Analytical CRM is the direction in the field of customer relationship management (Customer Relationship Management – CRM), in the course of which the company implements a systematic analysis of data about customers and their transactions.
By this, analytical CRM differs from operational CRM, which collects and organizes the storage of data about customers and their transactions in order to form reporting and sales automation, and from collaborative CRM, which coordinates the activities of departments working with clients.
Thus, the analytical CRM, unlike the other two types, involves the active use of data analysis technologies and analytical platforms.
The main components of an analytical CRM system are:
- Data warehouse – used to collect, integrate and preprocess customer data for analysis;
- Analytical module – allows to apply different methods of data mining to data about customers, to test hypotheses and build analytical models for customer classification and market segmentation, discovery of patterns of their purchasing behavior and forecasts for customer relations development;
- OLAP – module for operational forming of complex analytical reporting.
Application of analytical CRM gives the following advantages:
- allows you to improve the quality of the customer base by identifying the most valuable customers, building their “image” and cloning them (i.e. directing the greatest efforts to attract new customers who correspond to this image);
- it allows to improve the quality of services by understanding what the customer values most of all;
- increases the effectiveness of loyalty programs.