Inception of CRM
Off late, I started attending CRM Enthusiasts’ meetup in the city. While CRM ( Customer Relationship Management ) or CS ( Customer Service ) is a very common term these days and almost everyone understands the concept of CS, however, if you ask them the history about CRM, they give you a blank face. I tried to dig a little deeper to understand more about the inception of CRM. Read on to know more:
CRM is a huge space. The more you get into it, the more you learn. And the best part is, it is something that is still evolving. So we can’t call any concept related to it is final :)
To start with, let us imagine a situation. You want to buy some clothes for you. You get into the shop, check out the collection and decide to buy one or two clothes. While you were in the shop, you must have noticed that at least one or two staff members were always around you trying to help you pick the right clothes. So apart from buying clothes, what did you notice? You noticed how assistive the staff was, how good the collection was, how much discount they provided etc. Next time when there is a need to buy garments, this shop’s name will come to your mind first.
But imagine another situation now. Instead of a local retail store, you preferred to go to a shopping mall which has around 25 different retail garments stores available.
So in this case what will prompt you to choose the shop? Obviously, the one having a better collection of clothes, good courtesy of staff, gives you discounts/ sales will be the one you will choose. So basically the shop which makes you happy, you chose that one to buy your required items. And in future, you will prefer to stick to the same shop unless other shop owners come up with any other plans to attract you.
But what made the difference? I mean, if you are a businessman then isn’t it kind of obvious to keep your customer happy always? So there come the entire concepts of Customer Relationship Management. The more you know your customer, do better things for them and keep them satisfied, the more is the chance of them coming back to your shop and give you more business. So when exactly this element came into existence?
To know that we have to look back to the 80's.
Robert and Kate Kestnbaum introduced the concept of database marketing. Database marketing is a way of collecting, storing and analyzing customer information. With the help of statistical modeling, the collected data was then used to help customize communications with other potential customers. This phase is thus becoming the dawn of CRM.
Then comes the phase when SFA is introduced into the market. SFA took many of the features of database marketing and kind of combined them with contact management and present it as a CRM product to business.
By 1995, SFA and Sibel systems had evolved further and created a solid foundation of modern-day CRM SOFTWARES.
Late ’90s were really busy for the entire CRM industry. Multiple high-value acquisitions along with the introduction of multiple e-CRM vendors resulted in tough competition. Added with that, big players like SAP also joined the game thinking to use their already existing ERP market base for CRM as well. This competition resulted in better quality products and enhanced CRM models.
By 2007, CRM had reached its mature stage with multiple quality vendors out in the market. Cloud-based and SAAS CRM solutions started getting more popular.
As of today, we have multiple players in the CRM market — Oracle, PEGA, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamic 365 and SAP CRM
So, its two decades of continuous evolution which led to such advanced CRM technology today. And wait a minute, it is still evolving as it is integrating with #AI and #Robotics. Exciting days coming up!!
