What is Customer Resource Management (CRM)?

Customer resource management (CRM) is an approach businesses take to strengthen their relationships with existing and potential customers. However, CRM is often also used to refer to CRM software. Organizations use CRM tools to automate the relationship management process.

CRM solutions manage customer relationships throughout the entire sales process. Basic data about the lead (such as name, location, email address, etc.) is loaded into the CRM system, and customer information is updated to help sales teams improve customer interactions and relationships.

Alerts can be set up in the CRM platform to notify customer service representatives when they need to contact the lead. The CRM system automatically enters a date stamp of the call, the salesperson can add notes about what was discussed, and the system can even record the call and add that to the customer's history. If anyone but the original salesperson has to speak to the lead or customer, they have the history at their fingertips within the CRM system.

Customer resource management (CRM) software in the contact center

Integrating the vast amount of customer data and history tracked in customer resource (or relationship) management (CRM) software is invaluable for contact centers to deliver personalized customer experiences, achieve customer satisfaction and drive agent efficiency. For example, when the phone system looks up the incoming phone number against the CRM database and finds a match, that customer's screen will automatically "pop" onto the agent’s desktop, empowering the agent to greet the customer personally, see their previous history and understand the context of the call.

Sales and marketing teams can also access purchase history, previous interactions, service agreements, warranty information and more to improve customer retention and satisfy high-paying customers. For example, if a CRM tracks premium customers – say those with a paid service agreement or who are high-volume purchasers – the contact center can leverage that CRM data to ensure those customer interactions are prioritized in the sales and marketing departments queue or route them to a dedicated team for a higher level of service that prioritizes customer loyalty.

Main Features of CRM Tools

Customer resource management tools include:

1. Contact management
2. Lead management
3. Sales and marketing automation
4. Customer interactions software
5. Email integration
6. Reporting and analytics capabilities