Data-Driven CRM Along the Customer Journey
Sustainably increasing customer value
Successful customer relationship management: How to use CRM data along the customer journey to sustainably increase customer value.
Professional Customer Relationship Management is a classic win-win situation — both the customer and the company benefit. What are the core elements of CRM? What role do customer satisfaction and emotional customer retention play? What should you consider when selecting the right CRM software? And how does omni-channel management support CRM's contact strategy?
What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is the systematic design of long-term, profitable customer relationships. Based on valid data, the contact and communication strategy is completely customer-oriented: from new customer acquisition and building emotional customer retention to intensive care and continuous strengthening of a long-term customer relationship.
For companies, the central goal is to optimally align the customer journey to customers, ultimately extending the customer lifecycle and increasing customer value.
Targeting along the customer journey
One prerequisite for implementing the strategy is a holistic understanding of the customer, as the customer should be optimally reached at every single step along the customer journey.
Within a customer lifecycle, the following stages emerge:
- Acquiring new prospects
- Converting prospects to new customers
- Developing customers into repeat buyers
- Creating loyalty through satisfaction and emotionalization using the fan principle
Customer satisfaction and emotional bonding
Satisfied customers do develop a higher willingness to repurchase — but to build a long-term and profitable customer relationship, emotional bonding is decisive. The fan principle describes the innovative measurement methodology of deriving customer relationship management from fan behavior.
High customer satisfaction and high emotional bonding form central prerequisites for customer loyalty. This is considered the highest level of customer retention and is largely one of the greatest drivers of business success.
Value-creating data as a starting point
The foundation for strategic decisions and successful CRM is complete, valid and usable data. High-quality, value-creating data analytics enable the design of a customer-oriented contact strategy and suitable communication measures.
System integration
To structure and organize the wealth of information, the use of CRM software is recommended, which serves as an instrument for data management and contact strategy. When properly deployed, it contributes to optimizing internal communication, cross-departmental collaboration and maximizing potential.
Automation in marketing, sales and customer service
With CRM software, diverse activities can be automated:
- Marketing: High-quality lead generation and personalized approach to prospects with relevant content at optimal timing.
- Sales: Optimal preparation for customer meetings, targeted approach and faster recognition of cross- and upselling potential.
- Customer service: Personalized communication with high response speed, 24/7 real-time interaction and individual support.
Selecting the right CRM software
For choosing a suitable system, functional and process requirements should be defined upfront. Often decisive factors include user-friendliness, contact and time management, individual customer service, a central database and the possibility of mobile access.
To act future-proof, a dynamic combination of standardized, individual or open-source software solutions is recommended.
What role does the omni-channel strategy play in CRM?
Purchasing behavior has changed enormously with digitalization: customers use online and offline channels largely overlapping.
Advantages of the omni-channel strategy:
- Barrier-free customer interactions at all touchpoints along the customer journey
- Channel switching possible for the customer at any time
- Targeted customer approach through the preferred medium
- Positive customer experience & satisfaction
- Complete utilization of potential
Top learnings
- When customer relationship management is implemented professionally and efficiently from the start, the company benefits enormously in the long term.
- According to empirical studies, the effort and costs are higher to acquire a new customer or win back a lost customer than to retain existing customers.
- The central goal in CRM is to transform satisfied customers into emotionally bonded, genuine fans of the company based on valid, value-creating data.
