Done by,

JASMINE RAICHEL.U

I yr, MA.HRM

MSSW

Customer relationship management (CRM)

 What is CRM (customer relationship management)?

CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for

methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an
enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an
enterprise might build a database about its customers that described
relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people
providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information,
match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of
service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and
so forth.

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.

Key concepts of CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term given to the process of
managing your relationship with your customers...better.

It covers:

• Managing Leads
• Qualifying and Converting Leads
• Managing Opportunities
• Keeping track of Activities
• Management Reporting and Forecasting
• Summary of the Benefits.

HISTORY OF CRM
 In the beginning there was PIM, or Personal Information Manager - a limited use, all
purpose electronic diary with basic database functionality, that you could use to start
organizing your names and addresses, and time, amongst other things. These PIM's are
good personal productivity tools, but they tend to fall over when applied in a business
environment with a more demanding requirement.

The PIM slowly morphed into the CMS, or Contact Management System, as a result of its
increasing take on by people in sales and marketing, incorporating a more specific set of
requirements to help them scale the coalface. Contact Managers are fantastic, flexible
productivity tools for most anybody or organization. They are also more robust, with
improved industrial strength database engines, that are better able to manage larger volumes
of data.

Contact Management software became SFA, as in Sales Force Automation systems, what
now forms the cornerstone of modern CRM applications. CRM is short for Customer
Relationship Management, which is the industry term for the set of methodologies and
tools that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those magnificent concepts that swept
the business world in the 1990’s with the promise of forever changing the way businesses
small and large interacted with their customer bases. In the short term, however, it proved to
be an unwieldy process that was better in theory than in practice for a variety of reasons. First
among these was that it was simply so difficult and expensive to track and keep the high
volume of records needed accurately and constantly update them.

In the last several years, however, newer software systems and advanced tracking features
have vastly improved CRM capabilities and the real promise of CRM is becoming a reality.
As the price of newer, more customizable Internet solutions have hit the marketplace;
competition has driven the prices down so that even relatively small businesses are reaping
the benefits of some custom CRM programs.

Challenges faced during CRM

Tools and workflows can be complex, especially for large businesses. Previously these
tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording
interactions and communications. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal
tracking, territories, opportunities, and at the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent
of tools for other client-interface business functions, as described below. These tools
have been, and still are, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and
run on their own IT infrastructure.
Often, implementations are fragmented—isolated initiatives by individual departments to
address their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: siloed
thinking and decision processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems,
and dysfunctional processes.

CRM CHART

Types/variations
 Sales force automation
Sales force automation (SFA) involves using software to streamline all phases of the
sales process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each
phase. This allows sales representatives to pursue more clients in a shorter amount of
time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management
system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective
client, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include
insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and workflow automation, quote
generation, and product knowledge. Modules for Web 2.0 e-commerce and pricing are
new, emerging interests in SFA.
Marketing
CRM systems for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and
generate leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability is tracking and measuring
multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, telephone and direct
mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue. This has
been superseded by marketing automation and Prospect Relationship Management
(PRM) solutions which track customer behavior and nurture them from first contact to
sale, often cutting out the active sales process altogether.
Customer service and support
Recognizing that service is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers,
organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them improve their clients’
experience while aiming to increase efficiency and minimize costs. Even so, a 2009
study revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe their employees have the
right tools and authority to solve client problems.“.e core for these applications has been
and still is comprehensive call center solutions, including such features as intelligent call
routing, computer telephone integration (CTI), and escalation capabilities.
Analytics
Relevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales,
marketing, and service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links
to separate, purpose-built applications for analytics and business intelligence. Sales
analytics let companies monitor and understand client actions and preferences, through
sales forecasting and data quality.
Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve
segmentation and targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online,
offline, and search marketing campaign. Web analytics have evolved significantly from
their starting point of merely tracking mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating “buy
signals,” marketers can see which prospects are most likely to transact and also identify
 those who are bogged down in a sales process and need assistance. Marketing and
finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-faceted programs as a
whole.
These types of analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater
visibility into the performance of call centers and other service and support channels, in
order to correct problems before they affect satisfaction levels. Support-focused
applications typically include dashboards similar to those for sales, plus capabilities to
measure and analyze response times, service quality, agent performance, and the
frequency of various issues.

Integrated/Collaborative

Departments within enterprises — especially large enterprises — tend to function with

little collaboration. More recently, the development and adoption of these tools and
services have fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, service, and
marketing. This finds expression in the concept of collaborative systems which uses
technology to build bridges between departments. For example, feedback from a
technical support center can enlighten marketers about specific services and product
features clients are asking for. Reps, in their turn, want to be able to pursue these
opportunities without the burden of re-entering records and contact data into a separate
SFA system. Owing to these factors, many of the top-rated and most popular products
come as integrated suites.

Small business

For small business, basic client service can be accomplished by a contact manager
system: an integrated solution that lets organizations and individuals efficiently track
and record interactions, including emails, documents, jobs, faxes, scheduling, and
more. These tools usually focus on accounts rather than on individual contacts. They
also generally include opportunity insight for tracking sales pipelines plus added
functionality for marketing and service. As with larger enterprises, small businesses are
finding value in online solutions, especially for mobile and telecommuting workers.
 Social media

Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Face book are amplifying the voice of
people in the marketplace and are having profound and far-reaching effects on the ways
in which people buy. Customers can now research companies online and then ask for
recommendations through social media channels, making their buying decision without
contacting the company.
People also use social media to share opinions and experiences on companies,
products and services. As social media is not as widely moderated or censored as
mainstream media, individuals can say anything they want about a company or brand,
positive or negative.
Increasingly, companies are looking to gain access to these conversations and take part
in the dialogue. More than a few systems are now integrating to social networking sites.
Social media promoters cite a number of business advantages, such as using online
communities as a source of high-quality leads and a vehicle for crowd
sourcing solutions to client-support problems. Companies can also leverage client
stated habits and preferences to personalize and even "hyper-target" their sales and
marketing communications.
Some analysts take the view that business-to-business marketers should proceed
cautiously when weaving social media into their business processes. These observers
recommend careful market research to determine if and where the phenomenon can
provide measurable benefits for client interactions, sales and support. It is stated[that
people feel their interactions are peer-to-peer between them and their contacts, and
resent company involvement, sometimes responding with negatives about that
company.

Non-profit and membership-based

Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents and
their involvement in the organization. Capabilities typically include tracking the following:
fund-raising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering
and communications with individuals.
Many include tools for identifying potential donors based on previous donations and
participation. In light of the growth of social networking tools, there may be some
overlap between social/community driven tools and non-profit/membership tools.
 Strategy To be followed
For larger-scale enterprises, a complete and detailed plan is required to obtain the
funding, resources, and company-wide support that can make the initiative of choosing
and implementing a system successful. Benefits must be defined, risks assessed, and
cost quantified in three general areas:

Processes: Though these systems have many technological components, business

processes lie at its core. It can be seen as a more client-centric way of doing
business, enabled by technology that consolidates and intelligently distributes
pertinent information about clients, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness,
and market trends. Therefore, a company must analyze its business workflows and
processes before choosing a technology platform; some will likely need re-
engineering to better serve the overall goal of winning and satisfying clients.
Moreover, planners need to determine the types of client information that are most
relevant, and how best to employ them.

People: For an initiative to be effective, an organization must convince its staff that
the new technology and workflows will benefit employees as well as clients. Senior
executives need to be strong and visible advocates who can clearly state and
support the case for change. Collaboration, teamwork, and two-way communication
should be encouraged across hierarchical boundaries, especially with respect to
process improvement.

Technology: In evaluating technology, key factors include alignment with the

company’s business process strategy and goals, including the ability to deliver the
right data to the right employees and sufficient ease of adoption and use. Platform
selection is best undertaken by a carefully chosen group of executives who
understand the business processes to be automated as well as the software issues.
Depending upon the size of the company and the breadth of data, choosing an
application can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.

Implementation issues
 Increases in revenue, higher rates of client satisfaction, and significant savings in
operating costs are some of the benefits to an enterprise. Proponents emphasize that
technology should be implemented only in the context of careful strategic and
operational planning. Implementations almost invariably fall short when one or more
facets of this prescription are ignored:

Poor planning: Initiatives can easily fail when efforts are limited to choosing and
deploying software, without an accompanying rationale, context, and support for the
workforce. In other instances, enterprises simply automate flawed client-facing
processes rather than redesign them according to best practices.

Poor integration: For many companies, integrations are piecemeal initiatives that
address a glaring need: improving a particular client-facing process or two or
automating a favored sales or client support channel. Such “point solutions” offer
little or no integration or alignment with a company’s overall strategy. They offer a
less than complete client view and often lead to unsatisfactory user experiences.

Toward a solution: overcoming soloed thinking. Experts advise organizations to

recognize the immense value of integrating their client-facing operations. In this
view, internally-focused, department-centric views should be discarded in favor of
reorienting processes toward information-sharing across marketing, sales, and
service. For example, sales representatives need to know about current issues and
relevant marketing promotions before attempting to cross-sell to a specific client.
Marketing staff should be able to leverage client information from sales and service
to better target campaigns and offers. And support agents require quick and
complete access to a client’s sales and service history.

Adoption issues
Historically, the landscape is littered with instances of low adoption rates. In 2003, a Gartner
report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that was not being used.
More recent research indicates that the problem, while perhaps less severe, is a long way from
being solved. According to CSO Insights, less than 40 percent of 1,275 participating companies
had end-user adoption rates above 90 percent.
In a 2007 survey from the U.K., four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest
challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they had installed. Further, 43 percent of
respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system; 72 percent
indicated they would trade functionality for ease of use; 51 percent cited data synchronization as
a major issue; and 67 percent said that finding time to evaluate systems was a major problem.
With expenditures expected to exceed $11 billion in 2010, enterprises need to address and
overcome persistent adoption challenges. Specialists offer these recommendations for boosting
adoptions rates and coaxing users to blend these tools into their daily workflow:

• Choose a system that is easy to use:

All solutions are not created equal. Some vendors offer more user-friendly
applications than others, and simplicity should be as important a decision
factor as functionality.

• Choose the right capabilities:

Employees need to know that time invested in learning and usage will yield
personal advantages. If not, they will work around or ignore the system.

• Provide training:

Changing the way people work is no small task, and help is usually a
requirement. Even with today’s more usable systems, many staffers still need
assistance with learning and adoption

• Lead by example:

Showing employees that upper management fully supports the use of a new
application by using the application themselves may increase the likelihood
that employees will adopt the application

CRM in Organisation
CRM & Executive Management
Managing the customer relationship enables a business to identify the right customers, target them with
the right offers at the right time, and deliver that information using the right channel; for instance, via an
email campaign, direct mail, phone calls, trade shows, etc. CRM software enables a business to retain
valuable information and then use that information to increase sales, handle specific customer service
issues, and create databases of information that reflect the specific consumer traits of its public.

Customer Relationship Management requires a central enterprise-wide database that is used by all
members of the organization. The first relationship generally occurs during the sales and marketing cycle
when the "customer" is first a "prospect". During the sales process, all information gathered about the
prospect site and their personnel is recorded in the CRM database. Once the prospect becomes a
 customer, sales generally retains the relationship with the customer. In addition, customer support,
professional services, development, and management play important roles in providing service and
maintaining a good relationship with the customer.

Every conversation, visit, or correspondence with a customer should be recorded in this database. You
need to track the individuals at your customer, the products which the customer has purchased, what has
been shipped to the customer, maintenance contracts or service level agreements as well as all work or
support provided to your customer.

According to one industry view, CRM consists of:

Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target

their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for
the sales team.
Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management
by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing
processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim
of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most
profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their
customers, understand and identify customer needs and effectively build
relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.

Managing Leads
Consider the various ways new customers interact with your business:
These are broad categories, but your first contact with a customer, will likely be through one of these methods.
Further more, the contact may be initiated by you, or simply by the customer. For example:

• Phone: You may cold-call a prospective list of customers or alternately, you may receive enquiries from
customers who have simply seen your web site or an ad in the yellow pages.
• eMail: You may receive email enquiries or people may reply in repsonse to email based marketing
initiatives such as newsletters.
• Web: You may receive enquiries from a web based "contact us" form. In addition, you may promote your
web site through various marketing initiatives such as Google Adwords

eCRM:
As the internet is becoming more and more important in business life, many
companies consider it as an opportunity to reduce customer-service costs, tighten
customer relationships and most important, further personalize marketing
messages and enable mass customization .Together with the creation of Sales Force
Automation (SFA), where electronic methods were used to gather data and analyze
customer information, the trend of the upcoming Internet can be seen as the
foundation of what we know as eCRM today. We can define eCRM as activities to
manage customer relationships by using the Internet, web browsers or other
electronic touch points. The challenge hereby is to offer communication and
information on the right topic, in the right amount, and at the right time that fits the
customer’s specific needs.
Different levels of eCRM:

In defining the scope of eCRM, three different levels can be distinguished:

• Foundational services:

This includes the minimum necessary services such as web site effectiveness and responsiveness
as well as order fulfillment.

• Customer-centered services:

These services include order tracking, product configuration and customization as well as
security/trust.

• Value-added services:

These are extra services such as online auctions and online training and education.

Self-services are becoming increasingly important in CRM activities. The rise of the Internet and
eCRM has boosted the options for self-service activities. A critical success factor is the
integration of such activities into traditional channels. An example was Ford’s plan to sell cars
directly to customers via its Web Site, which provoked an outcry among its dealers
network.CRM activities are mainly of two different types. Reactive service is where the
customer has a problem and contacts the company. Proactive service is where the manager has
decided not to wait for the customer to contact the firm, but to be aggressive and contact the
customer himself in order to establish a dialogue and solve problems.

Mobile CRM:

One subset of Electronic CRM is Mobile CRM (mCRM). This is defined as “services that aim at
nurturing customer relationships, acquiring or maintaining customers, support marketing, sales
or services processes, and use wireless networks as the medium of delivery to the
customers.However, since communications is the central aspect of customer relations activities,
many opt for the following definition of mCRM: “communication, either one-way or interactive,
which is related to sales, marketing and customer service activities conducted through mobile
medium for the purpose of building and maintaining customer relationships between a company
and its customer(s).
eCRM allows customers to access company services from more and more places, since the
Internet access points are increasing by the day. mCRM however, takes this one step further and
allows customers or managers to access the systems for instance from a mobile phone or PDA
with internet access, resulting in high flexibility. An example of a company that implemented
mCRM is Finnair, who made it possible for their customers to check in for their flights by SMS.
Since mCRM is not able to provide a complete range of customer relationship activities it should
be integrated in the complete CRM system

What Areas Does CRM Cover?

CRM is a multifaceted process, focussing on improvement of internal and

external business processes. CRM implements a set of information
technologies, that focus on creating two-way exchanges with customers so
that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying
patterns. In this way, CRM helps companies understand, as well as
anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers.

CRM encompasses several areas:

Operational CRM: Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes,
including sales,marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a
customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database
when necessary.

CRM and Information Technology

Customer Touch Points are vital since your business has a marketing orientation and focuses
upon the customer and his or her current and future needs. This is the interface between your
organisation and its customers. For example you buy a new car from a dealership, and you enter
a showroom. The dealership is a contact point. You meet with a salesperson whom demonstrates
the car. The salesperson is a contact point. You go home and look at the car manufacturer's
website, and then send the company an e-mail. Both are contact points. Other contact points
include 3G telephone, video conferencing, Interactive TV, telephone, and letters.

Applications are essentially the software and programmes that support the process. Incidentally,
this is what some would call CRM - but we know better. Applications serve Marketing (e.g. data
mining software and permission marketing), Sales (e.g. monitoring Customer Touch Points), and
Service (e.g. customer care).
Data Stores contain data on every aspect of the customer, and the Customer Life Cycle (CLC).
For example, an organisation keeps data on the products you buy, when you buy them, and
where they are sent. Data is also kept on the web pages that you visit and the products that you
consider, but then do not buy. Leads are stored here. Data on the life time value of individual
customers is stored here, as well as details of how and when the customer was recruited, how -
and for how long - individuals have been retained, and details of any products that have been
extended to individuals are also stored. The data is analysed using Applications.

*Data Mining is where an organisation evaluates large Data Stores for patterns, or relationships
between groups or individuals (or segments). Applications present 'patterns' in a format that can
be used for marketing decision-making.

*Permission Marketing is where a customer elects to accept (or 'opt-in' to) marketing material
from an organisation e.g. where you buy insurance and the vendor asks if you wish to receive
further details from them, or similar organisations. It is so called because marketers need your
'permission' to market to you. Permission marketing can occur at any of the Customer Touch
Points.

The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) and CRM

The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) has obvious similarities with the Product Life Cycle (PLC).
However, CLC focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer i.e.
looks at the products or services that customers NEED throughout their lives. It is marketing
orientated rather than product orientated, and embodies the marketing concept. Essentially, CLC
is a summary of the key stages in a customer's relationship with an organisation. The problem
here is that every organisation's product offering is different, which makes it impossible to draw
out a single Life Cycle that is the same for every organisation.
Let's consider an example from the Banking sector. HSBC has a number of products that it aims
at its customers throughout their lifetime relationship with the company. Here we apply a CLC.
You can start young when you want to save money. 11-15 year olds are targeted with the
Livecash Account, and 16-17 year olds with the Right Track Account. Then when (or if) you
begin College or University there are Student Loans, and when you qualify there are Recent
Graduate Accounts.

When you begin work there are many types of current and savings account, and you may wish to
buy property, and so take out a mortgage. You could take out a car loan, to buy a vehicle to get
you to work. It would also be advisable to take out a pension. As you progress through your
career you begin your own family, and save for your own children's education. You embark upon
a number of savings plans and schemes, and ultimately HSBC offer you pension planning (you
may want to insure yourself for funeral expenses - although HSBC may not offer this!).

This is how an organization such as HSBC, which is marketing orientated, can recruit and retain
customers, and then extend additional products and services to them - throughout the individual's
life. This is an example of a Customer Life Cycle (CLC).

Another important point is that a lifetime CLC is made up many shorter CLC's. So, for example,
Volkswagen Cars retains a customer for many years and one can predict the products that meet a
customers needs throughout his or her family lifetime. However the purchase of each car, will in
itself be a CLC with many Customer Touch Points. The consumer may need a bigger vehicle as
his or her family expands - so they visit VW's website and register.

The customer reviews models and books a test-drive with her or his local dealer. He or she
decides to buy the car and arranges finance. The car is then delivered from the factory, and
returns every year for its annual service. Then after three years, the customer decides to trade in
his or her car, and the cycle begins again. The longer-term life cycle is simply the shorter-term
life cycles viewed consecutively.
 Business Strategy and CRM
We now consider the Business Strategy Perspective on CRM. Here, we propose a
model, which is a hybrid, and typical of many of the models and diagrams of CRM
that you will find on the Internet and in popular books on the topic of
eMarketing/eCommerce.

The model has three key phases and three contextual factors:

Three key phases:

• 1. Customer Acquisition.

• 2. Customer Retention.

• 3. Customer Extension.

Three contextual factors:

• 4. Marketing Orientation.

• 5. Value Creation.

• 6. Innovative IT.

1. Customer Acquisition - This is the process of attracting our customer for the first their first purchase.
We have acquired our customer.

Growth - Through market orientation, innovative IT and value creation we aim to increase the number of
customers that purchase from us for the first time.

2. Customer Retention - Our customer returns to us and buys for a second time. We keep them
as a customer. This is most likely to be the purchase of a similar product or service, or the next
level of product or service.

Growth - Through market orientation, innovative IT and value creation we aim to increase the
number of customers that purchase from us regularly.

3. Customer Extension - Our customers are regularly returning to purchase from us. We
introduce products and services to our loyal customers that may not wholly relate to their
original purchase. These are additional, supplementary purchases. Of course once our loyal
customers have purchased them, our goal is to retain them as customers for the extended
products or services.

Growth - Through market orientation, innovative IT and value creation we aim to increase the
number of customers that purchase additional or supplementary products and services.
4. Marketing Orientation - means that the wholes organisation is focused upon the needs of
customers. Customer needs are addressed by the Three Levels of a Product whereby the
organisations not only supplies the actual, tangible product, but also the core product and its
benefit, and also the augmented product such as a warranty and customer service. Marketing
orientation will focus upon the needs of consumers for all three levels of a product. (N.B.
'market' orientation and 'marketing' orientation are not the same).

5. Value Creation - centres on the generation of shareholder value based upon the satisfaction
of customer needs (as with marketing orientation) and the delivery of a sustainable competitive
advantage.

6. Innovative IT - is exactly that - Information Technology must be up-to-date. It should be

efficient, speedy and focus upon the needs of customers. Whilst IT and/or software are not the
entire story for CRM, it is vital to its success. CRM software collects data on consumers and
their transactions. Huge databases store data on individuals and groups of individuals. In some
ways, CRM means that an organisation is dealing with a segment of one person, since every
consumer displays different purchasing habits and preferences. Organisations will track
individuals, and try to market products and services to them based upon similar buyer behaviour
seen in other individuals (e.g. When Amazon tells you that customers that viewed/bought the
same product as you, also bought another product).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Key Business

Process areas
Marketing
CRM aligns marketing processes and drive customer demand using functionality to enhance
management of marketing resources, segments and lists, campaigns, leads, trade promotions, and
marketing analytics.

Sales
CRM enables you to acquire, grow, and retain profitable relationships with functionality for sales
planning and forecasting and the management of territories, accounts, contacts, activities,
opportunities, quotations, orders, product configuration, pricing, billing, and contracts.

Service
CRM can drive service revenue and profitability with support for service sales and marketing.
More effectively manage service orders, contracts, complaints and returns, in-house and depot
repairs, warranties, resource planning, e-service, and service analytics. Functionality to support
call centers, field service, and e-service provides flexible delivery options.

Partner channel management

With CRM you can attain a more profitable and loyal indirect channel by managing partner
relationships and empowering channel partners. Improve processes for partner recruitment and
management, communications, channel marketing and forecasting, collaborative selling, partner
order management, channel service, and analytics for partners and channel managers.

Running an interaction center

Customer interaction centers are places where you meet your customer face to face. With CRM,
you can maximize customer loyalty, cut costs, and boost revenue by transforming your
interaction center into a strategic delivery channel for marketing, sales, and service efforts across
all touch points. Effectively handle activities such as telemarketing, telesales, customer service,
human resources, IT support, and interaction center management.

Web channel enablement

Increase sales and reduce transaction costs by turning the Internet into a valuable sales,
marketing, and service channel for businesses and consumers. Increase profitability and reach
new markets with a fully integrated Web channel, including support for e-marketing, e-
commerce, e-service, and Web channel analytics.

Business communications management

Manage inbound and outbound contacts across multiple locations and channels. Integrate
multichannel communications with customer-facing business processes to provide customers and
partners with seamless, consistent experiences across all channels, including voice, text
messaging, the Web, and e-mail.
Real-time offer management
Turn all customer interactions into opportunities to build customer relationships and generate
revenue. Plan, develop, and execute cross-selling, up-selling, and retention offers; service-level
agreements; and more. Take appropriate subsequent actions to enhance customer relationships
and ensure relevant and personalized customer interactions.

Trade promotion management

CRM will boost a company's brand presence and profits with visibility into and control of all
trade related processes. Increase accounting accuracy of trade and financial results with back-
office integration. Gain key business insights to help you optimize trade activities. Increase your
trade promotion success with analytics and enhanced management of trade funds, promotions,
claims, and retail execution.

Using CRM, a business can:

• Provide better customer service
• Increase customer revenues
• Discover new customers
• Cross sell/Up Sell products more effectively
• Help sales staff close deals faster
• Make call centers more efficient
• Simplify marketing and sales processes

10 ways a CRM system will improve an

organisation…
 1. Improve Organisation Performance and Productivity:
The centralisation of data results in faster customer service, improved data
accuracy and the ability to quickly and easily access and share information to boost your
productivity.

2. Improve Decision Making Through Better Client Knowledge :

Have a sharper competitive edge, enabling you to sell more effectively and attract new
customers.

3. Improve Call-Centre Efficiency and Service:

In a call centre, a CRM system enables employees to quickly and effectively access the client
information to decrease the time of the call. Call Centres can also automatically identify
incoming calls and instantly loads a complete client history ready for the employee.

4. Anytime Information Access:

The web access option gives mobile employees instant access to the centralised data to
support their all their activities to improve their time efficiency while also being more
prepared and knowledgeable when interacting with your clients.

5. Improve Client Profitability:

Have the information to create and sustain individual client relationships and boost client
satisfaction to maximise profits. A CRM system can also help you identify and market to your
most profitable customers. This approach allows you to increase your marketing efficiency while
reducing the cost.

6. Store, Report and Analyse Customer Feedback:

Including quality control and evaluation results, to ensure a prompt reaction to any scenario
that may arise.

7. Professional Quality Controlled Documentation:

When templates and documents are held in one location your organisation improves
and you can easily achieve a consistent brand image.
 8. Better Management Information:
Parameter driven reports, history tables, instant data field creation for the information
you didn't know you needed yesterday.

9. Enhanced Quality Checking:

Including a range of built-in features, such as a the Automatic Version to
check you are working from the latest version and full audits of all actions between your
organisation(s) and your client.

10. Minimise Delays:

CRM systems become the focal point of all client activities within your our
extensive performance optimisation developments and an intuitive interface ensure that users
experience the minimum delay when operating a mission critical operation.

ADVANTAGES
The advantages can be summarized according to the Feature
Marketing

• Make intelligent business decisions with enhanced customer insights

• Increase marketing velocity and speed to market
• Maximize visibility into and control of your entire marketing process
• Drive customer demand
• Increase returns on your marketing investments

Sales

• Grow profitable relationships

• Maintain focus on productive activity
• Eliminate barriers to productivity
• Improve sales efficiency Service
• Transform service into a profitable line of business
• Increase customer loyalty
 • Drive revenue
• Reduce costs of customer service and field service
• Decrease service giveaways

Web channel enablement

• Drive revenue and extend market reach

• Increase customer convenience and satisfaction
• Reduce the cost of sales and support
• Build lasting customer loyalty
• Improve sales and service profitability

Running an interaction center

• Increase customer satisfaction

• Improve credibility with your customers
• Increase revenue and productivity
• Manage the customer interaction life cycle

Partner channel management

• Boost revenue through channel collaboration

• Reduce indirect channel support costs
• Increase partner satisfaction and ease of doing business
• Maximize value to your customers by enabling your partners

The types of data CRM projects collect

• Responses to campaigns
• Shipping and fulfillment dates
• Sales and purchase data
• Account information
• Web registration data
• Service and support records
• Demographic data
• Web sales data

Some CRM Disadvantages

Record Loss
 Some CRM applications use remote Internet connections to save customer records.
Salesforce is a popular CRM application provided through an Internet connection on the
company's domain .The disadvantage of this type of CRM is that the company does not have
control of the data, and if the remote CRM system has an outage, the company is unable to
retrieve records. If the company chooses a small CRM application that is not stable, it can mean
several thousands of dollars in lost revenue. When using a remote CRM application hosted by
another company, use local backups to avoid record loss.

Overhead
 If the company decides on a local CRM application, there are overhead costs associated with
running the software. If the software is proprietary, the company needs to pay software
developers, system administrators and maintenance people to keep the software running. It's also
important to keep backups of the information, which adds an expense to running a personalized
CRM application. There may also be system downtime. Having a local personalized or
proprietary CRM system also requires the owner to do system upgrades and security patches to
ensure the integrity of the system.

Training
 If the company is small, training issues may be a small disadvantage. Large corporations
need to roll out training schedules for all their employees. For large-scale CRMs, this can mean
hiring professionals to train employees in groups. Training takes away time for productivity, so it
is a disadvantage for brand-new CRM systems. The CRM training is also different for managers
compared to regular staff, because most CRMs have specialized functions for managers and
executives. These extra functions are also required learning. The training requirements can be as
short as a few hours or can take up to several days.

CASE STUDY
Polaris Industries
Situation
Five separate teams within Polaris provide support to dealers, internal sales
staff and consumers. Each support team maintained its own call-logging
system, built on legacy technologies. None of the systems were capable of
providing a single, consolidated view of all calls related to a specific
customer, dealer or vehicle, making it difficult to pull together all the
information related to an ongoing case. The cumbersome process was
frustrating for both support representatives and dealers. With support calls
coming in at a rate of more than 1,000 per day, it was imperative to find a
way to address dealer inquiries more efficiently. In addition, the existing
systems lacked reporting and analysis capabilities that would allow Polaris
management to assess the effectiveness of customer service operations.

Solution
Inetium recommended that Polaris implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0
and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 with Windows SharePoint
Services.
Microsoft CRM integrates with the desktop productivity applications Polaris
already was using, including Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook,
making the new application easy for employees to learn. Inetium also
integrated CRM with Polaris' legacy applications, which provide critical
information on order status, materials schematics and component parts.
Using the collaboration features of Windows SharePoint Services and
SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Inetium worked with Polaris developers and
managers to build customized SharePoint sites to help Polaris manage
content and business processes, simplify how staff find and share
information, and enable more informed decisions among managers.
SharePoint dashboards feature easily changeable, custom views of case
records, easy- to-use forms that pre-populate with existing dealer
information and dynamic drop-down menus that only show choices relevant
to that type of case.
A dealer extranet site allows dealers to log their own cases into the Polaris
system, update records, and easily access pertinent information related to
their cases. They can also access detailed information on Polaris services
and products, making it easier for them to serve their Polaris customers.

Benefits
It’s now easy for support representatives to access the information they
need to resolve issues in a timely way. “One hour after implementing
Microsoft CRM, a dealer called to discuss an open case. With one click, the
support representative accessed the records needed to successfully handle
the call,” said Bede Braegelmann, Project Manager for Sales, Service &
Marketing at Polaris.
The intuitive screens in Microsoft CRM made it easy for employees to
transition from legacy programs. Productivity increased because staff spent
less time mining data and more time focusing on customer needs.
Customized forms also saved time by displaying only the fields necessary for
that particular issue and automatically validating the VIN and serial number.
Polaris management gained a 360-dgree view of customer service operations
and communications. With the new capability to view data from a variety of
different perspectives, managers can now uncover recurring or widespread
issues and adjust operations to resolve those issues.

M-Viron Case Study

Company Background

M-Viron is the leading network of local Orange mobile specialists with 17 outlets across the UK.
Managing Director Sarah White, took over one shop in January 2004 and then the Stone branch
in September 2006 – which is where the call centre is now based. At the time M-Viron focused
on retail, but had some Business to Business customers, with their two telesales staff making all
sales calls on mobile phones. The company has grown over the last few years from 7 members of
staff in 2005 and now has 18 employees.

The Business Challenge

M-Viron operates in an extremely competitive sector facing varied business challenges on a

daily basis from 3rd party retailers as well as the networks themselves. Managing Director Sarah
White, was looking to grow the business and was approached by a competitor who was
interested in selling her their predictive dialing solution. Sarah was put off by the price but was
interested in the concept, so decided to start looking into alternative solutions and came across
Telecom Applications.

M-Viron’s requirements meant that the majority of outbound calls are made to mobile phones.
The adoption of the Telecom Applications solution with the TouchStar Dialler software meant
that only live calls go through to their advisors as the software identifies engaged tones and
phones which are set to voicemail mode. In addition, M-Viron can now generate inbound calls
by leaving messages on customers’ voicemail.

Why Did M-Viron Choose Telecom Applications?

M-Viron were looking for the whole call centre package and were pleasantly surprised to find
that Telecom Applications could provide the whole package from the Touchstar dialer, to
computers and even the furniture.

“After finding Telecom Applications whilst searching on the internet I organised for them to
come and demonstrate the software to me, I liked the look of the software and was very attracted
by their straight talking and honesty,” said Sarah White.

“After also speaking to some of their competitors I was pleasantly surprised when I received the
quotation, not only did the product have all the functionality that I required, it was also at a very
reasonable price”

“They understood that I wasn’t a millionaire and also the limitations of a small business.”

“They were very accommodating with all my requests and did their best in ensuring that all of
my needs were met”

“Another deciding factor was the 24/7 support that they offered, which is very important and
useful to a company like ourselves, as we have to operate outside the normal 9-5 working hours.”

Our Solution

Telecom Applications installed a fully DMA / FSA compliant integrated blended call centre
solution that was provided by TouchStar-Software UK. The fully automated dialler ensured that
M-Viron hit OFCOM’s 3% drop call target by adjusting the settings if the drop rate went too
high - and all of this is done without any human intervention.

The intelligent scripting tool allows the advisor to enter all the information into the script and
dependant upon the answer to the question, will determine the direction in which the agent is
directed.

Whisper coaching allows dedicated trainers and coaches to help train staff whilst on the phone -
passing them valuable information with the customer blissfully unaware.

Implementation

At the point of sale, Telecom Applications advised that installation and training would be
completed in 5 days and that there would be little interference with the day to day running of the
business.

“The implementation went smoothly with no problems, the engineers arrived on Friday and by
Tuesday we were able to load data into the dialler and start making calls,” said Sarah.
Benefits of Telecom Applications Solution

The following are some of the ways in which Managing Director Sarah White believes M-Viron
has benefited from the Telecom Applications solution:

• Call Recording became a necessity for all Orange retailers and without the call recording
functionality M-Viron wouldn’t have been able to continue trading
• The system is quick and easy to use and is backed up by constantly available support
from the TouchStar and Telecom Applications team.
• Valuable training was provided by TouchStar coupled with 24hr support -eradicating
issues before they affect the business
• Reports are easily generated with detailed statistics, real time and historic reports.
• Intelligent scripting tool which provides the advisors with an aid to help them throughout
the call
• New Campaigns can be created in minutes
• Campaigns can be changed without any disruption to the advisors
• Flexible and scalable – grows with your business
• Value added extra’s (e.g. 0870/0845 numbers, Lease Cost Routing, Cat5 Cabling etc)
• All of the above has led to substantial Increases in productivity and sales.

Results

• Increased productivity
• Increase in sales not just proportionate to increase in staff
• More than met all DMA & Ofcom requirements
• Company grew from 7 to 16 agents in 8 months
REFERENCES:

http://customerservicezone.com/customerserviceguest/crmhistory.htm

http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/crm/the-history-of-crm.html

http://crmtutorial.com/Customer-Relationship-Management-%28CRM%29-Key-
Business-Process-areas/a42p3

http://www.crm2day.com/content/t6_librarynews_1.php?id=50444

http://advantagesofcrm.com/disadvantages-to-crm/

HTTP://CONCEPT2INC.COM/_WSN/PAGE3.HTML