What kind of organisations can benefit from a CRM?

What will be discussed in this article are the specific types of organisations that will benefit most from CRM.

1. Service-based

2. Electronic commerce

Large organisations

4. Start-ups that are just starting out

Service-based
In customer-first organisations, it is of paramount importance that the relationship with a customer is properly managed. In this example we will examine how a hotel would benefit from CRM.

In a hotel, CRM encompasses many aspects of the organisation. A key part of CRM management is ensuring that staff, i.e. customer-facing employees, are properly trained in their job roles so that every point of contact with the customer results in a satisfactory experience.

This experience can be facilitated by proper training and management. If your staff are well trained, they will have the confidence to deliver the experience you want your customers to have. Once they have been properly trained, you will need appropriate managers to oversee and ensure that what staff have learnt in their training is carried out correctly.

However, there are aspects of CRM within hotel organisations that are costly to be purely human. Think of all the different processes involved when a person arrives at a hotel. Rooms need to be booked, dates need to be recorded, add-ons need to be offered and arranged, and last minute changes need to be offered to hundreds of different people.

In short, you'll need CRM calendar management software to streamline, facilitate and satisfy the copious desires that hotel guests demand.

E-commerce
E-retailers are modern organisations that probably deal with very little face-to-face CRM, a contrast to hotels.

With this severe lack of customer-facing opportunities to deliver an excellent customer experience, there is even more emphasis on having a strong CRM system. In the early stages, when orders are infrequent, it is possible to manage orders through one person.

However, as you grow and begin to receive in one day the number of orders you used to receive in a month, it will be extremely difficult to keep track of problems.

For example, you will need a CRM ticketing system to be able to process complaints that some customers may have. And realistically, mistakes do happen. You will need a smooth complaints procedure so that, when customers are unhappy, you can do everything possible to resolve the problem efficiently.

Large organisations

The larger your organisation, the more lines of communication you will have internally and externally.

In a team of 4 people, there are 6 lines of communication between them. But this number multiplies significantly, take a look at the diagram below:

The above diagram is just an example with a maximum of 14 people, but that number still adds up to 91 lines of communication without adding any external communication between external sources.

Large organisations can benefit from a range of CRM tools to remain efficient and orderly.

Video conferencing can be very beneficial for large organisations. It reduces the time needed to initiate and terminate communication between individuals. Videoconferencing is also beneficial for large organisations that span great distances, such as multinational companies, where it is impossible to communicate with people in person.

Start-ups
Start-ups are difficult organisations to know what infrastructure to implement because they are so individual in the modern world. A start-up food truck is going to need a different infrastructure than a start-up Saas company.

The first of the two will have a large amount of human-to-human contact and will therefore need less software and better human resource management. However, a start-up food truck company could benefit from some specific tools. Having a budgeting and payment tool would allow the organisation to take the hassle out of organising payments for different events and would help to keep track of what stock is needed and used.



A SaaS start-up is going to have very different needs to the organisations mentioned above, but will still need a suitable CRM to meet its needs. For example, a reporting tool would be beneficial for presenting data to potential customers and investors.

Another CRM tool that would benefit a Saas organisation is a secure and simple CRM storage space. When a company is in the start-up phase and is still finding its feet, having a centralised storage space for all its CRM files and data is extremely valuable.