CRM

3 Pages 841 Words

CRM for Dummies
More often than not we hear the consulting gurus say something like “CRM can help you not only retain existing customers, but can also help you widen your customer base” or “CRM helps you track your opportunities better, and helps you focus on those customers who help you to rake in that much more – not just in terms of volume, but also interms of profitability” or several such things and we end up wondering whether the way we run our business would ever be the same again? On one hand we have the ‘E’ things which seems to be selling like hot cakes, and on the other hand people are talking about this new buzz word CRM - Customer Relationship Management. How similar are they or how different are they?Managing the relationship with customers and making them happy or should we say “delighted” has come in to the limelight in the wake of globalization, where Customer delight is the only key to success or more so the very existence. The focus on customers and giving them exactly what they want has been there in almost all organizations, then why the sudden talk about CRM?To answer that question we need to look at what is the current situation in the Industry today. With a general slowdown of the global economy companies are finding it hard to get going. More so with the advent of technology which has made life easier for your competitors. Gone are the days where you had a technological edge over your archrival. With new and affordable technologies your competitor is just a matter of days behind you in terms of product launch. So what are you left with as a key-differentiating factor? What are you left with as a feature that could make your customer chose you over your competitor? Scary as the situation may seem, it is the ground reality that many companies the world over have come to terms with and have realized that customers need to be looked at more seriously than ever before.The perception a customer has ...