The three components of CRM and technology integration in business

Customer Relations Management Concepts

The Three Components of Customer Relations Management

In the broadest philosophical context, the three most important components of customer relations management (CRM) are (1) People, (2) Processes, and (3) Technology (Kinicki & Williams, 2005). In that respect, people refers to the buy-in of all employees and management to the CRM concept; processes refers to the mechanisms devised to perform the necessary CRM functions; and technology refers to the methods of technical implementation (Kinicki & Williams, 2005). In the operational context, the three most important components of CRM are (1) Sales, (2) Customer Service, and (3) Marketing Automation (Russell-Walling, 2007). In that respect, sales refers to the process of executing the principle profitable transactions of the organization; customer service refers to the manner in which staff and processes interact with customers to maximize every potential revenue-generating and good will-generating opportunity; and marketing automation refers to internal and external promotion of the organization and its products to prospective customers through processes that operate without requiring direct human control and decision-making on an item-by-item basis (Russell-Walling, 2007).

The Significance of Technology in CRM Component Synthesis

Information and communications technology are the backbone of the modern CRM concept. Ideally, all three operational components (sales, customer service, and marketing) should be fully integrated rather than approached as isolated functions with distinct purposes (Robinson, 2000). In the words of one marketing professional, "In a perfect world, CRM marshals marketing materials, tracks customers' histories and coordinates a company's multi-pronged interactions with its customers" (Robinson, 2000).

More specifically, modern CRM systems allow business organizations to generate and maximize sales by exploiting the sales-generation potential of high-quality customer service functions (Russell-Walling, 2007). Likewise, CRM systems allow business organizations to maximize both the value and success of customer relations functions and sales functions, partly by providing cross-selling opportunities that promote all of the products and services that customers could possibly want but might not be aware of otherwise.

Generally, the principal means of achieving that essential integration of functions is through modern data information systems capable of storing relevant information and connecting it in ways that are conducive to promoting sales opportunities. In addition to the functions of information storage and processing, technology also provides a degree of automation that allows the easy accommodation of processes that would be either extremely difficult and time-consuming or completely overwhelming if they were performed by human beings repetitively and one task at a time (Russell-Walling, 2007).

Personal Experiences with CRM Issues