What is CRM?

CRM was touched on briefly above, but to elaborate on it more fully here is what it means? When you have many users coming to your site and buying from you, no doubt they have to register with you first. This way you capture their personal and billing information. You also capture the products they buy, and more. After a while this type of information piles up. There is where CRM comes in. CRM makes life a bit easier by managing this information so you can have it at your fingertips. There are two types of CRM – local and remote. Here are the two and how they work:

 

·        Local: With local hosting, you have to configure the software yourself. You decide how it will work the way you want it to. The only problem with this software is the amount of technical expertise you will need to configure it.

·        Remote: With remote hosting, someone else handles all the technical aspects of the program on their end in turn host the application for you. The only problem with this method is if your Internet connection goes down, you won’t be able to gain access to your records and information.

CRM can handle many functions and, depending on what software you choose, you may be able to handle customer orders, marketing, sales, and reporting. You’ll be able to see everything from one interface instead of having to look at each individual piece.