Stakeholder Relationship Management versus Customer Relationship Management – which one is right for you?

Stakeholders – be they current or potential customers, your workforce, your suppliers, or contacts in the political sphere – all need to be managed. However, managing each requires different levels of service and support.

This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) tools come in. But what exactly are the key differences between them, and which one is right for you and your organisation?

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

CRM can be used to oversee and support the customer, or service user, journey from start to finish. It can do the same for staff, who also enter into contracts where both sides have certain expectations to be managed.

This tool is often used to provide automation and transparency for commercial and service-driven functions. For example, service agreement management, sales pipelines, or connections with financial departments.

CRM will have a specific activity type; even where there are different personnel points in the process, the customer is viewed as one.

Some organisations use CRM to manage their stakeholders, as it provides oversight for each side of the relationship, clear organisation and structure for each part of the external or internal contact’s journey with an organisation. SRM, in comparison, goes deeper…

What is Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM)?

SRM software, in comparison to CRM, is designed to focus on the influence an individual, organisation, or community has on your objectives, and will provide support and customisation for managing the stakeholder relationship from the beginning.

It’s not just for organising your relationships, or tracking them; it’s a communications tool to support relationship management, targeting stakeholders in a variety of ways depending on what is required for each project or campaign. Unlike CRM, it will evolve with your organisation, just as your relationship with stakeholders will grow and change.

Unlike a customer journey that can be tracked from start to finish, your stakeholders’ influence can change depending on the topic, or crisis at hand. The system required for this needs to be able to view stakeholders through a variety of lenses, providing vital intel on the strength of the relationship in different scenarios and objectives.

Stakeholders can wear many different hats, and there is rarely an end goal to these relationships – they have more peaks and troughs than those with customers.

The benefits of SRM: Why CRM isn’t enough for managing stakeholder relationships

The differences between customers and other stakeholders are clear, so why do so many organisations still use CRM software to manage their stakeholder relationships?

Customer Management software can do the basics, but SRM software has the specifics.

The link between a stakeholder’s influence and your objectives makes stakeholder management uniquely useful. It enables a team to analyse forward – an early warning system for potential impacts further down the line.

With the landscape we work in never staying static, the influence of stakeholders wax and wane, creating new opportunities for engagement and a need for flexibility. Why is Stakeholder Relationship Management a better choice than Customer Relationship Management software? It’s as flexible as your stakeholders are.

Want help with creating your own stakeholder strategy? Sign up for our 8 April Vuelio webinar ‘How to build a stakeholder playbook’ featuring speakers from British Transport Police, Local Government Information Unit, Cadent Gas, and JFG Communications. 

You can also find out more about Vuelio’s stakeholder management and engagement solutions here.