CIM fellow Merlin Stone is a marketing and customer management consultant, author and academic
Even the smallest business can benefit from CRM software if it has enough valuable customers.
CRM software doesn’t need to be complex but tracking of online customer activity is a minimum standard for your CRM system.
There’s a difference between software for managing complex B2B relationships and software for managing occasional transactions with consumers, where you may not need so much customer data to manage it well.
Don’t expect software to create relationships and value by itself. The CRM system helps you do what you’ve always done, but better.
If you want to change your relationship with customers don’t lead with software, but make the software part of a tested and piloted new approach to managing customers.
Consultants can help you to buy, build and implement software – doing it yourself can be slower and more expensive. When your CRM system is up and running, remember what you got it for.
Data is an essential product of a CRM system. Use it to fine-tune your customer management and focus on the data that generates most profit and how it supports your marketing and sales activities in practice. Answer the most basic questions, such as who’s buying, when, how much and why.
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