An explanation of customer relationship management (CRM)

In this video, TechTarget editor Sabrina Polin talks about customer relationship management and how CRM software can aid in boosting marketing and service practices in a business.

How do you manage your customers?

Customer relationship management, or CRM, is an approach to managing a company's interactions with customers. It's a combination of practices, strategies and technologies that oversee and analyze these interactions to improve customer retention and sales growth.

CRM software compiles a customer's information and documents into a single database to offer detailed information on their personal information, purchase history and buying preferences.

The data comes from various sources, like web forms, phone calls, live chat, mail, email and even social media.

CRM systems are always evolving, adding more and more components to expand beyond traditional customer profiling functions.

Components can include the following:

• Marketing automation capabilities to automate repetitive tasks and enhance marketing efforts.
• Sales force automation tools that track customer interactions and automate business functions in the sales cycle.
• Lead management, enabling sales teams to input, track and analyze data for leads.
• Contact center automation to reduce tedious tasks like information dissemination.
• Location-based services that create marketing campaigns based on customers' physical locations.
• Human resource management to track employee information, reviews and benefits.

CRM systems can automate workflows, track sales leads, track employee information and even predict future customer behaviors thanks to AI.

CRM technology can be offered as on-premises or cloud-based systems. Major CRM vendors for large enterprises include Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle -- but CRM is not just for big businesses. All organizations, including small and midsize enterprises, use and benefit from CRM technology.

What type of CRM does your business use? Let us know in the comments and be sure to give this video a like.

Sabrina Polin is a managing editor of video content for the Learning Content team. She plans and develops video content for TechTarget's editorial YouTube channel, Eye on Tech. Previously, Sabrina was a reporter for the Products Content team.