The Importance of Data within Contemporary CRM

In recent times, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been defined as relating to sales, marketing, and even services automation. Additionally, the concept is increasingly associated with cost savings and streamline processes as well as with the engendering, nurturing and tracking of relationships with customers. Much less associations appear to be attributed to the creation, storage and mining of data. Although successful CRM is in evidence based on a triad combination of technology, people and processes, the importance of data is unquestionable. Accordingly, this chapter seeks to illustrate how, although the product and service elements as well as organizational structure and strategies are central to CRM, data is the pivotal dimension around which the concept revolves in contemporary terms. Consequently, this chapter seeks to illustrate how the processes associated with data management, namely: data collection, data collation, data storage and data mining, are essential components of CRM in both theoretical and practical terms.