CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management
In the
beginning, companies never used to track their customers. The intent
was to gain maximum territory with less or no stress on consolidating
the customers.
This lead to a lot of competition among the companies to reach out to the same customer.
The
customer too did not maintain any loyalty with any company for the
simple reason that he did not get any from the other side.
It was an open field so lot many companies entered the market, therefore, the profitability per company dropped drastically.
Slowly realization dawned that one must keep customers happy and keeping someone happy was not a one-off affair.
But this had an even more basic question to be addressed - Who were the customers?
So
they started building a list of the customers who purchased their
products. Each company wanted their customer to stay with them so they
started being nice to the customer hoping that the customer comes for a
repeat purchase. Over a period of time, the customer too started being
friendly with the business and started vouching for them and spreading
the word for them. This in turn brought more business to the company.
The happiness level raised a few notches.
The companies realised
that it is far more beneficial for them to have a happy customer since
they got more customers as a result of their preaching. So they started
finding out ways and means to find ' How to keep my customer happy?'.
In order to do this, they started tracking
what all does a
customer buy and when all does these sales happen. Over a period of
time, they built a database of the customer behaviour which could tell
them the buying patterns of the customer and this would in turn make
them better prepared to make the customer happy since the customer's
needs could be met on time. So the next time the customer needed
something from the company, the company was ready with it. This
increased the happiness level a few notches more.
After
sometime,the companies started to think how could they push newer
products/services to their existing customer base? They started looking
at their database and tried to figure out which product mix would give
maximum benefit to the customer and in turn to the company.
This
gave the customer access to a much wider list of things that he could
buy and that too which could add value to whatever he has already
purchased. By having the company come out with the relevant products,
the customer did not have to look too far and could buy things
instantly thereby getting instant gratification.
The same logic was applied to the potential customers too.
In this way, CRM helps companies understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers.
What CRM is not?- CRM is NOT about Technology
- CRM is NOT about people
- CRM is NOT about storing/hoarding data
Pre-requisites for getting a CRM
- A customer-centric strategy!
- A customer-centric strategy!
- A customer-centric strategy!
CRM exists for the sole purpose of serving the customer hence a
customer-centric strategy has to be thought of before embarking upon
the thought of getting a CRM.
The entire organization has to be
customer-centric. Then, all the areas from which customer-related data
can be obtained must be sought and then a match with a relevant CRM
system has to be made.
After a proper CRM system is found, one
must still instill the discipline to have the proper data put at the
right time into the CRM system which therefore can be accessed by the
right person at the right time.
A CRM system with suspect data can take down a company faster than the blink of an eye!One
has to be very careful as to what data one puts into the CRM system
and when. Old proper data is as good as junk old data. The data has to
be up-to-date and relevant. Here the discipline that we had talked
about earlier comes to the fore.
Benefits of having a CRM system- Lower costs to attract and retain customers;
- Greater customer loyalty;
- Greater cross-sell and up-sell success
- Improved sales forecasting
- A 360' view of business
- Access to relevant and proper data helping in higher sales
