What makes a CRM? Simple: Customers, Relationships, and the Management Thereof. In this three-part series, we are going to take a detailed look at each term to better understand what a CRM system is and what it can do for you.
Today, let's look at "Customer."
If you took a good look at anyone's CRM database, you might be surprised that it chronicles data on far more than merely the company's existing customers. It may contain leads and prospects--those whom we hope to become a customer some day. Just like any relationship in life, customer relationships began long before they became customers. We each had relationships with our friends long before we may have counted them a friend. They could have been strangers in our building, attendees at the same church, or even family members.
So, when it comes to relationship management, we have to adopt a broad definition of the word "customer" if the exercise is ever to grow our businesses. But the scope of the term "customer" often extends even beyond prospects and leads.
Managing relationships with customers entails relationships even with people who will never become a customer, and were never intended to. For example, in any CRM database we might find vendors. VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) is a practice all to itself, but often the relationship a business maintains with it's vendors, if well-managed, can lead to new customers. A vendor relationship is perhaps one of the most common examples of a "Strategic Relationship."
Our CRM database helps us to manage relationships with members of the media, government offices, bankers, and even some competitors -- none of whom we would ever pursue as a customer. But, all of whom have the propensity to lead us into new relationships with would-be customers.
When we speak of "Customers" in business relationship management, we should be careful to consider all the relationships that, either directly or indirectly, impact a customer relationship.
