What is CRM?

At Increase CRM, our misson is to help our customers become addictive. We host their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system so that they can get on with generating leads, closing opportunities, providing great service, managing their business and looking after their customers (not their CRM system).

Hard as it is to believe, not everyone we talk to even seems to have heard about CRM. Or if they have heard about CRM, they have a certain preconception. So for the benefit of CRM newbies, here's our definition of CRM:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) describes the processes and systems that an organisation uses to attract and retain profitable customers.

So What is a CRM System?

While we're at it, here's our definition of a CRM system:

A CRM system is a central customer database with features for marketing, sales and service users to help them generate better leads, manage customer accounts and opportunities, solve customer requests and boost customer loyalty. A real-time system also provides managers with the insight they need to make decisions and direct resources to the right places.

Most CRM systems include the following features:

• Marketing - provides marketing users with features for importing customer data, customer and prospect segmentation, planning and executing marketing campaigns, managing direct mail and email communications and qualifying leads. Combined with analysis features – such as campaign performance analysis and lead source reporting – marketing managers can manage campaign budgets and improve lead quality while reducing the cost per lead.
• Sales force automation (SFA) - provides sales people with features for managing contacts and accounts, leads and opportunities, as well as orders and invoices. Combined with management features – such as forecasting and quota mangement, territory management, and pipeline reporting – sales managers can coach the sales team and improve overall performance.
• Service and Support - provides service and support staff with features for managing customer cases and requsts and scheduling services. Combined with management features – such such as knowledgebase management and case origin analysis – customer service and support manager can allocate appropriate resources, resolve customer requests quickly and ensure customer satisfaction.
• Analytics - provides key users and managers with features for running ad-hoc queries, developing reports and building real-time dashboards so that they can make more informed business decisions, and gain strategic insights about customer data and staff performance.