The Meaning of CRM: What It Is and How To Use It

According to Investopedia, CRM stands for customer relationship management, customer relations management, or client relationship management. This refers to a set of principles that a business or organization follows when it interacts with customers. 

Why Is CRM Important?

CRM is very important for business development. Many small businesses find contact management useful for their sales team, marketing automation team, user interface team, customer engagement team, and customer loyalty team. 

Customer retention is important for every business. Utilizing workflows to integrate customer support and potential purchases can lead to higher sales. Looking at a CRM solution that might suit your needs can help your business grow.

CRM solutions can vary widely in terms of their costs and their abilities. Different types of CRM software might be suited for small businesses, while others are better for larger businesses. Before committing to CRM software, make sure that you do your research to figure out which company and software are best for you. 

How Does a CRM System Use Technology for Customer Interactions?

We have all dealt with CRM systems. Often, CRM software can be built into a website so that the customer service employees can interact with customers directly. This might be in a chat function on a website or something similar. CRM systems need to be efficient and effective to improve customer experience. 

A CRM platform might collect customer data or information to assist them with an issue or obtain analytics and insights about how their business functions. This data can be used to identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns. Often, these are all infused into one piece of software, so the data is in one place. 

There is even CRM software built into social media platforms. This way, if a customer is having a problem — or if there is a potential for marketing on a social media platform — it is easy to take action from your pre-existing software. 

You might be able to provide CRM capabilities on a tablet, smartphone, or mobile device on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. This can be useful for interacting with customers who are active on social media.

What Are the Types of CRM Software?

There are many different types of CRM software in the world. Some are more pricey, and some are less expensive. Some have excellent integrated marketing tools, while others do not. All of this depends on why you need CRM software and the size of your business. 

Take a look at this list of the top CRM software and see which one is right for you.

•  PipelineDeals CRM 
•  Prophet CRM 
•  Salesforce Sales Cloud 
•  Keap 
•  SalesNexus
•  Infor CRM 
•  Aptean Pivotal CRM 
•  BlueCamroo 
•  LeadMaster 
•  CampaignerCRM 
•  Creatio
•  Workbooks CRM 
•  Oracle CRM On Demand
•  Insightly 
•  Sage CRM
•  Zendesk Sell
•  Clarity Soft
•  SAP Cloud 
•  TeamSupport, LLC 
•  Salpo CRM 
•  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 
•  C2CRM 
•  GoldMine CRM 
•  OnContact CRM 7
•  Nimble
•  Commence CRM 
•  Soffront CRM 
•  Maximizer CRM 
•  Act! Premium
•  Pipedrive 
•  Zoho CRM 
•  HubSpot CRM 
•  Gold-Vision CRM 
•  NetSuite CRM+ 
•  SugarCRM
•  Highrise CRM 
•  WORK[etc] 
•  Pipeliner CRM
•  InfoFlo 
•  Nutshell

What Else Can CRM Stand For?

If you are working in business or customer relations, you will probably see CRM stand for customer relationship management in most cases. However, if you work in another field, this abbreviation might stand for something different. 

According to The Free Dictionary, there are a couple of other potential meanings of CRM. When using an acronym, think about its context. Will it be better to use the full form of the acronym to avoid confusion, or better to use the abbreviation for ease and efficiency?

Take a look at this list to see other ways you can use the acronym CRM:

• Cell Rate Margin (ATM)
•  Cockpit Resource Management
•  Consolidated Reference Model
•  Centre de Recherches Mathématiques (Canada)
•  Circuit Reservation Message
•  Citrus Rust Mite (pest)
•  Camera Ready Material
•  Canadian Risk Management (Global Risk Management)
•  Classement Rationnel Moderne (French: Modern Rational Classification)
•  Courtesy Reply Mail
•  Customer Relationship Metrics (Sterling, VA)
•  Comment Resolution Matrix
•  Computer Resources Management
•  Cisco Resource Manager
•  Clinical Research Management
•  Colorado Rocky Mountain
•  Culinary Restaurant Management (various schools)
•  Customer Resource Management
•  Client Request Manager
•  Continuous Risk Management
•  Collateral Release Mechanism
•  Construction Risk Management (various locations)
•  Certificate in Resource Management
•  Cisco Router Module
•  Capacity Request Message
•  Chemical Remanent Magnetization
•  Column Radiation Model
•  Cause-Related Marketing
•  Conselho Regional de Medicina (Brazil Regional Council of Medicine)
•  Colorado Railroad Museum
•  Crisis Response Management
•  Certified Reference Material
•  Cell Rate Margin
•  Conseil de Recherches Médicales du Canada (Medical Research Council of Canada)
•  Customer Risk Management (various businesses)
•  China Reform Monitor (journal)
•  Common Reference Model
•  Commodity Risk Management
•  Crumb Rubber Modifier (asphalt/paving)
•  Carmel (Amtrak station code; Carmel, CA)
•  Corrosion Rate Monitoring
•  Compliance Research and Measurement
•  Cardiac Rhythm Management (pacemakers, defibrillators, cardiostimulators)
•  Corporate Release Management
•  Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc. (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

Conclusion

Overall, the abbreviation CRM stands for customer relationship management. This type of software allows a business to connect with customers. This can be used for customer support and to collect data on customers for marketing or sales.

Sources:

1. CRM – What does CRM stand for? | The Free Dictionary 
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | EDUCAUSE 
3. customer relationship management (CRM) | Investopedia