Any remodeler who has dutifully plumbed the depths of current sales and marketing theory has no doubt heard of CRM — which, for the acronym-challenged, stands for customer relationship management — and worried that perhaps he or she is missing the boat by not having something that polysyllabic as part of his business process.

The good news is that he or she probably does have CRM; they just don’t call it that. Before we had CRM, opined one blogger with unexpected insight and clarity, we had rapport.

One of the problems in applying CRM to the remodeling industry is that much of the literature references industries and business models that have different requirements than the average remodeling business. Most writers — if they agree on nothing else — concur that CRM means different things to different people.

Still, at the core of the concept are ideas that remodelers can, should and do incorporate into their business plans. One of the most basic things CRM does in any setting is collect accurate and relevant information about customers. That’s a starting point for managing the customer experience, assessing quality and measuring satisfaction.

One of the things advocates claim CRM will do is develop a “corporate memory” that will help businesses identify, anticipate and address common customer concerns in a consistent and professional manner, which in turn builds customer loyalty and referrals. Most CRM proponents agree that cultivating long-term customer relationships and loyalty is a key goal of any system.

Another key point to remember is that CRM, whatever it is today, most likely had rather humble beginnings as contact-management or lead-generation software with less emphasis on building long-term customer relationships.

A consequence of CRM’s lead-generation roots is the tendency of some remodelers to think that, except for the actual installation, their job is done once they get a customer, says Tim Musch director of business development for Market Sharp, a developer of lead tracking and contact management software.

“So you got a customer. Now what?” he asks. “You choices are two: You can go get another one and forget the one you just got, or in addition to getting another one you can maximize the revenue and profitability of your business by turning every single one of your customers into lifetime customers,” he says.