Types/Variations of CRM

Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, e.g. to sales, marketing and service staff. Interactions with customers are generally stored in customers' contact histories, and staff can retrieve customer information as necessary.The contact history provides staff members with immediate access to important information on the customer (products owned, prior support calls etc.), eliminating the need to individually obtain this information directly from the customer.

Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:Managing campaigns Enterprise Marketing Automation, Sales Force Automation ,Sales Management System Sales Force Automation automates sales force-related activities such as:Activity Management: Scheduling sales calls or mailings,Tracking responses ,Generating reports ,Opportunity Management and Assessment ,Account Management and Target Account Selling ,Automate Sales Order Processing.

Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes: Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns, Designing and executing campaigns, e.g. customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, Analysing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and services (e.g. pricing, product development) , Management information system (e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis) ,Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining.

Collaborative CRM covers aspects of a company's dealings with customers that are handled by various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and marketing. Staff members from different departments can share information collected when interacting with customers. For example, feedback received by customer support agents can provide other staff members with information on the services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company.