How to Manage Your Customers?- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a process developed to improve the online experience and relationship between a company or a service provider and customers. CRM involves marketing and business strategies, approaching problems by implementing them. The efficient use of CRM helps the client and the organization to accomplish their objectives related to potential performances and business evolution. The purpose of this process is to administrate and improve the customer's life cycle and to create a connection between different departments and clients of a company, facts that will increase the company's production.

By using the customer relation management, an organization can benefit from previous data about the potential customers and previous tendencies of buying a product, creating a customer center and a central marketing system based on the customers' needs.

Customer relationship management is a strategy that expresses the organization decision to develop a long term partnership with the client, based on the knowledge of its needs in different stages of the relationship with him, delivering products and providing services that meet the customer's expectations.

CRM objectives

CRM objective is to help the companies to use the technology and human resources to gain new perspectives on the customers' behavior and value. CRM allows to the companies to automate, integrate and use efficiently the available resources in their relations with the clients, providing the opportunity to achieve a closed connection between clients and the company.

The companies that use CRM can expect fast results:

ü Keeping and earning increasingly more clients by knowing effectively the clients and by increasing the quality of the support offered to them, measured in terms of meeting the expectations;

ü Improving and maximizing the customers life cycle;

ü Improving the services addressed to clients by personalizing them, process that requires additional investments;

ü Generating new sales by increasing the efficiency of the sale process through cross-selling and up-selling processes appropriated to certain stages of the company's relationship with the customer;

ü Developing contracts with potential customers;

ü Increasing the efficiency of the marketing process by developing a relevant communication with the customer;

ü Increasing the operational processes efficiency;

ü Low prices for the sales and services provided;

ü Expanding the global market.

After minimum one year of data collection, a CRM soft is able to make a report based on the weak points of the sale process. This report is not standard, but if it is well planned and thought, it brings additional results that were not visible during the sale process. The problems of a company will not be solved immediately after implementing CRM software, as the company must analyze and add new functions to the soft.

Usually the weaknesses revealed by a CRM report are the quantitative values that resulted after selling a product. It is interesting to take advantage fully of the data given by such a report, which also mentions the delay, the inefficiency of a department involved in the flow of sales, the merit of a particular employee who was a key element in all projects completed, etc.

In the current business environment, the importance of having a relationship with the customers can't remain undetermined. A good relationship with the clients can have a significant impact on the company or it can ruin it. In such a scenario, CRM becomes essential for all the companies, because the CRM applications help to provide excellent services to customers in an efficient way, especially regarding the costs.

Customer Relationship Management is safe, being also a database with a decreased risk. It helps small companies to collect and analyze information related to customers. It also helps to reconcile data, as it provides any lack of data. CRM software leads to the sales automation, which increase the production in time. CRM applications are also useful in developing the company's marketing strategies, which tends to increase the customer base and consequently, the business profit.

Considering the importance of implementing the customer relationship management, it becomes essential to choose CRM software that best suits the needs of the company. In order to make a successful transaction, it is recommended to have a good understanding of the company's needs. It becomes important to check if the new software will help the company to increase its commercial activity in a certain location. It is also preferred that the new software to bring additional benefits, including "click away" functions and solutions with a low risk.

Sometimes a new software operation requires special training sessions addressed to employees; therefore, it is prudent to first make an analysis of the benefits costs and to apply the program only if the benefits exceed the additional costs.

The term CRM means Customer Relationship Management and it includes different aspects of the relationship between company and customers. CRM is generally used by the industries of services addressed to customers. CRM consists in applications and software that help the company to manage the customer base in a more efficient and organized way.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Features- What are the benefits?

ü Full integration with Microsoft Office and Outlook, which allows to the company's employees to do their job every day in the most familiar environments;

ü Outlook integration of the sales, marketing and customer service process, information accessible for all the company's employees, according to the rights set previously by the Microsoft Dynamics CRM administration module;

ü Allows to mobile devices users to work offline, offering the possibility of keeping in the offline mode only the selected information; at the moment when the users (who are also the company's employees) return to the office, new data are synchronized with the existing ones in the CRM application;

ü Through the connectivity with Microsoft Excel, there can be generated static and dynamic reports, which can be saved within the CRM application as well as ongoing reports.

ü A quick and easy access to existing data systems and to the company's database;

ü Customized working modules available to employees, allowing them an easy access to information specific to customers, prospecting tools and a closed connection with the company's existing systems;

ü A powerful tool for reporting and analysis, which allows the identification of opportunities in short time, trends identification and relationships between the most profitable clients and the products used by them; the program also measures the effectiveness of new products and services;

ü Access to specific customer information through mobile devices: PDA, laptop etc...;

ü Marketing module automation resulted from using lists of customers or by creating, tracking and recording the marketing campaigns results and their profitability.

ü Easy customization to reproduce workflows specific to the company, by creating personalized viewing lists of records for each user and by the possibility to develop processes to repeat automatically the tasks; alert applications that announce the employees about specific steps to be followed in their work, sending emails and

ütracking constantly the processes that take place in the company.

ü Simple and fast connection to additional data, allowing to the company's employees access to relevant information such as the customer's preferences or location.

ü Some Customer Relationship Management software integrate all the needs of a company:

ü Sales: quotations, order, customer contact management, online and offline reports;

ü Marketing: marketing campaigns, statistics;

ü Services: CTI, emails management and administration, Call Center;

ü Business intelligence: analytic reports.

Do you need a CRM soft?

You need a CRM soft when it's obvious that you don't have a clear perspective on your customers; in this case, you need to know what are their needs ad preferences and sometimes in what stages of their lives). If you loose your clients because of the competition, this is a clear sign that you have to improve your relationship with the customers.

What companies use CRM?

Customer relationship management is an essential tool for any modern company, no matter what side it has. In general, all the companies should use the CRM, but as more the company is closed to the final customer, as more increases the importance of using a CRM. In most cases, CRM is implemented by the companies that offer financial services and by the telecommunication industry.

Sources: searchcrm.techtarget.com/.../0,295582,sid11_gci1091814,00.html, www.knowthis.com/.../managing-customers, www.sharewareconnection.com/customer-manager-buddy.htm, en.wikipedia.org/.../Customer_relationship_management