Customer relationship management tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:[3]
Streamlined sales and marketing processes
Higher sales productivity
Added cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Improved customer service, loyalty, and retention
Increased call center efficiency
Higher close rates
Better customer profiling and targeting
Reduced expenses
Increased market share
Higher overall profitability
Marginal costing
[edit] Challenges
Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. While some companies report great success, initiatives have also been known to fail—mainly owing to poor planning, a mismatch between software tools and company needs, roadblocks to collaboration between departments, and a lack of workforce buy-in and adoption.[citation needed]
Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications with customers. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking and the management of accounts, territories, opportunities, and—at the managerial level—the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other customer-facing business functions, as described below.
Customer relationship management technology has been, and still is, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with conventional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; neither must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on. In 2009, SaaS represented approximately 20% of all customer relationship management spending, and continues its trajectory of outselling on-premises software by a ratio of 3-to-1.[1]
Friday, March 5, 2010
Challenges
Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. While some companies report great success, initiatives have also been known to fail—mainly owing to poor planning, a mismatch between software tools and company needs, roadblocks to collaboration between departments, and a lack of workforce buy-in and adoption.[citation needed]
Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications with customers. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking and the management of accounts, territories, opportunities, and—at the managerial level—the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other customer-facing business functions, as described below.
Customer relationship management technology has been, and still is, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with conventional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; neither must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on. In 2009, SaaS represented approximately 20% of all customer relationship management spending, and continues its trajectory of outselling on-premises software by a ratio of 3-to-1.[1]
Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications with customers. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking and the management of accounts, territories, opportunities, and—at the managerial level—the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other customer-facing business functions, as described below.
Customer relationship management technology has been, and still is, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with conventional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; neither must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on. In 2009, SaaS represented approximately 20% of all customer relationship management spending, and continues its trajectory of outselling on-premises software by a ratio of 3-to-1.[1]
Benefits
Customer relationship management tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:[3]
Streamlined sales and marketing processes
Higher sales productivity
Added cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Improved customer service, loyalty, and retention
Increased call center efficiency
Higher close rates
Better customer profiling and targeting
Reduced expenses
Increased market share
Higher overall profitability
Marginal costing
Streamlined sales and marketing processes
Higher sales productivity
Added cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Improved customer service, loyalty, and retention
Increased call center efficiency
Higher close rates
Better customer profiling and targeting
Reduced expenses
Increased market share
Higher overall profitability
Marginal costing
CRM (customer relationship management)
What is CRM (customer relationship management)?
CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.
Ask your CRM questions at ITKnowledgeExchange.com
According to one industry view, CRM consists of:
Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales team.
Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify customer needs and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.
Many organizations turn to CRM software to help them manage their customer relationships. CRM technology is offered on-premise, on-demand or through Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM, depending on the vendor. Recently, mobile CRM and the open source CRM software model have also become more popular.
CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.
Ask your CRM questions at ITKnowledgeExchange.com
According to one industry view, CRM consists of:
Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales team.
Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify customer needs and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.
Many organizations turn to CRM software to help them manage their customer relationships. CRM technology is offered on-premise, on-demand or through Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM, depending on the vendor. Recently, mobile CRM and the open source CRM software model have also become more popular.
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