CRM (short for Customer Resource Management) has been around for a good 30-odd years as of this writing. It started out small but has taken great strides, especially in recent years, where technological advances have really made it more effective.
IT
This should come as no surprise at all, as IT by its very nature is going to be an early adopter of anything and everything that comes its way that could be of any use whatsoever.
CRM is particularly useful for IT because of the often complex nature of the relationship between providers and their customers. It helps cut through all the layers and make sense of everything.
Real Estate
Real estate is one of those frequently overlooked industries that can stand to benefit massively from CRM tools. Companies like rethinkcrm.com have developed extensive and flexible solutions bases specifically on the real estate industry.
Real estate is a very complicated business. Whether you are an independent real estate agent or work for a huge company, you should be using CRM; it will simplify your life immensely and allow you to focus more on growing your business instead of just maintaining it.
Retail
This one is also not so much of a surprise. Although the nature of the business is less complex than the other two industries listed above, the need for proper marketing and promotion is more key than ever in this industry, and competition is increasing. Proper CRM tools are seen as a method of getting an edge over your competitors and being more efficient and reaching and converting them.
Charitable Organizations/Non-Profits
This also may come as a surprise to some, but these organizations benefit immensely from CRM tools. Properly soliciting donations from potential donors is more of an art than anything else, and takes a lot of finesse. But this finesse is greatly aided by having accurate data at your fingertips allowing you to design your strategies perfectly.
Hospitality
Probably the industry most married to CRM, the kind of data gathering and tracking a good set of CRM tools allows is a gargantuan boon to any aspect of the hospitality industry, from hotels to amusement parks to bars and restaurants etc. This is one industry we can say has truly been revolutionized from top to bottom thanks to CRM.
In case you want to read up further on the matter, here are a whole bunch of statistics detailing where and how CRM is currently used.
