What is “Customer Relationship Management”?

By Rachel Bates, CRM Source, San Mateo, CA.

Customer Relationship Management (commonly referred to as CRM) refers to any and all of the following:

• Seeing a holistic view of all customer interactions (email, phone, related activities, etc), e.g. business development staff know what outstanding service issues may be related to a customer before making an ill-timed call
• Managing new business opportunities and standardizing the business development process for increasing revenue from both new and existing customers
• Saving and centralizing information, e.g. important details are not lost if a staff member calls in sick or leaves the organization.

It is important to note that “customers” can take many different forms. For example at a non-profit organization, customers may actually be donors, members or volunteers; and at an internal division of a large company, customers may actually be other employees. Regardless of what form your “customers” take, the concept of CRM still applies.

CRM is especially important in the economic environment we are faced with today. The companies that survive, and even thrive, in this difficult climate will be the ones who listen to their customers and provide excellent service. A CRM software application, if implemented thoughtfully, will take managing customer relationships to a new level of efficiency, and improve the ability to achieve the organization’s goals.

Until recently, robust CRM software applications were priced at a point that was often inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses and organizations. With the launch of Microsoft Business Solutions Customer Relationship Management, the small and mid-market company now has the buying power to take advantage of the benefits of a CRM system.

In Microsoft Business Solutions CRM, integrated Sales and Customer Service modules enable staff to share information to improve customer loyalty and deliver consistent, efficient customer service. Business development and customer service features include leads and opportunity management, a complete view of customer history, automated incident management, and a searchable knowledgebase. Microsoft Business Solutions CRM also includes reporting tools for accurate forecasting and measurement of business activity and employee performance. Thanks to .NET technologies, it is easy to deploy, customize, and use, accessible from Microsoft Outlook and the Web. And perhaps most exciting, it integrates with other business applications, such as Solomon.

Over the next few editions, we will drill more deeply into each module, and some of the overall features of Microsoft Business Solutions CRM, including account management, customer service, automation and integration.