아래는 가장 빈번하게 질문되어왔던 CRM에 관한 정의에 관한 것으로서,
CRMGuru.com에서 정의하는 CRM과 CRMGuru.com의 아티클에 실린 정의들을 요약한 것입니다.
(1) Official CRMGuru.com definition
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy to select and manage customers to optimize long-term value. CRM requires a customer-centric business philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales, and service processes. CRM applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and culture.
(2) Dick Lee, CRM.Talk Guru
Customer relationship management is the implementation of customer-centric business strategies; which drives redesigning of functional activities; which demands re-engineering of work processes; which is supported, not driven, by CRM technology. I use this definition because it reinforces the understanding that CRM is a ""chain reaction"" triggered by new strategic initiatives rather than something you can initiate at the work process, or worse yet, technology level.
(3) Mei Lin Fung, CRM.Talk Guru
Customer relationship management is the superset of business models, process methodologies and interactive technologies for achieving and sustaining high levels of retention and referrals within identified categories of valuable and growable customers.
(4) Larry Tuck, Editor, Sales and Marketing Management Magazine
CRM extends the concept of selling from a discrete act performed by a salesperson to a continual process involving every person in the company. It is the art/science of gathering and using information about your customers to build customer loyalty and increase customer value. With the current state of information technology, and high customer service expectations, it's practically impossible to consider these process issues without addressing technology, but it's important to remember that customer relationships—human relationships—are the ultimate driving force.
(5) Martin Brendling
CRM is about developing and implementing business strategies and supporting technologies that close the gaps between an organisation's current and potential performance in customer acquisition, growth, and retention.
What does it do for an organisation? CRM improves Return on Assets. The asset in this case is the customer and potential customer base.
(6) David Sims
...CRM isn't about technology any more than hospitality is about throwing a welcome mat on your front porch.
(7) Ryan CrawCour
Customer Relationship Management should be exactly that: the process of actively deepening the knowledge (not data) you have of your customers over time, and then using that knowledge gained to customise your business and strategies to meet that customers individual needs.
It is important to stress this point simply because a large percentage of the market's perception is that CRM is simply a technological solution that does sales force automation or call center. CRM is about an entire change of mindset to become customer orientated; it is not simply a piece of technology that will solve all your needs.
(8)Jennifer Pratt
CRM is a management approach or model that puts the customer at the core of a company's processes and practices. CRM leverages cutting-edge technology, integrated strategic planning, up close and personal marketing techniques and organizational development tools to build internal and external relationships that increase profit margins and productivity within a company.
(9) Subbarathnam Swaminathan
1. Customer Relationship Management refers to the management of all interactions with the customer that an enterprise indulges in. Its focus is on managing and optimizing the entire customer life cycle.
The reason for the above definition is: The stated objective and benefit of good CRM is to increase the customer base by acquiring new customers and effectively serving the needs of the existing customers.
2. Customer Relationship Management is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way.
For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail. Therefore, management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, and know what other products a customer had purchased.
(10) Archana Sinha
CRM is a ""big picture"" approach that integrates the sales, order fulfillment, and customer service, and co-ordinates and unifies all points of interaction with the customer, throughout the Customer Life Cycle (CLC).
(11) Jack Carroll
At its core, CRM has everything to do with customer satisfaction and nothing to do with technology, except insofar as technology furthers that end. Start with the premise of giving customers what they expected from you and more, and then figure out how technology helps do that. Technology is a means not an end.
(12) Bob Thompson, Chief Guru Officer, CRMGuru.com
What is CRM? Think about your favorite small business with a proprietor who you really like. Chances are that business knows a lot about you, and it's mostly in the owner's head—your likes, dislikes, buying patterns, personal tidbits (""How's the golf game?""), etc. If you're a long-term profitable customer, that's mentally filed away too, with nary a computer in sight. In a word, it's personal. And very effective CRM.
Unfortunately, as the Internet geeks like to say, that approach doesn't ""scale."" With larger businesses (even just a few people), there is no collective memory unless it's stored somewhere, and stored information must be shared with the right people at the right time. Enter computers, CRM software, and the Internet.
However, as my colleague A.C. Ross likes to say, don't make the mistake of ""substituting action for thought."" Before you act (buy and install the CRM solution), think about what you're trying to accomplish. Targeting and acquiring the right customers? Selling more effectively or efficiently? Improving customer care?
Not sure? Put away your check book until you are. If you do focus on key problems in your business, CRM applications can probably help throughout the relationship lifecycle. Your customers will just keep coming back to do more business, and they won't really care what software you're using.
