What is a CRM ?

Working in a typical services business, you might already have heard your colleagues speaking about CRM. But what does it mean really? First of all CRM is an acronym which stands for Customer Relationship Management and is mostly associated to a software type. In fact it is a category of software which helps a company to manage all its interactions with their already existing or potential customers. As such you would often hear about CRM software which is used to simplify, organize and automate business processes, especially sales. A CRM application is not only limited to sales but can also be used to improve customer and technical support as well as marketing. The ultimate goal of CRM software is to win new customers and retain those which a business already has.
Depending on the exact need on the business as well as the business type there are different categories of CRM software. For example you have CRM tool which are more focused on marketing, analytics, social media or small business. The biggest market players in the CRM software industry are currently SAP AG, Oracle and Microsoft with their Microsoft Dynamics CRM software. Big companies in the retail or banking business usually all use SAP which is definitely the most well-known CRM software.