Effective customer management isn’t just about making a sale.
It’s about creating a seamless journey from initial interest to long-term loyalty. It’s about understanding your customers’ pain points, anticipating their desires, and delivering exceptional experiences at every touchpoint. And the customer loyalty you gain as a result will pay dividends for a long time into the future.
When you invest in every step of the customer journey—from captivating marketing campaigns to intuitive user experiences—you’re not just attracting new customers: You’re cultivating a community of brand advocates. These loyal customers will not only return for more, but they’ll also spread the word, bringing in even more business.
What is customer management?
Customer management is the overall system a company uses to engage with its existing customers, building those relationships and encouraging repeat business. To foster this type of connection, customer experience managers use customer relationship management (CRM) software—a centralized repository for customer data that allows them to track the entire customer journey. Nearly every interaction customers have with a brand (clicking an ad, signing up for a newsletter, buying a product, etc.) can be logged in the CRM, providing practical information for keeping customers engaged.
The end goal of customer management is to ensure that customers feel valued, prioritized, and otherwise looked after. Personalized follow-ups after a customer service ticket, targeted advertising based on individual customer preferences, and discounts for loyal fans can contribute to consumers’ fondness for a brand—all of which falls under the umbrella of customer management.
4 components of customer management
There are several technical hurdles you’ll need to clear to achieve effective customer management:
1. Contact and data management
Contact management (sorting customer contact information into lists) and customer data management (creating centralized customer profiles) can help you understand and leverage recorded customer interactions. Most CRM technology has built-in contact management. From there, organizing and analyzing customer data such as location, age, and other important demographic data can also help improve your targeted marketing efforts with current and potential customers.
2. Analytics and reporting
In general, the more information you have, the better you can serve customers. CRM systems can aggregate and deliver reports on many aspects of the customer journey, from individual purchasing habits to customer satisfaction overall.
For instance, a CRM can provide detailed reports on customer purchase history, identifying their frequently bought-together items or seasonal preferences. Additionally, CRMs can analyze customer feedback from surveys, emails, and social media to gauge overall satisfaction and pinpoint areas for improvement.
3. Marketing automation
Marketing campaigns play two roles in your customer management process. First, they can be a valuable source of customer data: By using marketing attribution, you can identify the lead source that brought a customer into the fold. This helps you understand the type of marketing material that appeals to that customer—and you can use that to connect with them going forward.
Second, marketing can help you strengthen relationships with existing customers. For example, you can use automated personalization to send a birthday email with a discount code to build intimacy and brand affinity. All of this is possible thanks to the data you gather and store in CRM integrations like HubSpot and Endear—tools that let you use your ecommerce store data to inform marketing automation.
4. Customer service
According to recent research, 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase following a positive customer service experience. Great customer service can contribute to loyal customers and future sales. Start by implementing customer feedback tools such as post-purchase surveys, provide thorough FAQ pages, and make the returns process easy. All these customer service efforts contribute to overall customer management.
Why it’s worth using a customer management system
- Serve relevant ads with audience segmentation
- Centralize and streamline customer management
- Lead generation and retention
Fostering happy customers is a key goal for most businesses, and a customer relationship management software system offers a great avenue for achieving that aim. Here are a few reasons why you should consider using a CRM system:
Serve relevant ads with audience segmentation
In a crowded ecommerce space, what better way to set yourself apart from the competition than using advertising catered to individual consumers? Audience segmentation groups your customers based on preferences or behavior, and customer relationship management allows you to use those segments to personalize your marketing efforts.
For example, let’s say you identify a segment of your audience that has previously purchased from your store on a regular basis but recently dropped off. You might use targeted social media campaigns and tailored email marketing to offer them a special deal—designed to entice them back to being regular customers.
Centralize and streamline customer management
CRM tools house all communications between your business and your customer base, including customer service tickets and responses. Having all this information in one place can help you save time and effort, and an omnichannel support strategy ensures that customer service relationships carry over from one channel (say, Instagram) to the next (like your ecommerce store’s customer service chat).
Lead generation and retention
Many customer relationship management platforms—like Salesforce’s AI-enabled lead scoring—can rank leads based on customer engagement levels, buyer history, and other data, helping your business prioritize sales and marketing efforts. Focusing these efforts on high-quality leads will translate to improved sales conversion numbers.
CRMs with social listening capabilities such as Salesforce and HubSpot let you keep your finger on the pulse of the customer feedback world, respond to questions or criticism, or capitalize on any ongoing trends, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and improving general customer retention.
Customer management FAQ
What does a customer management system do?
A customer management system, also known as a customer relationship management system, is a tool that handles various tasks related to the interactions between your business and its customers, such as collecting customer behavior data, segmenting customers to tailor your marketing efforts, and centralizing customer feedback.
What is the difference between CRM and customer service management?
Both customer relationship management and customer service management refer to handling interactions between your business and its customers. However, CSM generally deals selectively with customer feedback, while CRM includes all interactions across the entire customer lifecycle, including the sales process, marketing, and service.
Why is customer management important?
Regardless of the industry, most businesses will struggle without a healthy customer base. Attracting and maintaining customers requires effort on several fronts, including marketing and advertising, general communications, and customer service. Good customer management addresses all these areas, helping your business engage with potential customers and keep existing customers coming back.
