Customer Relationship Management

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
*G.JAYALAKSHMI. Ph.D Scholar
INTRODUTION
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a process or methodology used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends. CRM helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers.
In today’s highly competitive business environment, knowing the customers well and effectively interacting with them is a mission-critical exercise. This emphasis on developing and enhancing customer loyalty has evolved over the years and is now called Customer Relationship Management or CRM. The better a business can manage the relationships it has with its customers the more successful it will become. Therefore IT systems that specifically address the problems of dealing with customers on a day-to-day basis are growing in popularity.
The purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable various organizations serve customers better through introducing them to a series of processes and procedures. This is done through implementing a successful CRM strategy through a software package that has been specifically designed to support these business processes and procedures.
TYPES OF CRM
There are several different approaches to CRM, with different software packages focusing on different aspects. In general, Campaign Management and Sales Force Automation form the core of the system (with SFA being the most popular).

Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to “front office" business processes, e.g. to sales, marketing and service staff. Interactions with customers are generally stored in customers' contact histories, and staff can retrieve customer information as necessary. The contact history provides staff members with immediate access to important information on the customer (products owned, prior support calls etc.), eliminating the need to individually obtain this information directly from the customer.
Sales Force Automation (SFA)

Sales Force Automation automates sales force-related activities such as:
? Tracking leads
? Scheduling sales calls or mailings
? Tracking responses
? Generating reports
Analytical CRM

? Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:
? Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns
? Designing and executing campaigns, e.g. customer acquisition, cross-selling, up- selling
? Analyzing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and services (e.g. pricing, product development)
? Management decisions (e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis)
Sales Intelligence CRM
Sales Intelligence CRM is similar to Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct sales tool. Features include alerts sent to sales staff regarding:

? Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities
? Customer drift
? Sales performance
? Customer trends and Customer margins

Campaign Management
Campaign management combines elements of Operational and Analytical CRM. Campaign management functions include:
Target groups formed from the client base according to selected criteria
Sending campaign-related material (e.g. on special offers) to selected recipients using various channels (e.g. e-mail, telephone, post)
Tracking, storing, and analyzing campaign statistics, including tracking responses and analyzing trends

Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM covers aspects of a company's dealings with customers that are handled by various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and marketing. Staff members within the departments can share information collected when interacting with customers. For example, feedback received by customer support agents can provide other staff members with information on the services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company.




Geographic CRM
Geographic CRM (GCRM) combines geographic information system and traditional CRM. Geographic data can be analyzed to provide a snapshot of potential customers in a region or to plan routes for customer visits.
CRM IMPLEMENTATION
CRM implementation differs from organization to organization but there are a few common steps one needs to follow to ensure a successful implementation.
There are many factors that could influence the success of CRM implementation. Some of them are:
Focus on All Business Aspects
In most cases the technology will have less to do with the CRM success. Therefore it is important to focus as much importance on communication training and other aspects as much as the technology involved. It is important to involve management at several levels, focus on communication need and indulge in adequate training of the concerned employees throughout the organization. If these items receive a level of focus comparable to the technical system, CRM implementation stands a better chance of succeeding.
Define the Business Problem
A business needs to clearly define the business problem see what benefits it wants to achieve and adopt the required measures. It is imminently important to clearly identify the business problem that the company needs to resolve. An organization needs to absolutely identify the desired benefits and make sure that the expected returns are generated at every stage. It is important to break down the entire process into smaller pieces that can be individually handled effectively.
Establishing Proper Metrics
Since companies normally wait for a five year period to see a return on investment. Every organization has to compulsorily define performance metrics to ensure that it measures the return on investment adequately.
Business Processes not Technology
In order to succeed at CRM all companies need to understand that it is not about technology alone but about business processes as well. While CRM changes a company's business processes technology supports the processes. Most businesses make the mistake of actually assuming that the CRM is only about technology alone. This hampers business process development.

Implement Change
Most employees tend to stick with their old ways and are reluctant to adapt to changes, It needs to be understood that the implementation of CRM involves immense changes and employees need to adapt themselves to it. From the very beginning of the implementation employees will have to adopt new attitudes to help deliver the customer experience properly to customers. Organizations need to make sure that their employees are provided with sufficient training to ensure that they handle this aspect of the customer experience adequately and efficiently.

Using Skilled Managers
Organizations need to make sure that they use the most highly skilled and experienced group of professionals possible. CRM aspects are complex and what is needed most is a team that has CRM expertise and business knowledge. The team should be adequately trained and sufficiently equipped both intellectually and technologically to carry out the CRM implementation successfully.

Choose the Right Methodology
Decide whether to use the classical or modern methodology bearing in mind that ease of usage, cost effectiveness and efficiency need to be gained. This is an important step in the CRM implementation as it has a bearing on the entire process.



Ease of Usage
The entire objectives of the CRM process are hampered if the CRM choice is difficult to use. It is highly essential to ensure that the system speaks of ease of usage and the ability to be easily customizable. Employees implementing CRM and forming a part of the CRM process range from the mediocre level right to management and to the employee at the very forefront. It is imperative that the business ensure that the CRM software chosen is easy to use and implement not only by a few employees but by everyone using the system. This is a step that needs to be taken at the time of choosing the CRM technology.
CRM FOR LARGE INDUSTRIES
CRM is not just for big players. Large corporates are not the only ones who stand to benefit from CRM implementation in effect it is harder for large corporates as they will undoubtedly encounter more difficulties when compared to smaller ones. Apart from the huge investment involved in the installation itself there are also additional costs. Training of employees, integration of the various departments, phased implementation -all result in tremendous costs for the organization.
CRM helps large corporates in increasing their up selling and cross selling opportunities and enables a company to do it more effectively and efficiently. CRM enables sales staff to deal better with their customers through the bettering of the sales process and ultimately helps them to close sales deals faster. It manages to simplify the marketing and sales processes in an organization.
CRM IN SMALL INDUSTRIES
CRM application tends more to profit small industries than large ones .This occurs because re-engineering the front office is a crucial part of CRM. This part of CRM becomes more difficult as the number of people, departments and businesses involved grow.
Sometimes more money than is required gets put in on account of insufficient CRM knowledge on the part of the entrepreneur. With small industries, since resources are less, optimization of resources should be encouraged. CRM is currently evolving into something it wasn't a few years ago. It has become a strategy that works towards increasing the relationship that the customer has with the organization
The Benefits of CRM to Industries Worldwide are
? Call center efficiency increases
? Marketing campaigns are made easier
? Account information
? Overall revenue increases
? Cost reduction is achieved
? Better customer service is achieved
? Organizations can gain the competitive edge
? Organizations can concentrate more on production
? Constant supply of vital customer data
? Customers receive satisfaction
? Routine tasks are easier to handle
? Marketing and support expenses are reduced
? Sales teams can be effectively monitored
? Teamwork within the organization is achieved
? Communication channels are improved
? Customers have detailed profiles assigned to them
? Employees have access to customer details more easily
? New selling opportunities can be discovered
? Companies are enabled to be aware of customer needs and are able to react to them in the right manner
? CRM achieves an integrated internal business system
? CRM imposes welcome a much needed discipline within an organization
? CRM technology goes a long way in benefiting the organization itself
? Companies have easy access to purchase histories
? Automation of routine tasks becomes possible
? Companies can monitor their performances regularly.

THE LEADERS IN THE FIELD OF CRM INCLUDE
Oracle
Oracle is the leader in the CRM field. The company currently offers 50 CRM applications that are able to provide for all the customer service requirements of small, medium and large industries. Oracle provides CRM applications that aid the organization through improved business processes. In addition to that the functionality it offers is just as important. It manages to provide excellent support for all departments within the organization like customer support, added services and additional
SAP
SAP was established in 1972 and is now a leader in the provision of business solutions for all types of industries. It is a CRM software vendor that caters to businesses worldwide and currently serves more than 32,000 customers. SAP has a presence in more than 50 countries. It is the world's largest business software company. It is the world's third-largest independent software provider overall and employs more than 35,000 people.

They are able to provide excellent customer service and support. It boasts of having the Knowledge, Experience, and Technology that is needed to optimize Business efficiency. It manages to provide a range of solutions that cater to every aspect of the business.
The Benefits from SAP are:
? Better efficiency
? Cost reduction
? Better performance
? Adaptability to business environment
Overall Growth
One advantage SAP has is that SAP Ventures invests in new companies that are interested in finding new technologies. This enables them to stay ahead in the rat race.
SAP offers several solutions for Customer Relationship Management and is able to deliver customer-centric solutions that revolve around each customer. It helps the organization to support the various departments like marketing, sales, and service and provides them with good analytics as well as excellent interaction capabilities.
SAP CRM supports the customer-related processes and deals with all customer-related activities across all departments. It sources and gathers together all customer data in the organization in order to facilitate better decisions. It enables company's address their business needs adequately, manages to achieve the business objectives and reaps the required return on investment.
Some of the well known companies whose CRM implementation has been successful include: Canon (Japan), AMD,Hitachi, Nokia ,Engage,Pepsi Americas, Sovereign Bank, HP
CONCLUSION
Effective CRM results in increased and better customer service from employees of an organization. Another advantage is the internal efficiency that is created within the organization. The flexibility and customization trait of CRM enables a reduction in the total case volume. Observing an excellent response from the organization , the rapport established with them and the interest paid to their suggestions and ideas, boosts customer interest in the organization itself along with the products and services it carries , with the net result being a hike in customer retention and customer loyalty. Thus CRM services are vital to an organization and are considered as a perquisite that needs to be adopted and well developed for betterment of an organization.