HR assignment essay online on: Customer relationship management : Steps & Benefits
Q?? Write an article on customer relationship management ???
Solution the essay writes is:
Introduction
The following article includes the discussion about the term Customer Relationship Management. CRM is an can be said to be as the application that enables organizations to interact with customers, clients and sales prospects with use of technology to synchronize business processes. The article explains about how Customer Relationship Management works in B2B i.e. Business to Business and B2C i.e. Business to Customer environment. Benefits of Customer Relationship Management to small and medium sized enterprises are part of discussion here. The article states how key Customer Relationship Management concept manages to achieve a competitive advantage. The discussion includes steps needed to implement a Customer Relationship Management program. It also explains role of Customer Relationship Management software in managing customer relationships. The article while discussing all the above mentioned points also include recommendation of appropriate customer relationship strategy in accordance to product quality and characteristic of market followed by a conclusion of overall discussion.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management is company’s concept or strategy designed to strengthen relation with customers while reducing the cost and increased profitability. CRM i.e. Customer Relationship Management provides complete data of every customer collected from all data sources within the organization. It is a centralized atomistic real time vision of customer information containing collection of all data sources in an organization. Customer Relationship Management can be implemented in both small and large enterprise. CRM being so vast and significant is used to assist customers with their needs and demands as and when required efficiently (Goldenberg, 2002).
In an organization usually many departments have access to customer’s information directly or indirectly depending on the use of individual department. Customer Relationship Management makes the information available within all the departments by piling up centrally. The overall goals of Customer Relationship Management are to retain and nurture the existing customers while attracting new ones, at the same period keeping the costs for marketing and client service low. Customer Relationship Management provides a well defined platform for building long term relationship with clients while meeting all their demands effectively (Peel, 2002).
Customer Relationship Management in B2B and B2C environment
Customer Relationship Management in a Business to Business (B2B) environment consists of all major portals namely Product Information Management Portal (PIM), Business Portal (BP), Marketing Portal (MP), and Internet Portal (IP). Product Information Management Portal (PIM) contains all information related to marketing and sales of products and services. Business Portals (BP) which can be accessed by buyers, representatives, dealers, agents, importers and other partners provide support to sales department. Communication with external marketing agencies is done through Marketing Portal (MP). While Internet Portal (IP) is for public information and all these portals would be in integration with Customer Relationship Management (Goldenberg, 2008).
Customer Relationship Management in a Business to Customer (B2C) environment is based on the belief that loyal customers are more profitable than non loyal customers and the best way to make customers loyal is by developing relationship with them. Customer Relationship Management in a Business to Customer environment becomes paradoxical as in trying to form relationship with customer while making profit out of goods and services sold to them.
Benefits of CRM to small and medium sized enterprises
In today’s competitive world winning new customer would cost four times as retaining existing ones. For doing this small and medium sized enterprises would require a solution which can be tailored to their needs. Standard solutions are available for different companies depending on their size. Small and medium sized enterprises should take advantage of Customer Relationship Management in order to build long period relationship with clients and to meet all their needs and demands effectively. Deploying a Customer Relationship Management can result in streamlining of business for small and medium sized enterprises with high user acceptance (Blokdijk, 2008).
Small and medium sized enterprises are increasingly recognizing the value of Customer Relationship Management as customer data cannot be made available at the right time when required for analysis and can be lost easily if stored in files, spreadsheets or email programs thus putting business in risk. The fundamental problem of Small and medium sized enterprises is their inability to measure and store profit, revenue and satisfaction per customer. Due to lack of sufficient information stored about customer they are unable to consider customer satisfaction and customer requirements. Thus Customer Relationship Management is a good option for Small and medium sized enterprises to provide better customer service, increase profitability, fight globalization and competition (Lombardo, 2003).
Focus is the key factor for successful implementation of Customer Relationship Management. Small and medium sized enterprises must invest resources on process, technology and people issues all at the same time in order to focus on business alignment. The interest in Customer Relationship Management can be built and maintained by small and medium sized organizations or enterprises so that they can roll out the three pronged approach to specific areas of business. After gaining a consistent view of customer details the process of Customer Relationship Management can then be extended throughout the business (Berndt & Brink, 2004).
How key customer relationship management concepts manage to achieve a competitive advantage
Customer Relationship Management concept manages to achieve a competitive advantage by acquiring, retaining and partnering with customers creating superior value for the company and associates. Customer Relationship Management serves as an infrastructure that enables building, developing and nurturing bonding with the customer thus increase in value of customer by motivating them to be loyal. CRM has various key factors which help in achieving a competitive advantage, few of which are Quality, Value, Customer Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty which are explained below (Brink & Berndt, 2009).
Quality
Customer Relationship Management provides quality services to the customers as per their needs or demands as and when required while creating good and healthy relation with the customer leading to higher satisfaction level. Customer Relationship Management manages the relationship between a company and its customers thus serving as a key to success. It is always easier to retain an existing customer than making new ones. By providing quality services to the customers using Customer Relationship Management a company while retaining the old ones can also attract new ones by keeping the cost of client servicing low thus adding to the profitability of company.
Value
Customer Relationship Management is about managing relationships with customers in order to maximize value creation for company and the customer. Identifying, satisfying and retaining the company’s best customers are the objectives of CRM. Customer Relationship Management works as an infrastructure that enables increase in value of customer by motivating them to be loyal. The value creation of customers can be seen as the main source of competitive advantage. This process consists of three elements. First is determining what value the company can provide to its customers, secondly determining what value the company receives from its customers and lastly managing the values exchanged successfully.
Trust and Loyalty
Trust and loyalty of a customer depends on the extent to which a company initiates, develop, maintain and improves relationship with its customers. Customer Relationship Management concept involves managing of detailed information of customers by managing their touch points to maximize customer trust and loyalty. It is building and developing relationship with clients and customers by the way of delivering superior value and satisfaction. Building and sustaining relationship with a customer would make him/ her loyal which ultimately would lead to repeat purchase of product or services. Satisfied customers are prone to be loyal customers, sharing larger share of business. And Customer Relationship Management by providing best services at desired time increases the number of satisfied customers for a company (Brink & Berndt, 2009).
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is the key building block for managing and developing relationship with customers. A satisfied customer comes again to buy and through mouth publicity of their good experiences gets more new customers, while a dissatisfied customer may switch to competitors while giving bad name to the product and company. Satisfied customers provide a revenue stream to the company thus enabling them to make profit. In order to retain such customers and attract new ones companies need to develop policies and measures. This can be achieved through Customer Relationship Management whose task is to develop strong consumer base for the company.
Steps needed to implement a CRM program
Every company in order to nurture its stability in today’s growing market emphasizes on building long term relationship with customers. For this Customer Relationship Management may be required. Customer Relationship Management is not just about technology but about people and processes involved. The steps needed to implement a Customer Relationship Management program are to Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. Before implementing a Customer Relationship Management program it is advisable to hire a consultant who is trained on Customer Relationship Management solution so that implementation can be done effectively (Stone & Foss, 2001).
The first step i.e. designing includes determining the goals and scope of Customer Relationship Management project. This would include all major tasks like installing model office, installing and configuration of Customer Relationship Management software, customizing Customer Relationship Management software, building production environment, designing and building interface to other applications, designing and building custom reports and lastly training end users.
Developing would include configuring and customization of Customer Relationship Management system. Every CRM system requires some configuration. This includes the settings which are handled within the CRM system. Configuration includes security settings, identifying system defaults and changing configurable business rules.
Customizations are activities that write or changes code. Customer Relationship Management system if implemented without customization would cost relatively less. It is the Customization part that requires great deal of money. It should be planned carefully in order to get maximum value out of reasonable investment (Peppers & Rogers, 2010).
Implementation would be divided in two parts i.e. finalizing network configuration and finalizing application configuration. Finalizing network configuration includes installing of application to the deployment server. Servers now need to be moved in chosen domain if previously placed in special domain. While finalizing application configuration the multiple applications which would have been tried earlier need to be applied to the deployment installation. Training is one of the key activities for getting success in implementation. Everyone who uses the software would have to undergo training.
The last step is to evaluate the implementation of Customer Relationship Management system. It is reviewing of the entire project by reinforcing good processes and stopping that didn’t work. Over the time the Customer Relationship Management system will continue to change and mould as per the requirements of business. Customer Relationship Management system is primarily about the people and processes not technology. Now when technology is there in place it will improve customer satisfaction and loyalty with increased revenue (Corbae, Jensen & Schneider, 2003).
Role of CRM software in managing customer relationships
Customer Relationship Management system is the strongest and efficient way of maintaining relationship with customers. With this software it becomes easier for an organization to know the needs of a customer and fulfilling them in a better way. CRM helps to provide superior services to customers thus enhancing customer experiences. It helps companies in streamlining the business processes. Just by using one integrated customer information service and approach a business can provide support to sales and marketing and customer service. This software takes business to new heights of success (Goldenberg, 2002).
Customer Relationship Management system helps organization in improving revenue rate per customer. CRM software also decreases the cost of generating leads. Whatever the industry may be Customer Relationship Management system provides company with a strategic advantage. With it business growth and customer retention go hand in hand. Customer Relationship Management system also provides with more loyal customers while lowering the costs. CRM system contains every minute detail of customer thus making it easy to segregate which customer can be profitable and which not. The details of customers are stored in different groups as in according to the physical location or the type of business they do making it easy for the account manager to concentrate on every customer separately.
Customer Relationship Management system not only deals with existing customers but also helps in attracting new ones. The process starts with identifying of customer and then maintaining all necessary information in CRM system. The information would then be taken care by sales representatives who will follow up with these customers and try getting business from them. Apart from efficiently performing all the above functions the key aspect of Customer Relationship Management system is being cost effective. With the implementation of CRM system the entire work becomes well managed. It reduces manual paper work which reduces the requirement of staff. Customer Relationship Management system reduces the process time and increases productivity as all the information is kept centralized which is easily available on fingertips. The CRM system because of its efficiency increases the chances of getting more business leading to increased turnover and profit (Goldenberg, 2002). It efficiently deals with customers by providing them what they need making more loyal and satisfied customers. These loyal customers will be associated with business forever ultimately increasing in customer base and net growth of business. Hence Customer Relationship Management system installed in a company can certainly help to cope up with challenges of new marketing and business.
Recommending appropriate customer relationship strategies
From the above analysis several appropriate strategies can be recommended and this are highly based on the product qualities and market characteristics of the small and medium sized enterprises. There are several customers’ relationship strategies which mainly include:
Frequent and regular communication:
This is one of the best customer relationship strategies which can be recommended in order to attain competitive advantage. It is vital for the organizations to communicate with the customers with respect to different aspects and also communicate with them using varying types of messages. The frequency of communication depends on the type of product and service the company is offering (Corbae, Jensen & Schneider, 2003).
Offering customers with gifts and rewards:
This is also the strategy which can be recommended to the small and medium sized organizations. Customer’s loyalty and reward programs are highly helpful for the B2B and B2C businesses. The rewards make the most loyal clients to perform more and get rewards.
Organizing special events:
Organizations must also sponsor several events which also keep the customers activated towards the organization. Events help the organizations to interact with the company best customers in an indirect manner and provide the company a chance to bring their attention towards the company (Corbae, Jensen & Schneider, 2003).
Two way communication:
Customer relationship or management also includes the listening from the customers apart from just telling them. This is also one of the best customer’s relationship strategies that can be recommended. Asking for clients feedback related to the product and services helps the company or organization to improve their product and service.
Enhancement of the customer’s service:
It can also be recommended that the organizations must increase their customer’s service as this will help them to add value to their offerings and stand out of the competition, as certain times customers looks at the products and services based on the perceived customers experience.
Multicultural programs:
It can also be recommended to the small and medium sized enterprises in the B2B and B2C market that they must add a Multilanguage component to their service in any form. The company can either offer Multilanguage websites of broachers to the customers for increasing their ease of understanding about the company offerings (Corbae, Jensen & Schneider, 2003).
Thus from the above explained point it can be recommended that the companies in the small and medium sized segment of the B2B and B2C customers must try to adopt the above said strategies in order to increase the customers level and gain competitive advantage in the market place.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that Customer Relationship Management is a key component for streamlining of business and managing customer data for building long term relationships with them. It is an information management system that integrates pre sales and post sales activities of business like planning, scheduling and controlling. In Customer Relationship Management system technology is combined with strategies of business in order to maintain customer’s relationship and to support and develop business. CRM is important for all types of companies whether small or medium sized enterprise. It is the role of Customer Relationship Management software to manage current customer’s information and organizing new so that the sales representative can contact and convert the lead. CRM is applicable in both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) environment. The article includes discussion about customer relationship management concepts and how it manages to achieve a competitive advantage by providing quality, value, trust, loyalty and satisfaction to customers. Steps for implementing a Customer Relationship Management program are also described in the article. Thus Customer Relationship Management can change company for the good and lead it along the way to success.
If you want HR management Assignment Help study samples to help you write professional custom essay’s and essay writing help.
Receive assured help from our talented and expert writers! Did you buy assignment and assignment writing services from our experts in a very affordable price.
To get more information, please contact us or visit www.myassignmenthelp.Com
