CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management; a business approach aimed at achieving favorable relationships with its customers through understanding their needs and requirements and anticipating their behaviors.
Managing relationships with their customers thoughtfully helps companies ensure that their services are as closely aligned with customer expectations as possible. The better you understand your customers, the more responsive you will be to them. In return, you will get customer loyalty and retention from the customer.
Exactly what does a CRM enable?
- Knowing customers’ preferences, opinions and buying habits;
- Profiling contacts to send targeted, customized, and more effective communications;
- Increase synergy between business divisions, such as marketing and sales;
- Increase the likelihood that customer service will resolve any customer issues.
What types of CRMs exist?
There are multiple types of CRMs on the market, which typically fall into four categories, based on their main function.
Analytical CRM
It aims to improve customer satisfaction through the activity of analysis. Analyzing customer data allows management to quickly understand customer needs and, from a macro perspective, market trends. Analytical CRM often uses data mining (the activity of extracting useful information from huge amounts of data) and pattern recognition to accomplish this task.
For which companies is it optimal? We recommend it for those operating in markets with a lot of competition.
Strategic CRM
It aims to put customers first by developing value propositions for them. To understand this better, just think of the contrast between corporate cultures focused on product (creating the best and superior product so that it is chosen over competing products), production (cutting costs to come up with products with lower prices than competitors) or sales (convincing the customer of one’s superiority through sales techniques). A satisfied customer returns frequently. In short, if we wanted to reduce this concept to a cliché, we would say, “The customer is always right.”
We recommend it for companies that can adapt quickly to market changes.
Operational CRM
It aims to automate all processes that enable customer relationship, so customer service, marketing and sales. It is an outstanding lead generation tool because it can process customer data from past marketing campaigns, purchases, and service feedback. The ultimate goal is to improve efficiency and synergy between processes.
We recommend it for business-to-consumer and short sales cycle realities.
Collaborative CRM
It aims to improve the customer experience by sharing information with external companies, data that you would not have had access to directly. By combining the data, a particularly clear picture of the customer’s needs, wants and desires can be obtained.
It is a solution often preferred by companies in development and innovation-focused industries, where having access to a 360-degree overview of the customer is extremely valuable.
Why counseling
As we hope is clear from reading this article, we are not simply talking about purchasing software. You also need to adapt it not only to the needs of your customers, but also to the corporate culture of your reality. The F1 Consulting & Services team offers advice after a careful assessment of the market you operate in and your real needs, implementing CRM solutions that include calls, chats, emails and other marketing materials.
