Customer relationship management - the managing of a relationship with the customer. A very simple concept as you look at it. Why arethere are many questions surrounding it? It is because this seemingly simple concept has changed the way the world does business with its customers. It has taken the most important aspect of business-the customer- and brought it to the forefront.

One of the misconceptions about CRM is that is a software solution but it is really much more of a business process and methodology supported by technology.

CRM Guru Paul Greenberg coins it this way "CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment" in his award winning book "CRM at the Speed of light".

With that said, having a good relationship with your customers is the key to any businesses success, survival, and growth. A customer may perceive the entire business as one single entity. But there are different employees in different roles and departments who work in synergy to enhance each customer experience. If you are going to build meaningful customer relationships and achieve any reasonable level of customer loyalty you need to make sure you understand the full dynamics of your customers, their organization and how you interact with them.

Though the strategy and philosophy elements have to be clarified prior to implementing the technology I am going to lean mostly from the software aspects in this article and how they are designed to map your strategy with the technical implementation.

Customer relationship management or CRBM software applications help you organize data efficiently and many offer advanced reporting capabilities and automations so you can have the right information at your fingertips for real-time analysis. This can help you get one step further and can give each employee, department, and manager access to a vast amount of customer information.

Important Aspects of a CRBM System

There are several key aspects of customer relationship management which are related to each other and play a key role in the outcome of the entire process.

1. Having good business to business (B2B) relationships is what helps deliver the eventual user experience with the end consumer or (B2C).  This means that managing the transactions and communications aspects of relationships with partners, suppliers and distributors or retail channels is paramount in how quickly end users or customers are able to be serviced and ultimately satisfied.
2. Real time Data Analysis: Business Intelligence is the backbone and benefit of the entire business management system. To effectively leverage the training, software and hardware investments required for effectively implementing any CRBM system, Customer and business management data needs to be analyzed, updated and combined with predictive analytics to plan out and strategize targeted marketing campaigns that respond to what your customers and their customers want, need and are not only asking for but are demanding from you.
3. Good Communication with Customers allows you to improve customer loyalty through building trust and it can help manage damage control in turbulent times. Customer interaction channels are a direct indicator of the success or failure of a CRM model and needs to be constantly monitored. A better business has fewer calls/emails, lesser escalations and a high customer satisfaction to dissatisfaction ratio. In addition improving your ability to respond faster and deliver results in shorter windows of time will lessen the chances your customers need to search else ware for solutions to problems that can be solved through your products or services.

There are several types and variations of CRM applications available in the market today and they all have strengths and weaknesses but in our search we have found that most Small to Mid-sized Businesses (SMB's) or also referred to as Small Business Enterprises (SME's) can benefit from solutions that originate from Open Source Technologies since this can give them the freedom to modify or customize features with a lower cost of entry. The leading contenders for this are the SugarCRM solution and the Infoathand CRBM system.

To get started I would recommend that you look at their product web sites and compare price points for not only the software but also the ongoing service, support and training required to successfully support your deployment and ongoing organizational needs.

They each offer free trials and if you have the technical expertise you can jump start the technology implementations rather seamlessly. However this is not the case with most small businesses and thus there has been a void for companies to provide professional support and training to help you get through the many choices and options available for mapping this software with your business processes and organizational strategies. This has opend the door for companies like CNP Integrations to provide professional support, training and consulting to help match the right technology for your organization.

In conclusion you must first get a good idea of what your business processes are and how you want to leverage technology to implement a system that centralizes your data, gives you the flexibility you want and is at a price point you can afford. Then you should review the available software and contact a company like CNP Integrations that can provide you with the professional services and advise required to implement your CRM program effectively.

One thing to keep in mind as you dig into this is that if you implement your CRM Strategy and accompanying technologies correctly you will not only get back your investment but you can actually significantly reduce overhead and improve efficiency through automating many of your business processes and getting real time information for making better decisions faster. On the flip side is that it is very easy to make decisions during the initial implementation phases of deploying CRM that can cause catastrophic failure and thus wasting a ton of time while costing you not only money but stirring up your organization and customer relationships in an unfavorable way.

For reference I highly recommend Paul Greenberg's book "CRM a the Speed of light" if you need consulting click here to get a whitepaper and to talk with someone that can give you good advice in your research