Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) includes any applications that are customer-related. CRM typically includes the following:

• Contact and Lead Management
• Sales Force Management
• Partner Management
• Customer Service
• Reporting and Analysis

Benefits

• Manage your sales and customer service functions more efficiently and effectively so you can do more work and reduce costs.
• Increase visibility into customer trends to adjust strategy

Considerations

Below are some factors to think about when deciding whether CRM software may be the right fit for you:

• Application Type

  CRM functionality can be found in stand-alone applications and within other business management applications. You will need to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each approach relative to your business needs. For CRM and individual application approaches, keep in mind how integration will be handled for key customer information like contact data, orders and inventory. Shown below are the types of applications to consider.

  • CRM Suite
  • Niche/Vertical/Industry CRM Suite
  • Accounting/Business Management/ERP Suite
  • Individual CRM applications
• Define Requirements

  Since CRM suites include many applications, it is crucial that you first draft the requirements of what your business needs.

• Number of Customers or Salespeople

  Do you have enough customers or salespeople to justify the expense?

• Number of Users

  Ensure that the CRM application will be a fit for the number of users you will need over the next several years.

Features

• Sales
  • Sales pipeline management
  • Partner management
  • Sales orders
• Customer Service
  • Help desk
• General
  • Contact management
  • Reporting and analysis
  • Communication - the ability to initiate, receive and track all communications for a customer in any communication channel.
  • To-do lists and reminders

Implementation Options