Any growing business sooner or later faces the need to automate various customer service processes. The fact is that with an increase in the client base, attention to each client decreases separately. In order to preserve and increase sales, the company’s management has to take action. As a rule, extension methods in solving such a problem, for example, expanding the sales department, are not always effective.

To help build effective communication with consumers of goods or services, retain customers, and automate most of the routine processes will help CRM system. We will tell you more about what CRM is and how it works.

The Concept of CRM System

In a broad sense, CRM is an approach to managing communication with current and potential customers of the company, which consists in analyzing information about customer contacts in the past in order to improve business relations in the future. Information that can interact with a client includes any information that characterizes consumer activity. With this information, the manager can build the most effective communication model with each client, which allows them to better understand their needs, increase loyalty, and ultimately contribute to sales growth.

CRM System Features

It’s simple when the company works with a dozen loyal customers and is not engaged in active sales. However, when their number is measured in hundreds, it is impossible to remember details in a relationship with each. In addition, due to the specifics of the profession, sales managers most often change their place of work, and with them, all information about the client leaves the company if its systematization and storage is not organized.

CRM systems differ from each other by a set of functions, the flexibility of settings, and the possibility of integration with other services. Among the most common tasks that solve CRM systems are:

• recording the history of relationships with all existing and potential customers of the company (correspondence, protocols of telephone conversations and meetings, signed contracts, sent commercial offers, and invoices);
• scheduling and setting tasks for the day;
• integration with the mail browser, internal electronic document management system, corporate website, IP-telephony, and 1C-Accounting;
• creating trigger ezines;
• preparation of reports on the effectiveness of managers;
• the systematization of information for creating analytical reports.

In addition, CRM can be useful in dozens of other various operations of the manager: for example, in the preparation of commercial proposals, control of receivables, accounting of incoming accounting documentation, and preparation of daily reports.