Customer relationship management, or CRM, involves several functions. It deals with the many interactions between a company, its sales force, its marketing team and its customers. CRM software supports these interactions primarily by serving as a data management system. While its functions may vary considerably from one software editor to another, most CRM software has a set of basic features, which begin with the follow-up of potential customers and end with the follow-up of the service provided to customers.

Lead capture

CRM software captures information about potential customers or “prospects.” Sales representatives can manually enter information about potential customers in the system or, when the software is associated with a website, visitors are invited to submit information on forms automatically entered by the CRM software.

Prospect Tracking

Customer relationship management software can track the behavior of potential customers who want to become customers, or “potential customers,” by clicking on clicks and converting affiliate marketing ads, links in emails, forms websites and even interhuman contacts, such as site visits and phone calls. Automatically records this information, except the person-to-person contact, which sales representatives must enter.

Customer tracking

Once a potential customer buys from the company, it becomes an interesting customer to follow. The CRM software will track customer information, such as purchased products, purchase dates, sales representatives involved, purchase prices, special instructions, and customer comments.

Marketing report

Data from a customer relationship management software system is useful when aggregated and displayed in reports that answer specific marketing questions. For example, marketing staff will want to know which ads received the most clicks and conversion rates, which affiliate sites attract the most potential clicks, customer demographics, and what products are sold and at what prices.

Tracking service

A customer relationship management system can include useful information for customer service representatives. For example, the system will give the representative access to customer purchase and service agreement data, product information and knowledge base, while allowing you to record service information, such as claims and tracking numbers.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.