CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management.
The customer, in this case, can be a citizen, business representative, intermediary or partner. CRM is the discipline of improving the way customers are managed through changes in business processes, people, organisation and technology.
However, we would seek to extend that and say that CRM is not just about sales. It's also about company IQ. If you can understand your customers and stakeholders better by having all customer interactions in one place and have the ability to run analytics, it's far simpler to understand what is happening with that customer/stakeholder and who is servicing the component parts of the relationship.
If this information is available across the organisation, it reduces duplication of effort and increases customer facing staff's ability to service customers and stakeholders in a timely and efficient fashion. In turn that increases customer/stakeholder trust and satisfaction and deepens the relationship. Deeper relationships last longer and in customer terms deliver more value. A virtuous circle.
