CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Project on Telecom Industry

Comparative analysis of CRM strategy of the top 3 brands in the Telecom Industry

Submitted By: Group 1 Sumitra Mohanty Kumar Rishi Abhik Shome Sudipta Chakraborty

Project Title: Comparative analysis of CRM strategy of the top 3 brands (in terms of revenue) in a particular industry (based on secondary sources)

What are the major elements of CRM in given industry? Which of them followed by all, which are followed by one/other? Whose strategy is better and why? Has it been reflected in the outcomes (how)? The project report document should begin with a note on industry (industry analysis)

What are the major elements of CRM in given industry?

The objective of customer relationship management is to unite and join information technology and business processes in a fashion that enables the firm to acquire new customers, to retain existing customers, and maximize the lifetime value of its customers. Most importantly, CRM allows firms to differentiate customer treatments based on specific customer needs and preferences. The challenge for todays organizations is not merely to reach the top, but to stay there. If that is an organizations aim, its primary focus should be not merely to attract customers, but to obtain their loyalty and, thus, their support, not only for the present, but also for the long term. This loyalty, however, is the end result of an on-going, long-term relationship. Such relationships are founded on an organizations ability to maintain and extend its relationships with customers and that could be possible by CRM. In the telecom industry there are no of players in the market. Thus, to maintain a long term relationship with its customers different relationship strategies are needed for the various organizations. Times are tough in the telecommunications industry. Saturated markets leave little room to maneuver, debts stifle capital investment, and rolling out new services is often prohibitively expensive. But delivering on new strategic goals profitability, lower churn, higher customer satisfaction, reduced costs, and competitive edge are a must. In the competitive business arena the following areas have to be considered by the company as a part of implementation of CRM or we can say these are the elements of CRM.

Customer service:
CRM solutions give the company the functionality and integration needed to meet the customers and other stakeholders demands .It will help the organization to be customer centric with the kind of individual care and attention that todays consumers expect. At the same time, it enables the company to achieve strategic business goals, such as lower costs through process automation and optimization, increased productivity of front- and back-office staff, lower churn, and greater profitability.

Customer care and Billing:

CRM provides a wide range of capabilities for organizations centre of interaction and for customer self-care via organizations Web sites. As a result, customer care centres can resolve issues with speed and efficiency. Detailed customer profiles give service providers the facts and figures they need to effectively manage interactions via phone, e-mail, fax, or letter. Full integration with financial, billing, and order and service management systems enables them to investigate and wrap up inquiries quickly, professionally, and with point and click simplicity. Service providers of customer care centres or agents can access and modify customer billing data; view invoices, account balances, and full customer histories; accept payments; create credit notes; and reconnect services. Furthermore, they can react immediately to requests for information, and send out product brochures and contract details. Now the CRM systems meet all types of customer expectations

with the verifications of customer information from CRM database and provide automated billing systems for customers within a smallest unit of time.

Marketing:
CRM help to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability of organizations marketing campaigns and promotions. Organization can use real-time information to plan, budget, execute, and analyze their activities at any level: enterprise, regional, field, product, or brand. Through CRM systems it is possible to roll out highly personalized campaigns, targeting products to customers who are most likely to be interested, thus raising profitability and reducing waste which is most important for the telecom industry.

Sales and Contract Management:

The Telecom industry requires better functionality and CRM equips the industry with the functionality required to shorten sales cycles, increase revenues, maximize productivity, and optimize direct, indirect, or online channels. Organization can plan and forecast sales activities with greater accuracy and organize territories according to a range of criteria such as size, revenue, product lines, or strategic accounts. Organizations have to a direct motivational impact to their sales representatives by developing and deploying sophisticated incentive programs.

Partner Relationship Management:

Beyond the companies' walls, CRM helps partners share critical information on sales forecasts, order flow, and delivery schedules. The System also offers a wide range of self service capabilities and tools via an Internet portal and provides full access to the information and processes that help dealers sell more of their companies products and services. Companies can also maintain all types of information about dealer s, agents, and partners with their agreed contract.

Advantages of CRM in Telecom Industry:

The goal of CRM: It is important to make superior product, it is more important to superior understanding the customer mind. By the adoption of CRM Telecom Industry is gaining following advantages. 1. Single view of the customer Companies with a single view of the customer are able to link call centre databases, Internet orders and inquiries, customer prospect lists, accounting files, and other databases so they have but one view of the customer. They are able to update this in real time and ensure that a customer accessing the company through the Internet, for example, is treated seamlessly if they next contact the call centre. This single view is necessary before the company can consider issues such as a learning relationship, true interactivity, prediction, and creating new value with

individual customers. For telecom service companies, a single and comprehensive view of the customer, while a sought after objective, is not yet in place. For several firms, there remains an opportunity to further develop the customer data warehouse and knowledge management, and deploy software to manage all inbound and outbound customer interactions. 2. CRM as a series of tactics As suggested above, the full potential of CRM will not be realized until one view of the customer is in place. But, more generally, telecom service companies would do well to see CRM as more than a series of tactics to realize customer value. Sending out highly targeted customer promotions and measuring the ROI of these promotions is good. Tying these initiatives together in an integrated way to execute a CRM strategy would be better. Best would be the restatement of the strategy of the business as a CRM strategy. 3. Businesses Well Known for B2B CRM Telecom service companies deploy sales reps to cover business-to-business accounts. These reps know their accounts well indeed, but they are less well supported by CRM technology than they might be. Opportunities exist, for example, for each salesperson to be a CRM manager, reviewing the relative importance of accounts, receiving suggestions for behaviour management, and selecting personalized and customized communications solutions to drive this behaviour. Software exists to ease this task. 4. Customers Triaged According to Value Telecom companies have already assessed the value of their customers to the company and have triaged customers by this value - Best, Average and Worst or according to their profitability and potential for growth. Some telecom service companies have used this triage as a basis to organize their companies according to the value of the customer. They often have the processes in place to address each type of customer efficiently and effectively. As suggested by comments from the preceding section, there remain opportunities for some companies to more fully realize the value potential of their customers through technology, to manage customer churn, to increase the scope of services used from a single service provider, and to build a learning relationship. 5. Excellent Use of People to Respond to E-mails It is no longer acceptable to receive a timely but irrelevant or impersonal response obviously sent by an automated system. Software and service bureaus are available to manage responses, analyze content in e-mails to auto-reply in context with personalized messages. The right technology can provide an intelligent response to every customer choice in real-time, unobtrusively.

Challenges Faced by Telecom Industry for the adoption of CRM:

Setting up the vision Commitment of senior management

Choosing customers Creating new value Overcoming legacy investments Developing meaningful e-CRM strategies

Which of them followed by all, which are followed by one/other? Whose strategy is better and why? Has it been reflected in the outcomes (how)?

1. Bharti Airtel

Market Share: 19.5% Airtel functions in 20 countries and has its operations spread across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It offers services like 2G, 3G and 4G depending upon the country of operation. It is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world.

2. Reliance Communications

Market Share: 16.7% RCOM is the world's 16th largest mobile phone operator and was founded in the year 2004. It provides both 2 G and 3G services across the nation. The Reliance group can be credited for the telecom revolution in the country

3. Vodafone

Market Share: 16.4% Vodafone India, formerly known as Vodafone Essar and Hutchison Essar was founded in the year 1994. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It provides both 2G and 3G services across the nation. Its advertising campaign of ZooZoos became a rage, and has given the brand a lot of recognition and respect

India's largest private telecom player, Bharti Airtel Ltd reduced their STD and roaming charges across all mobile tariff plans in April 2008. This price cut benefited all pre- and post-paid mobile subscribers who were paying more than the above rates for their national long-distance calls. Immediately after Airtel's tariff-cut, another telecom giant in India, Reliance Communications came out with unlimited free STD calls for all Reliance to Reliance mobile phone connections and new Reliance Mobile customers across post-paid, pre-paid and its 'Hello' fixed wireless phone customers. Later, other telecom players such as Vodafone, BSN, etc. followed the trend. The competitive pricing strategies adopted by the Indian telecom players reflected an emerging price war in the Indian telecom industry. The business approach of Airtel is such that it focuses on the current trends, the facilities which the customers may want in the present scenario and it focuses on providing that.

Although the intent was very good but Airtels customer base is so huge and so vast and varied across different societies and geographies that it was getting far too difficult to satisfy and answer them all. In comparison with it, Vodafones service has been rated far superior; better then both Airtel and reliance. So as we can see Airtel is the trend setter with its up to date market approach focusing on present needs of a varied customer range. Reliance and Vodafone are the biggest competitor it has who are following suit on Airtels capability by giving more focused approach and hence excelling on service performance which is the case of Vodafone. Airtel has a customer oriented approach in every business proposition and plan it has. New and customized plans are all majorly Airtels innovation with reliance following in and Vodafone laying a mark. The brand Airtel is proper positioned in the market and has also focused on maximum service and efficiency but the competitors in Reliance and Vodafone have focused in more value additions and focused plans.

The project report document should begin with a note on industry (industry analysis)

The telecom industry in India has witnessed a transformation from a monolithic regime, through an age of de-regulation and privatization; it has seen the rapid rise of market players who offer innovative products and services. This change has been commensurate with the growth of the industry, now ranked the fifth largest in the world and soon expected to be second largest. Faced with a growing market and increasing competition, companies in the telecom business are adopting to new technological imperatives in order to outperform their competitors. These companies adapt continuously to the dynamic environment so as to survive competition. The emphasis here lies in identifying critical value adding processes and redesigning them to become customer centric. IT is being adopted to redefine the customer service parameters and for retaining customers. The ultimate objective of technology consists in its applicability in targeting to right customers and catering efficiently to their needs. One such practice which is being followed by the telecom companies is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to help them compete in the ever changing environment. CRM signifies identifying the needs of the customers and stretching out ways and means to satisfy them. In this perspective CRM cannot be treated merely as a technology; it also has implications in the strategy formulation for companies. It focuses on the customers looking for value in all their transactions and is willing to pay for that value. In a way technology has brought the customers closer to the marketer. Knowledge about markets, segments and product usage can be made easily available to the organizations. Many companies thrive on this knowledge as it enables them to design the right kind of marketing and promotional strategies to capture the attention of the customers. Even capturing the attention of the customer has become challenging as media proliferation has led to increase in competition. A better equipped customer with knowledge about various alternatives available in the market is difficult to be convinced. Companies have to be alert in their approach to understand the customers definition of value and accordingly position themselves on quality, service, performance, and efficiency perspective. It becomes imperative to create value for their customers; a value that is able to bind them to the company and stop them from switching to another companys product. Advertising and promotions can be instrumental in influencing the purchase decision concerning the product launched in the market; but if the company has built a long-term relationship with its customers, advertising and promotion can become more effective in delivering returns. Reducing costs, aggressive promotion and advertising necessarily did not bring revenues and loyal customers.