is often used with technological tools to build stronger relationships with customers. The Internet has become an important part of CRM. As more people begin conducting business over the Internet, it has become necessary for CRM vendors to create applications that are web based. There are a number of Internet technologies that are directly connected to CRM and one of these is online chat tools. Internet chat is a communications tool that has existed for a number of years. However, many companies are just now seeing the…
December 19, 2006
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Why Many CRM Projects Fail Customer relationship management is a tool, and like any tool, if it is not used properly, it cannot achieve the goals of those who use it. A number of studies have consistently showed that CRM can greatly increase the customer retention of a company, and it can also help them increase their profits. However, a number of companies fail when attempting to implement are CRM system. Understanding why these companies fail will allow you to avoid the same costly mistakes. It is crucial for companies to realize that Customer relationship management is not a cure…
December 22, 2006
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How To Choose a CRM Tool While CRM is a powerful tool, many companies find that choosing a good programs is a difficult task. This has been the case regardless of industries. Many companies realize that providing a high level of service to their partners and customers is an important part of being successful in the market. The concept of CRM is not as new as it seems. Many small business owners have realize the importance of CRM for a long time, even if they were not familiar with the actual term. Most small business owners realize that customers are…
December 22, 2006
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How To Properly Choose a CRM Solution If you go to CRM trade shows, you will find that many of the vendors place an emphasis on slick packaging rather than a powerful product. While you would think most companies would avoid falling for such marketing tactics, you would be surprised by the number of companies who have lost millions of dollars buying data warehouses, ERP systems, and other tools. In most cases, both vendors and companies fail to look at the big picture. They make the mistake of thinking that technology alone will allow them to achieve success. When the…
December 26, 2006
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How To Select The Best CRM Solution For Your Business When most people talk about Customer relationship management, they use the term in a context that is connected to large corporations. However, the costs of CRM systems have continued to fall in the last few years, and it is now in the price range of many small to medium sized businesses. In addition to this, there are a number of CRM vendors which cater their products towards this market. There are literally hundreds of CRM tools that are specifically designed for small businesses. There are products available for sales automation,…
December 26, 2006
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How To Succeed With CRM If a company wishes to succeed with CRM, they must be willing to integrate every part of their company that is connected to the customers. This includes processes, technologies, and employees. While implementing CRM can bring forth a large number of challenges, the rewards are well worth it. It could be said that the abilityof a company to succeed with CRM is dependent on how they combine their technology, employees, and business processes. The first thing I would like to go over are the people, which in this case refers to the employees of the…
December 30, 2006
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How To Maintain a CRM Project There are a number of risks involved with implementing a Customer relationship management system. Some of these risks are glitches or hiring issues. Not matter how impressive the CRM interface looks, it will be doomed to failure if it does not help the company achieve their goals. To make sure the system is successful, it must be implemented properly. It should be noted that companies that fail to establish well defined goals will fail long before they get to this stage. The implementation and maintenance stage should occur after the company has successfully defined…
December 30, 2006
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How To Avoid Failure When Implementing CRM While Customer relationship management systems can be a bonanza to companies that utilize them properly, they can be costly if a company fails to properly implement them. In addition to this, the relationship that companies have with their customers can be tremendously weakened if privacy concerns are not taken into consideration. The field of CRM has run into a number of problems. Because of economies which have become weaker, many companies are forced into a situation where they must reduce projects that will not bring immediate benefits to their companies. A number of…
How To Combine the Power of CRM With Surveys As the global business market becomes more competitive, many companies realize that they must retain their existing customers. No matter how much money a company has, it cannot remain competitive if it does not place an emphasis on Customer relationship management. To maintain a strong relationship with their customers, a company must know what they want. The best way to find this information is through the use of customer surveys. Customer surveys have become so important that a number of companies are now paying people to take them. While this may…
How To Determine If Your CRM System Will Fail One of the primary reasons why many CRM systems fail is because of the quality of the data. Even if you are using a high end CRM system, your company will have no chance of success if it is processing data that is incorrect or faulty. Fortunately, data quality is one of the easiest problems to fix, if you catch it at the beginning instead of the end. A CRM system can only be as good as the information that it contains or processes. There are a number of things companies…
How To Build Customer Loyalty With CRM In order for a CRM system to become successful, a company must make it an integral part of their philosophy and corporate strategy. As I have stated in previous articles, it is not simply enough to view CRM as simply being another technological solution. It is a paradigm, a method of doing business that will foster a stronger relationship between companies and the customers they provide products and services to. The best way for a company to build strong relationships with their customers is to build up customer loyalty. To do this, a…
