Editing Customer relationship management (section)

==In practice==
===Call centers===
[[Call centre|Contact centre]] CRM providers are popular for small and mid-market businesses. These systems codify the interactions between the company and customers by using analytics and [[key performance indicator]]s to give the users information on where to focus their marketing and customer service. This allows agents to have access to a caller's history to provide personalized customer communication. The intention is to maximize [[average revenue per user]], decrease [[churn rate]] and decrease idle and unproductive contact with the customers.<ref name=sap1>{{cite web |website=SAP Insider |date=15 November 2007 |url=http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e044e180-8375-2a10-a2b2-b5709ea68ccb |title=Still Struggling to Reduce Call Center Costs Without Losing Customers? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120116092748/http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e044e180-8375-2a10-a2b2-b5709ea68ccb |archive-date=16 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.genesys.com/definitions/what-is-contact-center-crm| title=What Is Contact Center CRM?| author=Genesys}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.networkworld.com/article/3176118/software/the-contact-center-and-crm-collision-leads-to-a-new-dominant-species.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302235025/http://www.networkworld.com/article/3176118/software/the-contact-center-and-crm-collision-leads-to-a-new-dominant-species.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=2 March 2017| title=The contact center and CRM collision leads to a new dominant species| work=Network World| date=2 March 2017}}</ref>

Growing in popularity is the idea of gamifying, or using game design elements and game principles in a non-game environment such as customer service environments. The gamification of customer service environments includes providing elements found in games like rewards and bonus points to customer service representatives as a method of feedback for a job well done.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Gamification Comes to the Contact Center|url = http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=93677|website = CRM Magazine| date=January 2014 |access-date = 26 November 2015}}</ref>
[[Gamification]] tools can motivate agents by tapping into their desire for rewards, recognition, achievements, and competition.<ref>{{Cite web|title = CRM in Customer Service|url = http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=99909|website = CRM Magazine|access-date = 22 November 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923214157/http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=99909|archive-date = 23 September 2015|url-status = dead}}</ref>

===Contact-center automation===
Contact-center [[automation]],  CCA, the practice of having an integrated system that coordinates contacts between an organization and the public, is designed to reduce the repetitive and tedious parts of a contact center agent's job. Automation prevents this by having pre-recorded audio messages that help customers solve their problems. For example, an automated contact center may be able to re-route a customer through a series of commands asking him or her to select a certain number to speak with a particular contact center agent who specializes in the field in which the customer has a question.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Contact center automation takes flight|url = http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/Contact-center-automation-takes-flight|website = SearchCRM|access-date = 26 November 2015|language = en-US|archive-date = 21 August 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180821031646/https://searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/Contact-center-automation-takes-flight|url-status = dead}}</ref> Software tools can also integrate with the agent's desktop tools to handle customer questions and requests. This also saves time on behalf of the employees.<ref name="SearchCRM-2015"/>

=== Social media ===
[[Social CRM]] involves the use of social media and technology to engage and learn from consumers.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401220308082 |journal=International Journal of Information Management |access-date=25 June 2023 |date=August 2021|doi=10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102168 |last1=Dwivedi |first1=Yogesh K. |last2=Ismagilova |first2=Elvira |last3=Hughes |first3=D. Laurie |last4=Carlson |first4=Jamie |last5=Filieri |first5=Raffaele |last6=Jacobson |first6=Jenna |last7=Jain |first7=Varsha |last8=Karjaluoto |first8=Heikki |last9=Kefi |first9=Hajer |last10=Krishen |first10=Anjala S. |last11=Kumar |first11=Vikram |last12=Rahman |first12=Mohammad M. |last13=Raman |first13=Ramakrishnan |last14=Rauschnabel |first14=Philipp A. |last15=Rowley |first15=Jennifer |last16=Salo |first16=Jari |last17=Tran |first17=Gina A. |last18=Wang |first18=Yichuan |volume=59 |hdl=10454/18041 |hdl-access=free |display-authors=4}}</ref> Because the public, especially young people, are increasingly using social networking sites, companies use<ref name="Avery-2014a"/> these sites to draw attention to their products, services and brands, with the aim of building up customer relationships to increase demand. With the increase in the use of social media platforms, integrating CRM with the help of social media can potentially be a quicker and more cost-friendly process.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts-Phelps|first=Graham|title=Customer Relationship Management: How to Turn a Good Business Into a Great One!|publisher=Thorogood|year=2001|isbn=978-1854181190|pages=140}}</ref>

Some CRM systems integrate social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to track and communicate with customers. These customers also share their own opinions and experiences with a company's products and services, giving these firms more insight. Therefore, these firms can both share their own opinions and also track the opinions of their customers.<ref name="Tavana-2013"/>

Enterprise feedback management software platforms combine internal survey data with trends identified through social media to allow businesses to make more accurate decisions on which products to supply.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Customer relationship management from theory to practice: Implementation steps|last = Prasongsukarn|first = Kriengsin|date = 2006|journal = Inspire Research Company}}</ref>

=== Location-based services ===
CRM systems can also include technologies that create geographic marketing campaigns. The systems take in information based on a customer's physical location and sometimes integrates it with popular [[location-based services|location-based]] GPS applications. It can be used for networking or contact management as well to help increase sales based on location.<ref name="SearchCRM-2015" />

===Business-to-business transactions===
Despite the general notion that CRM systems were created for customer-centric businesses, they can also be applied to B2B environments to streamline and improve customer management conditions. For the best level of CRM operation in a B2B environment, the software must be personalized and delivered at individual levels.<ref name=Henderson>{{cite web |first=Rebekah |last=Henderson |website=B2B Insights |year=2013 |url=http://www.b2binsights.com/how-to-build-a-b2b-friendly-crm/ |title=How to build a B2B-friendly CRM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228232740/http://b2binsights.com/how-to-build-a-b2b-friendly-crm/ |archive-date=28 December 2017 }}</ref>

The main differences between business-to-consumer (B2C) and [[business-to-business]] CRM systems concern aspects like sizing of contact databases and length of relationships.<ref>{{Cite web|title = B2B Marketing: What Makes It Special? {{!}} B2B International|url = https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/b2b-marketing/|website = B2B International|access-date = 22 November 2015|language = en-US}}</ref>