What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Customer Relationship Management has lots of theoretical definitions.

Community definitions of Customer Relationship Management include:

• A lasting customer relationship
• Knowing what drives your customers
• Knowing what your customers are like

We have also asked members of our community about how to define CRM in an easy-to-understand way – particularly in the contact centre / customer service environment.

Here are their definitions of Customer Relationship Management:

1. A Lasting Customer Relationship

CRM is making sure that our customers will be our customers for ever.

Contributed by: Mike Brown

2. Knowing What Drives Your Customers

CRM is determining what drives your customers and also what makes them angry.

Knowing this will help you create one-call resolutions and better handle time on each call.

Contributed by: Ashandra Cruthis

3. Knowing What Your Customers are Like

I would describe it as: knowing and following what your customers like and dislike and shaping the company to suit both ways – toward customers and toward company.

Contributed by: Vladimir Maletin

4. Knowing Your Customers by Name

When I walk into my local, they greet me by name, know what I order and accommodate me appropriately.

CRM is the industrialisation of this process.

Contributed by: Martin Taylor

5. Going Beyond the Service Level Agreement

It’s going above and beyond the contractual obligations and defined service level agreements.

More often than not, organisations meet the expected SLAs as defined in the contract but clients are still unhappy.

Going beyond the service level agreement is making the client see that the team performance is ‘looking’ and ‘feeling’ on their side.

Contributed by: Angela Katimbang

The Definition of CRM Software

…And here are a couple of definitions of CRM software:

A Visible View of a Customer’s Interactions

It’s a fully understood and visible view of a customer’s interactions, across all touchpoints, enabling you to develop intelligent and appropriate messages/conversations/instructions.

Contributed by: Michael Anderson

Giving Everyone in your Team Access to your Customer Database

If used properly, cloud-based CRM software provides everyone in the team with instant access to your customer database, productivity and social media needs, providing a more up-to-date and personal approach to interactions with your customers. A CRM Can Help Improve Customer Experience

Contributed by: Barry John

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell