Strategic CRM : Implementing customer acquisition and retention

In order to ideally navigate a dynamic and changing marketplace, a company must have the right foundation to maintain relationships with its current and potential customers.

Today, it is essential for a company to have effective communication tools and means that allow for rapid information acquisition and accurate analysis of the data collected.

In this article, we will see how CRM systems can support every phase of the customer acquisition and retention process, both during the sales process and in the post-sales phase.

Let's focus on strategic customer relationship management and see how it can increase the effectiveness of customer acquisition and retention strategies.

Types of CRM

There are 4 types of CRM. These are:

1. Operational CRM, which is the set of methods and technologies aimed at automating business processes in which direct contact with the customer is involved ;
2. Analytical CRM, which is the set of processes and tools aimed at deepening the knowledge of the customer. It is based on the extraction of data and information from the operational CRM, their analysis and evaluation in order to understand and apprehend customer behavior;
3. Collaborative CRM, i.e. all the procedures and technologies integrated into the various means of communication (e.g. e-mail, telephone, fax, etc.) aimed at the concrete management of contact with the customer;
4. Strategic CRM, i.e. all CRM methodologies aimed at winning and keeping high-profit customers.

Strategic CRM

Strategic CRM focuses on both the acquisition of new customers (Customer Acquisition) and the retention of existing customers (Customer Retention). 

Strategic CRM aims at collecting data and information about customers according to the segment they belong to. Customers are, in fact, at the center of the strategic CRM action plan and their needs are placed in the foreground. Through the process of obtaining and comparing customer information with market trends, strategic CRM allows to propose new offers to the reference buyer personas and even to anticipate their needs. 

Through the application and use of strategic CRM, it will be possible to retain the best customers and ensure that they are not attracted by the competition's proposals. The secret, in fact, is that they never feel abandoned: sending new, more convenient offers to the customer by phone or e-mail is a good way to convey quality and consistency of service.

The corporate culture of winning and keeping highly profitable customers, which is the goal of strategic CRM, must find its place in all aspects of the business to be effective: from leadership style to brand identity. In this perspective, all resources must be used in a functional way, in order to increase the customer's value as much as possible.

Benefits of strategic customer relationship management

• Process optimization;
• Support for all pre-sales and sales phases;
• Development of predictive models that help to develop reliable customer behavioral segmentations, define the life cycle of each customer, assess the propensity to buy, estimate the probability of abandonment and outline the implicit potential of each customer;
• Use of analytical tools that facilitate the interpretation and evaluation of the results obtained from the processing performed; Use of effective marketing logic for important business actions;
• Increased efficiency in the activities of :
• Data analysis, leading to the development of a marketing plan;
• Planning of commercial actions and their consequent follow-up;
• Organization and management of commercial campaigns;
• Customer relationship management.