Isn’t it nice when Daralis, a lady in the local shop, while passing you your favourite juice, asks you how was your day or how are the kids doing? That is the charm of local shops – the employees know their regular customers and their likings. They will advise you not to buy the product of doubtful freshness, especially when a fresh one is going to be delivered on the next day. They always know your name. They are aware that you have a dog and that you can’t walk him on Wednesday evening because you work late. Madame Daralis knows all about you. And she is using that fact on the daily basis. As a result, each and every evening except on Wednesday, you pass by to buy some bread for the breakfast and to talk about your mundane day. Madame Daralis is always nice and helpful. She is a local customer relationship manager.
- You get the point. But you are not a local food industry businessman.
- You have more customers.
- You don’t meet them on the daily basis.
- Sometimes you never meet your customer – you are operating online, exclusively.
- None of your employees is named Daralis.
You know you have to manage your relations with customer. You were told so by an acquaintance that work for another company. That is what the ads say. That is something you heard your Marketing Dept. talk about. You are surrounded by the mysterious abbreviation – CRM. And you ask yourself:
Do I really need it?
Or, using business language:
What exactly is CRM and what will be my ROI?
CRM is a type of information system that serves Customer Relationship Management, hence its name. Of course, depending on the producer, CRM systems differ, but they all support:
Sales
Marketing
Services
How does this support look like? The CRM system contains of three fields: interactive, operational and analytical. In other words, it eases (respectively):
- contacts with customers (via mails, phones, personal contacts),
- accumulation of the customer data (and creating 360 view of your customer),
- data analysis (customer value analysis, customer basket analysis, customer segmentations).
The CRM system becomes a new Madame Daralis. Knows all and provides you with everything you need to know in most accessible way possible. Thanks to the CRM we know how to address the lead customer, what is the output of a marketing campaign and which of your products or services sells best. The CRM system will send a personalized email to your customer. It will provide a seller with most up-to-date information about the customer and their purchases.
Customer relationship management, regardless of being supported by the information system or not, is a business strategy that aims for a maximization of long-term profits from the relation between the company and its customer. In Poland CRM systems gain more and more recognition. According to the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS), in 2015 24.4% of all companies in Poland has implemented a CRM system. Though it seems few, we are observing a rising trend (in 2012 only 16.7% of companies in Poland using some sort of CRM system).
What will be your ROI? It depends on the market situation and your business needs. Perhaps the CRM system will turn out to be useless in your company. Perhaps it will be poorly customized and won’t meet your needs and the users won’t use it. But the CRM system may happen to be the indispensable help during the everyday work. It may optimize your business processes, shorten the sales or services processes. It might allow you to gain some valuable data usable for the middle management. It may even help your business flourish by helping you gain new market or discover a niche. And the CRM system might let you analyse your employees work and its effectiveness.
Do you need a CRM system? That is a question you have to answer yourself.
