Supportsoft Glossary

Systems for Managing Client Data

CRM systems quickly identify all of the details about each customer: name, email address, phone number, date(s) of contact, purchase history, preferences, support tickets opened and resolved with the customer, upcoming sales opportunities, etc. This comprehensive overview of a customer relationship will enable the marketing, sales and customer service teams to collaborate more effectively. For instance, when sales team members receive notifications from CRM software, they're better positioned to follow up with customers based on their prior behaviour and any special request(s) indicated by marketers in their email marketing communications. Likewise, when marketing team members are alerted by CRM software that a prospect has become a customer, they can communicate with that person using personalised messaging. Customer service team members who receive alerts through their CRM that a customer has called with an issue can refer to all of that customer's previous contact activity when they respond to the customer.

In addition to storing simple customer contact data, today's CRM systems are capable of performing much more than just providing contact information. Today's CRM systems will automate repetitive tasks, score prospects given their level of interest, create reports and dashboards to provide insights based on performance metrics, and integrate with other systems (e.g., email marketing tools, payment gateways, performance analytics, etc.). Many of today's CRM systems provide dashboard views of the most recent sales pipeline health and customer engagement levels so that managers can make informed decisions about the current state of their sales pipeline and the level of customer engagement.