Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Consumers are a very important asset for a company. There will be no business without any prospects of relationship with the consumers who are loyal. This is the reason why the company should plan and use the strategy that is quite clear in treating consumers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has grown in recent decades to reflect the major role of consumers for setting corporate strategy. CRM includes all sizes to understand consumers and processes to exploit this knowledge to design and implement the marketing activities, production and supply chain of suppliers (suppliers). The following will CRM is defined some terms are taken from the literature, among others (Tama, 2009):

1. In terms of relating to information technology, CRM is a strategies to optimize customer lifetime value in a way to know more about consumer information and interact with intensive consumers (Todman, 2001).

2. In terms of communication and management, CRM is defined as a company's approach to understanding and influencing behavior consumers through intensive communication in order to improve consumer acquisition, retain customers, and customer loyalty (Swift, 2000).

3. CRM definition when viewed in terms of business can be defined as a business strategy to understand, anticipate and manage the needs of potential consumers in an organization at the present time and the will come (Brown, 2000). Of the three definitions above it can be concluded that the definition of CRM a comprehensive approach that integrates all business processes who deal directly with consumers, namely sales, marketing and customer service through the integration of philosophy, technology, and also the process (Tama, 2009). In other words, CRM is viewed not as a product
or a service, but a business philosophy that aims maximize long-term customer value (customer lifetime value).

CRM Technology

A standard definition of CRM technology components given by META Group in the "The Customer Relationship Management  Ecosystem ". This categorization aims to better understand how a CRM strategy and technology architecture is able to provide all the overall focus on customer service. There are three main types of CRM technology is (Tama, 2009):

1. Operational CRM, CRM is known as the "front office". Operational CRM is an area where there is a relationship with the consumer directly. Automation of integrated business processes involving front office customer touch points, such as sales, marketing, and service consumers, including the integration between front office and back office, as order management, and marketing automation. With the development of information technology and rapid communication, operational CRM then can also be divided into two parts, namely e-CRM and m-CRM.

2. Collaborative CRM, is a form of an extension of traditional CRM. Collaborative CRM deals with the relationship between management external stakeholders, such as suppliers, distributors, and resellers. Application CRM is the principal of collaborative enterprise portal based on extranet infrastructure and partner relationship management software (Relationshiop partner management software) that provides access to consumers, resellers, and business partners over the Internet.

3. Analytical CRM, CRM is known as "back office "or" strategic "CRM. Analytical CRM is usually associated with the use of data effectively, efficiently and strategically to enable appropriate decision making for the management. Implemented after the decision-making process through analysis, modeling, and evaluation of the data stored in the database to produce a mutually beneficial relationship between the company and consumers. Analytical CRM is an example of a business intelligence such as data warehouse, OLAP, and data mining. It is important in understanding consumer behavior not only understand who they are (in this case the customer profiling or segmentation), but also their behavior and patterns --- patterns (pattern) that they follow.Understanding customer behavior must be defined as a dynamic and ongoing process (Xu and Walton, 2005).