Customer Relationship Management: why should you care?

Agriculture is looking more intensely at Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The pressure to compete in a despairing market means businesses are taking a more active role to learn about their markets. CRM is the buzzword and helpmate many are investing in. Here is a brief look at CRM: what it is and isn't, where it's headed and examples of what it looks like in action.

What is it?

* CRM uses technology to enable a company to retrieve and interpret information to help the company make more informed and better decisions.

* CRM is a business management tool to keep companies competitive and increase profits.

* CRM is business strategy customized to a particular company for the best business practices.

* CRM is not technology or software, but it can and usually does implement those tools.

* CRM is not a cure-all for a company's financial struggles, or a promise that sales will skyrocket.

Are there trends?

* CRM is being used by agri-marketers to track their products to the end users and to collect information.

* CRM is starting to integrate multiple data sources to combine more holistic strategies.

* CRM is advancing in the agriculture industry because of a regulatory environment and a need for the most efficient operation.

As the world moves to the Internet, so is CRM. The more mobile, the more accessible a company is to moving customers.

* The CRM market in the States is full and is now starting to flood over into Western Europe. The UK and Spain are anticipated to increase CRM markets the most (according to Cahners survey).

* A guerrilla approach that breaks down a company into different CRM sectors to be improved one by one has been increasingly popular to promote company change while not exerting all resources on CRM.

What are some examples?

* Apply an 80-20 mindset: usually, 80 percent of business comes from 20 percent of customers.

* Create a customer test panel that gives your best customers the chance to provide opinions about new products.

* Help a new customer feel important to your company by presenting a special offer, which will also bring them back for a second purchase.

* Celebrate and acknowledge a customer's "anniversary" through the same contact method (phone, email, post) he or she used to make their first purchase.

* Give your best customers a title (e.g. Golden Customer).

* Reactivate idle customers (12 to 24 months without purchases) by offering special deals.