CRM, an integrated solution

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CRM involves customer management
CRM is not a single product. It is a total integrated solution, which merges many functions within an organization. It affects all the major departments within a company.

This is because CRM is about managing customers.

This affects call center and customer service, sales, and marketing. By knowing who your customers are, their needs, and being able to monitor them is how a company can retain them. Its primary function is to retain and better serve customers, but it allows companies to better understand customers and their needs. This information can be leverage in marketing, sales and even product development efforts.

CRM is not demanded to solve a specific problem. It is a part of an overall corporate strategy. Consumers have changed. Their expectations of companies have risen considerably. Consumers use to be willing to wait and slow to complain. Now however, the if expectations are not met, customers do not hesitate in changing supplier.

This has further developed into customers expecting that their suppliers remember them and provide them with a reason to stay. With the global marketplace rapidly shrinking, the choice available to consumers is increasing at a rapid rate. Hence companies have recognized the importance of effectively managing their customers.

This includes looking for new ways to meet the needs of customers and be able to service their changing needs. CRM, although it is the buzzword in the IT industry, needs to be marketed as a business strategy as opposed to a product, similarly to e-commerce.