1. What exactly is CRM?
The CRM concept was proposed by Gartner at the end of the nineties of the last century, and after subsequent development, it has gradually been accepted and well-known by the public. It has now become a must-have system for all for-profit businesses. There are also many CRM companies at home and abroad, such as foreign Siebel and Saleforce, domestic sales easy, Fanxiang sales, EC and so on. So what exactly is CRM? What exactly does it do? Everyone's understanding may be different, some say CRM is marketing, some say CRM is customer classification, some say CRM is sales process management, etc., in fact, they are all right, but they are not comprehensive. CRM is actually a concept that has gradually formed after savage growth - enterprises use information technology to help enterprises identify, develop, and serve customers, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and thus increase corporate revenue. In the CRM concept, I summarize that there is one center, two core points, and three pillars: one center is customer-centric, the two core points are: customer segmentation and customer lifecycle management, and three pillars: marketing, sales, and customer service.
One center: As mentioned earlier, CRM has now become a necessary system for all profitable enterprises, why is it a profitable enterprise? The first priority of a for-profit business is to make a profit. So how do you make money? We can simply use the example of a restaurant to illustrate:
A restaurant has a number of dishes, such as braised prawns, kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork ribs, lotus pond stir-fry and so on. We define them as: P1, P2, P3....pn, then the total revenue of the hotel r=x1*p1*c1+x2*p2*c2+......xnpn*cn, where x is the number of customers who order a certain dish and x is the number of times a certain dish is ordered.
We can find that in order to increase the company's total revenue, we can start from the following aspects:
More x (more customers).
More p (more products).
Higher C (higher number of purchases).
More customers need us to actively publicize and market. More dishes, the premise is that we have to know what customers like, otherwise the new products made by customers are not satisfied, and they will not be able to convert into revenue. The higher the number of purchases, the more loyal customers are to our products and to continue to buy. It can be seen that a profitable business must be customer-centric in order to achieve sustainable revenue growth.
Two cores: segmentation and customer lifecycle management segmentation.
Let's take the hotel as an example: as more and more customers accumulate, there are more and more characteristics of customers, some customers like to eat sweet and sour, and some like to eat spicy. Some customers have birthdays in March, some have birthdays in August, some customers are single, and some are married and have children. In response to these situations, we can segment customers from different dimensions.
Let's take the hotel as an example: as more and more customers accumulate, there are more and more characteristics of customers, some customers like to eat sweet and sour, and some like to eat spicy. Some customers have birthdays in March, some have birthdays in August, some customers are single, and some are married and have children. In response to these situations, we can segment customers from different dimensions. What are the benefits of customer segmentation? There are many benefits, but the two most important ones are:
Make customers feel personalized service: Different services can be provided for different customers, so that customers can feel the intimacy of "different". For example, if the restaurant has just served a sweet and sour dish, you can recommend it to customers who like to eat sweet and sour (and avoid recommending it to customers who like spicy food and causing disturbance).
Save the resources of the enterprise: The resources of the enterprise are always limited, and after having customer segmentation, you can refine personalized marketing and services to avoid waste of resources.
Customer lifecycle management companies want customers to buy their products or services multiple times, because the cost of acquiring a new customer is necessarily much higher than the cost of retaining an old customer.
Xiao Wang and Xiao Li are a couple who came to the hotel for a meal and registered as a member to leave their information. Once the hotel has the information, it can continue to market and serve it. For example, whenever a hotel launches a discount event for couples, you can send a message to guide them to the store to spend. When you know that the two are going to get married, you can guide their wedding banquet to choose the hotel, and even after having a baby in the future, their full moon banquet will also be held in the hotel...
When the enterprise has the detailed information of the customer, it can carry out targeted influence and service at each node of the customer life cycle, and then serve the customer while increasing the company's revenue.
Three pillars: marketing, sales, and customer service.
Xiao Wang and Xiao Li are preparing to get married, and they want to take a set of wedding photos when they get married. Xiao Wang saw an advertisement for "xx wedding photography" on a TV commercial, and felt good, so he picked up ** and consulted. Xiao Xu, the sales person of the bridal shop, gave a detailed introduction to the products and services in the store and invited him to visit the store. In the end, Xiao Wang ordered a certain ** worth 10,000 in the wedding dress shop and filmed it. When I finally watched the finished film, Xiao Li was not very satisfied with a few of the ** retouched films, so the wedding dress shop re-edited the film for it until Xiao Li was satisfied.
We can review which key nodes Xiao Wang and Xiao Li have gone through in the whole process above:
Xiao Wang saw the TV advertisement of the bridal shop and made a consultation.
Sales Xiao Xu gave a detailed introduction to it, and finally asked him to place an order to buy.
The bridal shop filmed and re-edited the ** who were not satisfied with the retouching until they were satisfied.
The above three key nodes correspond to the three pillars: marketing, sales, and customer service. Marketing: Use marketing methods to effectively publicize the purpose of delivering information about its products and services to potential customers. Sales: Targeting potential customers, further guidance and conversion are carried out with the goal of getting them to place an order to buy. Customer service: Serve customers, and answer and solve customer problems after sales, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, and facilitating their word-of-mouth communication and follow-up consumption. The CRM system is to automate these three pillars with the help of information technology, improve their operational efficiency, and maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty from the three-pronged approach of customer acquisition, sales and service, and increase the company's revenue.
In summary, CRM is never profound, nor mysterious, but also gradually grows, and finally forms a set of theories that have been tested by the market, and have been carried forward with the help of information technology. Information technology has been evolving at a rapid pace, but its philosophy has remained the same. As long as you master its theory, you can respond to all changes with the same!
2. Components of a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
CRM systems typically include the following components:
Customer data management: Collect, collate, and analyze customer information, including personal information, purchase records, communication history, etc. Through the analysis of this data, businesses can better understand customer needs and develop targeted marketing strategies.
Sales management: Track leads, manage opportunities, and monitor sales team performance. In addition, it can assist businesses in formulating sales so that they can better align their products and services.
Customer Service Management: Provide customer support tools such as support, chat, help center, etc., so that businesses can better solve customer problems. These features help improve customer satisfaction, which in turn reduces customer churn.
Marketing automation: Automate marketing campaigns, such as sending emails, text messages, social** promotions, and more. This helps to improve marketing efficiency while personalizing marketing content based on customer information.
3. The main functions of the customer relationship management (CRM) system.
A CRM system has several main features:
Customer segmentation: Through the analysis of customer data, businesses can segment customers into different market segments, allowing them to develop more targeted marketing strategies.
Customer lifecycle management: CRM systems can help businesses manage all stages of the customer lifecycle, including attracting new customers, retaining existing customers, recovering lost customers, etc.
Cross-selling and value-added selling: CRM systems can identify customers' buying patterns, providing businesses with cross-selling and value-added selling opportunities to increase sales.
Customer satisfaction monitoring: Through a CRM system, businesses can collect customer satisfaction data on a regular basis so that problems can be identified in a timely manner and improvement measures can be taken.
Fourth, the advantages of CRM.
Improve customer satisfaction: Through an in-depth understanding of customer needs and customized services, businesses can improve customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are more likely to continue to purchase products or services and recommend businesses to others.
Enhance customer loyalty: CRM systems can help businesses build strong customer relationships, which can enhance customer loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to continue to generate revenue for the business while reducing customer churn.
Improve marketing effectiveness: Through the analysis of customer data, enterprises can carry out marketing activities in a more targeted manner, thereby improving the marketing investment-output ratio. In addition, the marketing automation function of the CRM system can improve the efficiency of the marketing team and reduce labor costs.
Improve sales efficiency: CRM systems can help businesses track sales leads and improve the efficiency of sales teams. At the same time, through the analysis of sales data, enterprises can better formulate sales strategies and goals.
Optimize customer service: CRM systems can provide a variety of customer service tools to help businesses solve customer problems more efficiently. Great customer service not only improves customer satisfaction but also helps build a good corporate image.
5. CRM challenges.
Despite the many advantages of a CRM system, businesses can also encounter some challenges during their implementation, such as:
Data quality: To ensure that a CRM system delivers the most value to the business, businesses need to ensure that the customer data they collect is accurate and complete. Otherwise, decisions based on inaccurate data can lead to wasted resources and customer churn.
User acceptance: The successful implementation of a CRM system requires the active participation of employees. Businesses need to provide adequate training and support to ensure that employees are proficient in using the system.
Privacy and security: When collecting and processing customer data, businesses need to comply with regulations to ensure the privacy and security of customer data. Otherwise, businesses may face legal action and reputational damage.
Cost and return on investment: The implementation of a CRM system requires a certain cost investment. Businesses need to assess whether the benefits of a CRM system can cover the costs to ensure a return on investment.
Sixth, the development trend of CRM.
With the development of technology, CRM systems are also constantly innovating and evolving, such as:
More and more enterprises are choosing cloud-based CRM systems to reduce hardware and software maintenance costs while enabling real-time data updates and access.
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data: With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology, CRM systems can analyze customer data more intelligently, thereby providing businesses with more accurate marketing** and personalized marketing strategies.
Social integration: Social has become an important channel for customer interaction. As a result, many CRM systems are starting to incorporate social** features so that businesses can better engage with customers and capture customer information.
Mobile CRM: With the popularity of smartphones and tablets, more and more businesses are starting to implement a mobile CRM strategy. By accessing the CRM system through mobile devices, businesses can obtain customer information in real-time and improve the productivity of employees.
Customer experience management: More and more businesses are focusing on customer experience management (CEM) as a key means of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, CRM systems are also constantly being improved to support businesses in better managing the customer experience.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a collection of strategic approaches and technologies designed to help businesses manage interactions, communication, and connections with customers more effectively. CRM systems have a variety of features such as customer data management, sales management, customer service management, and marketing automation that can help businesses improve customer satisfaction, enhance customer loyalty, and thus increase sales and profits. Although there may be some challenges in the implementation of CRM systems, as technology develops, CRM systems are constantly innovating and evolving to provide more value to businesses.
Further reading: Mainstream customer relationship management systems at home and abroad.
1.Wukong CRM: China's famous open source CRM brand, is also a well-known CRM brand, users include Tencent, Mixue Bingcheng, ZTE, CCTV, OPPO, Ctrip and other famous Chinese companies, is the most recommended brand.
2.Salesforce: A world-renowned customer relationship management system with mature functions, but it is a pity that it will begin to withdraw from the Chinese market in 2022, and it is not ruled out that the service will be discontinued like other foreign products.
3.Fanxiang Sales: According to the index, IDC and other reports, Fanxiang has ranked first in the domestic CRM market share for many years, and it is also the CRM manufacturer with the largest growth rate, and has been on the Hurun Global Unicorn List for many years.
4.SalesEasy: SalesNeoCRM is an enterprise-level CRM pioneer that integrates new Internet technologies, innovatively using new Internet technologies such as AI, big data, and the Internet of Things to create an enterprise-level CRM platform integrating marketing, sales and service management. It is invested by well-known venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners China and Tencent. It is the CRM manufacturer whose domestic market share is second only to Fanxiang Sales.
5.Kingdee EAS CRM: The main service target is to provide complete customer relationship solutions for those growing, mature and stable small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, its customer base is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, and its market share is not very large.