CRM Processes: The 5 Steps of the CRM Process

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are your customer relationships. Customer relationship management (CRM) is an ongoing cycle—not a linear journey. CRM starts by creating brand awareness, and continues long after the sale.

Continuing the relationship beyond conversion pays off. According to a Smile.io study of aggregated data from more than 1.1 billion shoppers across 250,000 brands, existing customers tend to spend more, with the top 10% of loyal customers spending twice as much per order as the remaining 90%. For instance, beauty and cosmetics customers spend 30% more per order after shopping with a company for six months.

This guide breaks down the five steps of the CRM process and how you can boost customer retention and business growth by supporting shoppers throughout the customer life cycle.

What is the CRM process?

The CRM process refers to the customer relationship management workflow businesses use to attract potential customers, encourage them to make a purchase, and build customer loyalty and advocacy over time. 

The customer relationship management process has five cyclical steps that cover the entire life cycle, from first contact through retention and loyalty: 

• Brand awareness. Attracting potential customers through marketing.

• Lead acquisition. Enticing those aware of your brand to show further interest.

• Conversion. Turning a lead into a paying customer.

• Customer support. Managing post-purchase interactions.

• Upsells and referrals. Suggesting complementary products and encouraging customers to spread the word.

CRM processes turn your broader CRM strategy into clear, repeatable steps so every team involved can work from the same data and rules. For instance, sales and marketing departments can share customer data to build brand awareness and drive purchases. Service teams can continue that journey, providing fast, effective support that inspires loyalty.

You can use a CRM system, like HubSpot or Salesforce, to implement these processes into your business. CRM tools centralize customer data so customer service, sales, and marketing teams can manage the entire customer journey seamlessly. When someone enters the sales pipeline—by, say, signing up for your email newsletter or making a purchase—the CRM technology logs customer interactions, tracks customer preferences, and records customer engagement with your service team, keeping everyone aligned.

Benefits of implementing a CRM process

Whether you use CRM software or manage a CRM process yourself, maintaining a consistent cycle of customer care can produce several key benefits:

• Increased sales. Having a CRM process can boost sales by improving the customer journey and encouraging current customers to become repeat shoppers and brand advocates.

• Unified customer data. Successful CRM implementation keeps all of your customer data—sales records, customer behavior info, service interactions—in one centralized location. Instead of each team using separate systems to manage customer data, your CRM platform is the single source of truth.

• Enhanced customer satisfaction. Established CRM processes improve customer satisfaction by delivering a consistent experience each time shoppers interact with your company.

• Improved collaboration. By centralizing customer data, CRM implementation makes it easier for your sales, marketing, and service teams to work together.

• Lower customer acquisition costs. Referrals and word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied customers can lower your customer acquisition costs, which average around $68 per new customer through paid channels for ecommerce companies.

5 stages of the CRM process

1. Brand awareness
2. Lead acquisition
3. Conversion
4. Customer support
5. Upsells and referrals

Here’s a closer stage-by-stage look at the customer relationship management process:

1. Brand awareness

The first customer journey stage—the top of the sales funnel—is when a customer discovers your company. According to a GWI study of brand discovery habits among different generations, the most popular ways consumers of all ages find new brands are through search, TV ads, word-of-mouth recommendations, and social media ads.

Start this cycle with marketing campaigns—organic search engine optimization (SEO), search ads, or social media campaigns—that generate brand awareness. 

Say you sell men’s skin care products. Your marketing team can build brand awareness with targeted Google ads that bump your brand to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for terms like “aftershave” or “organic beard oil.” Additionally, organic SEO efforts, like creating blog posts and other content focused on terms potential customers are searching for, can be an effective long-term strategy for building credibility and converting customers.

Measure brand awareness through metrics like referral traffic, social media engagement, and search volume. CRM software automatically gathers and tracks customer data throughout the sales funnel, removing the need for manual data entry and letting you view how well you’re attracting potential customers.

2. Lead acquisition

The next step in the CRM process focuses on the initial contact—turning someone who views your ad or content into a lead. This could mean enticing someone on your website to click a call-to-action (CTA) button to browse your latest product launch or encourage someone to follow your Instagram page.

A CRM strategy and platform help convert casual viewers into potential customers by unifying data across teams. Marketing and sales teams work together to move leads down the funnel: Your marketing team can create content meant to address customer pain points, while your sales team uses CRM solutions to gather, segment, and act on the resulting customer data.

For example, ecommerce platforms like Shopify let you segment customers by demographics (such as age and gender) or behavior (like website activity). Segmentation helps identify prospects who resemble your best customers or live near your store and are likely to respond to targeted messaging. You can then focus on leads who haven’t converted but show clear interest based on real engagement data.

Your CRM platform also serves as a contact management system, tracking interactions across the entire customer life cycle and scoring leads based on projected value. For example, someone who subscribes to your newsletter might have a higher customer lifetime value (CLV) than someone who clicks on an Instagram ad for a high-ticket product.

3. Conversion

While the lead acquisition stage focuses on identifying people who would be most interested in buying (but haven’t done so), the conversion stage is where you turn those prospects into customers. 

This stage of the sales process is where personalized messaging becomes more effective. While generic ads and content help with brand awareness, tailoring messaging based on relevant customer information gives people more of a reason to buy.

For instance, if your health and beauty boutique is looking to increase sales of men’s products, you might create a segment of men aged 25 to 50 living within a certain distance of your store. Based on the ad they clicked or blog post that prompted signup, you’d deliver ads or marketing emails for specific items—like body wash or beard care—showing key benefits or offering discounts.

Marketing automation can streamline this process: With Shopify, you can create ads or emails that address varied customer needs and deliver them automatically to different segments. As new leads enter the CRM process, they see messaging tailored to their preferences, encouraging conversion.

4. Customer support

Focus on the post-purchase customer journey with helpful, consistent communication to maintain and grow your customer base. Your support team plays a key role in strengthening customer relationships and building a customer experience that keeps customers coming back and singing your praises.

According to Salesforce, 88% of consumers say a superior customer experience makes them more likely to become repeat customers. A PwC survey of more than 5,500 consumers found that 29% quit buying from a brand because of a bad customer experience.

The right CRM platform makes customer care easy. For example, if someone messages your skin care company on social media about receiving the wrong product, your support team doesn’t have to ask multiple follow-up questions to understand the issue. Instead, within the CRM tool, alongside the customer’s message, they can find a full timeline of their purchase history. Teams can also view past support interactions, giving you complete context for the relationship. With this information at your fingertips, you can resolve issues quickly and deliver efficient, personalized service.

5. Upsells and referrals

Using your CRM to create a cohesive customer experience can turn shoppers into advocates who talk about your brand on social media and with people in their network—bringing new potential customers to your store. You can also use your CRM software to manage and track referral programs, or sync it with referral tracking tools. Referrals further incentivize your customers to recommend your brand to others, beyond traditional word-of-mouth marketing. 

Using your CRM to understand the customer journey also makes it easier to suggest complementary products. For example, a customer who shopped for beard oil may also be interested in other beard grooming products (wax, balm) and tools (bristle brushes, trimmers).

Shopify offers customer management features like centralized customer profiles with purchase history, contact information, and preferences. You can see what products similar customers have purchased and use channels like social media ads and email to upsell.

How to effectively implement the CRM process

Use these tips to create a CRM process that prioritizes ease of use and building strong customer relationships:

• Find the CRM system that fits your needs and budget. CRM platforms serve businesses of all sizes, with many providers—such as HubSpot or Zoho—offering scaled-down free plans for smaller companies and solopreneurs.

• Unify your data. A CRM system works best when customer data lives in one place—not scattered across different email accounts or in disconnected spreadsheets. 

• Create relevant customer segments. Create segments using your CRM technology to group customers by purchase or behavior—like loyal buyers or cart abandoners—as well as demographics, such as men in their 30s living within 25 miles. Your CRM can reveal customer needs—like requested features or products—so you can add them to relevant segments. Then use tools like Shopify Messaging to personalize outreach and deliver tailored messages to the right audience.

• Monitor customer service KPIs. To improve customer service, keep a close eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) like customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), first contact resolution, and customer effort scores (CES). The better you perform in these areas, the more likely customers will come back—and help you spread brand awareness.