An experienced agile delivery lead.

We all know what CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management but what does this mean for you and your organisation? Some see a CRM for managing pipeline and new opportunities to bring in new business i.e. revenue.

For others, it’s just another tool to track how productive your sales team is by keeping score on how appointments were booked weekly and how many of those appointments became opportunities. These are just some examples of what a CRM system can do.
So what is the point of all of this if all we are asking of our CRM is just to keep a score of things?

If we go back to thinking about what does CRM means, then where is the relationship (R) in all of this? After all, people buy from people they like and trust. So if we aren’t using CRM for building relationships through trust, then why are we using CRM at all? Surely an online spreadsheet can be just as efficient and can save you a lot of money in the process.

So if relationships do matter, then ask yourself – what does relationship mean for you and your business? Naturally, we go the extra mile to make our family and friends happy so why doesn’t business think this way about their customers?

I believe we need to put the R back into CRM and get the many CRM platforms out there working for your business in supporting important relationships with your valuable customers. The lifetime value of a client means a lot more if you continue to keep your customers happy and they will keep coming back to you for help. After all, the cost of attracting a new client (building trust) will always be much greater when compared to repeat business from happy customers.