Technical jargon: What does "CRM" actually mean?

Anyone who was allowed into the office at all in the new year had to plow through a mountain of Christmas packages and cards for the first time - albeit less intensively than in other years. From suppliers with whom one has not worked for a long time, to customers for whom the Christmas card is still a matter for the boss and thus freestyle despite the CD manual, to the cards, gadgets and sensible or senseless gifts from the agencies that are lost in the madness of originality. All with the one goal of maintaining the relationship with the (potential) customer.

This is called Customer Relationship Management. Or CRM for short. Unfortunately, at this time of year it's often in its most pitiful form. And yet, if done right, it would be a power tool that could put the fear of God into all old-school marketers. But perhaps that's why it's so stubbornly ignored in marketing departments and agencies.

CRM as a gift 

Agreed, attracting, maintaining, retaining and building up customers has become more difficult and is no longer a matter of course. Many companies still have to get used to this, because until now customers remained loyal without much effort. Marketing was able to focus primarily on acquiring new customers. But one man's new customer is another man's lost customer. At the same time, maintaining existing customers would be much cheaper and therefore more worthwhile.

CRM helps with this. However, the M often gets lost in the weighting of priorities: Management, or in German the administration, care and organization of the customer data, is the key to success in marketing of the present, but is done by many companies very cautiously or not at all, although they would have data for it. This is a great pity, because a cultivated, consistent relationship stands and falls with the knowledge of the customers' behavior.

So it's worth analyzing the existing data and optimizing communication with your existing customers by the next Christmas mailing at the latest. Next December, no one will notice that the name of the key account manager is still stored incorrectly in the address file, that the marketing assistant who has long since moved on to the next station can no longer open the package, or that the compliance ruling does not permit the acceptance of gifts. Customer relationship management in 2021 is different and has already begun.