Customer Relationship Management

Imagine, you meet up with a good friend and they don’t remember your name. They don’t remember what you talked about last time you met, they forget what you do for a job, and what your interests are; basically, they treat you as if they know absolutely nothing about you. How would this make you feel?

Customer relationship management’s core focus is on the relationship a business has with its prospects and customers. This relationship is created by using what you know about that individual to create meaningful and relevant communication and experiences.

By creating a relationship that has value, a prospect will become a customer. A first-time customer will become a loyal customer using your services continually.

The management element refers to the ability to use data and insights as the foundation for this relationship building. How can you identify the stage a prospect or customer is at with you, at scale, and provide the most relevant message, offer or support, in the right way, to meet their needs at that moment in time? Not all your prospects and customers will need the same thing at the same time, delivered in the same way.

Customer Relationship Management is not:

• Communicating message after message because you have a service or product to offer
• It’s not just a loyalty programme
• It’s not just collecting data on your customers (though this is part of it).

CRM is the creation of a two-way dialogue to build valued relationships, which are beneficial to all. Data can seem boring, but it’s critical to create these relationships. Think back to our example of meeting up with a friend. All that information that makes a difference is the data.