CRM

CRM stands for customer relationship management. The term describes both an approach and a type of software. The approach says that the relationship with a customer continues long after the first sale, and that it is worth managing on purpose. The software is where you keep everything the business knows about each customer and about everyone who got in touch but has not bought yet, so the whole team sees the same picture. Without a CRM, that information is scattered across spreadsheets, notebooks, inboxes and chat threads, and anyone who was not in a conversation has no idea what was said.

What is CRM

A CRM is a customer management system: one list of customers and inquiries, with everything the business knows about them. It has two sides:

• An approach: the relationship continues after the first sale, and you manage it on purpose.
• Software: the place where the whole team sees the same data on every customer and every inquiry.
• The alternative: information scattered across spreadsheets, notebooks, email and WhatsApp chats.

What a CRM stores

• Contact details: name, phone, email, and sometimes a company name.
• Purchase history: what the customer bought, when and for how much.
• Inquiries and leads: people who asked for a quote or left their details, and where their handling stands.
• Tags and segments: labels such as "wholesale" or "repeat customer".
• Conversations and tasks: what was said, what needs to happen next and who owns it.

CRM for a small business

In a small business, knowledge about customers usually lives in one person's head. That works until they go on holiday, a new hire joins, or the customer count grows past what anyone can remember. A CRM takes that knowledge out of one head and puts it where everyone can see it.

It also helps you notice what is easy to miss:

• A regular who stopped ordering.
• A quote nobody followed up on.
• An inquiry that has gone unanswered for three days.

A full explanation of CRM types and how a CRM differs from an ERP and a store admin is in the guide to customer relationship management.

Example: a coffee equipment store

• Consumers: most buy on the site without talking to anyone, and their orders create a customer record with purchase history.
• Offices: a few ask for a quote on a machine and monthly beans, in other words B2B sales.
• The lead: an office's inquiry goes in as a lead, with a status such as "Quote sent" and an estimated value, until they order.

That lets the owner answer questions a spreadsheet does not answer easily:

1. Which customers bought a lot and have not ordered in a while.
2. How many quotes are open right now and how much money they add up to.
3. Who on the team needs to get back to which office this week.

The first question ties directly to customer lifetime value and customer churn.

Common mistakes

• Buying a system before defining a process. If it is unclear when an inquiry counts as handled, even the best system fills up with stuck leads.
• Entering data by hand. A CRM that is not connected to the store and the forms goes stale within weeks.
• Choosing by feature count. A system built for a large sales team complicates a small business. Choose by what you will use every day.
• Collecting without consent. A contact list of people who did not agree to marketing messages is worth little, and messaging it can break the law.

CRM in StoreChart

In StoreChart, CRM is made of three parts, and the StoreChart CRM shows all three together:

• Customer management: a record for each customer built from the orders of connected stores, with contact details, tags, order history and total spent.
• Leads module: collects inquiries from a form, a webhook or manual entry, manages them on a board with statuses the business defines, and converts a lead to a customer and an order.
• Tasks module: divides work across the team, with an owner, a due date and a priority.
• Not included: email marketing, lead scoring and multiple sales pipelines.