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Customer relationship management (CRM), a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers is a software used to support these processes, storing information on current and prospective customers. Information can be accessed and entered by employees in different departments, such as sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation.

Customer contacts details are also be stored in the system. The rationale behind this approach is to improve services provided directly to customers and to use the information in the system for sales and targeted marketing purposes.

Generally, the term is used to refer a software-based approach in handling customer relationships. Most CRM software vendor stress that a successful CRM strategy compels a holistic proposition.

CRM is a combination of policies, processes and strategies implemented by an organization to unify the interaction of its customer and to provide a mechanism for tracking customer information.

Aspects of the CRM that relate directly to one another are: front and back office operations, business relationships and analysis.

There are several different approaches to CRM focusing on different aspects.

First, the Operational CRM which provides support to the “front office” business processes. It processes customer data for a variety of purposes like managing campaigns, enterprise marketing automation, and sales force automation

Second, the Sales Force Automation that automates sales force-related activities such as: scheduling sales calls or mailings, tracking responses and generating reports.

Third, the Analytical CRM which analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes and generally makes heavy use of data mining.

Fourth is the Sales Intelligence CRM, similar to Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct sales tool.

Fifth, the Campaign management which is a combination of Operational and Analytical CRM elements.

Then, the Collaborative CRM which covers the aspects of a company’s dealings with customers that are handled by various departments within a company. Employees within the departments can share information collected when interacting with customers.

Last is the Geographic CRM (GCRM) a combination of geographic information system and traditional CRM. The Geographic data can be analyzed to provide a snapshot of possible customers in a region or to plan routes for customer visits.