Since this information is rapidly presented to the CSR, it becomes a major tool in the customer interaction. But even more exciting than having CRM support call center operations is the introduction of CRM as a tool in the company's marketing workshop. If you have heard the term permission-based marketing bantered around, then you have heard about the ways that companies are increasing the ante in their interactions with customers. Permission-Based Marketing is defined as the fact that a customer has given the company some type of permission to make contact. But in most cases on the Internet, this is indicated with a tiny checkbox at the bottom of a form you have filled out on a web page.
Companies use all sorts of techniques to get the customer's permission.
Other times the company will make further contacts a condition of receiving free information from them, such as a report, with no opt-out available. These details can then be used to provide a web site with real-time intelligence about the customer in order to produce a personalized marketing campaign. The fact that the CRM tools can process the data quickly allows it to produce this functionality in real-time. This means that the customer can be presented with products or services that are dynamically packaged and pitched based on the customer's profile. Since an effective CRM package needs to draw information from disparate resources in order to paint the whole picture, it will not only depend on receiving quality information from these sources, but it must also know how to interact with those sources.