Customer relationship management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.[1]

CRM systems compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company's website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials and more recently, social media.[2] They allow businesses to learn more about their target audiences and how to best cater for their needs, thus retaining customers and driving sales growth.[3] CRM may be used with past, present or potential customers. The concepts, procedures, and rules that a corporation follows when communicating with its consumers are referred to as customer relationship management (CRM). This complete connection covers direct contact with customers, such as sales and service-related operations, forecasting, and the analysis of consumer patterns and behaviors, from the perspective of the company.[4]

History[]

The concept of customer relationship management started in the early 1970s, when customer satisfaction was evaluated using annual surveys or by front-line asking.[5] At that time, businesses had to rely on standalone mainframe systems to automate sales, but the extent of technology allowed them to categorize customers in spreadsheets and lists. One of the best-known precursors of the modern-day CRM is the Farley File. Developed by Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign manager, James Farley, the Farley File was a comprehensive set of records detailing political and personal facts on people FDR and Farley met or were supposed to meet. Using it, people that FDR met were impressed by his "recall" of facts about their family and what they were doing professionally and politically.[6] In 1982, Kate and Robert D. Kestenbaum introduced the concept of database marketing, namely applying statistical methods to analyze and gather customer data.[citation needed] By 1986, Pat Sullivan and Mike Muhney released a customer evaluation system called ACT! based on the principle of digital Rolodex, which offered a contact management service for the first time.

The trend was followed by numerous companies and independent developers trying to maximize lead potential, including Tom Siebel of Siebel Systems, who designed the first CRM product, Siebel Customer Relationship Management, in 1993.[7] In order to compete with these new and quickly growing stand-alone CRM solutions, the established enterprise resource planning (ERP) software companies like Oracle, SAP,[8] Peoplesoft (an Oracle subsidiary as of 2005)[9] and Navision[10] started extending their sales, distribution and customer service capabilities with embedded CRM modules. This included embedding sales force automation or extended customer service (e.g. inquiry, activity management) as CRM features in their ERP.

Customer relationship management was popularized in 1997, due to the work of Siebel, Gartner, and IBM. Between 1997 and 2000, leading CRM products were enriched with shipping and marketing capabilities.[11] Siebel introduced the first mobile CRM app called Siebel Sales Handheld in 1999. The idea of a stand-alone, cloud-hosted customer base was soon adopted by other leading providers at the time, including PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle),[9] Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com.[12]

The first open-source CRM system was developed by SugarCRM in 2004. During this period, CRM was rapidly migrating to the cloud, as a result of which it became accessible to sole entrepreneurs and small teams. This increase in accessibility generated a huge wave of price reduction.[11] Around 2009, developers began considering the options to profit from social media's momentum and designed tools to help companies become accessible on all users' favourite networks. Many startups at the time benefited from this trend to provide exclusively social CRM solutions, including Base and Nutshell.[11] The same year, Gartner organized and held the first Customer Relationship Management Summit, and summarized the features systems should offer to be classified as CRM solutions.[13] In 2013 and 2014, most of the popular CRM products were linked to business intelligence systems and communication software to improve corporate communication and end-users' experience. The leading trend is to replace standardized CRM solutions with industry-specific ones, or to make them customizable enough to meet the needs of every business.[14] In November 2016, Forrester released a report where it "identified the nine most significant CRM suites from eight prominent vendors".[15]

Types[]

Strategic[]

Strategic CRM is concentrated upon the development of a customer-centric business culture.[16]

The focus of a business on being customer-centric (in design and implementation of their CRM strategy) will translate into an improved CLV.[17]

Operational[]

The primary goal of customer relationship management systems is to integrate and automate sales, marketing, and customer support. Therefore, these systems typically have a dashboard that gives an overall view of the three functions on a single customer view, a single page for each customer that a company may have. The dashboard may provide client information, past sales, previous marketing efforts, and more, summarizing all of the relationships between the customer and the firm. Operational CRM is made up of 3 main components: sales force automation, marketing automation, and service automation.[18]

  • Sales force automation works with all stages in the sales cycle, from initially entering contact information to converting a prospective client into an actual client.[19] It implements sales promotion analysis, automates the tracking of a client's account history for repeated sales or future sales and coordinates sales, marketing, call centers, and retail outlets. It prevents duplicate efforts between a salesperson and a customer and also automatically tracks all contacts and follow-ups between both parties.[19][20]
  • Marketing automation focuses on easing the overall marketing process to make it more effective and efficient. CRM tools with marketing automation capabilities can automate repeated tasks, for example, sending out automated marketing emails at certain times to customers, or posting marketing information on social media. The goal with marketing automation is to turn a sales lead into a full customer. CRM systems today also work on customer engagement through social media.[21]
  • Service automation is the part of the CRM system that focuses on direct customer service technology. Through service automation, customers are supported through multiple channels such as phone, email, knowledge bases, ticketing portals, FAQs, and more.[18]

Analytical[]

The role of analytical CRM systems is to analyse customer data collected through multiple sources and present it so that business managers can make more informed decisions.[22] Analytical CRM systems use techniques such as data mining, correlation, and pattern recognition to analyze the customer data. These analytics help improve customer service by finding small problems which can be solved, perhaps by marketing to different parts of a consumer audience differently.[18] For example, through the analysis of a customer base's buying behaviour, a company might see that this customer base has not been buying a lot of products recently. After scanning through this data, the company might think to market to this subset of consumers differently, to best communicate how this company's products might benefit this group specifically.[23]

Collaborative[]

The third primary aim of CRM systems is to incorporate external stakeholders such as suppliers, vendors, and distributors, and share customer information across groups/departments and organisations. For example, feedback can be collected from technical support calls, which could help provide direction for marketing products and services to that particular customer in the future.[24]

Customer data platform[]

A customer data platform (CDP) is a computer system used by marketing departments that assembles data about individual people from various sources into one database, with which other software systems can interact.[25] As of February 2017 there were about twenty companies selling such systems and revenue for them was around US$300 million.[25]

Components[]

Components in the different types of CRM[24]

The main components of CRM are building and managing customer relationships through marketing, observing relationships as they mature through distinct phases, managing these relationships at each stage and recognizing that the distribution of the value of a relationship to the firm is not homogeneous. When building and managing customer relationships through marketing, firms might benefit from using a variety of tools to help organizational design, incentive schemes, customer structures, and more to optimize the reach of its marketing campaigns. Through the acknowledgement of the distinct phases of CRM, businesses will be able to benefit from seeing the interaction of multiple relationships as connected transactions. The final factor of CRM highlights the importance of CRM through accounting for the profitability of customer relationships. Through studying the particular spending habits of customers, a firm may be able to dedicate different resources and amounts of attention to different types of consumers.[26]

Relational Intelligence, which is the awareness of the variety of relationships a customer can have with a firm and the ability of the firm to reinforce or change those connections, is an important component to the main phases of CRM. Companies may be good at capturing demographic data, such as gender, age, income, and education, and connecting them with purchasing information to categorize customers into profitability tiers, but this is only a firm's industrial view of customer relationships.[27] A lack in relational intelligence is a sign that firms still see customers as resources that can be used for up-sell or cross-sell opportunities, rather than people looking for interesting and personalized interactions.[28]

CRM systems include:

  • Data warehouse technology, used to aggregate transaction information, to merge the information with CRM products, and to provide key performance indicators.
  • Opportunity management which helps the company to manage unpredictable growth and demand, and implement a good forecasting model to integrate sales history with sales projections.[29]
  • CRM systems that track and measure marketing campaigns over multiple networks, tracking customer analysis by customer clicks and sales.
  • Some CRM software is available as a software as a service (SaaS), delivered via the internet and accessed via a web browser instead of being installed on a local computer. Businesses using the software do not purchase it, but typically pay a recurring subscription fee to the software vendor.[18]
  • For small businesses a CRM system may consist of a contact management system that integrates emails, documents, jobs, faxes, and scheduling for individual accounts. CRM systems available for specific markets (legal, finance) frequently focus on event management and relationship tracking as opposed to financial return on investment (ROI).
  • CRM systems for eCommerce, focused on marketing automation tasks, like cart rescue, re-engage users with email, personalization.
  • Customer-centric relationship management (CCRM) is a nascent sub-discipline that focuses on customer preferences instead of customer leverage. CCRM aims to add value by engaging customers in individual, interactive relationships.[26]
  • Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents, fundraising, sponsors' demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and communication with individuals.
  • CRM not only indicates to technology and strategy but also indicates to an integrated approach which includes employees knowledge, organizational culture to embrace the CRM philosophy.

Effect on customer satisfaction[]

Customer satisfaction has important implications for the economic performance of firms because it has the ability to increase customer loyalty and usage behaviour and reduce customer complaints and the likelihood of customer defection.[30][31] The implementation of a CRM approach is likely to affect customer satisfaction and customer knowledge for a variety of different reasons.

Firstly, firms can customize their offerings for each customer.[32] By accumulating information across customer interactions and processing this information to discover hidden patterns, CRM applications help firms customize their offerings to suit the individual tastes of their customers.[32] This customization enhances the perceived quality of products and services from a customer's viewpoint, and because the perceived quality is a determinant of customer satisfaction, it follows that CRM applications indirectly affect customer satisfaction. CRM applications also enable firms to provide timely, accurate processing of customer orders and requests and the ongoing management of customer accounts.[32] For example, Piccoli and Applegate discuss how Wyndham uses IT tools to deliver a consistent service experience across its various properties to a customer. Both an improved ability to customize and reduced variability of the consumption experience enhance perceived quality, which in turn positively affects customer satisfaction.[33] Furthermore, CRM applications also help firms manage customer relationships more effectively across the stages of relationship initiation, maintenance, and termination.[34]

Customer benefits[]

With Customer relationship management systems, customers are served better on the day to day process. With more reliable information, their demand for self-service from companies will decrease. If there is less need to interact with the company for different problems, customer satisfaction level increases.[35] These central benefits of CRM will be connected hypothetically to the three kinds of equity that are relationship, value, and brand, and in the end to customer equity. Eight benefits were recognized to provide value drivers.[36]

  1. Enhanced ability to target profitable customers.
  2. Integrated assistance across channels.
  3. Enhanced sales force efficiency and effectiveness.
  4. Improved pricing.
  5. Customized products and services.
  6. Improved customer service efficiency and effectiveness.
  7. Individualized marketing messages also called campaigns.
  8. Connect customers and all channels on a single platform. 

In 2012, after reviewing the previous studies, someone selected some of those benefits which are more significant in customer's satisfaction and summarized them into the following cases:[37]

  1. Improve customer services: In general, customers would have some questions, concerns or requests. CRM services provide the ability to a company for producing, allocating and managing requests or something made by customers. For example, call centre software, which helps to connect a customer to the manager or person who can best assist them with their existing problem, is one of the CRM abilities that can be implemented to increase efficiency.[38]
  2. Increased personalized service or one-to-one service: Personalizing customer service or one-to-one service provides companies to improve understanding and gaining knowledge of the customers and also to have better knowledge about their customers' preferences, requirements and demands.
  3. Responsive to customer's needs: Customers' situations and needs can be understood by the firms focusing on customer needs and requirements.[39]
  4. Customer segmentation: In CRM, segmentation is used to categorize customers, according to some similarity, such as industry, job or some other characteristics, into similar groups.[40] Although these characteristics, can be one or more attributes. It can be defined as a subdividing the customers based on already known good discriminator.
  5. Improve customization of marketing: Meaning of customization of marketing is that the firm or organization adapt and changes its services or products based on presenting a different and unique product or service for each customer. To ensure that customer needs and requirements are met Customization is used by the organization. Companies can put investment in information from customers and then customize their products or services to maintain customer interests.
  6. Multichannel integration: Multichannel integration shows the point of co-creation of customer value in CRM. On the other hand, a company's skill to perform multichannel integration successfully is heavily dependent on the organization's ability getting together customer information from all channels and incorporate it with other related information.[41]
  7. Time saving: CRM will let companies interact with customers more frequently, by personalized message and communication way which can be produced rapidly and matched on a timely basis, and finally they can better understand their customers and therefore look forward to their needs.[42]
  8. Improve customer knowledge: Firms can make and improve products and services through the information from tracking (e.g. via website tracking) customer behaviour to customer tastes and needs.[43] CRM could contribute to a competitive advantage in improving firm's ability of customer information collecting to customize products and services according to customer needs.

Examples[]

Research has found a 5% increase in customer retention boosts lifetime customer profits by 50% on average across multiple industries, as well as a boost of up to 90% within specific industries such as insurance.[44] Companies that have mastered customer relationship strategies have the most successful CRM programs. For example, MBNA Europe has had a 75% annual profit growth since 1995. The firm heavily invests in screening potential cardholders. Once proper clients are identified, the firm retains 97% of its profitable customers. They implement CRM by marketing the right products to the right customers. The firm's customers' card usage is 52% above the industry norm, and the average expenditure is 30% more per transaction. Also 10% of their account holders ask for more information on cross-sale products.[44]

Amazon has also seen great success through its customer proposition. The firm implemented personal greetings, collaborative filtering, and more for the customer. They also used CRM training for the employees to see up to 80% of customers repeat.[44]

Customer profile[]

A customer profile is a detailed description of any particular classification of customer which is created to represent the typical users of a product or service. Customer profiling is a method to understand your customers in terms of demographics, behaviour and lifestyle. It is used to help make customer-focused decisions without confusing the scope of the project with personal opinion. Overall profiling is gathering information that sums up consumption habits so far and projects them into the future so that they can be grouped for marketing and advertising purposes.[45] Customer or consumer profiles are the essence of the data that is collected alongside core data (name, address, company) and processed through customer analytics methods, essentially a type of profiling. The three basic methods of customer profiling are the psychographic approach, the consumer typology approach, and the consumer characteristics approach. These customer profiling methods help you design your business around who your customers are, and help you make better, customer centered decisions.

Improving CRM within a firm[]

Consultants argue that it is important for companies establishing strong CRM systems to improve their relational intelligence.[46] According to this argument, a company must recognize that people have many different types of relationships with different brands. One research study analyzed relationships between consumers in China, Germany, Spain, and the United States, with over 200 brands in 11 industries including airlines, cars and media. This information is valuable as it provides demographic, behavioural, and value-based customer segmentation. These types of relationships can be both positive and negative. Some customers view themselves as friends of the brands, while others as enemies, and some are mixed with a love-hate relationship with the brand. Some relationships are distant, intimate or anything in between.[28]

Analyzing the information[]

Managers must understand the different reasons for the types of relationships, and provide the customer with what they are looking for. Companies can collect this information by using surveys, interviews, and more, with current customers. Companies must also improve the relational intelligence of their CRM systems. These days, companies store and receive huge amounts of data through emails, online chat sessions, phone calls, and more.[47] Many companies do not properly make use of this great amount of data, however. All of these are signs of what types of relationships the customer wants with the firm, and therefore companies may consider investing more time and effort in building out their relational intelligence.[27] Companies can use data mining technologies and web searches to understand relational signals. Social media such as social networking sites, blogs, and forums can also be used to collect and analyze information. Understanding the customer and capturing this data allows companies to convert customer's signals into information and knowledge that the firm can use to understand a potential customer's desired relations with a brand.[48]

Employee training[]

Many firms have also implemented training programs to teach employees how to recognize and effectively create strong customer-brand relationships. For example, Harley Davidson sent its employees on the road with customers, who were motorcycle enthusiasts, to help solidify relationships. Other employees have also been trained in social psychology and the social sciences to help bolster strong customer relationships. Customer service representatives must be educated to value customer relationships and trained to understand existing customer profiles. Even the finance and legal departments should understand how to manage and build relationships with customers.[49]

In practice[]

Call centers[]

Contact centre CRM providers are popular for small and mid-market businesses. These systems codify the interactions between company and customers by using analytics and key performance indicators to give the users information on where to focus their marketing and customer service. This allows agents to have access to a caller's history to provide personalized customer communication. The intention is to maximize average revenue per user, decrease churn rate and decrease idle and unproductive contact with the customers.[50][51][52]

Growing in popularity is the idea of gamifying, or using game design elements and game principles in a non-game environment such as customer service environments. The gamification of customer service environments includes providing elements found in games like rewards and bonus points to customer service representatives as a method of feedback for a job well done.[53] Gamification tools can motivate agents by tapping into their desire for rewards, recognition, achievements, and competition.[54]

Contact-center automation[]

Contact-center automation, CCA, the practice of having an integrated system that coordinates contacts between an organization and the public, is designed to reduce the repetitive and tedious parts of a contact centre agent's job. Automation prevents this by having pre-recorded audio messages that help customers solve their problems. For example, an automated contact centre may be able to re-route a customer through a series of commands asking him or her to select a certain number to speak with a particular contact centre agent who specializes in the field in which the customer has a question.[55] Software tools can also integrate with the agent's desktop tools to handle customer questions and requests. This also saves time on behalf of the employees.[21]

Social media[]

Social CRM involves the use of social media and technology to engage and learn from consumers.[56] Because the public, especially young people, are increasingly using social networking sites, companies use[28] these sites to draw attention to their products, services and brands, with the aim of building up customer relationships to increase demand. With the increase in the use of social media platforms, integrating CRM with the help of social media can potentially be a quicker and more cost-friendly process.[57]

Some CRM systems integrate social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to track and communicate with customers. These customers also share their own opinions and experiences with a company's products and services, giving these firms more insight. Therefore, these firms can both share their own opinions and also track the opinions of their customers.[24]

Enterprise feedback management software platforms combine internal survey data with trends identified through social media to allow businesses to make more accurate decisions on which products to supply.[58]

Location-based services[]

CRM systems can also include technologies that create geographic marketing campaigns. The systems take in information based on a customer's physical location and sometimes integrates it with popular location-based GPS applications. It can be used for networking or contact management as well to help increase sales based on location.[21]

Business-to-business transactions[]

Despite the general notion that CRM systems were created for customer-centric businesses, they can also be applied to B2B environments to streamline and improve customer management conditions. For the best level of CRM operation in a B2B environment, the software must be personalized and delivered at individual levels.[59]

The main differences between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business CRM systems concern aspects like sizing of contact databases and length of relationships.[60]

Market[]

The overall CRM market was valued at US$54.64 billion in the year 2020. The market is projected to grow from US$58.04 billion in 2021 to US$128.97 billion in 2028. The following table lists the top vendors in 2012-2018 (figures in millions of US dollars) published in Gartner studies.[61][62][63][64][65]

Vendor 2018 Revenue ($M) 2018 Share (%) 2017 Revenue ($M) 2017 Share (%) 2015 Revenue ($M) 2015 Share (%) 2014 Revenue ($M) 2014 Share (%) 2013 Revenue ($M) 2013 Share (%) 2012 Revenue ($M) 2012 Share (%)
Salesforce.com CRM 9,420 19.5 7,648 18.3 5,171 19.7 4,250 18.4 3,292 16.1 2,525 14.0
SAP AG 4,012 8.3 3,474 8.3 2,684 10.2 2,795 12.1 2,622 12.8 2,327 12.9
Oracle CRM 2,669 5.5 2,492 6.0 2,047 7.8 2,102 9.1 2,097 10.2 2,015 11.1
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 1,302 2.7 1,132 2.7 1,142 4.3 1,432 6.2 1,392 6.8 1,135 6.3
Others 30,829 64 26,979 64.7 15,245 58.0 12,520 54.2 11,076 54.1 10,086 55.7
Total 48,230 100 41,726 100 26,287 100 23,100 100 20,476 100 18,090 100

The four largest vendors of stand-alone or embedded CRM system offerings are Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, which represented 42 percent of the market in 2015.[61] SAP, Oracle and Microsoft offer CRM also as an integral part of a bigger ERP solution whereas Salesforces offers stand-alone CRM only. Other providers also are popular for small and mid-market businesses. Splitting CRM providers into nine different categories (Enterprise CRM Suite, Midmarket CRM Suite, Small-Business CRM Suite, sales force automation, incentive management, marketing solutions, business intelligence, data quality, consultancies), each category has a different market leader. Additionally, applications often focus on professional fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, and other areas with branch-specific requirements.[61] In 2019 Salesforce led with a 30.2% market share (19.4% jump in CRM revenues). Adobe was #2, followed by Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Genesys, Zendesk, Pegasystems, and HubSpot.[66]

Market trends[]

Social networking[]

In the Gartner CRM Summit 2010 challenges like "system tries to capture data from social networking traffic like Twitter, handles Facebook page addresses or other online social networking sites" were discussed and solutions were provided that would help in bringing more clientele.[67]

The era of the "social customer" refers to the use of social media by customers.[68]

Mobile[]

Some CRM systems are equipped with mobile capabilities, making information accessible to remote sales staff.[citation needed]

Cloud computing and SaaS[]

Many CRM vendors offer subscription-based web tools (cloud computing) and SaaS. Salesforce.com was the first company to provide enterprise applications through a web browser, and has maintained its leadership position.[69]

Traditional providers moved into the cloud-based market via acquisitions of smaller providers: Oracle purchased RightNow in October 2011,[70] and Taleo[71] and Eloqua[72] in 2012; and SAP acquired SuccessFactors in December 2011.[73]

Sales and sales force automation[]

Sales forces also play an important role in CRM, as maximizing sales effectiveness and increasing sales productivity is a driving force behind the adoption of CRM software. Some of the top CRM trends identified in 2021 include focusing on customer service automations such as chatbots, hyperpersonalization based on customer data and insights, and the use of unified CRM systems.[74][75] CRM vendors support sales productivity with different products, such as tools that measure the effectiveness of ads that appear in 3D video games.[76]

Pharmaceutical companies were some of the first investors in sales force automation (SFA) and some are on their third- or fourth-generation implementations. However, until recently, the deployments did not extend beyond SFA—limiting their scope and interest to Gartner analysts.[77]

Vendor relationship management[]

Another related development is vendor relationship management (VRM), which provide tools and services that allow customers to manage their individual relationship with vendors. VRM development has grown out of efforts by ProjectVRM at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Identity Commons' Internet Identity Workshops, as well as by a growing number of startups and established companies. VRM was the subject of a cover story in the May 2010 issue of CRM Magazine.[78]

Customer success[]

Another trend worth noting is the rise of Customer Success as a discipline within companies. More and more companies establish Customer Success teams as separate from the traditional Sales team and task them with managing existing customer relations. This trend fuels demand additional capabilities for a more holistic understanding of customer health, which is a limitation for many existing vendors in the space.[79] As a result, a growing number of new entrants enter the market while existing vendors add capabilities in this area to their suites.

AI and predictive analytics[]

In 2017, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics were identified as the newest trends in CRM.[80]

Criticism[]

Companies face large challenges when trying to implement CRM systems. Consumer companies frequently manage their customer relationships haphazardly and unprofitably.[81] They may not effectively or adequately use their connections with their customers, due to misunderstandings or misinterpretations of a CRM system's analysis. Clients who want to be treated more like a friend may be treated like just an exchange party, rather than a unique individual, due to, occasionally, a lack of a bridge between the CRM data and the CRM analysis output. Many studies show that customers are frequently frustrated by a company's inability to meet their relationship expectations, and on the other side, companies do not always know how to translate the data they have gained from CRM software into a feasible action plan.[28] In 2003, a Gartner report estimated that more than $2 billion had been spent on software that was not being used. According to CSO Insights, less than 40 per cent of 1,275 participating companies had end-user adoption rates above 90 per cent.[82] Many corporations only use CRM systems on a partial or fragmented basis.[83] In a 2007 survey from the UK, four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they had installed. Forty-three per cent of respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing systems.[84] However, market research regarding consumers' preferences may increase the adoption of CRM among the developing countries' consumers.[85]

Collection of customer data such as personally identifiable information must strictly obey customer privacy laws, which often requires extra expenditures on legal support.

Part of the paradox with CRM stems from the challenge of determining exactly what CRM is and what it can do for a company.[86] The CRM paradox, also referred to as the "dark side of CRM",[87] may entail favoritism and differential treatment of some customers. This can happen because a business prioritizes customers who are more profitable, more relationship-orientated or tend to have increased loyalty to the company. Although focusing on such customers by itself isn't a bad thing, it can leave other customers feeling left out and alienated potentially decreasing profits because of it.[88]

CRM technologies can easily become ineffective if there is no proper management, and they are not implemented correctly. The data sets must also be connected, distributed, and organized properly so that the users can access the information that they need quickly and easily. Research studies also show that customers are increasingly becoming dissatisfied with contact centre experiences due to lags and wait times. They also request and demand multiple channels of communications with a company, and these channels must transfer information seamlessly. Therefore, it is increasingly important for companies to deliver a cross-channel customer experience that can be both consistent as well as reliable.[21]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Bardicchia, Marco (2020). Digital CRM: Strategies and Emerging Trends: Building Customer Relationship in the Digital Era. p. 12.
  2. ^ Shaw, Robert (1991). Computer-Aided Marketing & Selling. Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-1707-9.
  3. ^ "Management Tools - Customer Relationship Management - Bain & Company". www.bain.com. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  4. ^ analyst, Full Bio Follow Linkedin Follow Twitter Marshall Hargrave is a stock; Stocks, Writer with 10+ Years of Experience Covering; markets; Analyzing, As Well as; Hargrave, valuing companies Learn about our editorial policies Marshall. "Customer Relationship Management - CRM goes beyond just software". Investopedia. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  5. ^ "CRM History: The Evolution Of Better Customer Service". www.streetdirectory.com. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  6. ^ "Software survey: CRM systems in 2021". 27 May 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  7. ^ "How Context Sits at Intersection of CRM, ACD". Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  8. ^ "SAP R/3 SD Wiki". Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b "It's official: Oracle closes on PeopleSoft acquisition". Computerworld. 10 January 2005. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Navision 3.0". Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c "History of CRM Software". comparecamp.com. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  12. ^ Jha, Lakshman (2008). Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Approach. ISBN 9788190721127. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  13. ^ "Gartner Announces Customer Relationship Management Summit 2009". gartner.com. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  14. ^ "Industry Specific/Vertical Market CRM Solutions". smallbizcrm.com. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  15. ^ The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Enterprise Organizations, Q4 2016, Forrester, 21 November 2016, retrieved 13 September 2017
  16. ^ Buttle, Francis; Maklan, Stan (11 February 2015). Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies. ISBN 9781317654766.
  17. ^ Feiz, Ghotbabadi,Khalifah, (2016-01) Customer Lifetime Value in Organisation s
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Types of CRM and Examples | CRM Software". www.crmsoftware.com. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b "What is sales force automation (SFA)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". WhatIs.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  20. ^ Buttle, Francis (2003). Customer relationship management. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781136412578.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "What is customer relationship management (CRM) ? - Definition from WhatIs.com". SearchCRM. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  22. ^ Josiah, Ahaiwe; Ikenna, Oluigbo (February 2015). "Role of Technology in Accounting and E-accounting". International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing. 4 (2): 208–215. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  23. ^ "Definition - www.smartcrm.com". www.smartcrm.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b c Tavana, Ali Feizbakhsh.; Fili, Saeed.; Tohidy, Alireza.; Vaghari, Reza. & Kakouie, Saed. (November 2013). "Theoretical Models of Customer Relationship Management in Organizations". International Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences. 3 (11).
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b Greenberg, Paul (13 February 2017). "How customer data platforms can benefit your business". ZDNet.
  26. ^ Jump up to: a b Reinartz, Werner; Krafft, Manfred; Hoyer, Wayne D. (August 2004). "The Customer Relationship Management Process: Its Measurement and Impact on Performance". Journal of Marketing Research. 41 (3): 293–305. doi:10.1509/jmkr.41.3.293.35991. S2CID 167683988.
  27. ^ Jump up to: a b "What's Your Relational Intelligence?". strategy+business. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  29. ^ Zeng, Yun E; Wen, H. Joseph; Yen, David C (1 March 2003). "Customer relationship management (CRM) in business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commercenull". Information Management & Computer Security. 11 (1): 39–44. doi:10.1108/09685220310463722. ISSN 0968-5227.
  30. ^ Bolton, Ruth N. (1998), "A Dynamic Model of the Duration of the Customer's Relationship with a Continuous Service Provider: The Role of Satisfaction," Marketing Science, 17 (1), 45–65.
  31. ^ Fornell, Claes (1992), "A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience", Journal of Marketing, 56 (January), 6-22
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mithas, Sunil.; Krishnan, M.S. & Fornell, Claes (October 2005). "Why Do Customer Relationship Management Applications Affect Customer Satisfaction?". Journal of Marketing. 69 (4): 201–209. doi:10.1509/jmkg.2005.69.4.201. S2CID 4650003.
  33. ^ Piccoli, Gabriele and L. Applegate (2003), "Wyndham International: Fostering High-Touch with High-Tech", Case Study No. 9-803-092, Harvard Business School
  34. ^ Piccoli, Gabriele and L. Applegate (2003), "Wyndham International: Fostering High-Touch with High-Tech", Case Study No. 9-803-092, Harvard Business School.
  35. ^ Business Strategy; 1999.22. Leach, B., Success of CRM systems hinges on the establishment of measurable benefits. Pulp & Paper 2003. 77(6): p. 48
  36. ^ Richards, A. Keith, and E. Jones, Customer relationship management: Finding value drivers. Industrial Marketing Management, 2008. 37(2): p.120-130.
  37. ^ Mohammadhossein, N., & Zakaria, N. H. (2012). Customer relationship management Benefits for Customers: Literature Review (2005-2012).
  38. ^ Bolte, T. Still Struggling to Reduce Call Center Costs Without Losing Customers? 2007.
  39. ^ Silverman, L.L., CUSTOMERS: RESPONSIVENESS, FOCUS, OR OBSESSION? The Australasian Powder Coater Painter-Fabricator, 2000. 29(2).
  40. ^ Collica, R.S., CRM Segmentation and Clustering Using SAS Enterprise Miner.2007.
  41. ^ Adrian Payne, P.F., A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management. Journal of Marketing, 2005.69.
  42. ^ Corie. The Top 5 Time-Saving Benefits of CRM. 2011.
  43. ^ Nambisan, S., Designing Virtual Customer Environment for New Product Development: Toward a Theory. Academy of Management Review, 2002. 27(3).
  44. ^ Jump up to: a b c "The story behind successful CRM - Bain & Company". www.bain.com. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  45. ^ DeVault, Gigi (28 March 2012). "Wondering How to Create the Ideal Consumer Profile? Learn the Basics". The Balance Small Business. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  46. ^ "A Dozen Simple Ways to Improve Customer Relations - Enterprise Apps Today". www.enterpriseappstoday.com. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  47. ^ "A CRM success story". Computerworld. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  48. ^ Avery, Jill. (2014). "Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships", Harvard Business Review. August 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/07/unlock-the-mysteries-of-your-customer-relationships Retrieved: 20 November 2015
  49. ^ "9 Ways to Improve Your Company's CRM System". CIO. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  50. ^ SAP Insider (15 November 2007) Still Struggling to Reduce Call Center Costs Without Losing Customers?
  51. ^ Genesys. "What Is Contact Center CRM?".
  52. ^ "The contact center and CRM collision leads to a new dominant species". Network World.
  53. ^ "Gamification Comes to the Contact Center". CRM Magazine. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  54. ^ "CRM in Customer Service". CRM Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  55. ^ "Contact center automation takes flight". SearchCRM. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  56. ^ "7 Ways CRM Can Increase Your Sales [Infographic]". Salesforce Blog. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  57. ^ Roberts-Phelps, Graham (2001). Customer Relationship Management : How to Turn a Good Business Into a Great One!. Thorogood. p. 140. ISBN 978-1854181190.
  58. ^ Prasongsukarn, Kriengsin (2006). "Customer relationship management from theory to practice: Implementation steps". Inspire Research Company.
  59. ^ Rebekah Henderson, B2B Insights (2013) How to build a B2B-friendly CRM Archived 28 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  60. ^ "B2B Marketing: What Makes It Special? | B2B International". B2B International. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  61. ^ Jump up to: a b c Columbus, Louis (28 May 2016). "2015 Gartner CRM Market Share Analysis Shows Salesforce In The Lead, Growing Faster Than Market". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  62. ^ Columbus, Louis (22 May 2015). "Gartner CRM Market Share Update: 47% Of All CRM Systems Are SaaS-Based, Salesforce Accelerates Lead". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  63. ^ Columbus, Louis (6 May 2014). "Gartner CRM Market Share Update: 41% Of CRM Systems Are SaaS-based, Salesforce Dominating Market Growth". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  64. ^ Columbus, Louis (26 April 2013). "2013 CRM Market Share Update: 40% Of CRM Systems Sold Are SaaS-Based". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  65. ^ "Gartner Says Worldwide Customer Experience and Relationship Management Software Market Grew 15.6% in 2018". Gartner. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  66. ^ Top 10 CRM Software Vendors, Market Size and Market Forecast 2019-2024apps run the world': August 2021
  67. ^ CRM Trends in Insurance IndustryCRM Trends in Insurance Industry: April 2010
  68. ^ Greenberg, Paul (2009). CRM at the Speed of Light (4th ed.). McGraw Hill. p. 7.
  69. ^ Put Cloud CRM to Work PC World: April 2010
  70. ^ Oracle Buys Cloud-based Customer Service Company RightNow For $1.5 Billion Techcrunch: 24 October 2011
  71. ^ "News Analysis: The Implications Of Oracle's Acquisition Of Taleo". Enterprise Irregulars. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  72. ^ "Oracle to Buy Eloqua in $810 Million Deal". Wall Street Journal. 20 December 2012. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  73. ^ SAP Challenges Oracle With $3.4 Billion SuccessFactors Purchase Bloomberg Businessweek: 7 December 2011
  74. ^ "CRM Trends 2021: How the Pandemic Altered Customer Behavior Forever". www.informationweek.com. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  75. ^ Forrester. "Three Key CRM Trends In 2021 That Will Allow You To Better Engage Your Customers". Forbes. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  76. ^ Gagliordi, Natalie. "Oracle announces in-game ad measurement technology in new CX portfolio update". ZDNet. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  77. ^ "Gartner's Top 54 CRM Case Studies, Sorted by Industry, for 2005". Retrieved 20 May 2005.
  78. ^ Destinationcrm.com CRM Magazine: May 2010
  79. ^ Nirpaz G., Pizarro F., Farm Don't Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success, March 2016, p. 101
  80. ^ "7 Top CRM Trends for 2017: A Look Ahead". CMS Wire.
  81. ^ "CRM and ERP: What's The Difference?". CRM Switch. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  82. ^ "Demystifying CRM Adoption Rates". CRM Magazine. 1 July 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  83. ^ It's all about the Customer, Stupid – The Importance of Customer-Centric Partners.
  84. ^ Jim Dickie, CSO Insights (2006) Demystifying CRM Adoption Rates.
  85. ^ Joachim, David. "CRM tools improve access, usability." (cover story). B to B 87, no. 3 (11 March 2002).
  86. ^ Law, Monica; Lau, Theresa; Wong, Y.H. (2003). "From customer relationship management to customer‐managed relationship: unraveling the paradox with a co‐creative perspective". Marketing Intelligence & Planning. 21 (1): 51–60. doi:10.1108/02634500310458153. hdl:10397/60525.
  87. ^ Nguyen, Bang; Simkin, Lyndon (2013). "The dark side of CRM: Advantaged and disadvantaged customers" (PDF). Journal of Consumer Marketing. 30: 17–30. doi:10.1108/07363761311290812.
  88. ^ Nguyen, B, Lee-Wingate, SN & Simkin, L (2014), The customer relationship management paradox: Five steps to create a fairer organisation Social Business, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 207-230. https://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440814X14103454934177
Retrieved from ""