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  5. Customer relationship management systems

Customer relationship management systems

6 minute read • Last updated: 25 February 2025

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems allow you to store customer data and interactions, giving you a single customer view of how they engage with your business.

It is an effective and efficient way for businesses to manage and nurture their relationships with customers. It ultimately helps you to identify any areas for improvement through the whole customer journey, including the booking stage.

Learn the basics of CRM to help grow your business. Find out more about the overall benefits and how you can effectively use CRM systems to enhance online performance.

In this article:

  • Key features of a CRM system
  • Benefits and challenges of a CRM
  • Types of CRM system
  • Examples of CRM system options
  • How to use a CRM system effectively

Key features of a CRM system

  • Contact management

    You can easily find and reach out to a customer as the system stores their name, email address and other relevant data.

  • Sales

    Sales forecasting tools helps you predict future sales based on current data. This will help businesses tailor advertising and marketing campaigns that could mitigate potential risks.

  • Customer service management

    Businesses can log and monitor customer queries and complaints by automatically sending customer acknowledgements, so they don’t feel ignored. This will give the customer peace of mind that their query is being dealt with.

  • Digital channel integration

    A CRM system that integrates with email marketing and social media makes day-to-day tasks a lot easier when it comes to sending communications and monitoring responses. This gives you a simple cross-channel overview of where a single customer engages with your business.

  • Reports

    Reports are an integral CRM feature and provide valuable insights which inform decision making. Reports may include the number of sales generated, the effectiveness of email campaigns, and how many outbound calls were made, etc. Some CRM systems also offer trend analysis and forecasting of future sales and interactions.

Benefits and challenges of a CRM

Using a software which collects and stores customer information is essential for carrying out day-to-day operations efficiently. Here are a few examples of the benefits and things to be aware of when it comes to using CRM systems.

Benefits

  • Collate all customer data in one place.
  • Log interactions and communication with a customer – helping to monitor complaints or queries offers a quick solution for future contact.
  • Identifying areas for growth – tailoring the needs and wants of the customer through effective communication can help increase customer value and turn people into repeat customers.
  • Aligns with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – make sure your CRM system can store data in the UK, EU and elsewhere if required.
  • Automated reporting and trends analysis with some offering data visualisation.
  • Efficiencies created through automation such as data management.

Challenges

  • Potentially expensive software fees – different CRMs may only have a limited number of features which could get costly over time.
  • Complex technology – smaller businesses with limited IT resources could struggle to customise the software and integrate existing systems.
  • Staff adoption – team members are unsure of what information is needed and how to use it.
  • Resource required – data is only useful if the quality is maintained which can require time and effort.
  • Integrations – it can be difficult to integrate existing systems around email marketing and social media.

Types of CRM system

For businesses, there are 3 main types of CRM systems that you can use. These include:

  • Operational

    • Focuses on day-to-day operations and simplifies business processes for sales, marketing and customer services teams.
    • The automation feature includes many benefits from sending out scheduled meetings, automated responses and communicating directly with customers.
    • Helps simplify tedious manual tasks.

  • Analytical

    • Most beneficial for larger companies who have lots of data.
    • Analyses complex data to gain more insight into customer behaviours and patterns.
    • Helps businesses make informed decisions and assess their marketing, sales and customer service efforts.

  • Collaborative

    • Ensures data is kept up-to-date and provides the same information to all teams across the business. This allows everyone to work together to work on the same goal.
    • Analyses customer data effectively and delves deeper into customer behaviours and patterns.
    • Allows the business to make informed decisions and communicate directly with customers via phone, email or social media.

  • Integrated systems

    Some CRM systems can connect to your online booking system, while some online booking systems already have an integrated CRM system within them.

Examples of CRM system options

There are many types of CRM systems to purchase. A few examples include:

  • Quickbooks
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zoho CRM
  • Monday.com
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

Discover more CRM systems.

How to use a CRM system effectively

Looking to find out whether setting up a CRM platform is right for your business? Check out our handy step-by-step guide to help get you started.

  • Choose a CRM system

    What are the main goals for having a CRM system? Do you need to track sales, automate aspects of specific processes, manage interactions with customers etc? Make sure to also take cost into consideration and how the system will integrate with your existing tools. If you’re not fully committed yet, many platforms offer a free trial before you go ahead and purchase the right CRM platform for your business.

  • Train your team

    Most platforms have online guides to help you get your team up to speed on how to use CRM platforms effectively. In-person training sessions could help the team to share top tips and feedback to enhance everyone’s skills and expertise, and agree a set of consistent standards for everyone to follow.

  • Set up your CRM and import data

    Most platforms provide guidance on how to format your database but offer options to customise it according to your business needs. Many CRM systems allow you to import data using a CSV file, this will allow you to import tools including email and calendars. Any data recorded on spreadsheet columns should all match, which will help streamline the data seamlessly between old and new systems.

  • Add users and set permissions

    Add team members via email address so that they can access the system. You can set up user permissions to grant access to some areas but set up restrictions for others depending on their user role – this is particularly required around personally identifiable information (PII).

  • Customise the CRM

    Tailor the system to your business needs and processes, and integrate it with any existing systems or platforms such as email marketing or social media. Set up any reports or dashboards that will be useful to the team for analysing performance.

  • Automate processes

    This can help improve efficiency, customer interactions and reduce errors. Some examples include sending out follow-up emails, analysing customer behaviour and automating manual work tasks.

  • Analyse data

    The CRM system is ready to go live. Make sure your business continues to monitor and track performance to see which areas can be improved on through time.

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