5 'Zero Cost' CRM Strategies

It's not shocking that many companies are scaling back, delaying or canceling IT projects. Recent Gartner survey data of 475 IT decision makers in global enterprises with 1,000 or more employees found that more companies are actually postponing or scaling back computing projects rather than canceling them outright.

Conventional wisdom would hold that customer relationship management (CRM) software is one area of the business not to be ignored during tough financial times. But who's got millions to spend on new CRM apps and functionalities?

According to Gartner analysts, companies don't have to spend millions. In fact, they might not be tapping into many functionalities that their CRM applications already offer or may have to spend next to nothing to gain more insight on and better connect with their customers via their websites, call centers and other sales and marketing systems.

"Companies need to think in terms of spending smarter, not spending less," notes Scott Nelson, managing vice president at Gartner, in a recent report. "There are zero or low-cost strategies that can be implemented now that can make all the difference, generate competitive differentiation and not draw the attention of the CFO."

As recommended by Gartner, here are five CRM strategies that companies can undertake now while not breaking the bank:

1. Target Customer Communities

Like many other analysts, the Gartner report expects that future CRM strategies will rely on "creating online communities of customers" using social media, including Facebook, Twitter and other websites. These Web tools are quite free, of course.

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