20 or maybe 40 years ago, you would have walked into your local shop and the shopkeeper would have asked you about your family, your holiday and would have known exactly what you normally buy and may even have had a special offer for your favourite product. In short it would have been an enjoyable, personalised experience.
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the software that companies have turned to, in order to try to recreate this personalised experience. Used properly, the company will be able to record the full profile of the customer, what they buy, what complaints they have ever lodged, details of any phonecalls they have received from or made to the company, what sales or marketing campaigns that have been targeted with. The theory being that when the customer rings up, then all previous dealings they have had with the company are available at the fingertips of all company employees, This should result in a better experience for the customer as they are not being asked the same questions each time & they are not being targeted with products they don’t want or need.
There are many different types of CRM software systems available. They range from freeware to multi million euro systems for large organisations.
A spreadsheet with a list of customers and a different column to record every phonecall from them is a type of CRM system, albeit an inefficient one
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Club card schemes from large supermarket chains are a type of CRM system. Without you realising it the supermarket knows how much you spend, when & how often you buy, what different products you buy regularly and which ones you buy occasionally. They will then analyse this information and use it to tailor special offers and even to send out special offer coupons for products you are likely to purchase.
In short a CRM uses the information it holds about customers and prospective customers to try to provide a better customer experience and to increase sales.
From our experience of providing CRM systems for a number of years, I would say that the purchase of the system is only part of the solution. The commitment by the company to the system, the training of all staff in its use and benefits and the management of the change involved in its introduction are more crucial to its success that the system itself.
That is why there have been a large number of high profile failures with CRM (& other software) systems.
