Section I

Conceptual Framework for CRM

What is Customer Relationship management?

Customer relationship management is creating a team relationship among sales,

marketing, and customer support activities within an organization.
Another narrow, yet relevant, viewpoint is to consider CRM only as customer retention in
which a variety of after marketing tactics is used for customer bonding or staying in touch
after the sale is made.
relationship marketing as “an integrated effort to identify, maintain, and build up a
network with individual consumers and to continuously strengthen the network for
mutual benefit of both sides, through interactive, individualized and value-added
contacts over a period of time”.
The core theme of all CRM and relationship marketing perspectives is its focus on co-
operative and collaborative relationships between the firm and its customers, and/or other
marketing actors.
CRM is based on the premise that, by having a better understanding of the customers’
needs and desires we can keep them longer and sell more to them.
An important facet of CRM is “customer selectivity”. As several research studies have
shown not all customers are equally profitable (Infact in some cases 80% of the sales
come through 20% of the customers). The company must therefore be selective and
tailor its program and marketing efforts by segmenting and selecting appropriate
customers for individual marketing programs. In some cases, it could even lead to “
outsourcing of some customers” so that a company better utilize its resources on those
customers it can serve better and create mutual value. However, the objective of a
company is not to really prune its customer base but to identify appropriate customer
programs and methods that would be profitable and create value for the firm and the
customer. Hence, CRM is defined as:

Customer Relationship management is a comprehensive strategy and process of

acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value
for the company and the customer.
As is implicit in the above definition, the purpose of CRM is to improve marketing
productivity. Marketing productivity is achieved by increasing marketing efficiency and
by enhancing marketing effectiveness. In CRM, marketing efficiency is achieved
 because cooperative and collaborative processes help in reducing transaction costs and
overall development costs for
the company. Two important processes for CRM include proactive customer business
development and building partnering relationship with most important customers.
These lead to superior value creation.
The basic concept is that the customer is not someone outside the organization, he is a
part of the organization.

Key CRM principles

Differentiate Customers: All customers are not equal; recognize and reward best
customers disproportionately. Understanding each customer becomes particularly
important. And the same customers’ reaction to a cellular company operator may be quite
different as compared to a car dealer. Besides for the same product or the service not all
customers can be treated alike and CRM needs to differentiate between a high value
customer and a low value customer.
What CRM needs to understand while differentiating customers is?
- Sensitivities, Tastes, Preferences and Personalities
- Lifestyle and age
- Culture Background and education
- Physical and psychological characteristics

• Differentiating Offerings
 → Low value customer requiring high value customer offerings
→ Low value customer with potential to become high value in near future
→ High value customer requiring high value service
→ High value customer requiring low value service

High value customers who

require a high level of service are
High maintained without expanding the
Low value customers who costly offering to the entire
Require high levels of service customer population
Must either purchase the higher level
Service Requirement

of service or become our competitors

low value/high cost customers

Low

Low Customer Value High

• Keeping Existing
Fig.Customers
1 Customer value – Service Matrix
Grading customers from very satisfied to very disappoint should help the organization in
improving its customer satisfaction levels and scores. As the satisfaction level for each
customer improve so shall the customer retention with the organization.
• Maximizing Life time value
Exploit up-selling and cross-selling potential. By identifying life stage and life event
trigger points by customer, marketers can maximize share of purchase potential. Thus the
single adults shall require a new car stereo and as he grows into a married couple his
needs grow into appliances.
• Increase Loyalty
Loyal customers are more profitable. Any company will like its mind share status to
improve from being a suspect to being an advocate.
Company has to invest in terms of its product and service offerings to its customers. It
has to innovate and meet the very needs of its clients/ customers so that they remain as
advocates on the loyalty curve. Referral sales invariably are low cost high margin sales.
(Fig 2. Categorizing Customers)
 High
*You have No Choice But To *Cultivate Relationship.
Handle Them Very Carefully. Spend Energy.
Will Consume Energy Go Out Of Your Way.
Strategic Importance To Your Business Plan

# Think Of Innovative Ways of #Think Of Strategies TO Move

Getting them On Your Side, But Them Away From Competition.
*Existing
The ‘Cost Of Acquisition’ Must Will Consume Disproportionately Customers
Be Controlled High Energy. #Potential
*Very cautious decision needed. Re- Customers
*Focus On Short Term Profitability. examine business Plan & Strategy.
Spend Minimum Energy To Meet Your Evaluate That Your Loss (i.e. Your
Objectives. competitor’s gain) Doesn’t become
nightmare for you.
#Don’t Pursue.
Use Opportunity As It Comes. #Needs In-depth strategic review as
Short Term Acquisition Shouldn’t Affect acquisition alone and dissatisfaction later
Long Term Image. could be more harmful
Low

Low High
Relationship & Profitability
Potential

Summarizing CRM activities:

The CRM cycle can be briefly described as follows:
1. Learning from customers and prospects, (having in depth knowledge of
customer)
2. Creating value for customers and prospects
3. Creating loyalty
4. Acquiring new customers
5. Creating profits

Learning from
customers &
Creating prospects
Profits

Acquiring new
Fig.3 customers
1
5
CRM Activities 3 Creating value
4 for customers &
prospects
Creating loyal
customers 2
Customer Relationship Life Cycle
CRM facilitates closed- loop customer interactions through all phases of the customer
relation life cycle including:
1. Customer Engagement 2. Business Transaction

• Marketing Planning and • Order Acquisition

Campaign Management • Internet Pricing and
• Telemarketing and Lead Configuration
Generation • E-Selling
• Opportunity Management • Telesales
• Sales Activity and Contact • Field Sales
Management
• Profitability Analysis
• Customer Segmentation,
• One Step Buying and Selling
Product, and Service Profiling

• Collaborative Content
Management
 3. Order Fulfillment 4. Customer Service

• Complete Order Life Cycle • Interaction Center

Process • Internet Customer Self-Service
• Real-Time Availability Checks • Service Management
• Contract, Billing, and Financials • Claims Management
Management
• Field Service -- Mobile Service
• Fulfillment Visibility and Order
• Field Service -- Dispatch
Tracking
• Integration of Marketplace
Services

Customer Engagement

• Marketing Planning and Campaign Management -- Enables complete

marketing campaigns, including content development, audience definition, market
segmentation, and communications

• Telemarketing and Lead Generation -- Facilitates customer segmentation, lead

qualification, call list management, and monitoring of campaign progress by using
integrated analytical CRM functionality

• Opportunity Management -- Provides sales tracking and sales forecasting; helps

plan sales approaches, identify key decision makers, and estimate potential-to-buy
and potential closing dates

• Sales Activity and Contact Management -- Organizes daily workloads and

customer contact information for display in calendar application; provides links to
Business Intelligence reporting capabilities

Business Transaction

In the business transaction phase of the relationship life cycle Customer Relationship
Management supports the following key functional areas:
 • Order Acquisition -- Enables planning, organizing, and implementation of sales
strategy; monitors sales pipeline, sales portfolio, and sales budget; facilitates
coordination of budgets, forecasts, and reports on product and pricing trends

• Internet Pricing and Configuration -- Delivers online systems that allow users
to configure products online and compare prices across different catalogs and
marketplaces; includes shopping basket functions

• E-Selling -- Provides solution for selling products and services via the Internet;
covers all phases of sales cycle, including one-to-one marketing, catalog
browsing, search, order placement, payment, contract completion, and customer
support

• Telesales -- Manages inbound and outbound calls; handles high call volumes;
provides efficient user interface; integrates sales information from back-office
systems and product information from online catalogs

• Field Sales -- Delivers key customer and prospect information to sales personnel
at any place, at any time; facilitates planning and maintenance of sales activities,
such as appointments, visits, and calls, and provides activity reports; creates
quotations and takes orders; includes support for mobile and wireless devices

Order Fulfillment
In the order fulfillment phase of the relationship life cycle Customer Relationship
Management supports the following key functional areas:

• Complete Order Life Cycle Process -- Provides the ability to track and trace
orders at all points along order management, manufacturing, distribution, and
service processes; proactively notifies customers of changes that affect delivery

• Real-time Availability Checks -- Enables allocation of resources in real-time at

the front-end; includes real-time access to inventory levels, production capacity,
and lead-time requirements across the entire supply chain; enables visibility into
product and service delivery dates

• Contract, Billing, and Financials Management -- Provides information about

customer contracts, billing status, and accounts; integrates back-office functions

• Fulfillment Visibility and Order Tracking -- Enables real-time tracking of

order fulfillment; provides unique, customized and "guided" content for
customers; allows sharing of information with customers via the Internet
Customer Service

In the customer service phase of the relationship life cycle Customer Relationship
Management supports the following key functional areas:

• Interaction Center -- Provides inbound and outbound call processing, e-mail

management, and activity management to track, monitor, and enhance all
customer contact; supports multiple channels for customer communication,
including telephony and Web; integrates industry-leading eFrontOffice call center
applications from Nortel Networks Clarify; provides certified interfaces to leading
computer telephony integration (CTI) solutions

• Internet Customer Self-Service -- Offers customers and prospects access to

information and customer service functions via Internet; supports effective

• customer self service; includes case-logic system featuring advanced decision

support for problem determination and resolution

• Service Management -- Meets varied demands of service management business;

handles customer installations; facilitates simple and complex services; supports
services carried out at customer site or in-house repair center (depot); supports
involvement of external service providers; integrates contract management;
checks customer warranties when services are performed; calculates services
charges; integrates information from materials management, cost accounting,
billing, and accounts receivable; monitors day-to-day operations; helps decision
makers with strategic management issues

• Claims Management -- Facilitates handling of entire claims process

• Field Service - (Mobile Service) -- Delivers and tracks customer and account
information for field service personnel; provides service planning and forecasting,
scheduling, and dispatching functionality through tight integration with
fulfillment systems; includes support for mobile and wireless devices

• Field Service - (Dispatch) -- Enables rapid allocation of service engineers and

materials to meet incoming service requests

• Integration of Marketplace Services -- Provides access to a broad range of

applications and services hosted on virtual marketplace
 Figure 4 Customer Life Cycle Management
Business Transaction

Customer Retention
and referrals for new
customers
Customer Order Fulfillment
Engagement

Customer Service

The Emergence of CRM Practice

The Past:
Looking back at a snapshot history of marketing, we can see the following clear
developments and progression over the last four decades:
• 1960’s – the era of Mass Marketing, when Gibbs SR toothpaste began the first
marketing of this kind with its black and white campaign.
• 1970’s – saw the beginning of segmentation, direct mail campaigns and early
telemarketing (such as publishing)
• 1980’s – where Niche marketing made millionaires of those who were best at it.
• 1990’s – Relationship Marketing. The explosion of telemarketing and call centers,
all set up to develop relationships with customers. The recognition of the true value
of retention and the use of Lifetime Value as a business case.
In addition to this, a number of key marketing concepts can also be used to see where
CRM has developed:
• Satisfying Needs, Customer Orientation
• The organization needs to be arranged so that all functions contribute
• Profit must be the consequence of delighting customers (Kotler)
Developing customer relationship has historical antecedents going back into the pre
industrial era. Similarly artisans often developed customized produce for each customer.
Such direct interaction led to relational bonding between the producer and the consumer.
It was only after industrial era’s mass production society and the advent of the
middlemen that there were less frequent interactions between producers and the
consumers leading to transactions oriented marketing. The production and consumption
factions got separated leading to marketing functions being performed by the middle men
and middlemen are in general oriented towards the economic aspects of buying since the
largest cost is often the cost of goods sold.

In recent years however, several factors have contributed to the rapid development and
evolution of CRM. These include: -

1. The growing de-intermediation process in many industries due to the advent of

sophisticated computer and telecommunication technologies that allow producers to
directly interact with end-customers. For example, in many industries such as
airlines, banks insurance, software or household appliances and even consumables,
the de-intermediation process is fast changing the nature of marketing and
consequently making relationship marketing more popular. Databases and direct
marketing tools give them the means to individualize their marketing efforts.
2. Advances in information technology, networking and manufacturing technology have
helped companies to quickly match competition. As a result product quality and cost
are no longer significant competitive advantages.
3. The growth in service economy. Since services are typically produced and delivered
at the same institution, it minimizes the role of the middlemen.
4. Another force driving the adoption of CRM has been the total quality movement.
When companies embraced TQM it became necessary to involve customers and
suppliers in implementing the program at all levels of the value chain. This needed
close working relationships with the customers. Thus several companies such as
Motorola, IBM, and General Motors, Xerox, Ford, Toyota, etc formed partnering
relations with suppliers and customers to practice TQM. Other programs such as JIT
and MRP also made use of interdependent relationships between suppliers and
customers.
 5. Customer expectations are changing almost on a daily basis. Newly Empowered
customers who choose how to communicate with the companies across various
available channels. Also nowadays consumers expect a high degree of
personalization.
6. Emerging real time, interactive channels including e-mail, ATMs and call centre that
must be synchronized with customer’s non-electronic activities. The speed of
business change, requiring flexibility and rapid adoption to technologies.
7. In the current era of hyper competition, marketers are forced to be more concerned with customer
retention and customer loyalty.

CRM Formation Process

In the formation process, three important decision areas relate to defining the purpose (or
objectives) of engaging in CRM, selecting parties (or customer partners) for appropriate
CRM programs and developing programs (or relational activity schemes) for relationship
engagement with the customer.

Team Structure

Purpose Role Specification

 Increase
Effectiveness
Planning Process Relationship Performance
 Improve Efficiency  Strategic
Planning Process  Financial
 Marketing
Process Alignment → Retentio
Programs n
→ Satisfac
 Account Management Monitoring Process tion
 Retention Marketing
 Co-op Agreements
Communication

Employee Motivation
Partners
 Criteria
 Process Employee Training
 Evolution
• Enhancement
• Improvement

Fig 5. CRM Process Framework

Business Objectives from CRM

The following are some of the strategic objectives offered by the Sales Applications in
the CRM suite:

• Increased Revenue

Focus your sales force on increasing your company’s revenues through better Information
and better incentives to drive top line growth.

Through a CRM integrated solution, sales reps can access and share account and contact
management information throughout the enterprise, facilitating team selling that will lead
to closing more deals, faster. It also allows sales reps to effectively target their selling
efforts to focus on high-value deals and meet revenue targets.

• Improve Global Forecast and Pipeline Management

Improve information access, forecasting and pipeline management to improve your

organization's ability to close deals.

Field Sales Online provides up-to-the minute pipeline and forecasting information to an
account manager, sales manager, or territory manager. For an account, sales rep, or sales
group, a pipeline analysis is available real time by sales channel, sales status, and sales
stage. Field Sales Online's multi-currency consolidation of divisional forecasts provides
sales executives with a higher, global visibility of their company revenue forecast.

Sales reps can review and monitor the health of their sales pipeline through graphical
views. Sales reps can easily manage and view any combination of won, forecasted,
upside or lost pipeline opportunities by depicting their sales information through this
fully interactive interface. Sales reps can also define a forecasting window on a "rolling"
schedule for any number of pre-defined periods. This gives your sales organization the
flexibility to project forecasts for multiple periods, freeze forecasting periods, and retain
historical information for trend and win/loss analysis. Sales reps can also generate sales
forecasts in units as well as currency.
 • Improve Win Probability

Improve the focus of your sales efforts with better information to close deals.

Global -line view of their entire sales pipeline-across business units and products. With
this view, sales organizations can better qualify leads and assign organizations have a top
their top sales reps to the top accounts that have the highest win probability. Sales reps
also have access to competitive information collected from deals lost through pipeline
management features, thus increasing the chances for a successful sale. Through mobile
functionality, sales reps have the ability to download complete territory information to
their laptops for better account management while on the road. Account, contact, activity,
and opportunity information can be accessed and updated throughout the sales cycle,
completely disconnected from the corporate network. Next time the sales rep connects to
the network, the information is uploaded and is available throughout the organization.

• Reduce Cost of Sales

New technologies can lower the cost of deploying sales automation solutions and at the
same time improve the effectiveness of your sales efforts.

Field Sales Online reduces implementation time as well as promotes sustained use of the
application by the sales force, reducing the cost of deploying sales automation solutions
within your organization. Field Sales Online's Web architecture enables global
deployment and upgrade to remote users as well as easy customization. Dynamic menus
and tabs facilitate navigation and eliminate the need for user training. Users can access
summary information for their customers, opportunities, and compensation by a single
click of the mouse, export the information to their preferred spreadsheet or drill-down to
the lowest level of detail. This reduces costs and extends the mobility of sales one step
further with the introduction of application support for mobile hand-held devices.
 • Increase Sales Rep Productivity.

Reduce the steps involved in tracking and quoting customer data with integration of sales
capabilities across your enterprise.

Field Sales Online provides sales managers with an efficient tool to monitor sales force
performance. Opportunities and pipeline are tracked at each stage of the sales funnel by
channel, sales group, sales rep, or partner sales rep. In addition, sales managers and
executives can identify their top and bottom performers. Managers can then analyze
background, training, and tools used by their top performers to replicate successful
profiles within the sales organization to maximize its efficiency and performance.

• Promote Sales Representation Retention

Empower your sales force to proactively track and monitor their performance and
compensation levels to better incentive them to achieve goals and be successful within
their positions and for your company.

Sales applications enable sales reps to view their compensation summary, the breakdown
of their commission by deal, product line, and period, adjustments and transactions. In
addition, sales reps can "blind-rank" themselves at anytime to measure their performance
against a group of peers. Sales reps can forecast their future compensation and
commissions based on their current pipeline and focus their selling time on the most
valuable opportunities.

Effective tracking and reporting options provide verification to the sales force that they
are receiving appropriate compensation, so they can track their own performance.

Sales Compensation offers flexible reporting access, letting you define the information
users can access. For example, you can allow users to create reports for only their
commission and performance data, or sales managers to create reports related to the sales
people who are assigned to them within the salesperson hierarchy.
The objectives for Marketing Applications offered by a CRM suite are as follows

• Closed- loop Marketing

Improve marketing management and programs with a comprehensive marketing system

that supports planning, campaign management, execution, Internet support and analysis.

Marketing Applications automates the entire marketing process from demand creation to
revenue recognition. Designed specifically for marketing professionals, the application
automatically collects campaign results and tracks campaign effectiveness across
different sales channels, by market segments, and even individual customer results. This
level of detail enables marketers to reduce costs while increasing the effectiveness of
their marketing efforts.

• Better Information for Better Management

Implement highly focused, targeted campaigns with better returns on your marketing
investments.

Marketing applications are tightly integrated with the other applications of the CRM suite
as well as the ERP applications. This integration enables marketers to tap into the wealth
of data collected through every customer "touch" with their company whether through
field sales, a call center, or the Web. Without a dependence on simple demographics,
marketers will be able to profile customers based on any number of criteria including
sales cycle, payment preference, and purchase frequency, to tailor messages and
campaigns with better accuracy for highly focused, individualized marketing campaigns.

• Expand Marketing Channels Through

Utilize the power of the Internet to increase your marketing reach and effectiveness. In
addition to supporting traditional marketing and demand creation channels such as direct
mail and tele-business, many vendors are enhancing the integrated closed-loop marketing
application through relationships with several strategic third-party vendors.
The combination of these applications will expand the automation of the marketing
planning and execution process over multiple deployment channels and sales models,
specifically through the Web. By leveraging the Web as a channel, Marketing
applications will help companies capitalize on this rapidly expanding opportunity to reach
a larger audience with their marketing campaigns.

The objectives for Service Applications offered by a CRM suite are as follows

• Service Increases Profitability

Create a profit center out of your service organization using operational and customer
information to reduce costs and generate more revenues.

Service application enables organizations to reduce costs by providing a comprehensive

closed loop support and service information management system. Its comprehensive
resource management capabilities enable organizations route the calls to the right agent to
reduce call resolution time. Its enterprise wide customer management ability enables you
to reduce billing time with built-in integration between contracts, warranties, resource
usage and the billing system. Further, with interfaces to customer care, organizations can
track total customer contact history to increase customer knowledge and reduce
redundancies and resolution time. Fast parts rotation enables reduced inventory levels and
therefore, reduced costs.

• Service Improves Service Delivery

Create an efficient and effective service business using integrated enterprise-wide

information available in other Front Office and ERP applications.

Many of the features that increase profitability also streamline and improve
organization’s service delivery. Service Applications provides complete support for the
aftermarket service cycle enabling companies to improve response times by sending the
right engineer to a field service call, or improve customer service by routing a support
call to the agent trained in supporting a particular product. The Customer Care features of
Service Applications also provide the customer management information to allow agents
to respond to a variety of customer inquiries during one call without transferring the
customer from person to person.
 • Service Helps organizations to Delight Customers

Provide enhanced customer care, service and customer information management across
your organization to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

With an end-to-end Customer Care and Service Solution, Organizations can achieve a full
360-degree view of their customer. This translates into better response to customer's
needs; an ability to extend proactive customer management programs as well as have the
information at your disposal to better understand the customer. Service applications also
track all product defect information, which enables organizations to proactively manage
customer issues, so that they are well informed and can also accurately inform customers
of service issues. The built-in self-learning knowledge base enables companies to
leverage employee knowledge and achieve skills transfer, increasing employee retention
and reducing customer churn. Additionally, Service Applications enables organization’s
customers to communicate with the company though many different venues, web, call
centers, and directly with Field Representatives, offering customers flexibility in
interacting with the company. This integrated customer contact capability ensures that the
organization’s customers receive consistent service and information, thus reduce his need
to turn to one of the competitors for new products or services.

• Service Helps organizations Differentiate their Product

Distinguish business by offering service as a differentiator using multiple channel

communications with customers, full enterprise wide view of customer information.

As products become commoditized, the next purchase decision customers make is

increasingly based on either the quality of service or the perceived care they receive from
the company. Service Applications by enabling both improved product service, and
customer care, help organization’s provide their customers with a positive experience in
dealing with the company, maximizing the likelihood of additional product purchases.
 • Service Applications Grows Company’s "Share of Customer Wallet"

Service Applications help to leverage expanded business opportunities extending beyond

company’s service needs, as well as tailoring the service offering to specifically address
any customer’s needs.

Service Applications provides companies to turn support service into a high return profit
center. Service enables the company to attract new service market opportunities by
servicing third party products with its ability to track competitive products and service
repair information. The Companies can also anticipate their customer needs and
proactively build and sell new support and service offerings. Further, they can tailor
Service Contracts individually, by customer, by product or by business, enabling new
revenue streams with customized service. Additionally, they can also maximize the
logistics and costs within their expanding service business with integrated sales and spare
parts forecasting.
CRM Programs
A careful review of literature and observation of corporate practices suggest that there are
three types of CRM programs: continuity marketing; one-to-one marketing; and,
partnering programs.

These take different forms depending on whether they are meant for end-consumers,
distributor consumers, or business-to-business customers.

Table 1 presents various types of CRM programs developed for different types of
customers.
Customer Types Mass Markets Distri- Business to
Program Types butors Busi
ness
Markets
Continuity • After- • Continuous • Special
Marketing
Marketing Replenishment Sourcing
• Loyalty • ECR Programs Arrangements
Programs
• Cross-Selling
One-to-One • Permission • Customer Business • Key Account
Marketing Marketing Development • Global
• Personalization Account
Partnering/ • Affinity • Logistics • Strategic
Company- Partnering Partnering Partnership
Marketing • Co-Branding • Joint Marketing • Co-Design
• Co-
Development

Table 1 CRM Programs

Continuity Marketing Programs
Take the shape of membership and loyalty card programs where customers are often
rewarded for their member and loyalty relationships with the marketers. The basic
premise of continuity marketing programs is to retain customers and increase loyalty
through long-term special services that has a potential to increase mutual value through
learning about each other.

One-to-one Marketing
Meeting and satisfying each customer’s need uniquely and individually. In the mass
markets individualized information on customers is now possible at low costs due to the
rapid development in the information technology and due to availability of scalable data
warehouses and data mining products. By using online information and databases on
individual customer interactions, marketers aim to fulfill the unique needs of each mass-
market customer. Information on individual customers is utilized to develop frequency
marketing, interactive marketing, and after marketing programs in order to develop
relationship with high-yielding customers. In the context of business-to-business markets,
individual marketing has been in place of quite sometime. Known as Key Account
Management Program, here marketers appoint customer teams to husband the company
resources according to individual customer needs.

Partnering Programs
The third type of CRM programs is partnering relationships between customer and
marketers to serve end user needs. In the mass markets, two types of partnering programs
are most common: co-branding and affinity partnering.
CRM and Related Concepts

Knowledge Management (KM) with focus on CRM

As Peter Drucker defined “Information is data endowed with relevance and
purpose”.
To effectively implement a CRM solution it is very important to identify real knowledge
about different types of customers (Viz. Most valued customers, Most grow able
customers, below zero customers) from plethora of internal and external data, figures,
surveys, etc. A straightway technique is to create a data warehouse, thereafter information
which is required to effectively implement principles of CRM, could be mined out of this
data warehouse.
Marketing, sales after-sales people would be knowledge workers. Front office could be
more productive if they could utilize customer knowledge. Knowledge Management
(KM) is about embracing a diversity of knowledge resources, like legacy systems,
existing data warehouses, portals, websites, customers, suppliers, partners, external
marketing research agencies and cultivating the knowledge where it resides.

Metrics, ROI, Balance Scorecard method, benchmarking are some of the common
technique of KM system evaluation. KM implementation is the key to CRM.
It’s a proven fact that 80% of organization revenues come form 20% of its customers, it
becomes imperative to design CRM solutions keeping in mind these most valuable
customers and to leverage 80% non structured data of about 20% of these most valuable
customers.
Just as more tangible corporate assets like computer systems have a finite shell life, so
too does knowledge, it must be available at the right time to be able to act upon it.
Retaining tacit knowledge (derived from experiences, data and documents) means
retaining the individual, which is invariably not possible. It is possible to generate explicit
knowledge from tacit knowledge, but it’s a complex exercise.
The key ingredient of this exchange is face-to-face sharing of knowledge or virtual
environmental tools like Lotus Notes, which can facilitate tacit knowledge exchange.
Hence for tacit knowledge exchange text mining is very useful and important. There are
ways to do text mining, like search engines, web solutions, text analysis tools, etc. The
key to successful customer KM is personalization, i.e. how to extract the knowledge that
is pertinent to the user and translate it into a format that is easily understood. The choice
of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) architecture should have a layered
approach. Existing systems should be seamlessly linked with the proposed layer. The
choice for CKM system could be Web (Enterprise information portal) or a packaged
solution such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft solution.

ERP and CRM

Like ERP, CRM solutions focus on automating and improving business processes, albeit
in front-office areas such as marketing, sales, customer service, and customer support.
Whereas ERP implementation can result in improved organizational efficiency, CRM
aims to provide organizational effectiveness by reducing sales cycle and selling cost,
identifying markets and channels for expansion, and improving customer value,
satisfaction, profitability, and retention. While CRM applications provide the framework
for embodying, promoting and executing best practices in customer facing activities, ERP
provides the backbone, resources and operational applications to make organizations
more efficient in achieving these goals.
 Technological Tools for CRM
Tools
• Customer database
A good customer information system should consist of a regular flow of information,
systematic collection of information that is properly evaluated and compared against
different points in time, and it has sufficient depth to understand the customer and
accurately anticipate their behavioral patterns in future. The customer database helps the
company to plan, implement, and monitor customer contact. Customer relationships are
increasingly sustained by information systems. Companies are increasingly adding data
from a variety of sources to their databases. Customer data strategy should focus on
processes to manage customer acquisition, retention, and development.
Call Center helps in automating the operations of inbound and outbound calls generated
between company and its customer. These solutions integrate the voice switch of
automated telephone systems (e.g. EPABX) with an agent host software allowing for
automating call routing to agents, auto display of relevant customer data, predictive
dialing, self service Interactive Voice Response systems, etc. These systems are useful in
high volume segments like banking, telecom and hospitality. Today, more innovative
channels of interacting with customers are emerging as a result of new technology, such as
global telephone based calls centers and the Internet. Companies are now focusing to offer
solutions that leverage the Internet in building comprehensive CRM systems allowing
them to handle customer interactions in all forms.

• Systems Integration
While CRM solutions are front office automation solutions, ERP is back office automation
solution. An ERP helps in automating business functions of production, finance, inventory,
order fulfillment and human resource giving an integrated view of business, where as CRM
automates the relationship with customer covering contact and opportunity management,
marketing and product knowledge, sales force management, sales forecasting, customer
order processing and fulfillment, delivery, installation, pre-sale and post-sale services and
complaint handling by providing an integrated view of the customer.
 It is necessary that the two systems integrate with each other and complement information
as well as business workflow. Therefore, CRM and ERP are complementary. This
integration of CRM with ERP helps companies to provide faster customer service through
an enabled network, which can direct all customer queries and issues through appropriate
channels to the right place for speedy resolution. This will help the company in tracking
and correcting the product problems reported by customers by feeding this information into
the R&D operations via ERP.

Fig 7: CRM – A FRAMEWORK

Traditional Approach to CRM Web-Enabled & Integration

Approach
• Customer Contact by • Customer Information
− Telephone Integration with System
− Mail technology • Customer Database
− In Person
• Electronic Point of Sale
• Personal Selling (Web & Internet) • Sales Force Automation
• After Sales Service
• Automation of Customer
• Complaint Handling Support
• Account Management • Call Centers
• Customer care • Systems Integration
• Customer Satisfaction • Lifetime value of a Customer

Data Mining for CRM: Some Relevant issues

Data mining is an important enabler for CRM. Advances in data storage and processing
technologies have made it possible today to store very large amounts of data in what are
called data warehouses and then use data mining tools to extract relevant information.
Data mining helps in the process of understanding a customer by providing the necessary
information and facilitates informed decision-making.
Operational CRM solutions involve integration of business processes involving customer
touch points. Collaborative CRM involves the facilitation of collaborative services (such
as e-mail) to facilitate interactions between customer and employees. All this effort
produces rich data that feeds the Analytical CRM technologies.
Operational CRM Analytical CRM Collaborative CRM

Customer

Fig.8 Interactions between CRM Technologies

Information Requirements Of An Effective CRM Solution

The employees of a firm employing CRM would require rich information about their firm
and customer base including:
• Information about the market
• Information about the firm
• The current segment
• Demographic Distribution (by age, sex, education, income, marital status, etc)
• The firm’s best customers and the segment they belong to, products they buy,
preferences, habits and tastes of each segment.
• Individual level information consisting of:
→ Customer personal details such as name, address, family details,
education, etc
→ The customer group /segment to which the individual belongs
→ History of present and past behavior
→ Likes, dislikes, habits and preferences
→ Events coming up in their personal life etc.
The existing CRM Solutions

Delivering the ‘360 view’ requires automation to bring together all the data concerning a
customer. This implies the organisation has to change from:

Mass Marketing Product Focus

Product Focus Customer Focus
Economies of Scale Economies of time
One way communication Interactive
Response Time Real Time

Present CRM Alternatives

Present CRM solutions are offered by host of vendors that are to a great extent not
industry specific. While there are some vendors, who have come up with industry specific
solutions, the broad model around which the CRM solutions are built remain the same.
Adopting a similar or a look a like solution across industries is what causes major strain
in servicing a customer.
Typical offerings of the current CRM solutions (such as Siebel, Oracle Apps or
MySap.com, etc) vary from solution to solution. However typical CRM offerings consist
of:
Customer Development Field sales, Tele sales, Internet Sales

Service Centre Call Centres, Field Service

Sale management and support Internet Customer Service
Market Analysis Service Interaction Centre
Internet, Tele marketing Business Partner Collaboration
Product and brand management
 eCRM

What is eCRM?
In simplest terms eCRM provides companies with means to conduct interactive,
personalized and relevant communications with customer across both electronic and
traditional channels. It utilizes a complete view of the customer to make decisions about
messaging, offers and channel delivery. It synchronises communication across otherwise
disjoint-customer facing systems. It adheres to permission-based practices, respecting
individual’s preferences regarding how and whether they wish to communicate with you
and it focuses on understanding how the economics of customer relationship affect the
business.

eCRM Vs CRM
CRM is essentially a business strategy for acquiring and maintaining the “right”
customers over the long term. Within this framework, a number of channels exist for
interacting with customers. One of these channels is “electronic” – and has been labeled
“e-commerce” or “e-business”. This electronic channel does not replace the sales force,
the call Centre, or even the fax. It is simply another extension, albeit a powerful new one,
to the customer. The thrust of eCRM is not what the organisation is “doing on the web”
but how fully the organisation ties its on-line channel back to its traditional channels, or
customer touch points.

Why employ eCRM?

Companies need to take firm initiatives on the eCRM frontier to
• Optimize the value of interactive relationship
• Enable the business to extend its personalized reach
• Company-ordinate marketing activities across all customer channels.
• Leverage customer information for more effective emarketing and ebusiness
• Focus the business on improving customer relationship and earning a greater share
of each customer’s business through consistent measurement, assessment and
“actionable” customer strategies.
The six “E’s” of eCRM

1. Electronic channels
2. Enterprise
3. Empowerment
4. Economics
5. Evaluation
6. External Information

eCRM Architecture
The primary inputs to this module are mainly from the eCRM Assessment and strategy
alignment modules. During this stage the company will try and develop a Connected
Enterprise Architecture (CEA) within the context of the company’s own CRM strategy.
The following is a set of technical eCRM capabilities and applications that collectively
and ideally comprise a full eCRM solution:
• Customer Analytical Software
• Data mining software
• Campaign Management software
• Business Simulation
• A real time decision engine
Categories of CRM solutions
Any enterprise, which wants to implement CRM solutions can choose from four
categories of solutions
− Integrated applications suite
− Interfaced applications bundle
− Interfaced best of breed solutions
− Best of cluster

Selecting an interfaced best of breed approach for pure functionality or a front office
application suite solely for integration limits enterprise choices. Enterprises need to start
with a clear picture of the basic truths of integration, interfacing and functionality. An
integrated application suite is a set of application that employs a common architecture,
referencing a common logical database with a single schema. Some suites are more often
interfaced application bundle i.e. a set of interfaced application from a single vendor
containing more than one technical architecture or more than one logical database-
frequently assembled by the vendor through the process of acquisition or partnership
An alternative approach to suites is an interfaced best of breed solution – an approach
whereby an enterprise selects from multiple vendors a set of applications that must be
interfaced to work together, either by the enterprise, one of the selected vendors or a third
party integrator. The individual applications are not the best in any objective sense.
Rather, some enterprises select the applications because they best meet the particular
needs. The challenge of this approach is that, in some cases, the enterprise fails to
complete the necessary interfaces to get the individual applications working together;
consequently, the applications remain stovepipes. Best of cluster is similar to best of
breed except that here best is chosen from the cluster and they are interfaced.
Key requirements for CRM solutions

Some of the functional and technical requirements for CRM solutions are as listed below:
• Business intelligence and analytical capabilities
• Unified channels of customer interactions
• Support for web based functionality
• Centralized repository for customer information
• Integrated work flow
• Integration with ERP applications

Functional Components of CRM solution

CRM applications are a convergence of functional components, advanced technologies

and channels. Functional components and channels are described below:
Sales applications
Common applications include calendar and scheduling, contact and account management;
compensation; opportunity and pipeline management; sales forecasting; proposal
generation and management; pricing; territory assignment and management; and expense
reporting.
Marketing applications
These include web based and traditional marketing campaign planning, execution, and
analysis; list generation and management; budgeting and forecasting; collateral
generation and marketing materials management.
Customer service and support applications.
These include customer care; incident, defect and order tracking; field service; problem
and solution database; repair scheduling and dispatching; service agreements and
contracts; and service request management.
 Organising for CRM

Assessing Need
How do you know your business requires CRM?
It is very easy for a business to get caught in the latest ‘customer trap’ when it is being
driven by the information technology (IT) market. Every business does require CRM; the
question is to what level?
Trends
Many businesses are pushed by the current trend to change their business strategy,
especially around CRM. There are basically three trends that effect a business:
Consumer
The customer is an ever-changing image, to be really successful with CRM you must
recognize the customer trends that are effecting the business.
If a business does not understand a customer profile and the changes that have occurred
then it is not possible to provide true customer relationship management.
Products
It is the business providing the products that meet the changing customer trends. Products
need to be reviewed constantly perhaps enhanced or even removed. Supermarkets are a
perfect profile to look at for viewing ‘product trends’, they constantly add and remove
products and they constantly view customer buying profiles and set out the pattern of the
store to meet the strongest buying trend. This may not always be by using the latest
‘technology’, it could be by just reviewing shells at the end of the day, but the super
market is at the minimum watching for the two basic trends in CRM.

Technology
Ensure that the business is ready to install the new technologies, is the customer data upto
it, or is it time to start again? Do you need to review every technology being used or just
one area. Will it assist the business, is it going to grow with the business requirements or
is the technology just another ‘trend’? Relationship management should not be an
alternative to existing functions/technology; it could be a logical extension to enhance
those in existence, though it could radically change some of the operational processes.
Does CRM really matter?
Whatever the business activity is all companies have to ask themselves is CRM the real
factor for their company to succeed. Some customers do not need long-term relationship
with their suppliers; therefore only minimal information is required from that customer.
That however is still a form of CRM. Other companies have high quality and high value
customers that they need to know information about, they need to provide exceptional
service, the ‘pedigree’ of CRM.
Whatever the business is, if it has customer it has to ask, does customer relationship
management matter? What does it man to them in business terms? At what cost? What is
the overall loss if not adhered to?
CRM: Yes it does really matter – the strategy needs to last, be constantly reviewed
and can evolve over time.
 Financial Framework for CRM

There are organisational constraints encountered in execution of CRM programs. Mainly

they are as follows:
• A mismatch between resource allocated and service levels desired for building
customer relationship
• Absence of financial business case and ROI for investments in Customer Relationship
• Horizontal non alignment of organisations to customers line of sight
• Balance to be achieved between maximisation of revenue and customer satisfaction.
Direct selling machinery would have costs that are significantly higher than referral sale –
hence the need to invest in customer relationship with an eye on acceleration of referrals
so as to bring down costs or increase productivity of sales. (higher cold call to order ratio)
Figure 1 illustrates the phenomenon that organisations can drive referral sale line in a
manner that can reduce time T1 and with that in figure 1(a) the overall unit selling cost
(average of direct sales cost + referral sale cost) can be reduced with higher sales
productivity.

Composite Costs
100%
100% Direct Sale

% 50% Unit
of Selling
overall cost
sale Referral Sale

T1 T1
Time Time

Fig. 1. ‘Torpedo Graph’ Fig. 1. (a) Sale Cost Line

Figure 2 illustrates that with a given investment in direct sale channel the productivity
can at best be only slightly increasing line, while a referral line will be an exponentially
increasing trend line with growing subscriber numbers. This creates a multiplier effect
that quickly overtakes the direct sale numbers. Organisation dependency on direct sale
can gradually be reduced since they stand to account for reduced numbers in the overall
sums.

Direct sale

Sale
Unit
No.

Referral Sale

T1
Time Figure 2

Organisational measure of referral propensity can be taken through customer feedback on

their willingness to recommend the product to their friend and acquitances.
referrals.
 CRM in select Services

1) Taj Air Caterers & Singapore Airlines

Taj actively participates in product designs and influences service design, wherever
necessary. This has evolved after getting an insight into Singapore Airlines’ customer
profile and their needs. The product is designed to reflect their passengers’ preferences,
which are quite different in Delhi and Mumbai, and on different sectors ex-Mumbai. TAJ
Chefs conduct an annual workshop on Indian Cuisine for Singapore Airlines’ caterers
worldwide. Taj staff gets trained at Singapore Airlines’ catering subsidiary, SATS. Taj
Ctareres share a lot of information and can access technology issues with Singapore
Airlines.

2) Taj Air Caterers & GE Capital Services

There is e-mail connectivity between the service provider i.e. Taj and GE (for
canteen and food supply). Taj customer relations responds within a stipulated time frame
directly to GE employees and analyses their satisfaction. Also on cards is a ‘fitness
program’ where taj’s experts will share information of food nutrition, exercise, etc with GE
staff. Similarly, a loyalty program is being designed where in for purchases snacks and
confectionery, GE employees can obtain attractive discounts at Taj outlets/hotels. With
another company Taj is involved in cafeteria design and selection of equipment.

3) Titan Watch Repair Services

What did Titan Do?
The Titan Signet CRM initiative was undertaken in May 1995 to provide that “extra” touch
to its special customers at the exclusive World of Titan stores.
Its mission was to create a sense of belonging of the customer to the store and vice versa
by: • Building a special relationship with high life time value Titan customers
• Recognizing and rewarding his/her loyalty to Titan
• Providing a platform for direct feedback from these valued customers to the
company
 Where?
It initially started in 6 showrooms in Bangalore. Today the titan Signet has been extended
to 102 World of Titan showrooms across 59 cities all over India

Behind The Scenes

While the program has taken customer bonding one step further in Titan, there are many
behind-the-scene activities that ensure that the program is run efficiently, effectively and
with the level of enthusiastic participation. These are :
• Showroom Personnel are trained not only in the preparation of the program at the
showroom but also in the finer details of CRM.
• Enrolments in the program are tracked on a monthly basis for each showroom,
along with data on purchases made by Signet members who have returned to the
showroom to buy again.
• Signet operations form a part of the quarterly appraisal for their showrooms, there
by ensuring that they earn more marks on their efficient and effective performance.
• A grievance redressal system is in place to ensure that out valued customers are
responded to within stipulated time frame.
Case Example: Air India

World’s largest DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION recognizes AIR INDIA as first

airline to use a unique database-driven CRM approach that set new sales and
profit records in the air travel market.

On June 5, 2002; at world headquarters in New York, Charles A. Prescott, Vice President
of International Development for the United States-based Direct Marketing Association,
approved the addition of Air India’s database-driven Direct Marketing program to
DMA’s Web site. Entitled “Test of Advanced CRM Approach in India sets new sales
records for an Airline” it instantly became one of the most visited parts of the DMA Web
site.
Why? Because Air India created an intensely personal dialogue with each individual
customer in a way no airline ever had in the past. Personal dialogues which created
relationships, which produced record gains in Share of Customer, and overall Share of
Market as well as revenue and profits. When Abeer Chakravarty and his DM agency
colleagues tested Dick Shaver’s unique Database-Loading Research Process (developed
in the early 1990’s in the USA) for Indian Airlines in 1998, 58,000 customers answered
extremely detailed questions about themselves. Everything from their specific air travel
habits, business and personal travel wants and needs, services they expected to get from
an airline and services they “would like to receive” from an airline in addition to crucial
information about their air travel destinations, frequency and airlines flown as well as all
their personal demographics and psychographics. In short, everything airline marketers
worldwide had always wanted to know about their customers, but really never thought
possible to get.
Indian Airlines immediately computerized each customer’s detailed answers in order to
begin the Consumer Guided dialogues they had told customers about. Within days, every
responder received a personal letter based on what each different customer had told IA.
This new ability to write always-relevant, customer-specific letters rapidly expanded, in a
few months, to 22 different individualized letter versions.
Airline customers in India loved being treated as individuals in the late 1990’s and early
2,000’a just as much as pharmaceutical and telephone customers in the United States had
loved being treated that way in the early and mid-1990’s. Not only did Database-Loading
Research put them in total control of their personal information and hence their privacy…
it also insured they would never again be bothered by irrelevant contacts while, at the
same time, they would never miss out on any offers that fit their specific interests which
they really did want to know about.

In each country and each different market… health care and long distance
communication in the States, air travel in India … after their initial surprise at being
listened to and then responded to based on what each one of them had said, customer
satisfaction soared to historic highs. New highs in satisfaction that produced multi-year,
multi-billion dollar industry records in customer retention and acquisition for Marion
Merrell Dow and MCI in the USA and multi-year, multi-billion rupee gains for Indian
Airlines across it’s proportionately smaller market in India.

All of which reflects the simple fact that this new CRM approach, called Consumer
Guided Marketing, can produce unprecedented gains in any market and any country in
the world, because the gains it generates are rooted in human nature: due to Quantum
Leaps in customer trust and satisfaction. A new level of trust and satisfaction evidenced
in the tens of thousands of unsolicited letters from customers that essentially said, “I’ve
been filling out questionnaires for years, but nothing ever happened! But you actually
read what I said and then wrote me back based on what I told you. I love it!”
Case Study: Hospitality industry

The hotel industry is fast adopting the latest technologies in a big way, thanks to
increasing competition. Chitra Padmanabhan observes that technology acts as a key
differentiator to retain international clientele0
Badly bruised by the September 11 attacks and the ongoing slowdown, the hospitality
industry in India is increasingly taking the help of technology to not only cut costs but
also lure customers. Today, guests in most five star hotels can access the Internet through
their laptops at the poolside or in conference rooms, with equal ease, thanks to wireless
LAN (WLAN). Innovations like these that seem like technological marvels today will be
commonplace tomorrow, as almost all leading hospitality chains will provide wireless
connectivity.

Goingback
In days gone by it was said that in order to succeed, all a hotel needed was a scenic
location and good cuisine. But in today’s competitive environment, a mistake as trivial as
not taking down a customer’s order can prove disastrous. As the hospitality industry
started looking for ways to improve efficiencies, efforts and investments in the field of
information technology intensified. One of the first deployments of IT began at the front
desk when receptionists began checking the name of the customer and then allotted a
room to him. Big hotels also started putting in place accounting systems and back office
software to improve processes. As hotel chains started expanding their operations across
the country, it was necessary to monitor their assets. This gave rise to the need for a
Property Management System which enabled hospitality groups to track their assets
across different regions.
During the same period, hospitality chains also saw the need for a centralised system.
This phase saw different hotels of a chain being networked and connected to a central
server. The Taj Group of Hotels, for instance, has implemented a WAN called TajNet,
connecting the group’s 55 properties in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A centralised system
has tremendous benefits. One, there are greater economies of scale, especially when the
group wants to announce a special scheme for all its member hotels. Two, the group can
monitor the performance of each member hotel and summarise the sales performance of
the whole group.

Today, the IT initiatives of hotel chains in India have matured, and are being increasingly
fine-tuned to serve the needs of the customer. Says Pradeep Khetwal, systems manager,
Le Royal Meridien (Mumbai), “Most hospitality chains now realise that technology in the
hospitality industry is critical to improve the operational efficiency of a hotel. The
industry has moved from the traditional transaction-based processes such as check-in and
reservations to features that are built and designed specifically for the customer. Services
like providing wireless Internet access to guests will only increase in the future.”
CRM
While IT initiatives like centralised management and automating daily operations are
important, the key part of retaining a customer is critical to the hospitality industry, which
explains why every chain is taking the help of technology to improve efficiency. Take a
look at Le Royal Meridien. The hotel has deployed a check-in system on each floor
depending on the guest’s profile. This has solved the problem of long queues of
customers at the counter, waiting to fill in details of their preferences.
CRM is also being adopted in a big way by almost all the big hotel chains in India. At
present, every major hotel chain in India is investing in comprehensive systems that store
complete profiles of their customers. The moment a guest checks in, he fills a form
indicating his various preferences. If he is a regular client, the hotel immediately knows
of his preferences and serves him accordingly.
Says Prakash Shukla, senior vice president, technology, and CIO, Taj Group of Hotels,
“Every hotel has a major chunk of its revenue coming from its regular clientele. We too
recognise this and have deployed customer information systems (CIS) to service the
customer in a better way.” The same CIS can be accessed through any of the group’s
properties. A CIS enables the hotel to keep a record of the exact profile of the customer
and keep a tab on his preferences during his subsequent visits. CIS creates guest-centric
processes that are essential for CRM. And since it focuses on preferences, requests and
problems of different customers, it is a boon to the hotel management.
The same database is used to offer loyalty programmes to the customer. Most hotels
today offer a customer different schemes based on his profile. In the traditional method,
this was done manually with no clear understanding of a customer’s preferences. But
now, with knowledge of the customer’s history, a hotel can service a customer more
efficiently. Some hotels have even given their regular customers unique IDs to enable
them to check their loyalty points on the Web itself.

Says Zahid Memon, systems manager, J W Marriott Hotel (Mumbai), “Most hotels know
their customer preferences because relevant data can now be procured from the systems
as and when needed. Earlier, data management systems contained only static information,
which was used only to enhance efficiency of the hotel staff. But today, with the help of
analytical tools, we can provide consistent service quality. CRM and software tools for
front line staff have enhanced successful one-to-one relationships.”
In addition, most hotels have also embraced newer technologies with gusto. The Taj
group, for instance, extensively uses VoIP and video conferencing tools on its internal
network to cut communication costs.
Wireless-technologies
One of the best examples of the use of wireless technologies is the hotel industry. Major
hotels are betting on wireless services as a new lure for business travellers who rely on
high-speed Internet connectivity and wireless services to conduct day-to-day business.
“Initially, wireless technology in big hotels was traditionally confined to the guest room,
the business centre or conference rooms,” says Ashish Kale, systems manager,
Renaissance Mumbai Hotel and Convention Centre. But as this hampered mobility of a
business executive, hotels started looking at using wireless Internet services throughout
the hotel.

Adds Khetwal of Le Royal Meridien, “Wireless technologies deployed in selected areas

of the restaurant hampered mobility, and it was impossible to access the Net in any of the
restaurants and near the poolside.”
The Taj Group has already introduced wireless Internet access for its customers at Taj
Coromandel in Chennai, and is all set to launch this in Mumbai. Shukla puts forward a
very valid point: “As in any industry, one has to realise that though different technologies
are available, all of them are not beneficial to the end-customer. One has to realise that as
customers change their preferences and the way they want to interact, we too have to
change with them. Going forward, a hotel which understands a customer’s needs and
fulfils it satisfactorily with the help of technology would obviously be a preferred one.”

Another significant use of this technology is seen in wireless-equipped handheld phones

called digitally enhanced cordless phones, which serve the purpose of tracking a person
anywhere in the hotel premises. This phone is especially useful for mobile staff who can
attend to a complaint immediately.

Online-reservation-system
In the dot-com phase, hotels were attracted to the Web and were expecting major
revenues to come from online reservations. But just like other industries, hotels too have
been disappointed. Today, websites of most hotels serve only as information outlets, and
almost no bookings take place through the Web.

One obvious reason is security, which makes customers reluctant to reveal their credit
card details on the Web. Says Shailesh Bhagwat, EDP executive of Orchid, “Proper
security systems are a must to avoid fraud in non face-to-face transactions. Though most
hotel chains offer customers a secure way of transmitting data, it will be a long time
before customers accept this.”

The-way-forward
Wireless communications and mobile computing technologies are changing the way
hotels manage information. In addition to this, strategic decision making coupled with an
ability to access information, analysing it and distributing it would be the key to
increasing productivity and reducing costs. Going forward, hotel chains could increase
the number of value added services without major investments in IT budgets.
 Conclusion

Software is to India what oil was to Gulf. It is therefore no surprise that the Indian
companies are jumping into the CRM bandwagon to seize a chunk of the global market,
both products as well as services.
With is vast talent pool; India is fast becoming an important development base of major
CRM companies. This trend is likely to increase in the future. Call centres, catering
primarily to the American and European markets are coming up in and around the metros.
With the easing of infrastructure constraints, India is likely to emerge as a significant
player in this segment.
Adoption of CRM by Indian companies is at an infancy stage. The CRM enabled
companies include Modi Xerox, Tata Telecom, TVS Electronics, HP India, Tata Infotech,
Carrier Refrigeration, Tata Teleservices, Satyam Infoway,Planet M, and
EpicenterTechnologies among many others.
India even has a CRM Foundation in New Delhi, founded with the purpose of assessing
and improving CRM practices. Founding members include Tata Telecom, Escotel, Modi
Xerox, Global Groupware, AC Nielsen, Carrierr Airrcon, and Motorola India, among
others.

.
 Recommendations
CRM driven by the employees is most likely to succeed and hence CRM initiates should
ideally come from front line employees who are indirectly related to the customers. A
Customer-Centric Quality Circle could be formed in organizations to facilitate this.
Companies implementing CRM should keep in mind that CRM is not Database
Management but a whole new way of looking at the business.

CRM concept could be extended with the help of Bluetooth and JINI with CRM enabled
devices who recommend self repairs and undertake self maintenance with the help of
online technicians.
The advent of 3G mobiles and WLL could help the companies keep a track of their
customers and offer them not only customized products and solutions but also customized
information and customized advertising.
Finally instead of just launching products companies could well form customer groups who
will wok with the company to develop a new product and will be rewarded for the same.
Section II

The Hotel Industry :-

Hotels are amongst the most visible and important aspects of a country's infrastructure.
Hotel industry is a closely linked one to the tourism industry. A number of factors like
promotion of tourism and rapid industrial progress have given a boost to hoteliering. The
recent liberalization of trade and opening up of economy will further lead to
revolutionary growth in this sector.

With increasing globalization, career opportunities in this field are not only limited within
the country but there are chains of hotels which operate internationally providing scope of
a career abroad. It is a glamorous profession which has a bright future. With the growth
of hotel industry propelled by foreign and domestic tourism and business travel, the
demand for well trained quality personnel too has grown impressively.

The diversity of experience in hotel management is greater than in any other profession.
Hotel industry involves combination of various skills like management, food and
beverage service, housekeeping, front office operation, sales and marketing, accounting.
Today, the rise in corporate activity (leading to greater number of business trips) as well
as the wish to travel on holiday has made the hotel industry a very competitive one.
Industry characteristics

Seasonality
The premium segment of the hotel industry is largely dependent on foreign tourist
inflows. Tourist inflows, especially international leisure tourist inflows, are seasonal in
nature. Owing to the summer and monsoon seasons, tourist arrivals from April-
September are lower than from October-March (60 per cent of the annual arrivals).
However, business travel tends to be less seasonal.

Business traveller: The business offered by this segment is less seasonal and travellers
usually stay in premium segment hotels. This segment is highly dependent on the
economic scenario of the country.

Leisure traveller: The business offered by this segment is highly seasonal and tends to
increase during the October-March period.

Airline crew: This segment provides an assured occupancy for hotels that have contracts
with airlines. Hotels offer this segment a discount of nearly 40-50 per cent. Hence, in
cities where the demand for rooms is increasing (resulting in ARRs moving up), one will
find a reduction in the airline crew.
A survey conducted by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India
(FHRAI), in the 5-D and 5-star segments states that of the total reservation in 2003-04,
the maximum reservations came from business travellers while the least came from
airline crews.

Hotel concepts

1) Ecotel
An ecotel is an exclusive group of inns, hotels, or resorts that define the concept of
environmental responsibility within the hospitality industry. All certified hotels have to
pass a multi-level inspection by Hospitality Valuation Services (HVS) International, the
international ecotel-accreditation agency. A hotel receives a five-globe certification only
after it meets the 5 criteria and fulfils the norms specified by the agency. The five criteria
are environmental commitment, solid waste management, energy efficiency, water
conservation, and employee environmental education and community involvement. Since
its establishment in 1994, over 1,100 hotels from over 30 countries have applied for the
ecotel certification. However, to date, less than 5 per cent have been certified.
In Asia, The Orchid Hotel, Mumbai was the first to receive the ecotel award. The hotel
has been able to cut down operating expenses as a result of its eco-friendly practices.
Other ecotels in India include Hotel Rodas in Mumbai and The Uppal's Orchid in Delhi.

2) Resorts

Resorts cater to the leisure needs of a tourist. Usually located at hill stations or seashores,
resorts can be further classified into hill resorts, health resorts, beach resorts, summer
resorts and winter resorts.
Most resorts located at hill stations, have well defined off and peak season periods.
Hence, their revenue inflows keep fluctuating.
Among business destinations, resorts are usually characterized by higher occupancy rates
during weekends, as compared with weekdays. (However, The Resort, Mumbai targets
companies hosting conferences, seminars and meetings. Hence, its occupancy levels are
generally higher during weekdays than on weekends.)

3) Motels

In general, motels are located along highways connecting important cities. The significant
features distinguishing a motel from a hotel are

 adequate parking facilities

 cottage style accommodation (provided by most motels)
 short duration of stay.

KTDC's Motel Aaram Kuttippuram, Motel Aaram Kayamkulam, Motel Aaram Kannur,
Motel Aaram Athirappally, Motel Aaram Erimayur Palakkad and Motel Aaram Palaruvi
are some of the motels in India.

4) Floatels

A floatel is a floating hotel or a boat operating as a hotel. Floatels are being planned in
Goa and West Bengal.

5) Boutique hotels
The typical boutique hotel has less than 100 guest rooms, limited service, one or no
boardroom, and food and beverage is generally outsourced. The emphasis in boutique
hotels is on selling guest rooms (where the profit margins are significantly higher than in
banquets and meetings) by enticing a guest with its high design and lower rates. In
general, boutique hotels are characterised by a high percentage of repeat clientele.
Reportedly, there are around 500 boutique hotels worldwide. Some of the international
boutique hotels include Melia-Comfort Boutique Hotels, Hotel Punta Islita, W hotels,
Zoo Hotels, Ian Schrager Hotels, Scotsman Hotels, Bvlgari Hotels, Myhotel, The
Kimpton Group, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Orient-Express, Park Hyatt, Sofitel Demeure
Hotels and Amanresorts. In India, all the properties of The Park Hotel (Delhi, Kolkata,
Visakhapatnam and Bangalore) are boutique hotels. Some heritage hotels, like the palace
hotels in Rajasthan, are also boutique hotels.

6) Timesharing industry

The timeshare concept as an innovative way for increasing holiday choice took root in
Europe in the 1970s. Instead of booking a week or two at a resort every year, or
purchasing a holiday property outright, timeshare offers buyers the ability to buy rights of
occupancy in a property, typically in multiples of one week, for a set period. Once
consumers have purchased their holiday time, they can use it, pass it to friends or
relatives, or rent it out.
The timeshare industry offers various purchase options, to meet consumers' demand for
vacation variety and flexibility.
The availability of these purchase options varies by resorts. Some of the purchase options
include
Fixed week: Timeshare units sold for use during a specific week of the year.
Floating week: This could be any week reserved for the timeshare owner during a certain
season of the year.
Vacation clubs: Instead of purchasing a timeshare in a certain size of unit at a particular
resort, vacation club members purchase the opportunity to use a variety of timeshare
accommodations at various resort locations, usually within one developer's chain of
resorts. Some of the clubs operate on a points system.

Indian Hotels Company Limited

Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) was incorporated in 1902 by Jamshedji Tata. It
became a public limited company in 1958. The Taj Group consists of 54 companies,
including hotel-operating companies, hotel licensing companies, associate companies and
investment companies. At present, IHCL is the largest hotel company in India, in terms of
both revenues and number of rooms. Through its subsidiaries, associates and
management contracts, the company operates 63 properties with 8,017 rooms in India and
abroad. Of these, IHCL owns 19 properties with 2,865 rooms.
IHCL has been structured into four strategic business units — Taj luxury hotels, Taj
business hotels (with Taj Residency brands), Taj leisure hotels (with Taj palace hotels,
Taj resort hotels, Taj garden retreats, Taj cultural centre hotels), and Taj corporate. The
company aims at expanding both in the domestic as well as international market through
an ‘asset light strategy'. This means that the company will extend coverage; however, the
investment in assets will be limited and in proportion to their strategic importance and
financial return.

Number of hotels owned and managed

Table 1

No of hotels No of rooms
IHCL
Luxury hotels 7 2000
Business hotels 4 298
Leisure hotels 8 567
Subsidiaries 4 652
Associate/Joint venture 28 3207
Management contracts 12 1293
Total number 63 8017
Source: CRIS INFAC

Operating performance

Average room rate

Occupancy rate (per cent) RevPARs (Rs)
(Rs)
2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05
71 76 4785 5946 3381 4494

Indian Hotels Corporation Ltd (IHCL) is the biggest player with a market share of over
17 per cent.

Industry characteristics
The premium segment of the hotel industry is largely dependent on foreign tourist
inflows. Tourist inflows, especially international leisure tourist inflows, are seasonal in
nature. Owing to the summer and monsoon seasons, tourist arrivals from April-
September are lower than from October-March (60 per cent of the annual arrivals).
However, business travel tends to be less seasonal.
Business traveller: The business offered by this segment is less seasonal and travellers
usually stay in premium segment hotels. This segment is highly dependent on the
economic scenario of the country.

Leisure traveller: The business offered by this segment is highly seasonal and tends to
increase during the October-March period.

Airline crew: This segment provides an assured occupancy for hotels that have contracts
with airlines. Hotels offer this segment a discount of nearly 40-50 per cent. Hence, in
cities where the demand for rooms is increasing (resulting in ARRs moving up), one will
find a reduction in the airline crew.
A survey conducted by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India
(FHRAI), in the 5-D and 5-star segments states that of the total reservation in 2003-04,
the maximum reservations came from business travellers while the least came from
airline crews.

Tourist arrivals

In August 2005, the average revPAR (premium segment) in the 10 cities rose by 18 per
cent, primarily driven by ARR.
ARRs in the 10 cities increased by 18 per cent in August.
Segmentation of hotels
Various modes of classifying hotels
Hotels can be classified on the basis of the size of the rooms and the types of amenities
offered. The Department of Tourism has classified hotels into 7 categories: heritage
hotels, 5-star deluxe (5-D), 5-star, 4-star, 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star. Heritage hotels include
old palaces and havelis, which have been converted into hotels. The Department of
Tourism also reclassifies hotels every 3 years and is responsible for the classification of
5-D, 5-star and 4-star hotels while the state governments are responsible for the
classification of 1-star, 2-star and 3-star hotels. Classified hotels are also entitled to
benefits such as interest subsidies, income tax benefits, imports, and easy availability of
telephone and LPG connections.

Classification by segment
Segment Location Category Target Rates
Premium Around 50 per cent of5-D, 5-star Foreign business andHighest ARRs due to
these hotels are leisure travellers, seniorhighest levels of
concentrated in the four business executives andservice quality.
metros. top government officials.

Budget Located in major cities3-star, 4-Middle level businessOffer few facilities and
as well as small citiesstar executives and leisurecharge lower than the
and tourist destinations travelers premium segment.

Economy Located in major cities1-star, 2-Largely targeted atMinimum facilities.

as well as small citiesstar domestic tourists Charges are lower
and tourist destinations than that of the budget
segment.

Heritage Heritage hotelsHeritage Foregin leisure travelers ARRs are lower than
comprise old palaces,Grand, that of hotels in the
havelis, castles, fortsHeritage premium segment
and residences,Classic
constructed prior to
1950, converted into
hotels largely located in
leisure tourist
 destinations

India and the world market

The Indian hotel industry is relatively smaller when compared internationally. There are
over 1,400 hotels comprising 77,000 rooms spread across the country. 3-5 star and 5 star
deluxe hotels account for 65% of rooms. Out of this, 32% of rooms comprise of 5 star
and 5 star deluxe hotels. 4 & 3 star hotels constitute the remaining. 60% of the 5 star
hotels are situated in 2 major metros i.e. Mumbai and New Delhi.

Room supply in the 5 star segment has grown at a compounded annual growth of 5%
over the past decade. While the 3 and 4 star categories have grown at 6% and 8% CAGR
respectively during the same period.

The industry occupancies have hovered around the 55-60% mark for the last few years,
with the exception of FY01 when average occupancies reached around 70%. During
FY03, occupancies slumped to the lowest in the last five years at around 45-50%.

India's minuscule market share in total world travel and tourism demand — what's
lacking

High taxes render the Indian market uncompetitive for overseas travellers: In India, the
cost of travel and hotel facilities is high due to the high taxes levied on ATF (aviation
turbine fuel), rooms, and F&B. These taxes account for a significant portion of the total
travel cost and compare unfavourably with the lower taxes levied in competing
destinations, discouraging tourists, especially leisure travellers.

Poor infrastructure: Accommodation infrastructure has witnessed the slowest growth.

The availability of hotel rooms is still only a half of the number required to host even a
modest target of 5 million visitors.

Non-affordable hotel rooms: Currently a 6-nights, 7-days package to India costs around
30 per cent more as compared to other countries in South and South-east Asia, while a
premium segment hotel room is 25-30 per cent dearer.

Air connectivity, though better than in the past, not comparable to other countries:
International airfare to India is higher than to Malaysia or Thailand since there are more
scheduled carriers to these two countries and they also have a large movement of charter
operations, which keeps competition levels high and air fares low. In addition, high
landing charges, fuel taxes and high operational costs have resulted in high airfares in
India.

Improper maintenance of monuments and other places of tourist interest: Increasing

evidence shows that an integrated approach to tourism planning and management is now
required to achieve the type of responsible tourism, which sustains the well being of the
land, culture, environment and biodiversity of the place being visited.

Lack of awareness and information on India's tourism potential: Although the

government is laying emphasis on promoting India as a tourist destination, it still needs to
go a long way to compete with other countries.

Besides, high price of land, complex building by-laws and absence of single window
clearance have been the major disincentives in this sector.
Career options

A hotel consists of main departments such as Operations, Front office, House keeping,
Food and Beverages, Accounting, Engineering/ Maintenance, Sales and Security. Each
department has a number of positions that one can opt for.

General Operations

General manager who is the main in charge, is the coordinator and administrator,
responsible for staff management, financial control, provision of services, quality control
and customer care. Depending on the size of the hotel, general managers could have
assistant managers to supplement their work.

Front Office

It is the centre of all activities. Important functions of receiving the guests, making room
reservations, handling correspondence and preparing bills and keeping accounts of the
guest services are handled at the front office. The department is headed by Front office
manager or Executive House-keeper who supervises and co-ordinates the work. Then
there are Assistant Manager, Lobby executive, front office supervisor, information
assistant, receptionist, bell captain, bell boy, doorman etc. to perform their assigned roles.

House Keeping

The work of keeping the hotel, the rooms, the bars, the restaurants etc. clean and making
it presentable to the guests and ensuring facilities and comfort to them is handled by this
department. Those handling this department are Chief executive house keeper, floor
supervisor, room attendants, linen supervisors, Maids etc.

Food and Beverages Department

This department is the hub of the hotel industry and is responsible for all the food that is
prepared and served in the hotel. The main functions performed by the department are-
presentation, preparation and service of food and beverages involving kitchen, bar and
baker. Overall in charge of kitchen is known as Chef de Cuisine,the in charge of section
is called Chef de Partis and the one who supervises and coordinates the work of Chef de
partis is known as Sous-Chef. One who cooks food is known as Cook, the person in
overall charge of dining hall is called Maitre de hotel, Captain in charge of part of dining
hall is known as Chef de Range, one who serves food is Demi Chef de Range or Steward.
Then there is the restaurant hostess who makes the guests comfortable and deal with any
complaints by the guests. Those serving drinks are bartenders.
Accounting Department

This department deals with both cash and credit transactions, i.e all the financial
transactions like purchase of materials, offering of services to the guests etc. This
department also compiles information required for budgeting, pricing of food and
services and so on. Professionals like cash, cost and works accountants are given higher
positions in the department. Chief cashier, cash clerk/bill clerk are the positions handled
in this department.

Sales & Marketing

This department keeps in touch with travel agents and tour operators as well as other
potential corporate clients in order to sell hotel facilities. Advertising and Public
Relations is also normally handled by this department.

Engineering / Maintenance Department

Qualified engineers are appointed for the maintenance of the building and various
machines involved in the premises. They are assisted by necessary staff in the electrical
and mechanical departments. Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineer, Plumbers,
carpenters etc are employed by this department.

Then there is the Security department which provides security to the guest and their
belongings and employs security Officers/ guards for this purpose. Retires Army
personnel are preferred by this department.
Taj Lands End, Mumbai
Nestling in Bandra, an elite suburb of Mumbai, in the heart of the emerging business
district of Mumbai, Taj Lands End boasts the city’s finest restaurants, conferencing,
banqueting, and business centre facilities. It’s unique location makes the Taj Lands End
an ideal choice for the traveler offering the best of both the worlds – business as well as
pleasure.

Strategically located close to the Bandra-Kurla, Andheri and Worli business districts, this
hotel provides the ultimate in modern facilities and convenience. The hotel is situated 12
kms from the international and 8 kms from the domestic airport.
 Facilities & Services

Guests can look forward to distinctive service and quality amenities.

Hotel Business Services Meeting Rooms & Banquet Facilities

include: include:

Binding Extensive banqueting space spread over

Broadband Wireless (Wi-
Fi)Internet access
Mobile phones on hire
Multimedia computers
Secretarial services
Translation /
interpretation services
Video-conferencing
facilities
Webcast facility
Workstations
Hotel Leisure and Other
Services include:
Baby sitting
55,000sq. Ft., including three private
rooms and an opulent, pillarless
Ballroom. Meeting halls are connected by
spacious pre-function area perfect for
exhibition booths, and more.
All rooms have inbuilt speakers, screens
and broadband wireless (Wi-Fi) Internet
access. Video conferencing and Webcast
arrangements can be made on request.
Rooms are available for formal
gatherings, international exhibitions and
conventions, as well as cocktail parties
and other celebrations. Poolside and
emerald lawns exude a refreshing
informality with capacities for between
35-600 persons theatre style and up to
1200 persons for receptions. Covered
parking space for 550 cars.

Rooms and Suites

Spacious and sophisticated, all guestrooms at Taj Lands End offer luxurious style
and comfort.
Also available is a special non-smoking floor and a Ladies floor, designed to meet
the needs of the single lady traveler.

Taj Lands End's butler service is available to all guests staying in Luxury Rooms,
The Taj Club and Suites. The butlers offer each guest a highly personalised service.
Solo lady travellers will be served by Lady butlers only.

Superior Sea-view Rooms

All rooms are elegantly appointed and offer a minibar, wireless internet
connectivity, two-line speaker phone with international direct dial facility and
voicemail, complimentary incoming fax, ironing board on request, hair dryer, mini-
bar, large laptop size inroom-safe, daily newspaper, tea-coffee maker, 24-hour in-
room dining and 24-hour laundry service.

The Taj Club

Located on higher floors, and designed for today's business traveler. Guest
amenities and services include complimentary airport transfers, private check-in
and check-out at the Club desk, laptop size in-room personal safe, a complimentary
bottle of wine, and round-the-clock, highly personalised Butler service. Taj Club
guests can also enjoy complimentary deluxe continental breakfast, complimentary
tea/coffee throughout the day, and evening cocktails at The Club Lounge. Taj Club
also offers guests an exclusive Meeting Room on the Club Floor.

Deluxe Rooms
With a luxurious five-fixture bathroom with separate shower cubicle, a bathtub and
all the above guest amenities. Non-smoking rooms available on request.

Luxury Rooms
Luxuriously appointed, spacious rooms offering upgraded bath amenities,
complimentary one-way airport transfer, highly personalised 24-hour butler service
and all above guest amenities. Guests have a choice of rooms that overlook the
Arabian Sea, pool or the City.
Executive Suites
Sea-facing suites with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea. Each of these suites has
a living room, and bedroom with attached dressing area. Suites overlook the pool,
and offer panoramic views of the Arabian Sea. Guests in Executive Suites receive
round-the-clock, highly personalized butler services and all the guest amenities of a
Luxury room.

Grand Luxury Suite

Sea-facing suites with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea. Each of these suites has
a separate living room, dining room, kitchenette and a master bedroom. Guests in
Grand Luxury Suites receive round-the-clock, highly personalized butler service
and all the guest amenities of the Taj Club.

The Presidential Suites

Located on the 21st floor comprises of a stylish living room, dining room, a master
bedroom, an office room, a kitchenette and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi. Aesthetic
artifacts, an array of lighting effects and the sleek furniture gives a sense of space
and luxury. The plush furnishings and furniture accentuate the contemporary
ambience of the master bedroom. The Study room of the Presidential Suite
functions as an ideal office space.

Recreation
Guest can take advantage of our recreation activities for irresistible fun and relaxation.
 Fitness and Fun Recreation outside the Hotel
24-hour Fitness Centre (separate sections for Bowling Alley
ladies and gentlemen) Chembur Golf Club
Bookshop Golf – Royal Palm Golf Club
Jogging Track Tennis – Bandra Gym khana
Swimming pool Theatre – Rang Sharda

Dining
From casual, all-day eateries to formal, fine dining, guests can look forward to a
wide selection of delectable dishes and refreshing drinks.

At Taj Lands End, we offer a distinctive dining experience, one that explores the
nuances of the finest Indian and international cuisines, serving traditional and
contemporary favourites.

Atrium Lounge:
This inviting lounge, the perfect venue for informal meetings, offers a variety of
delicious cocktails, mocktails, and snacks.

Masala Bay:
This contemporary Indian restaurant offers a selection of traditional Indian
favourites in a modern and interactive environment.

Ming Yang:
Guests can tantalize their taste buds with authentic Sichuan cuisine at this Chinese
restaurant, offering panoramic views of the Arabian Sea.

Pure:
India’s first international restaurant with a focus on organic ingredients, offers food
that bursting with flavour, yet naturally balanced.

Vista:
Scenic views of the sea perfectly complement the refreshing flavours of this trendy,
all-day dining restaurant.

The Orchid - An Ecotel Hotel is Asia's first certified eco-friendly five-star hotel and
world's only Ecotel to be certified as ISO 14001. This 245-room hotel is strategically
located adjacent to the domestic airport making it a convenient place for the
business traveler to stay.

Everything is designed so as to be unobtrusive. Like The Club Privé, an exclusive

club floor with a private lounge and butler service. Or the well-appointed business
and conference center to take care of your business needs.

Dining

The exclusivity of The Orchid is experienced as soon as one enters the atrium that is
serenaded by a 70-foot indoor waterfall. Around the waterfall, on the first level is
the Boulevard, the 24-hour coffee shop. Besides, The Boulevard provides a unique
guaranteed time-bound service aptly called the "Lightening Menu" or the "10
Minute Menu". If the service is even a minute late, the meal is on the house!

Mostly Grills the lovely roof top barbecue restaurant serves modern fusion cuisine.
The setting is a very surrealistic Mexican village with a pool by the side and the
breathtaking view of the airport runway on the other.

Vindhyas, which many Mumbai gourmets consider the best Indian restaurant in
town, is a unique concept showcasing the cuisine and culture of peninsular India.
Here in a very ethnic temple setting you can experience the intriguing flavors of nine
Indian peninsular states, the folk dance performances only go to serve as the perfect
accompaniments. Abutting Vindhyas is Merlin's Bar. The name itself conjures
images of magical concoctions that will help lift your spirits and unwind, and what's
more Merlins is open till 3.00 am, giving you ample time to enjoy the magic. At the
lobby is The Gourmet Shop, a deli and cake shop.

Facilities

'Rooms'
The Orchid accommodations offer the finest in luxury and state-of-the-art technology, to make
your online reservation in an instant. Choose from 5 different types of rooms to suit your
convenience and budget.

• Deluxe Rooms/Suites
• Executive Rooms/Suites
• Club Private Rooms/Suites
• Orchid Suites
• Presidential Suites

'Additional Facilities'

Rooftop Swimming Pool

A top-of-the-world feeling,overlooking the busy airport and the Mumbai skyline.

• Fitness Centre
Enjoy a brisk work-out at our state-of-the-art fitness centre.
• Complimentary Airport transfers.
• A Travel desk for onward arrangements .

• Same day laundry/dry cleaning service.

 Rooms

Well appointed environment friendly Standard Room with a choice of twin or

double beds. This 225 sq.ft room has the following highlights:
Wall to wall lint free carpeting
Writing desk with internet connection
Refrigerated minibar
Wardrobe
Direct dialing local/Intl with voice mail
Interactive TV

A spacious split level room with a cabinet partition differentiating the living area
and the bedroom . This 250 sq.ft. room has got the following highlights :
Wall to wall lint free carpeting
Writing desk with internet connection
Refrigerated minibar
Wardrobe
Direct dialing local/Intl with voice mail
Interactive TV
A spacious 2 room suite with a Living Room & a master bedroom separated
by a door

The most exotic suite at The Orchid, The Presidential Suite has a spacious
Living Room with a dining area & a cozy bedroom. Stay in Style and enjoy a
private Jacuzzi, a stress relieving massage chair and a walk-in wardrobe.
Section III

Comparative Analysis of The Taj Vs The Orchid

The Hotel Has Visually Attractive Building Exteriors & Parking Area

12
10
8
No. Of People 6
The Taj
4
The Orchid
2
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public Opinion

Findings: Both the hotels have an attractive building and are able to draw customer
attention.
 T h e h o tel h as visually attractive acco m o d atio n th at is co m fo rtab le an d easy to
m o ve aro u n d

14
12
10
8
No . o f p e o p le
6
4 The Taj
2 The O rc hid
0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Dis agree D is agree A gree A gree
P u b lic O p in io n

Findings: The Taj does provide more comfortable accommodation and access to
space than the Orchid.

Recommendation: The Orchid can rearrange their interior décor to make

accommodation more appealing to the customers

T h e h o te l h a s a p p ro p ria te m u s ic a n d illu m in a tio n in k e e p in g w ith th e a tm o s p h e re

12
10
8
No . o f p e o p le6
4 The Taj

2 The O rc hid

0
S trongly S om ew hat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
D is agree D is agree A gree A gree
P u b lic O p in io n

Findings: Both the hotels are well lit and have proper music facilty that are enjoyed
by their respective customers.
 The hotel has clean and elegant dining equipment

14
12
10
8
No. of people
6
The Taj
4
The Orchid
2
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public Opinion

Findings: Both hotels provide clean and elegant dining equipment that have
impressed their customers.

The hotel has excellent taste of food

10
8
6
No. of people
4 The Taj
2 The Orchid

0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public Opinion

Findings: The Orchid seems to have a better variety of food that is enjoyed by its
customers as compared to the Taj.

Recommendation: The Taj can take part in various food festivals to enhance its
customers preference regarding choice of food.
 T h e h o tel o ffers excellen t ap p earan ce o f fo o d

10
8
6
No. of pe ople
4 The Taj
2 The Orc hid

0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree Som ewhat S trongly
Disagree Dis agree A gree A gree
P ublic opinion

Findings: Both hotels present their customers with food that is well served and
pleasing to the customers eye.

The dining staff is friendly

9
8
7
6
5
No. of pe ople
4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Som ewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree A gree
P ublic Opinion

Findings: The dining staff of both hotels seem to be efficient in their job.
 The dining staff is alw ays w illing to help you

10
8
6
No. of pe ople
4 The Taj
2 The Orc hid

0
Strongly Som ewhat Agree Som ewhat S trongly
Disagree Disagree A gree A gree
Public opinion

Findings: Both hotels are able to put their customers at ease and serve them
effectively.

The dining staff is knowledgeable and confident

9
8
7
6
5
No. of people
4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The staff of both the hotels are well aware of their job and its specific
function and are confident in providing their service.
 The dining staff understands your specific needs

9
8
7
6
5
No. of people
4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The staff of both the hotels are well groomed and trained to relate to
every customers needs.

The hotel offers consistent communication through restaurant newsletters or

direct mail

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2
1 The Orchid
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Both Hotels seem to lack in communication between customers.

Recommendation: The hotels must pay close attention on maximizing their recent
functions and events and making them known to their customers
 The staff provides information about new events or special promotion
programs

5
4
3
No. of People
2
The Taj
1 The Orchid
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The hotels do have staff members that are able to enlighten the customer
about the new events and programs taking place

Recommendation: However it would be advisable to conduct employee training

programs to keep the staff more up to date on the recent happenings and events.

Th e hotel is active in providing m ass media advertising and telemarketing service

6
5
4
No. of pe op le3
2 The Taj
1 The Orc hid

0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Dis agree Dis agree A gree A gree
P ublic o pinion

Findings: It seems that customers are not aware of the advertising campaigns and
other telemarketing services initiated by the hotels.

Recommendation: The hotel must make sure that it leaves no stone unturned in
generating more customer interest through the means of advertisement and print
media etc.
 I recieve regularly scheduled personal letters (e.g., birthday and
anniversary cards) from the hotel

12
10
8
No. of pe ople 6
4 The Taj
2 The Orc hid
0
S trongly Som ewhat A gree Somewhat S trongly
Disagree Disagree Agree A gree
Public opinion

Findings: The hotels are unaware of their customers personal details

Recommendation: The hotels must keep track of their customer details through the
installation of effective information systems. This helps in bridging the gap between
the hotel and its customers and helps garner customer loyalty

I get discounts or special deals that most customers don't get

7
6
5
4
No. of people
3
The Taj
2
The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The hotels do not carry out enough offers to help proceed customer
benefits.

Recommendation: The hotels can issue complementary vouchers to certain

customers. Also customers should be allowed to avail of special deals and discounts
on a timely basis.
 I w a s tre a te d a s a s p e c ia l a n d v a lu e d c u s to m e r

16
14
12
10
N o . o f p e o p le8
6 Th e Taj
4 Th e O rc h id
2
0
S tron gly S o m ew ha t A gree S o m e w hat S trongly
D is agree D is a gree A g re e A gree
P u b lic o p in io n

Findings: Both Hotels have great regard for their customers and treat them with
care. However The Orchid could pay a little more attention to customer treatment.
I regu larly receive new info rm atio n abo ut a n ew p rodu ct, special o ccasio ns an d
pro mo tio ns

12
10
8
No. of pe ople 6
4 The Taj
2 The Orchid
0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Disagree Dis agree A gree A gree
Public opinion

Findings: The customers are not informed about new promotions and special
events.

Recommendations: The hotel can issue periodic news letters and pamphlets to their
customers so that they are made aware of the latest happenings.
 I am recognised by certain dining staff

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The Staff are not able to recognize the customers on certain visits.

Recommendations: Staff rotation must be minimized to an extent such that they are
aware of who are the regular customers and clients.

I valu e th e c lo se, p erso n al relatio n sh ip I ha ve w ith th e staff

6
5
4
No. of pe o ple3
2 The Taj
1 The O rc hid

0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Dis agree Disagree A gree A gree
P u blic o pinio n

Findings: The Orchid seems to have been successful in establishing a good

relationship with its customers as compared to the Taj.

Recommendations: The Taj can pay more attention to their customers demand and
needs and provide them with efficient service that will help create a close bond with
their customers.
 The food prices at this hotel are fair

9
8
7
6
5
No. of people
4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public Opinion

Findings: The Hotels are relatively at par when it comes to their pricing strategy,
with The Orchid having a slight edge over the Taj.

The price charged by this hotel is appropriate

7
6
5
4
No. of people
3
The Taj
2
The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The customers feel that The Orchid is more affordable as their prices are
appropriate for the service provided.
Recommendations: The Taj could run specials like ‘Happy Hours’ where in the
food prices are reduced only for a specific period of time.

The price charged by this hotel is rational

7
6
5
4
No. of pe ople
3
The Taj
2
The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The Orchid has a more rational pricing strategy than The Taj.
 The quality of service at this hotel is consistently high

12
10
8
No. of people 6
4 The Taj
2 The Orchid

0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Both hotels provide good service quality

The service performances at this hotel always meet my expectations

12
10
8
No. of people 6
4 The Taj
2 The Orchid

0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Both hotels are able to meet customer expectations effectively

 I am concerned that the service performance will not be worth the money

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Customers of both the hotels are confident about the service performance
of the hotels

The ingredients and quality of food at this hotel are reliable

10
8

6
No. of pe ople
4 The Taj
2 The Orchid

0
Strongly Som ewhat Agree Som ewhat Strongly
Disagree Dis agree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Both hotels are able to gain the customers trust and ensure them that the
quality of food served is of the finest standards.
 Your level of satisfaction with the quality of service is very high

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Though both hotels are able to satisfy their customers, The Taj is able to
endure better customer satisfaction

Your overall rate of satisfaction with this hotel is very high

7
6
5
4
No. of people
3
The Taj
2
The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Both Hotels are able to satisfy their customers from an overall perception
of service provision.
 On the basis of overall satisfaction you would rate this hotel compared with
other hotels as very high

7
6
5
4
No. of people
3
2 The Taj
1 The Orchid
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The Taj has a higher rating over The Orchid in this aspect.
 My level of emotional attachm ent to this hotel is high

6
5
4
No. of pe ople3
2 The Taj
1 The Orc hid

0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Disagree Disagree A gree A gree
P ublic opinion

Findings: The Orchid is not able to connect emotionally with its customers as the
Taj.

Recommendations: The Orchid can maintain customer relations by keeping track of

their customers personal details like birthdays etc . This will help the customer to
know how much value they are to the Hotel

My relationship with this hotel has a great deal of personal meaning to me

6
5
4
No. of people 3
2 The Taj
1 The Orchid

0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Once again the Orchid is unable to connect personally with their
customers.
 W hen ano ther ho tel ru ns specials, I am very likely to sw itch to ano ther o ne
rath er than patroniz e this h otel

10
8
6
No. of pe ople
4 The Taj
2 The Orc hid
0
S trongly S om ewhat A gree S om ewhat S trongly
Disagree Disagree A gree A gree
P ublic opinion

Findings: The hotels are likely to loose their customers to other competitors.

Recommendations: The hotels must provide their regular customers with special
deals and discounts such that the customer will not think of patronizing another
hotel.

I have a strong intention to visit this hotel again

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public Opinion

Findings: The Taj is able to attract their customers to visit again more often as
compared to the Orchid.
 I consider this hotel as my first choice compared to other hotels

9
8
7
6
5
No. of people
4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: The Orchid is able to make a lasting impression on their customers such
that they are drawn to the same hotel for any of their needs. This may hold true on
the fact that the Orchid is more reasonable than the the Taj.
 I want to tell other people positive things about this hotel

8
7
6
5
No. of people 4
3 The Taj
2 The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: Customers of both the hotels are interested in spreading positive feedback
on the hotel to their friends.

I want to recommend this hotel to my friends and family

7
6
5
4
No. of people
3
The Taj
2
The Orchid
1
0
Strongly Somewhat Agree Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
Public opinion

Findings: While most customers want to spread positive feedback on the hotel they
are a bit reluctant to recommend the same to their family and friends.
This could be to the fact that the hotel may be a bit too expensive for their budget,
inadequate service quality or for personal reasons known to them.