Definition:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business philosophy involving identifying, understanding and better providing for your customers while building a relationship with each customer to improve customer satisfaction and maximize profits. It's about understanding, anticipating and responding to customers' needs.

CRM software

To manage the relationship with the customer a business needs to collect the right information about its customers and organize that information for proper analysis and action. It needs to keep that information up-to-date, make it accessible to employees, and provide the know how for employees to convert that data into products better matched to customers' needs.

The secret to an effective CRM package is not just in what data is collected but in the organizing and interpretation of that data. That's where computers come in handy (apart from the Solitaire you can play on them :-)) Computers can't, of course, transform the relationship you have with your customer. That does take a cross-department, top to bottom, corporate desire to build better relationships. But computers and a good computer based CRM solution, can increase sales by as much as 40-50% - as some studies have shown.

An example of a CRM application would be in a car manufacturing business (assuming they sell directly to end users). If they maintained a database of which customers buy what type of product, and when, how often they make that purchase, what type of options they choose with their typical purchase, their color preferences, whether the purchase needed financing etc., the manufacturer knows what marketing material to send out, what new products to promote to each customer, what preferences/options may swing the sale, whether a finance package should be included in the marketing material and when would be a good time to target each customer. They could use the information to build a relationship with the customer by reminding customers of service dates, product recalls, and maybe even to send the customer a birthday card.

So how do you go about choosing a CRM software solution?

Using a consultant could save you time and money. Software resellers are often good first line advisers as they have experience and feedback from selling competing CRM packages. Some resellers offer wider packages including strategic planning and process management.

Want to do the research yourself? Most of the big CRM software manufacturers have extensive advice, pdfs and guides on their sites that reputedly hold your hand through the choosing process. They are likely to be biased, of course, but can be good sources of ideas anyway.

For the beginners, another good place to start would be to make a list of your objectives and the benefits your organization hopes to achieve. When looking at CRM solutions you want to check the features and functionality "out of the box"

- customization is all very nice but it takes time and may not be as easy as you think
- supported platforms in terms of hardware, operating systems, databases, online activities and online ordering systems etc., (not just your back office systems but third party software you use too)
- integration with those systems
- global perspective
- price - preferably a one-off purchase price with no annual license fee.

And look for references, preferably from companies in a similar industry as you. Test their customer service and look for unbiased reviews of the same.

When you've narrowed the field down you can ask each supplier to provide you with a full cost (including mods), time frame for implementation, likely downtimes in your current operations during implementation, breakdown of further costs (including training and licensing).

We have put forward our best experiences and made the iCRM that can take care of most of your needs. The design is based on practical usage of the system that can increase sales efficiency by up to 40% also depending on various other parameters. Its product/service customization features are outstanding and with the follow up features, every customer is bound to get individual attention.

visit iCRM here

If your business or its method of operation differs from iCRM, contact iFuture Systems for a quotation on your new CRM that will be tailor made for your business.