Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Certificate of Achievement program, students will learn to navigate and customize customer relationship management platforms for business. In addition, there are required courses in customer service/human relations, professional email management, records and information management, advanced spreadsheets, and social media for business.

This certificate can be completed 100% online, if desired.

Program Outcomes

1. Work productively as a team member with people of diverse experiences and backgrounds in a workplace environment.
2. Communicate competently in support of a business office, including production and design of complex electronic and paper-based correspondence and documents. 
3. Use the Internet, a wide variety of current and emerging computer applications and standard business procedures to compute, analyze business performance, and solve problems.

Cabrillo's customer relationship management program is estimated to have 5-10 students completing the certificate program by the second year. As the customer relationship management program gains more recognition, and more CABT students and working professionals join the program, the number of certificate completers should increase to 15-20 by year five.

Cabrillo College is seeking approval from the Chancellor’s Office for the new Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement.

The Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement prepares students for office assistant and management positions, in roles such as customer service representatives and account representatives and managers, and general office clerks and managers that require customer relationship management skills.

Computer Applications and Business Technolog0y (CABT) certificates prepare students for entry-level careers in business and professional workplace settings. The Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement adds intermediate and advanced level skills, needed for office management and trains students in business procedures to solve problems in contemporary business environments. CABT courses are applicable in many career ladders including career technical training and retraining, and career advancement. CABT courses, certificates, and the AS Degree are stepping-stones to a variety of professional careers in business and technology.

According to the San Francisco Bay Center of Excellence (COE), there is a significant under-supply of workers to meet the market needs for the job cluster requiring skills from the customer relationship management certificate. The COE found “there is a large labor market gap in the Bay region with 10,031 annual openings for the Customer Relationship Management occupational cluster and 361 annual (3-year average) awards from community colleges and Other Educational Institutions (OEI) for an annual undersupply of 9,670 students. In the Santa Cruz-Monterey sub-region, there is also a gap with 714 annual openings and 110 annual (3-year average) awards from community colleges and Other Educational Institutions for an annual undersupply of 604 students.” According to Burning Glass Technologies’ recent study, jobs involving Salesforce customer relationship management skills increased by 242% from 2013 to 2018. With our online format, and several of the classes certified with the high standards of the OEI rubric by the end of 2020, we can serve students throughout the Bay region and the state of California.

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Certificate of Achievement clearly supports Cabrillo College’s mission statement:  “to empower students to be effective communicators, critical thinkers, and responsible world citizens.  With a commitment to quality and equity, we connect all learners to pathways that propel them from where they are where they aspire to be, including academic, personal, and career growth.”   Providing academic and future occupational opportunity for students supports Cabrillo College’s Student Equity Plan and College Strategic Plan, Goal number two.  The Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement program will provide all populations in our county with access to much-needed hands-on business skills that can help students gain  entry-level office professional positions or opportunities to upskill and move up in their current workplace, attaining Cabrillo’s goals for Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, to attain “a substantial increase in earnings” and/or the “attainment of a living wage”. According to studies by Broken Glass Technologies, workers with similar jobs, such as customer service representatives and account representatives and managers, see significant salary increases, 8-16%, with the acquisition of Salesforce customer relationship management skills.

The Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement is also a stepping stone to other CABT certificates and the CABT AS Degree academic pathway.

There are seven required courses for this certificate, totatling 16.5 units. Part one of the certificate begins with essential customer service skills, email and records management, database creation, use and customization, and applied skills in customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, such as Salesforce. Part two includes advanced spreadsheets and business interactions via social media, including customer outreach and communication. Part two delves deeper into customer relationship management platform, so students can gain administrative competence and apply problem-solving and critical thinking to scenarios of customer relationship system management.

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
CABT105	Information and Records Management	3.00	Y1
CABT108	Social Media for Business	3.50	Y1
CABT44	Advanced Spreadsheets	2.00	Y1
CABT160	Outlook and Internet	2.00	Y1
CABT171	CRM Technology	2.00	Y1
CABT172	CRM Technology 2	2.00	Y1
CABT109	Customer Service and Human Relations	2.00	Y1

The Customer Relationship Management Certificate of Achievement is an advanced certificate in the CABT program, serving as a certificate that students completing CABT AS Degrees will complete prior to graduation. It also serves as a reskilling certificate for those already in the workplace or returning to gain more skills

There do not appear to be any colleges in our area with similar programs, however, the California Community College Foundation, ICTDM Sector is currently encouraging colleges around the Bay Area to create similar programs.