Who is your customer? The letter â€œCâ€ in CRM may have a narrow definition or a wide one. For example, customers can not only include those who buy from you, but also the suppliers, partners, employees and even investors. Each of these “customer groups”has different needs that should be managed. â€œcustomerâ€ can be someone who buys your products or services. It can be a business customer or an individual.

What is customer relationship management?

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a term which describes how a business interacts with customers. Most people take CRM as a system to capture information regarding your customers. However, that is only one phase of the picture.

CRM involves technology usage in order to gather intelligence you are required to provide for improved support and services to the customers. CRM is also about what you do with a particular node of information to better meet the needs of existing customers and for identifying new customers. It results in higher profits. There is a range of CRM platforms available in the market. For example Salesforce. You can identify the companies that use Salesforce and check its reliability for your business.

Building blocks of CRM:

-A database that collects information about your customers.

-A way to analyze the information in the database.

-A strategy for applying the analysis to better meet your clientsâ€™ needs and identify potential customers.

-Collecting data to ensure your strategy is effective.

Online customers have special expectations that set them aloof of traditional customers. They expect lots and lots of details about your company and products to be available online. They aim for minimal searching, wish to be close to immediate service, opportunities of self-service through your website, speedy shipment, and after-sales support. Henceforth, you should consider CRM principles when indulging in business online. Get insights into Marketo customers to get a better idea about special expectations.

How to use CRM for business?

â€œDEVELOP A CRM STRATEGYâ€

Development of CRM strategy is an investment of your time which proves to be beneficial in long-term. Creating a dynamic strategy allows you to make a direction for your CRM initiatives. It ensures that the investments are targeted to foster strong relations with potential customers of the company.

Initially, for developing a CRM strategy, your business should identify the customer profile for e.g. their needs, their satisfaction, and their purchasing decisions. With the help of this process, you would be able to identify a subset of your client base where you would want to focus your efforts. Your CRM strategy should also define the goals of your business engagement with the current and future customers for maximizing sales, profit and long-term levels of growth. You have to assess your companyâ€™s capabilities whether the technology is modern or not, take a check on human resources and skills to meet these goals.

Gartner, an IT research and advisory company, has released a report in 2010 names â€œThree Steps to Create a CRM Strategyâ€. It identifies key areas for creating a successful CRM strategy.

1. Setup clear desired results for CRM. Identify the key steps to achieve the vision, and also monitor progress towards these goals.

2. The CRM strategy should be integrated with the entire business model and must be aligned with strategies from different areas like marketing and sales.

3. A CRM strategy must include eight aspects: vision, organizational collaboration, processes, strategy, customer experience, customer information, technology, metrics etc.

Smooth implementation of CRM for your business is supposed to depend on the level of planning went into the development of a comprehensive CRM strategy. The clarity in your business model represents CRM objectives. And further, easier it will be to prepare a plan to implement the initiatives and ensure that all the employees understand its relativity.

There are a plethora of CRM, many of them offering the basic functionalities that are aimed towards effective management for customers to enhance your interpersonal and professional relationship with them. What is unique about Salesforce CRM making it popular and a market leader? Why an organization would pay a premium price for Salesforce? These are certain queries one may come across before indulging in with Salesforce.

Salesforce was the first one to launch a CRM on the cloud in the market. It has since been a market leader. The functional depth and ease of use are drivers of their success. If you have a look at Salesforce analytics, youâ€™ll witness these following benefits:

1. Ease of use:

Primary reasons that drive Salesforce adoption rate. They have better visibility into their accounts, contacts, opportunities, and tasks, all from a single place. A complete 360-degree view of the customer, which helps customers in making make better business decisions and faster closure of details. It becomes easier to navigate between modules. Collaboration among the colleagues also becomes easy. Most companies use Salesforce for its easy operation. If you look in the list of Companies Using Salesforce you will know why it has been a constant market leader.

2. The depth of functionality:

The default Salesforce platform comes with a wide range of features which cater to maximum organizational needs. During this implementation procedure, the Admin is able to make point-and-click alterations through Force.com as a builder to configure the solution according to the business process.

3. Customizability:

Yet another area where Salesforce scores major cookie points amongst its competitors is that it is highly customizable. A majority of requirements can be handled through configuration. Often there is a need to add/extend existing functionalities to accuracy for reflecting business needs. In the case of Salesforce customization, technical proficiency is required for Apex Code and Visual-force pages. The greatest strength of Salesforce is its customizability in custom fields, objects, integration of your own apps, etc. to provide you with a complete solution. It has hence become the first choice for many.

4. Scalability:

Opting for a CRM, then you are simply not making a decision for today. It has to be scalable enough to meet the business needs for at least 3 years in advance.

5. Cloud-based PaaS model:

Salesforce launched its first cloud-based CRM and established the Platform as a PaaS market with Force.com. It allowed support for complex real-world business models, with no capital expense involved for the setup just like for the NetSuite customers. Salesforce mainly charges on user licenses. Itâ€™s Sales Cloud has four Editions â€“

1. SalesforceIQ Starter,

2. Lightning Professional,

3. Lightning Enterprise and

4. Lightning Unlimited

If your requirements alter as per your work, then you can move up or down to any Edition and also increase or reduce the number of users.

6. Efficient Pipeline management:

From the Opportunities point of view, Sales Reps have a collected view on all potentials and stages. They are presented visually, which helps them to focus and prioritize and important deals.

7. Reports:

Sales Reps create their own reports to keep an eye on the accounts they havenâ€™t worked on for a while. Opportunities, products sold, activities performed and tasks completed are managed essentially. Reporting charts and dashboards help to measure their own performances and figure out the critical data with the help of graphical formats.

The Salesforce team and community work closely in a consolidated manner to build a better solution each day. They listen to customer feedback and requests. Their prime aim is to incorporate new features in the solution. Thrice every year Salesforce releases new features to enhance their reputation for product functionality and customer satisfaction.