Customer Service Glossary
Table of Contents

    What Is a CRM?

    CRM, or customer relationship management, software is a type of cloud-based technology that companies use to manage relationships with customers, track interactions between potential leads and current clients, and guide strategic planning decisions. CRM software enables companies to nurture relationships, which are vital to organizational growth.

    Further, CRM systems help brands maintain a cohesive communications database that improves connections to their customers while increasing revenue, boosting profitability, and streamlining assistance.

    CRM tools track and improve a variety of business processes as well, including: 

    • Contact management
    • Agent productivity
    • Sales operations 
    • Purchase funnel development
    • Customer lifecycle tracking
    • Prospect management
    • Marketing campaigns
    • Web content
    • Mobile app activity
    • Digital behavior
    • Customer interactions 

    Why Is CRM Software Important for Client Services?

    Departments ranging from sales to recruiting to marketing and client support employ CRM systems to centralize internal and external customer interactions.

    The systems make it easy to create detailed customer profiles, contact prospective clients, and improve lead-generation efforts. At the same time, CRM software streamlines assistance and sales processes by acting as a central hub for customer data. 

    Additional benefits of CRM software include: 

    1. Enhanced Communication and Personalization 

    Modern shoppers are connected 24/7 to brands via live chat messaging, emails, text messages, and social media. Customer relationship management systems simplify omnichannel communication strategies by enhancing customer those interactions. 

    CRMs store vast amounts of customer information. As a result, customer support agents, sales teams, and marketing departments can provide individualized, real-time assistance, segment audiences, refer to past conversation information, and automate steps of the customer care process.

    In addition, your business can tailor its advertising messages, resulting in 62% higher open rates, improved engagement, more sales, and happier customers.  

    2. Better Relationship Maintenance

    CRM software empowers customer care agents to nurture long-term, positive relationships with customers, thanks to comprehensive insight into the customer’s interactions with the company. The system’s hyper-personalization abilities eliminate the risk of sterile, canned phone calls, slow responses, or irrelevant assistance. 

    3. Increased Understanding of Audience Needs

    CRM systems log data regarding client purchases, website and social media interactions, and past support tickets. As your company learns more about individuals through their comprehensive profiles, client care teams can offer better product recommendations or other forms of individualized service, ultimately resulting in increased brand loyalty. 

    4. Cohesive Customer Experience

    CRM software excels in creating a consistent, cohesive customer experience. Customer care teams can create automated messages to send after a client contacts the company. Agents can ensure that all messaging coincides with the online information and language as well, resulting in reliable communications and more long-term customers.

    5. In-Depth Knowledge of Consumer Base

    Knowledge is power, especially in the business world. Customer relationship management software allows your team to leverage the data gathered from past shoppers, current customers, and prospects to improve sales, marketing, and assistance processes. The learning hubs also allow agents to provide relevant assistance in a positive, empathetic manner.

    What does a CRM system do?

    Cloud-based CRM technology leverages Artificial Intelligence to create a streamlined operation centered around meeting customer expectations and improving efficiency. Depending on the organizational requirements, leadership teams can choose systems that sort user information, identify potential leads, oversee financial transaction data, collaborate with vendor representatives, and even oversee marketing strategies.

    Simply put, no matter the job, there’s a CRM tool designed to get it done. Some of the most popular options include:

    • Salesforce
    • HubSpot
    • PipeDrive
    • Sage
    • Insightly
    • Oracle

    CRM systems may also provide measurements that your company can use to create the key performance indicators (KPIs) it needs to build and scale an operation. That said, each system varies based on functionality, pricing, and other features, so it’s critical to determine your organizations’ needs before choosing a lead management provider.

    How Do CRM Systems work?

    CRM software works by automating almost every step of the customer-company relationship. CRM platforms can find potential clients, nurture new clients as they make purchases, and help improve customer satisfaction by enabling your company to provide individualized care at every step of the customer journey.

    A customer relationship management tool begins working as soon as a shopper interacts with your company through your website, social media platforms, help desk, or another distribution channel. Then, the software tracks each customer as they navigate your website, browse items in your store, or review your services.

    Over time, customer relationship management platforms use data analysis to develop detailed user profiles on each customer, featuring details such as:

    • Communication preferences
    • Favorite products
    • Website activities and habits
    • Purchasing history

    Using this information, companies can target each customer with the right advertisement at the right time. Depending on the customer’s behavior, you may entice them to make a purchase by sending an email with a discount code. Other customers make take action after they see an ad in their Instagram stories.

    CRM tools also make relationship maintenance simpler. Customers can reach out for relevant support, to solve a problem, or with a major issue and receive the help they need when they need it.

    Enhancing Customer Service Departments with CRMs

    Customer relationship management software enables your client care teams to streamline, automate, and individualize the service process. In addition, CRM tools simplify planning and collaboration, resulting in an enhanced customer experience, an optimized client pipeline, and increased conversion opportunities for companies. 


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