What is Customer Relationship Management and Why is it Important?

In the DC comic Justice League: Tower of Babel, Batman builds contingency plans to stop every member of the Justice League in the event they turn evil. He does this by gathering data on them and using that data to formulate a strategy.

So how does this connect to you? Well, if you use customer relationship management in your business, you’re utilizing a very similar method to effective results.

But what is customer relationship management, and how does it help your business?

We’ve got the answer all lined up for you. So what are you waiting for? Let’s dive right in.

What Is Customer Relationship Management?

To boil it down, customer relationship management(or CRM for short) is a special kind of software that stores data on customers whenever they buy or interact with your product or business. The software pulls all this data compiled with sales, marketing, and customer review data and meshes it into a cohesive report for you to review.

This way, you start to get an idea of your customer’s behavior.

What do they like? What do they dislike? What products do they value the most?

Why You Should Use CRM

CRM is vital for curating an effective small business online strategy. The biggest reason to jump on board is how valuable customer service has become in recent years.

Globally, about 96% of people surveyed said they view good customer service as essential for them sticking with a brand, and about 89% of companies will be mainly competing on the customer service front. As the Internet provides people millions of ways to get what they want, ensuring your business has the best customer service will keep your head above water (financially speaking).

Another reason to use CRM is resource management. Previously, you would have to have a team of analysts poring over all this data if you wanted concrete results. Now, you have a system that does all that work for you alone at the speed of sound (metaphorically speaking). This saves you major time and money.

Need yet another reason? Well, how about that this software will make you more money. Think about it: once you have a pile of data telling you exactly what works and what doesn’t, you know which tactics to keep using and which to cut.

This way, you’re not dumping thousands of dollars on a failed marketing strategy that’s turning people off your product.

Fine-Tuning Your CRM

Finally, you can tailor your CRM software to your company’s specific needs. The three main branches of CRM software are operational, analytical and collaborative. Operational software works well for companies with a lot on online sales, as it takes past customer data and gives you a report you use to chart a course for moving forward.

Analytical software gives you a very in-depth look at customer data so you can evaluate where the market is going and what trends to follow in the future. Collaborative pools your data with that of other businesses to give you a giant overview of where customers are in terms of their wants and needs.

Let’s Get Analytical

Congrats! You now know all about customer relationship management and how it can help your business!

If you’d like to learn more about making your company the best you can, give the other articles on our blog a read!

Now get out there and start selling!