Managing Interaction Data in Customer Relationship Management

CRM software can be used to automate lead and sales processes, and to collect customer information in a centralised place.

Organisations are large, and a customer may speak to any member of an organisation, depending on the nature of the communication. It would be extremely frustrating for the customer to have to explain all previous dealings with the organisation with each communication, and it can be extremely frustrating for an organisation not to know who has spoken previously with a customer and what was dealt with.

Fortunately, there are many technology options that help to record all this information in one place, whether it be related to potential, current or past customers.
 
As well as enabling recording of data, most of these services can also schedule elements of the sales process, and set reminders where appropriate for follow up action. Some notable examples include SalesForce (www.salesforce.com), Genius (www.genius.com) and Highrise (www.highrisehq.com) from 37 Signals.Bespoke technology tailored to business problems can have remarkable results. The chapter case study highlights this.