This is a glossary of CRM terms that you might see on our website or elsewhere online. Each word has a link that will show you its definition, origin and more details.
A:
Accounts:
An Account is the record for a company or organization that centralizes all associated contacts and interactions. This information effectively turns the contact manager into a strategic tool for managing business relationships.
Ad hoc Reporting:
Ad hoc reporting allows users to quickly create custom reports on demand, selecting specific data or criteria without relying on predefined templates. It enables flexible analysis and insights tailored to unique business needs, streamlining decision-making and information sharing.
Administrator:
As a highly privileged user, an Administrator holds full control over a software system’s configuration, user access, and management.
AI:
AI refers to use of artificial Intelligence to automate tasks, analyze vast amount of data, better decision making and gain predictive insights. It helps businesses to personalize customer interactions, streamline workflows, and deliver more tailored customer experiences.
Analytics:
Analytics refers to the tools used to analyze customer data collected through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to improve sales, marketing and service strategies. Its primary goal is to optimize marketing and sales efforts, and drive business growth.
Announcements:
Announcementsrefer to sharing important updates, reminders, news or notifications across teams. They help improve communication, transparency and ensure everyone is aware of key activities or changes.
Automation:
Automation streamlines repetitive tasks like email follow-ups, data entry, saving time and reducing errors. It enhances efficiency and boosts overall productivity across sales, marketing, and support teams.
B:
Bulk Options:
Bulk actions are a powerful feature in a contact manager that lets you apply changes to many records at once, not just one by one. This streamlines your workflow and saves significant time.
C:
Call List:
A call list is a structured reminder system used by sales teams to schedule and track outreach to current and potential customers. It helps ensure timely follow-ups with leads and clients, improving organization and vital for maintaining relationships and closing deals.
Campaigns:
A Campaign is an organized marketing effort aimed at specific customer segments to promote products or services. Campaigning helps to connect with new leads, engage with current customers and build stronger, long-term relationships. A campaign must be well researched, well planned and have clear goals.
Contact Manager:
A Contact Manager is a software solution designed to centralize and organize all customer and prospect information, including interactions, tasks, and documents. This database provides your teams with a unified view of client details, streamlining communication and helping monitor work status and effectiveness.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management):
CRM is a strategic approach for businesses to build and improve customer relationships throughout their lifecycle. It uses CRM systems to collect and analyze customer data, boosting service and sales efficiency.
CSV:
CSV (Comma Separated Values) files are commonly used for importing and exporting customer data. CSV files are utilized in bulk data operations such as importing new customer records, updating existing records, exporting data for analysis, data backup and sharing.
Contact Manager vs CRM:
A Contact Manager focuses mainly on organizing individual contact details and communications. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, however, is much broader; it manages the entire customer journey, integrating sales, marketing, and service to build deeper relationships beyond just contact information.
CRM Trends:
CRM trends refer to the latest changes and innovations in how companies use technology and strategies to manage customer relationships. These trends often involve new features like AI and mobile access to better understand and serve customers.
Customer Complaints:
A customer complaint arises when a product or service does not meet the customer’s expectations or does not uphold the standards required to satisfy those expectations leading to negative experience. Such complaints may result from issues like malfunctioning products, unsatisfactory service, or the absence of expected features.
Customer Experience:
Customer experience is the way a business manages and enhances interactions with its customers. By understanding customer needs and fostering positive experiences, businesses can strengthen relationships, boost satisfaction, and increase loyalty.
Customer Retention:
Customer retention is the practice of holding the customers to increase and strengthen long term relationships. It is more cost effective and important for business growth. It aims at customer satisfaction, repeated purchases, and loyalty to business.
D:
Data Security:
Data security involves protecting digital information from unauthorized access, corruption, or loss. Its main goal is to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability through various protective measures.
Data Backup:
Data backup involves creating a copy of data to ensure its recovery after various failures, such as hardware malfunctions, data corruption, or accidental deletion. This process helps restore vital business information to its original or an alternate location, thereby preventing data loss and saving potential losses.
Dashboard:
A dashboard is a visual display that brings together key data and metrics from various sources onto a single screen. Its purpose is to provide a quick overview, helping users easily monitor performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions.
Document Management:
A Document Management System (DMS) is an automated system designed to store, track, and retrieve digital documents in various formats. This system helps organize documents into folders, thereby streamlining organizational workflows and facilitating the smooth functioning of daily operations.
Drip Marketing:
Drip marketing is an automated strategy that sends a series of pre-written messages to prospects over time. These campaigns engage contacts continuously, helping to build lasting relationships with customers.
Duplicates:
Importing contacts from various sources can lead to redundant data, resulting in a disorganized contact list and excessive system storage usage. Manage Duplicates feature directly addresses this by allowing the removal and merging of these duplicate contacts within the system.
E:
Export Data:
The Export Data feature allows users to seamlessly transfer their information between different software applications or from spreadsheets to online platforms. This feature lets you export large amounts of data at once, saving you lots of time and effort. You can usually get your data in common formats like CSV, Excel, XML, or PDF, depending on the software compatibility.
Editions:
Editions refer to different versions or tiers of a software product that offer varying sets of features, functionalities, or service levels, often tailored to different user needs or business sizes
Email Management:
Email management is all about taking control of your inbox. It’s the art of systematically handling, organizing, and storing your emails so you can quickly find what you need. This often means using labels or folders to sort messages and leveraging tools to track important conversations and tasks.
Effective Communication:
Effective communication in business means teams share information clearly and work together well. This ensures everyone has the right details to do their job, preventing problems from misunderstandings or poor teamwork.
F:
Filters:
Filters make it easy to group or sort contacts by reducing search results based on specific criteria, allowing users to segment data and focus on relevant information. This targeted approach streamlines tasks like gathering information, sending communications, and analyzing leads, saving significant time when searching through large databases.
Follow-ups:
Follow-ups are essential for maintaining strong relationships with leads and customers through timely and consistent communication. Incorporating automation, personalization, and progress tracking ensures more effective engagement and stronger business outcomes.
Forums:
Forums are online platforms where users participate in discussions, share information, and seek support related to customer relationship management practices. They serve as a tool for providing customer support, gathering feedback, resolving queries, and promoting knowledge sharing among users.
Funnels:
A funnel is a visual representation of the customer journey from initial awareness to purchase and beyond. It helps to track and manage sales processes and optimize them for better results.
I:
Invoicing:
An invoice is more than just a bill—it’s a clear agreement between seller and buyer that keeps every transaction transparent and professional. By simplifying billing, ensuring accuracy, and making payment tracking effortless, it helps businesses get paid faster and manage customer relationships with ease.
Integrations:
Integration connects your CRM with tools like email, accounting, and marketing platforms, creating a seamless flow of data and automated processes. The result is smoother business workflows, consistent information, better customer experiences, and less manual effort.
K:
Kanban View:
A Kanban View is a visual project management method where tasks are represented as cards organized into columns that reflect different stages of the workflow. This approach makes it easy to track progress at a glance, optimize team workload, and ensure work moves smoothly from start to finish.
P:
Permission-based Email Marketing:
Permission-based email marketing is a strategy that targets subscribers who have willingly opted in—through signup forms or other mechanisms—to receive communications. By engaging an interested audience, it delivers higher open rates, reduces spam risks, builds trust, and ensures compliance with email marketing regulations.
Pipeline Management:
Pipeline management is the process of managing different stages of sales or project from initial to the final stage. It involves tracking, analyzing, organizing and improving the sale opportunities. It ensures effective progress, increases the successful outcomes and also improves the overall performance of the project.
R:
Reports:
Reports are the summary of the analysis of the customer interactions, sales or overall business. It provides a clear visual presentation using charts, graphs and dashboards. These reports help managers and team members to track performance, identify the loopholes and allow them to take decisions to improve strategies and customer relationships.
Rules:
Rules are a feature that enables administrators to automate actions and control data access based on specific conditions. These rules help automate tasks, restrict access, and trigger events, manage user permissions, such as dynamically changing a field or sending an automated email. ensuring secure and efficient contact management within the organization.
T:
Task Manager:
Task Manager is a tool designed to help users create, view, edit, and manage tasks for customer projects and internal processes. It allows tasks to be organized, tracked, assigned, and filtered by various criteria. It helps to streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and enhance efficiency within teams.