Customers might not be the only thing that makes a business go, but it is a key factor. Remember that companies get their profits and revenues from customer dollars, therefore without customers to buy your products or services, your business would most likely fail. Especially with todays market where competitions fiercer than ever, gaining customers is very important for a company to grow and prosper. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to all the efforts a company makes to make sure that it develops and maintains a strong relationship with its customers. Helping companies achieve this are CRM software solutions.

A common mistake is for people to think that CRM stands for just the strategy or the technology. This is not accurate, as CRM is more than just the software that is used for it. It is also a strategy which can be implemented to bring together the key components of a business, such as the administration, product design, and development teams, to form a single cohesive force that ensures maximum customer satisfaction and loyalty.

A key to managing and retaining your customers and ensuring customer satisfaction is to have a dedicated customer service desk or help desk. The help desk provides solutions and advice to customers who face problems with your products. The 24×7 customer service number that you call to raise your concern and the customer service mail id where you mail to raise your tickets are parts of customer service desk. Most of the major IT businesses have dedicated help desks in place.

Help desk Software is a big help in managing customer service. It helps your reps track the customer requests through unique codes called tickets. A ticked issued will contain all details of the customer request such as location, problem faced etc. Once the customers problem has been resolved, the ticket is closed and the details stored in the database for any future reference.

Customer service desks are just a component of CRM, and do not comprise the whole. Other parts can include market studies, sales data, analysis of customer behavior, and information about complaints. All of these can help CRM come together.

In order for CRM to be effective, it is important that everyone in the company believes the idea of a customer-oriented business. Additionally, the company should refurbish itself and come up with processes and practices that are compatible with the current CRM strategy in place. Finally, the company should also have the proper technology to ensure that the CRM is carried out successfully.

The technology and software implemented, such as the CRM help desk software, should not be difficult for users to handle. It should be user friendly as well as effective. Any difficulty for end users (sales people, customer service reps etc) could be the death of your CRM initiative. An example is the Monster.com debacle where Monster.com had implemented a CRM solution only to lose millions of dollars due to problems the users faced with the technology.

Doing the proper research and developing some form of strategy based on the types of customers that the business wants to keep, having everyone in the company agreeing and implementing it, and wisely using the technological component can make CRM effective. Any missing piece of the puzzle will result in a disaster, just like a business that is missing a crucial part of it operations.