CRM, i.e. a modern way of managing a company
Along with the development of the organization, the way of working and communication between its employees, clients and the environment changes. This is a natural consequence of the expansion of individual departments of the company, as well as the expectations towards the company. All this means that a thorough reconstruction of the company's management concept becomes necessary.
Previous theories about management methods in a company focused on mass activities, which often generated additional costs. Currently, such a model of conduct is increasingly being replaced by a modern customer communication system - CRM.
In order to understand more precisely what CRM is, one has to reach for definitions, which are surprisingly numerous. However, they all boil down to the statement that CRM, i.e. Customer Relationship Management, is a specific form of communication between a company and its contractors, aimed at listening and fulfilling their desires, and thus increasing the company's profits. In this case, communication takes place via IT tools, created especially for sales and communication needs, but also for the systematization of work within the company.
Importantly, CRM cannot be treated only as a work tool, but rather as a philosophy or business concept that facilitates its management. This way of thinking shows how radically this system has changed the current business model, but also the culture and policy of the company. The departure from mass, often mindless production, allowed us to turn to the expectations of customers. In this way, most of the companies that successfully introduced the system increased their profits. Their clients trusted them, and therefore were satisfied with the services that the company offered them.
There are many benefits of using CRM. Among them, we should mention: saving time, increasing customer satisfaction, and thus increasing their trust and prestige of the company, increasing the effectiveness of contacts with customers or systematizing own work. It is said that organizations that implemented the system saw and record up to 30% increase in profits. However, it should be remembered that in any of these cases this was not an immediate effect. The introduction of a modern system of customer relations is often a long-term process, involving numerous sacrifices and the application of constant discipline towards oneself and its employees. Change should start with your own mindset.
This seems like a fairly simple solution, but is actually very complicated. For example, if so far all departments in the company functioned completely separately, moved in a different mode of operation and had their own, unwritten communication rules, it will be very difficult to introduce them into a system where the main idea is to cooperate with all departments of the company in one specific way.Therefore, employee training will be necessary, which is often not only limited to learning how to navigate the system, but also to learning how to cooperate between departments. It is quite a long-term and expensive undertaking, which, however, in the future will allow the company to achieve greater benefits, including financial benefits.
When considering the introduction of CRM in your own company, one should not forget that it is a system based on modern ICT technology. The solutions used in it allow you to manage the company from virtually every corner of the world with the Internet. At the same time, such systems are usually protected by numerous safeguards that exclude the participation of unauthorized persons. Our corporate data is completely safe if, of course, we also protect it properly. The only costly point in this case is equipping all employees who use the system with the appropriate equipment. You should realize that CRM is a project that is being introduced for several or several years ahead. The solutions used in it often use the latest technological achievements. The equipment on which they will be implemented should therefore not differ from modern technical standards.
To sum up, not every company should immediately implement a CRM system (this is the case of small companies that efficiently handle customer service or companies that produce unique products, e.g. tailor-made wedding dresses). However, any organization that manages to do this becomes more competitive in the market, and thus can count on greater profits in the long term.
