I have noticed in the last few months a lot of discussions on CRM solutions and software in the forums. And it is a very positive thing that people started to talk about the CRM concept that will probably change the future business arenas. But there is a little misconception about the CRM term. I will now explain:

CRM comes for Customer Relationship Management and it is some kind of information technology industry term for strategies, software, methodologies and other help the company to manage customer relationship. CRM implies that everybody in the company is focused on the customer.

But some say that this is not the best definition of CRM. The CRM is about relations between people, and so, it is not a technology. It is know that business did exist long before computers, so relations between business people existed before computers. So, CRM was not invented using computers (just the name was). This means that CRM existed before, and now, with the help of computers, we are taking the advantages of the possibilities that technology gives. The technology of computers applied on CRM allows us to see how the customer is web surfing through the site, and, if we want to, we can stop him and offer assistance, in the same time wondering if the customer will welcome that. It is just like you're a salesman in a store and you would watch the expression of the customer that enters and, based on that, decide to approach him or not. But, on the net you cannot see his face.

So, what CRM does is allowing enterprises to gather and access information about customers buying preferences, complains, histories for a better anticipation of for what customers will want. Therefore, the main goal of the CRM is to have, for the company, greater customer loyalty.