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Introduction
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important part of any companies sales
mix. As part of a sales mix, companies must have a strong sales team; a well planned and
executed marketing strategy, and a method to record pertinent information to manage
customer relations. A CRM system is an important part in any company. They have a
variety of uses from holding basic information such as names and address, to holding other
information including relationship history, contract information, and recording customer
satisfaction levels.
What is a CRM System?
Defining a CRM system is difficult to do at best. These systems can range from something
very simple, to something that is very complex. With this being said however, CRM can
best be described as "methodologies, technologies, and e-commerce capabilities used by
firms to manage customer relationships." Particularly, "CRM software used by companies
acts as an aid in the interaction between the customer and the company, which enables the
company to coordinate all the communication efforts of the company, so that the customer
is presented with a unified message and image."
Defining the Customer
When defining the customer in Customer Relationship Management, the first thought is
usually that the customer is simply the end user of the products, when in fact; CRMs
customers can be suppliers, partners, investors, employees, and other people or entities the
firm may deal with. As a firm, it is important to know who your customers are. In order to
do this, the company will need to collect information each time a customer makes a
purchase or when they come across relevant information about the customer. With this
information, the firm can use this to track purchasing patterns, which will lead to the
identification of the few largest buyers. With this knowledge of the consumer, the firms
can distinguish where most of their business originates; thereby applying the 80/20 rule to
their customers. This rule states that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your
customers. Therefore, maintaining customer relationships with major buyers will help the
company in the long run.
Investors in the firm will need to know specific information that relates to the performance
of the company. Having access to this data is necessary to make informed decisions about
investing in the company. By providing these records to the investors over a common data
source, such as the company website, means that everyinvestor will get the same
information at the same time. This provides another benefit as well. It allows the investors
