Chapter 1: Microsoft CRM Concepts
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CHAPTER 1: MICROSOFT CRM CONCEPTS
Objectives
Actively participating during this lesson helps you:
• Understand the overall solution that Microsoft® CRM provides and
the functionality and purpose of the Microsoft CRM modules
• Log on to Microsoft CRM
• Understand the relationship between account and contact records in
Microsoft CRM
• Understand the types of relationships that can be created between
records
Overview
This lesson describes the overall solution of Microsoft CRM and the benefits to
an organization. There is a brief overview of each of the available modules. The
lesson also discusses the concepts, tasks, navigation, and functions that are used
throughout the product.
Microsoft CRM Sales Management
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Microsoft CRM
Customer Relationship Management is important because it differentiates an
organization from the competition. A company achieves this by paying attention
to customers and taking action to build a competitive advantage through
improving the customer experience.
Organizations historically have built structure around the products and services
they create and sell. The focus is on:
• Achieving economies of scale through mass production
• Product innovation
• Mass marketing and product branding
These are still important areas but do not take the customer experience into
account. Customers are not loyal to businesses that focus on these areas alone.
One of the key components of CRM is to understand customers and treat
customer needs accordingly. The goal is to learn about the potential customer
audiences so the organization can prepare to meet current and future needs. It is
also important to identify customer audiences whose needs cannot be profitably
met.
Building Customer Value
When an organization is able to anticipate and respond to the needs of customers,
and aligns their products and services with their customers, they can begin to
build customer value. Customer value means that the organiza