CRM

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

A CRM system contains all the information that a company deems relevant about its customers: general information, contact details, previous purchases, conversations with the customer and much more.

With the right information gathered in a CRM system, you have the perfect framework for maintaining and nurturing your customer relationships.

Without the right information about your customers - who they are, what you've sold them, and when you've last been in contact with them - it can be extremely difficult to maintain a good relationship. This is where a CRM system can add value to your business.

What should a good CRM do?

A good CRM system should be able to support marketing, sales and support functions with all relevant customer information. This will ultimately benefit both the individual departments, the company as a whole and the customers.

With a good CRM system, many departments can benefit from the data that is available:

Marketing can target its marketing.
Sellers can see what the customer last bought.
Customer service can get an overview of when the company last interacted with the customer, which is useful if the customer contacts them.

Which CRM system should I choose?

There are many great CRM systems on the market today. Most are online-based and relatively easy and cheap to get started with.

Examples of popular CRM systems:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM
WorkPoint CRM
webCRM
Monday
SuperOffice

And many more.

CRM and debt collection

Most CRM systems do not contain accounting data. This means that invoices, reminders, collections and the like are often handled outside the CRM system.

However, some companies choose to integrate their ERP and CRM systems, which can provide several benefits. For example, customer service can gain insight into whether a customer has outstanding payments.

If a customer contacts customer service, the employee will be able to start a dialog about the arrears and potentially resolve the issue before it develops into a reminder process or ends up as a collection case with a debt collection agency or lawyer.