Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) covers methods and technologies used by companies to manage their relationships with clients. Information stored on existing customers (and potential customers) is analyzed and used to this end. Automated CRM processes are often used to generate automatic personalized marketing based on the customer information stored in the system.

There are three fundamental components in CRM:

A. Operational - automation of basic business processes (marketing, sales, service)
B. Analytical - analysis of customer data and behavior using business intelligence
C. Collaborative - communicating with clients.

A.Operational CRM

Operational CRM provides automated support to "front office" business processes (sales, marketing and service). Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary

1.Sales force automation (SFA) or Sales force management systems
2.Customer service and support (CSS)
3.Enterprise marketing automation (EMA)

B.Analytical

Analytical CRM analyses data (gathered as part of operational CRM, or from other sources) in an attempt to identify means to enhance a company's relationship with its clients. The results of an analysis can be used to design targeted marketing campaigns, for example:

* Acquisition: Cross-selling, Up-selling
* Retention: Retaining existing customers (antonym: customer attrition)
* Information: Providing timely and regular information to customers

C.Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM focuses on the interaction with customers (personal interaction, letter, fax, phone, Internet, e-mail etc.) Collaborative CRM includes:

* Providing efficient communication with customers across a variety of communications channels
* Providing online services to reduce customer service costs
* Providing access to customer information while interacting with customers