A.AYESHA SIDDIQUA, M.Com., M.Phil., SET, Ph.D.,

Help a business to keep customers.
It helps the business to understand what it needs to do to get more customers.
Reduce costs by managing costly complaints and finding out what services are useless for customers.
Help a company figure out if its product is working and, ultimately, increases profit.
Prime reason is to log and manage customer relationships. The purpose of CRM<br>

Visitor - The online CRM is the entry portal to your company, however the visitor finds you. Whether they visit with your representatives at a trade show, or fill out a web form, they enter the front door of your virtual company and into the online CRM to be greeted with a welcome and offered something valuable to them. WARNING: Do not skip this important stage or your emails may be rejected later.
Engaged Visitor - online CRM is able to engage the sales lead and rescue your sales. The first place you engage the visitor is in the welcome email. Be gracious and welcoming. Stages of Customer Relationship<br>

Prospect
In some companies, just clicking on the link to the first offer will convert the sales lead into a prospect. It may be time to have your salespeople call to offer help and guide the sale. Whatever the sales process for your product or service, an email campaign delivered in your online CRM is the most engaging and personal way to get them to pay attention to your message.
Customer
Way too many companies stop courting the business after they have become a customer. Some feel that customers are not loyal anyway, so what’s the point? Others believe that if they concentrate their effort on delivering good products and excellent service – it will be enough to earn whatever loyalty is possible.<br>

Advocate
In an online world where customers can post their experience with your company to be seen by anyone who may be interested – customers have the enviable power to make or break your business. As demonstrated by such companies as Apple, Amazon and more, devout loyalty is possible when customers feel important. They feel deeply attached to the companies who make them feel valued and heard.<br>

Relationship marketing was first defined as a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaign which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions.
Marketing activities that are aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers.
In relationship marketing, customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts are maintained in a sales database, and an account executive is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain the relationship. Relationship Marketing<br>

Satisfaction
Today’s customers face a growing range of choices in the products and services they can buy . They are making their choice on the basis of their perceptions of quality, service, and value. Companies need to understand the determinants of customer value and satisfaction.
Retention
To create customer satisfaction, companies must manage their value chain as well as the whole value delivery system in a customer-centered way. The company’s goal is not only to get customers, but even more importantly to retain customers. Customer relationship marketing provides the key to retaining customers and involves providing financial and social benefits as well as structural ties to the customers. Companies must decide how much relationship marketing to invest in different market segments and individual customers, from such levels as basic, reactive, accountable, proactive, and full partnership Purpose of relationship marketing<br>

Nowadays, three major types of customer relationship management systems, namely operational CRM, analytical CRM and collaborative CRM are being used in many organizations.

Operational CRM
It provides support to front-office business processes that involve direct interaction with customers through any communication channel, such as phone, fax, e-mail, etc. The details of every interaction with customers, including their requirements, preferences, topics of discussion etc., are stored in the customers’ contact history and can be retrieved by the organization’s staff whenever required. Thus, it presents a unified view of customers across the organization and across all communication channels. Examples of operational CRM applications are sales force automation (SFA), customer service and support (CSS), enterprise marketing automation (EMA),etc. Types of CRM<br>

Analytical CRM
It enables to analyze customer data generated by operational CRM applications, understand the customers’ behavior, and derive their true value to the organization. This helps to approach the customers with related information and proposals that satisfy their needs. The analytical customer relationship management applications use analytical marketing tools like data mining to extract meaningful information like the buying patterns of the customers, target market, profitable and unprofitable customers, etc., that help to improve performance of the business.<br>

Collaborative CRM
It allows easier collaboration with customers, suppliers, and business partners and, thus, enhances sales and customer services across all the marketing channels. The major goal of collaborative customer relationship management applications is to improve the quality of services provided to the customers, thereby increasing the customers loyalty. Examples of collaborative CRM applications are partner relationship management (PRM), customer self-service and feedback, etc.<br>

Thank You...<br>