Customer relationship management (CRM) What is it? ✽
CRM is a combination of all the necessary business strategies, software, and processes that would help companies to achieve a long-lasting relationship with their customers. There is a functionality that allows for tracking the interactions between the customers and companies in certain channels such as phone calls, emails, or even contact forms.
All businesses need to come up with processes, strategies, techniques, and tools to help them build long-lasting relationships with their customers and interact better with new customers in order to attract them towards the brand.
CRM can help the companies understand the customer behavior patterns, personal information, overall purchase history and more thus making it easier to interact and engage with the customer and providing for their needs better.
CRM can also include other features that are helpful to the company such as tracking and measuring the company performance and productivity. The CRM software can also remind employees of important tasks that need to be completed in a certain timeframe.
Other features of CRM are that it can run pre-scheduled activities such as sending emails and initiating phone calls. All the activities done through the CRM is recorded and allow you to make the necessary changes to close deals and any potential sales.
Some CRM software have a feature that allows analytics capabilities, this makes it possible for users to track the efficiency of marketing efforts that help in conversions and lead generation. There are different types of CRM as well as many benefits for this digital marketing service.
Types of CRM
There are two main types of CRM which are On-premise CRM and Cloud-based CRM, each type fulfills certain requirements for the companies and they both have certain distinct features that could be considered when choosing the best type of CRM for you, these are as follows:
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On-premise CRM |
Cloud-based CRM |
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The license needs to be purchased beforehand |
Easy expansion of functionality as the business grows |
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Usually purchased by companies that have strong security policies |
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Longer implementation time and more IT resources. |
Only requires a strong internet connection |
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Technical support is provided after the implementation stage to solve critical issues. |
Requires a monthly or annual fee |
Benefits of CRM
CRM has many benefits for business and some of these benefits are as follows:
- Recording customer purchases and interactions which can result in better and faster interaction with the customer.
- Collection of customer data that can help the business to know what trends the customer follows and gain more insight about the customer that can help through reporting and visualizing.
- Can automate necessary sales funnels and customer support tasks.
History of CRM
The beginning of CRM as we know it today was in the 1980s where Rober Shaw and Kate Kestenbaum who were the pioneers of database marketing started statistically analyzing customer databases to see which customers are more likely to be affected by a marketing campaign.
There are people who also say that CRM was first invented by the hands of Pat Sullivan and Mike Muhney who introduced ACT or Automated Contact Tracking which is considered as the first automated CRM. Although it went through many changes including its name, it still exists today.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that CRM was introduced as a product by two companies called Goldmine and Maximiser which are still present today. Different forms of CRM software were introduced and the market skyrocketed since multinational companies purchased them.
Get your CRM started with the help of Entasher.com
Entasher.com has Digital marketing agencies that provide CRM services to their clients. The agencies provide high-quality services with excellent results for their clients. To view the agencies that provide CRM service on entasher.com please visit: https://entasher.com/s/-crm-systems/
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