What is a CRM? Customer Relationship Management Explained

The more customers you have, the harder it might be to keep track of it all.

That’s where CRMs come into play.

But what is a CRM and what can it do?

Today, we’ll break down the basics.

What is a CRM?

The letters CRM stand for Customer Relationship Management.

But when people talk about a CRM, they are mostly referring to a CRM platform or software solution.

CRMs help your business to collect, manage, search, update and report on customer data. At its core, a CRM collects customer information and allows you to use it in several different ways.

For example, a modern CRM would be able to collect all of your customer’s contact information, purchase history, email history, chat history and more in a unified dashboard. This way, you’ll have access to critical customer information at your reach whenever it is needed.

Technically speaking, a notebook with all your customer data written in it COULD be considered a CRM solution, but it would definitely not be the most efficient or useful one.

How a CRM can help your company

A CRM is much more than an organizational tool. It can actually help your business in multiple ways.

For example, assume that your company offers several tiers for a SaaS (Software as a Service) product. You’d have a free tier, a $20 tier, and a $50 tier.

A modern CRM can be set up to keep track of all these customers and send promotional emails accordingly. Allowing you to only send emails promoting the $20 tier to your free tier users, not to your entire list.

CRMs also allow you to keep all information about a customer in a single place regardless of what company department is generating or looking for that data. That way, Customer Support and Marketing both have access to the same up-to-date contact information about a customer.

A CRM can actually have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line. Stay tuned to our blog for an upcoming article on the many advantages of a CRM solution.

Do you need a CRM?

After learning about CRMs, the first question that comes to many peoples’ minds is do I need one?

The answer is that it depends on the circumstances and needs of your business.

If you run a business with so few customers that you can count them all on your hand, you might not need one.

But if you are constantly acquiring new customers and care about the value of their customer data, you definitely need a CRM.

This is even more true if you’re interested in integrating this data with other strategies such as customer support, sales, and/or marketing.

Still unsure about CRMs? Stay tuned to our blog for our guide on the main signs that say you might need a CRM.

Closing thoughts

Hopefully, at this point, you not only understand what a CRM is but also how it can help your business.If you’re looking for a CRM platform, try out Moment, our fully-featured CRM solution with live chat, email and browser recording integrations.