50+ Sample Customer Relationship Management

What Is a Customer Relationship Management?

A customer relationship management or often referred to as CRM is the sum of the principles, procedures and technologies that an organization observes and implements in managing communication and activities regarding a customer. Basically, it will contain guidelines on how to interact with customers. This will compile all pieces of information about a particular customer from across different sources and departments. The pieces of information are then formed into one cohesive document in order to understand the point of view of the customer in real life and real time. 

The main essence of a customer relationship management is to handle and maintain good ties with the clients of the organization. A good relationship with a customer will lead to loyalty and support. This will in turn lead to a significant increase in the revenue of the organization.

Types of Customer Relationship Management

Operational CRM

This type will focus more on the operations of the organization. These operations are sales, marketing and service. This is mostly used in order to generate leads. More often than not, this will evaluate and utilize pieces of information about past customers. Efficiency is the main focus of an operational CRM. This means that it will be adopted mostly by companies that have short cycles and frequently repeat their business operational plans.

Analytical CRM

This type will focus more on data analysis. With the help of data analysis the management and the higher ups will know what to formulate and conduct in order to perceive and comprehend the current direction of the industry. The main idea of an analytical CRM is to improve the fulfill the needs and wants of the customers. This is mostly applicable in companies that are in a costly and extravagant industry and companies that have a lot of competitors.

Collaborative CRM

This type will focus more on gathering data from external sources. From the word itself, in some cases, companies from the same market or industry opt to share pieces of information to other companies in order to know and understand better the needs and wants of customers. This is done in order to greatly increase the satisfaction rate of customers. This is mostly done in a market where companies are focused on creating new kinds of products.

The Customer Relationship Management Process

There are 5 essential steps in the CRM process.

Reach

Reaching to your target audience is the first step in the CRM process. This is also one of the most crucial elements in a marketing strategy. The doable action plan here is to generate awareness of your brand. This is where you will introduce the business organization to new potential customers. There are a series of steps to undertake in this process.

1)Learn about your target audience

This is an important step to take into consideration. This is the part where an organization will do an extensive research about a particular customer. The research should be able to answer primary questions like their wants and needs, the medium for communication, their values as well as the demographics they are a part of. 

2)Separate your target audience

The next step that the management will do is to segment the target audience. The most common category is that the target audience will be grouped according to their interest. This will help the marketing team to understand each customer easier and better.

3)Create strategy depending on the target audience

Lastly, the marketing team will devise a strategy on how to reach out to the customer based on their interest. As of the moment, considering that we are in the digitized world, the most common approach is the use of social media strategic plans. This is also the step to formulate a strategy in order to acquire leads. 

Acquisition

Reaching out to potential customers is the introductory part of the CRM process. This is the step that a target audience must be encouraged to interact with the business organization as well. This will be based on the strategy that was formulated on the last step of the reaching out process. It is important that the strategy is implemented and monitored.

Conversion

After acquiring the leads and explaining the goods and services to them, it is now time to turn them into customers. This is the part where you convert leads or potential customers into actual customers who will purchase the products you are offering. The goods and services you will be offering must be based again on their interest.

According to Edelman  trust barometer, 63 percent of customers believe the organization after hearing about them 3 to 5 times. The acquisition of leads and conversion of leads into actual customers are part of the sales process.

Retention

Now going into the retention part, this is where a customer must be retained and must be encouraged to avail goods and services not once but numerous times. It is not enough that they bought your product once, customers must be hooked and kept on availing what you have to offer. In order to do that, the doable plan of action is to provide reliable and professional customer service. Most customers will avail again when they feel important. The important factor is to have efficient and responsible customer service.

Loyalty

The last key step in the process of CRM is to gain their loyalty. However, this section does not mean that a customer must only keep on availing the same product over and over again. You as a business organization must be able to persuade a customer to buy products that are of higher value. This means that you should be able to upsell and refer them to other products from the same organization of course. 

The most common way to do that is by the use of emails. These messages should contain persuasive essays in order for them to believe your claim. The process of retention and loyalty are all under the category of customer service. It is also important to have a customer list in order to properly manage and handle every client you have.

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

Connect different department

Through the CRM different departments will be connected with each other and work with one another in order to deliver data about the strategies they are utilizing and the target audience they are focused on.

Determine and categorize customers

Another benefit is that you will be able to identify potential customers and have the means to categorize them based on their demographics, interest or means of communication.

Improved goods and services

By gathering data, the organization will be able to realize the downfall of their products. This will give them the chance to improve what they are missing.

Improved customer services

With constant interaction with the customers, employees will be able to gain first hand experience. This will lead to better performance for future transactions.

Improved monitoring

By organizing the data you have gathered in order to create the CRM will also help in monitoring each customer information and activities that are implemented. This will lead to better evaluation and project status report.

Improved sales

By studying the current trend and direction of the market, the business organization will have the means to acquire customers and in turn generate profit.

Improved customer satisfaction

Constant research and evaluation of the wants and needs of every customer the organization has will lead to improved satisfaction. This provides the organization with the knowledge on how to constantly improve their transaction as well as goods and services. Faster transactions and better quality of product keeps the customers happy and satisfied.

This is also a reliable point of reference in creating other documents such as a professional balanced scorecard.

Different Ways Customer Relationship Management Succeed in Their Goals

Through Learning

The first and most common way is that it provides additional knowledge to an organization. A CRM will teach an organization crucial details about who their customers are and how to properly deal with them. This will help in knowing and understanding the current status and the direction the market is pointing to. In turn the management will understand the ways on how to satisfy the needs and wants of their target customers.

In general, there are 4 types of customers. They are price buyers, relationship buyers, value buyers and poker player buyers.

Price buyers

These types of buyers do not concern themselves with value or relationship with the organization. Their only concern is to be able to avail a product or service at the lowest possible price.

Relationship buyers

From the word itself, these types of customers will take into consideration their relationship with the organization or the suppliers. These kinds of buyers are the ones who trust and support the suppliers.

Value buyers

These types of customers have similarities with relationship buyers. These are the people who are not sensitive to the price of a product and service as long as it is worth it. These are the ones who value quality over quantity.

Poker player buyers

These types of customers are the ones who are hardest and confusing to understand. These are the people who will confuse the suppliers by making it seem like they are price buyers but in reality they are value buyers or relationship buyers. These are the ones who will negotiate in order to make the best out of the deal. Their main goal is to get the possible price that will benefit them.

Through Organization

Next is that it will allow the business organization to properly and effectively store and organize their data. This is an effective instrument in storing the data of the customers. Having a clear and organized way in storing the data will lead to faster and easier comprehension of the pieces of information.

Through Optimization

Lastly, a CRM will help the organization to simplify the complex internal process as well as the external process of interacting with customers. Faster and easier processes will lead to a satisfied and happy customer. 

Step by Step Process in Creating a Customer Relationship Management

Step 1: Gather Data

Formulating a CRM is not a confusing process. However, you will need to allocate a lot of time and focus in order to create an effective document. The first step is to gather all pieces of information from across various sources. These pieces of information should contain the strategies, principles, guidelines, activities and technologies that the company is utilizing in order to manage every customer.

Step 2: Organize Data

The next step is to organize the data. This would help in easier and faster evaluation as well as monitoring. There are numerous ways in organizing the data you have gathered. One of the most common ways is to allocate and group customers based on their interest.

Step 3: Compile Data

After organizing the data based on the different criteria and categories the organization is utilizing, the next thing to do is to compile the data in one cohesive document. This cohesive document about the pieces of information you have gathered and organized is known as the customer relationship management. Make use of the templates available above in order to create a clear and organized CRM.

Another document that will complement and help in keeping the CRM effective and running is to create a customer profile document.

A customer relationship management will gather, organize and compile the strategies, principles as well as action plans that an organization is utilizing in order to properly and effectively manage and interact with their customers. This is done in a variety of ways. No matter the approach, the goal of CRM stays the same. The main goal is to keep customers from supporting and trusting the products and services that the organization has to offer.