| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Marketing |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | Head of Digital Marketing |
| Direct reports | CRM Executive, Email Marketing Executive, Marketing Automation Specialist |
| Experience | 6 to 9 years in CRM, retention or lifecycle marketing, including 2 years managing a team |
CRM Manager job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: CRM Manager
Department: Marketing
Reports to: Head of Digital Marketing
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A CRM Manager owns the company's relationship with existing customers through data. They build segments from the customer database, run lifecycle campaigns on email, SMS, WhatsApp and app notifications, manage the loyalty program, and prove that this work raises repeat purchases and retention. The role is common in retail chains, D2C and e-commerce brands, banks, insurers, hospitals and hotels. A good CRM manager keeps the database clean, the messages relevant and the unsubscribe rate low.
Key responsibilities
- Build and maintain customer segments by purchase history, value, recency and lifecycle stage from the CRM or customer data platform.
- Plan the monthly CRM calendar for email, SMS, WhatsApp and push campaigns, with a clear goal and a control group for each.
- Design lifecycle journeys such as welcome, first repeat purchase, birthday, win-back and renewal reminders, and keep them running.
- Run the loyalty program, including points rules, tiers and partner offers, and share the points liability report with finance.
- Make sure every SMS and WhatsApp template is registered and approved on the relevant platform, and that opt-outs are honoured quickly.
- Measure incremental revenue from CRM campaigns against control groups, and report repeat rate and retention every month.
- Keep the customer database clean by removing duplicates, fixing invalid numbers and emails, and merging store and online records.
- Work with store, sales and service teams so that customer details and consent are captured correctly at every touchpoint.
- Manage CRM and messaging vendors, including cost per message, delivery rates and service issues.
- Lead the CRM executives and automation specialists, and review their campaigns and journeys before release.
Requirements
- MBA in Marketing, or a graduate degree in business, statistics or engineering
- Hands-on experience with a CRM or marketing automation platform
- A certification in CRM or lifecycle marketing is an advantage
- 6 to 9 years in CRM, retention or lifecycle marketing, including 2 years managing a team
KRAs and KPIs for a CRM Manager
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Repeat purchase | Repeat purchase rate within 90 days of first purchase at or above the quarterly target |
| CRM revenue | Incremental revenue from CRM campaigns, measured against control groups, at or above plan each month |
| Database health | At least 85 percent of active customer records with a valid, consented phone number or email |
| Loyalty engagement | Loyalty members earning or redeeming points each quarter at or above target |
| Unsubscribes and complaints | Unsubscribe rate per campaign below the agreed limit, with no spam complaint left unresolved |
| Journey health | All live lifecycle journeys checked weekly, and any broken journey fixed within 2 working days |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Salesforce, Zoho CRM or Capillary, MoEngage, CleverTap or Netcore, WhatsApp Business API platform, SQL, Power BI or Looker Studio, MS Excel.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Head of Digital Marketing, Head of Growth, Chief Customer Officer
Interview questions for a CRM Manager
- How would you prove that a CRM campaign drove sales that would not have happened anyway?
- Our repeat rate after the first purchase is low. Which journeys would you build first?
- How do you decide how many messages a customer should receive in a week?
- Store staff capture wrong phone numbers at billing. How would you fix the data at the source?
- How do you calculate and report the liability of unredeemed loyalty points?
- Tell me about a segment you discovered in the data that changed your campaign plan.
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What does a CRM manager do in marketing?
A CRM manager uses customer data to keep existing customers buying. They build segments, run email, SMS, WhatsApp and app campaigns, manage lifecycle journeys and the loyalty program, keep the database clean and consented, and measure how much extra revenue CRM brings compared with control groups.
What is the difference between a CRM manager and a CRM executive?
A CRM executive builds and sends campaigns, uploads lists and prepares reports under an agreed plan. The CRM manager decides that plan and the segments, designs journeys and the loyalty program, sets testing rules, manages vendors and answers for repeat rate and CRM revenue.
Is CRM a sales role or a marketing role?
In marketing, CRM means customer relationship marketing: using data to retain customers and raise repeat purchases, so the CRM manager usually sits in marketing or digital. The same letters also name the CRM software used by sales teams, which is why the title sometimes confuses candidates.