CRM activities are all about the customer.
CRM is an abbreviation for Customer Relationship Management. Aspects of CRM include strategies that concentrate on retaining customers. The primary focus of keeping customers is to build customer loyalty, relationships and know as much as possible about the customers to personalize their shopping experience. Relationship management is also referred to as "Relationship Marketing."
Measuring Customer Satisfaction
Surveys are often designed to measure customer satisfaction.
Keeping track of a decline in sales, number of complaints, thank you letters and feedback from the sales force on interactions with customers are all ways of measuring customer satisfaction. Measuring customer satisfaction tells the company whether or not their customer retention strategies are working for them. This measure enables the company to make changes when necessary to keep the customers satisfied.
Customer Retention Strategies
Building positive relationships lead to positive word of mouth.
Customer retention strategies are activities that focus on keeping the customer, generally by exceeding their expectations and providing higher quality products and services that they can not expect from the competitors. In customer retention efforts, it is important to recognize when a customer is about to leave and focus on resolving the issue before they decide to do so. Any time a business provides a measure of compensation for a customer's negative experience with the company they are also implementing a customer retention strategy (example: waiving the shipping fee for an unhappy customer). Rewarding customers and showing appreciation for their business are also examples of customer retention strategies. Frequent buyer programs, discounts and social bonding events are all ways that businesses reward their valued customers.
Tracking Purchase History
A customer's purchase history informs the business of her shopping habits, enabling the business to provide personalized services.
Businesses keep track of the customer's purchase history to gain insight into the type of lifestyle that the customer leads. Purchases can tell a business if the customer has children, who he commonly purchases items for or if he is brand loyal or willing to try items based on price.
Market Segmentation
All customers are not the same.
Market segmentation is dividing the market based on characteristics. Market segmentation allows the business to identify and understand the differences between customers. By grouping customers based on their differences and similarities, marketing efforts can be designed for specific groups, enabling the business to provide targeted offers based on the customer's likes and dislikes. In CRM, the marketing efforts are directed towards a repeat purchase. Examples of ways that the markets are segmented include: demographic (age, gender, income, marital status,) by geographic location, behavioral patterns (how often they purchase, the source of purchase) and by the benefits they seek (sale prices, highest quality or best technology).
Tags: customer retention, customer satisfaction, business provide, customer purchase, customer purchase history