Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has a very simple general principle: "Customer priority". When you prioritize the customer and look at each interaction from his point of view, the result of your work will be nothing but providing a better experience for him, which in turn will increase his trust in your company.

What is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or software?

The customer relationship management system consists of software through which the information about the customer and the interactions that have been done with him can be managed.

Powerful customer relationship management software gathers all the information from different parts of the company and gives you a single and comprehensive view of each customer at any time.

In this way, employees in departments such as sales, marketing, and support that deal directly with customers can make better decisions in the face of each customer and, as a result, will offer more appropriate options to the customer; the quality of interactions will improve and coordination between sales, marketing, and support processes will increase.

What is a CRM database?

A collection of customer information that focuses on historical sales, current, and future opportunities. These databases are maintained by several different functions such as sales managers, channel managers, product managers, and so on. This information can include information such as:

• Customer personal information that contains the fields Name, Address, Contact Information, Contact Settings, Age, Marital Status, Date of Birth, Anniversary, Professional and Social Status, and more.

• Sales managers can record past trades, product preferences, opportunities, campaigns, questions, invoices, and more.

• Channel managers can record business-related retail and online retail information.

• Product managers can record product priority, price group, product category, and more.

Various dimensions of CRM

In general, when using a CRM combination, we usually mean one or more of the following:

• CRM as a strategy:

This is the attitude or philosophy of the business towards how to manage the relationship with potential and actual customers;

• CRM as a process:

In this case, CRM can be considered as a method and process that the business uses to grow and manage those relationships;

• CRM as technology:

In this case, CRM is a product made by technology that has different types and company employees use it to record, report, and analyze interactions between the company and its users. This technology-based CRM is also known as a system, software, or CRM solution. In the next section, we will learn more about this definition of CRM.

There are two types of databases based on their objectives:

• Operational
• Analytical

Operational data is available in the online trading processing database and analytical data is available in the online analytical processing database.

Customer database development and maintenance

A repository database is a collection of files or tables. Files contain several records or table rows, which in turn contain different fields or columns of the table.

Each file contains information on a topic such as a customer, sales, products, and so on.

The steps below are followed to create and maintain a customer database.

• Identify the required information
• Identify information sources
• Design and write database function
• Select database technology and hardware platform
• Fill in the database
• Maintain database including updating, deleting, and adding records
• The database must always be accurate and up to date.

Customer data types

There are two types of CRM data: primary and secondary. Initial data is collected for the first time. Secondary data has already been collected. Preliminary data is collected by common tools such as conducting surveys, holding skill contests, inviting customers to subscribe to newsletters or registering purchases, and so on.

Database and hardware for CRM

CRM software uses a database architecture that includes rows and columns. Tables in other tables are stored with a unique identification number in the ID field and attached to the primary key.

Database management systems for CRM

There are many database management systems on the market today. These systems help in updating and managing the database.

Hardware Tips for CRM Databases

The hardware platform on which the database is located is selected based on the following factors:

• Database size
• Existing technology used in business.
• Location of CRM users especially in the global use of CRM, multilingual users from different time zones can access CRM for operational and analytical purposes.

Data features

CRM data must have the following characteristics:

• It has to be flexible because a lot of people have to access it from different geographical locations.
• They must be appropriate to the purpose.
• CRM data must be accurate. False data can ruin your business marketing efforts, misrepresent opportunities, and provide inadequate customer service. Data should be checked promptly to ensure that deletion does not occur when receiving and entering data.
• The data must be up to date, meaning that it must store and display the latest information.
• Data must be transferred from one place to another and be available where users need it. Electronic data collection and manipulation technology are essential for today's advanced businesses.
• Data must be secure. Businesses need to protect their data from unwanted erasure, theft, and clutter, as many companies can connect to the same CRM software through the same portal.

Conclusion

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and aims to best manage our customer relationships and how we respond to their needs and wants. This will make our business more and more successful.

CRM is a strategy of how to interact and actively engage with customers. Successful CRM sees the business from the customer's point of view and considers the customer experience in its planning. A customer perspective helps you to see the gaps and opportunities in your business and to consider more effective strategies and processes for the organization.

In this article, we talked about CRM data. At the end of this article, please share your comments and suggestions with us.