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Companies focused on growth can retain and find new customers with a CRM solution

The strategy of every profitable business is to grow and increase profits ' typically through the retention and expansion of existing customers and the attraction of new customers. Large corporations have invested heavily in a CRM Software System over the past decade, and smaller companies looking to grow should consider adopting a similar strategy.

Customer Relationship Management is more than software, it is a business strategy centered on customer needs and designed to leverage all of a company's customer-facing departments to retaining and attracting new customers. Businesses can gain a competitive advantage by integrating such functions as accounting, inventory, sales, customer service and marketing.

A CRM Software system brings technology to these business processes. Common to most CRM Software Systems is contact management, which records information about how customers contact a company through such channels as the web, phone and mail.
At the core of a CRM is the marketing module which identifies potential customers. Some marketing modules feature social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. It also tracks deals, competition and other marketing offerings that are vital to attracting new customers.

Retaining customers is the focus of the CRM Customer Service module. The key to retaining customers is resolving customer service problems, and the module helps companies track requests and complaints. This module also provides significant integration with Call Center Management Systems that record information about customer calls to be monitored and analyzed.

Tying a CRM's information together and turning it into valuable customer-centric information is the focus of Analytics. An Analytics module provides companies with the searching and analysis tools to compare sales data with other data like customer complaints and build an in-depth understanding of customer trends. Ad-hoc analysis is also available for business specific information needs.

Integration can also be extended to other applications outside the CRM Software System.
A Business Accounting Software Solution automates key accounting functions such as general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, budgets and more. Integrating these features with a CRM offers a competitive advantage to companies striving to improve customer satisfaction. As an example, customers who complain about invoicing concerns through a customer service department can retrieve information from an accounting system through a CRM and quickly resolve the customer concerns.

Another area with significant potential for customer satisfaction and attraction is the integration with an Inventory Management Solution. Because inventory is a key component to satisfying customer needs, sharing ordering and receiving information with customer service teams through a CRM allows them to become solution providers.