Customer Relationship Management

Chapter 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Objective My prime objective is to know about the functioning of Customer Relationship Management & its contribution towards Economic Development of the county Primary Data 1. Canara Bank. 2. Mandvi Co.operative Bank. 3. www.crmsurvey.com Secondary Data 1. CRM relating books. 2. Economic Times. 3. CRM Articles from South Indian Bank. 4. CRM in India.

Chapter 2. Customer Relationship Management Introduction

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Customer Relationship Management is all about understanding the customers needs and leveraging this knowledge to increase sales and improve service. Customer Relationship Management blurs the boundaries between sales and services, and is used to unify a companys activities around the customer. The overarching goal is to increase customer share and customer retention through customer satisfaction. True Customer Relationship Management requires relentless focus on the customer. That is it in a nutshell. Just as a Roadmap will help you to understand the roads, you will need to take as well as alternative routes, so CRM helps sign companies make decision about the best route and objectives for their situation. Many businesses use CRM as a management tool for after the prospect has been given to a customer, but to do this you must attract the customer. Although CRM is great for managing customer relationship, it can also utilized for marketing purpose and you can squeeze out of the most of a system that saves valuable time and improves relationships significantly.

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2.1. The Evolution Of Customer Relationship Management. CRM must start with a business strategy, which drives changes in the organization and work processes, which are in turn enabled by Information Technology. The reverse does not work. The seeds of modern-day CRM were sown in the 1960s. Academic researchers found that the "4 Ps" marketing framework--product, price, place and promotion was less valuable for industrial or service-centric businesses where ongoing relationships were critical. By the 1980s, "Relationship Marketing" was used to describe this new focus on understanding customer segments, delivering ongoing quality service, and achieving high customer satisfaction. Relationship marketing was about "putting the customer in the middle of the business circle," in the words of Dick Lee, principal of St. Paul-based Hi-Yield Marketing. "As part of that early relationship marketing movement, we had untold frustration because we didn't have the technology to support what we were doing," Lee says. "It really wasn't until mid-90s that we had the technology we needed."

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In the 1990s, computer systems were deployed to support sales and service processes. Sales Force Automation systems quickly evolved from simple contact managers, while Customer Service and Support systems became the backbone of automated call centers. By the mid-1990s, "CRM" became the umbrella term as it became clear that sales and service systems should share information. More recently, Enterprise Marketing Automation (EMA) applications joined the CRM fold, including systems for customer analysis and marketing campaign management. By the late-1990s, the real action was outside the corporate firewall. Explosive growth in Internet usage spawned a proliferation of e-business applications to manage online customer and partner relationships, often called "e-CRM" and "Partner Relationship Management," respectively. Now, "multi-channel CRM" systems were available to, theoretically, support direct, Internet, and partner channels, while allowing users to use whatever mode of communication they pleased.

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A)_Left Hand Meet Right Hand Much of what satisfies customers, of course, is a company's ability to preserve the "single face" of a customer. Some companies are semantically confused and think the customer wants to see the company's "single face." Customers don't care about that. What they want is for the company to always see their--the customers'-full faces. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. With the Internet, companies in the present are still pretty bad about presenting a single face to
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the customer, says Jeet Singh, CEO of Cambridge-based ATG, Inc. The Internet has blown the multiple touch point issue to the forefront, and in many firms, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Customers might start researching product information on a Web site, then pick up the phone to get a crucial question answered, then do the actual buying with a local distributor or retail outlet. The challenge now is for companies to present that single face in all these real-world scenarios. The root of the problem is simply the fossilized ways that companies treat information--dump it in a "silo" (otherwise known as a department, division, or business unit) and then defend it from the rest of the organization. If figured out how to redesign workflow to make for happier customers, employee of the company taking a jackhammer to functional silos, creating a lot of stress in an organization that will probably resist such changes. It must have to bend and reshape the internal technologies to support customercentric, rather than silo-centric, business processes. "This situation is driving interest to new CRM approaches with environments that can offer greater central control or management," says Karen Smith, senior analyst with Boston-based Aberdeen Group. "Organizations are demanding CRM solutions that provide greater visibility into asset management, forecasting

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and inventory management, product development, procurement, and order and transaction management." It's clear that the Web is making the inefficiencies and inconsistencies of big companies transparent to customers and partners. To win the battle for customer loyalty in the future, companies must shift from stand-alone business technology approaches to systems that support the total customer experience and work across multiple enterprises.

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2.3 CRM benefits 1) Strategic benefits Customer relationship management does not enable a quick win. It is a long-term approach that has to be adopted at a strategic level. This is recognized in 90% of the organizations surveyed and obviously has a high level of importance in a companys strategy to increase revenue. However, the understanding of the strategic benefits of relationship management still has some way to go. To a greater degree they have understood the implications of customer relationship management and have identified the risk to their business of not doing so, namely loss of customers and competitive attack. They have yet to look at the bigger picture and all of the associated benefits that would enable their business strategies to be successful. In view of respondents customer relationship management enable a company to reduce the cost of customer acquisition, Increase customer retention, Improve cross selling of other products and services and give established players the ability to react like a new entrant Respondents realize that the competencies required to deliver these benefits are to deliver on its service promise, integrate products
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and service channels effectively, customize products, services and prices, create opportunities for cross selling and delivery mechanisms for the onward promotion of these products and services, reduce time to market by allowing quick and effective introduction of new products and services.

2) Functional benefits of CRM Strategy formulation in todays highly competitive environment is the most important and difficult decision for any firm to make. In response to the question on who in Organization will get maximum strategic benefits of CRM Initiatives, majority of managers have indicated that they consider strategy decision makers. IT and Delivery sections would to the after sales according to the managers follow immediate benefit. 3) Expected benefits World-wide experience has shown CRM implementation increases number of customers, increases customer retention rate by retaining most profitable customers, increases customer loyalty and helps in developing lifetime relationship with customers. Over 70% of the firms are highly optimistic in getting benefited on these

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parameters. Expectations are greater in increased customer retention and loyalty. 4) CRM capabilities Integration of interactive technologies and customer centric business processes to identify, learn and predict buyer behaviour and to create one to one marketing strategies. A business strategy to create intelligent opportunities to retain customers, up sell, cross-sell and ultimately customize products and services. A customer centric business intelligent system to create decision support systems for efficient sales, marketing and service processes. Chapter 3. The Important Tools And Techniques Introduction Knowing what problems need to solve is 51 percent of the solution. Walk into Home Depot and its inundated with a thousand tools. It's hopeless-unless the person know that he needs a screwdriver. That cuts 98 percent of everything available out of the discussion. He needs a Phillips screwdriver. There goes another 1.5 percent. He has six dollars to spend and then down to a manageable selection.
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Any technology works the same way. All those fancy gizmos, no matter how pricey or complicated, are merely tools to solve your business problems and improve your organization's ability to please customers. Nevertheless, you'd be surprised about how many CRM implementations court disaster by purchasing technology with only a vague, sketchy idea of what tools are actually needed. Here's what you're likely to find in the aisles of a store full of B2B collaboration tools: 1) Lead and Opportunity Management. These tools help deploy sophisticated systems to target leads to the most qualified partners, based on certification, geography, or other business rules. These leads can then be accessed via a secure extranet by the targeted partner. Next-generation systems will allow vendors and partners to exchange leads and lead status information through process integration, rather than forcing visits to yet another portal. 2) Order Management. Early on, vendors experimenting with e-commerce discovered their channel partners wielded considerable market power and were none too pleased to be cut out of the flow of business. Distributed
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e-commerce systems allow customers to visit a vendor's Web site, do some research, then fill a shopping cart. The vendor's site helps the customer pick the appropriate partner, based on geography, price or other factors, and the shopping cart is electronically transferred to the selected partner's site. This is great collaborative e-business, leveraging the strengths of each party. 3) Service Incident Management. Post-sales service and support is a costly fact of life in any business. Collaborative service systems help glue customer service processes together across multiple organizations. A customer service request can be tracked across departments or companies using a single Web page, much like tracking a shipment via the FedEx Web site. 4) Integrated Marketing Portals. Portals have limitations in B2B processes, but they're a great way to reach consumers. Effective portal tools use XML to aggregate content streams from multiple parties, and then syndicate this information in a consumer-facing portal. If the content changes at the source, it's changed in the portal automatically without requiring a slow and costly traditional Web publishing process.
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5) Team Collaboration. People still do the real work in complex selling and service scenarios. Even with robust relationship management systems, people still need to interact using e-mail, desktop documents, project plans, etc. Collaboration tools allow companies to manage this unstructured information via shared workspaces that can be used by customers, partners and employees. Using such systems can help an enterprise rapidly form teams and enable people to work faster and smarter. That's a good idea in any economy.

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3.1. Market Overview The once familiar and distinct territories known as the banking industry, insurance industry, and securities industry are quickly disappearing. Deregulation, technology, and global competition are blurring the lines that traditionally defined the financial services marketsgeography, product offerings, and distribution channels. The traditional means of doing business are also changing. Instead of going to the bank or an insurance company, people will more likely visit the automated teller machine (ATM), a kiosk, or website, where they can also check their stock portfolio or compare insurance rates online.

Customers, faced with an increasing array of financial products and services, are expecting more from providers in terms of customized offerings, value, ease of access, and personalized service. For example, it is now more difficult for companies to differentiate their products solely on price. Forward-looking financial industry executives wanting to keep pace with the rapid changes are seeking to better understand, respond to, and anticipate the challenges of the new market places. This white paper discusses the changing financial services industry and then outlines the way in which solutions like PeopleSoft
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customer relationship management (CRM) can help financial organizations build customer and channel loyalty, enhance customer relationships, and increase customer, channel, and product profitability, and market share.

3.2 Changing Competitive Landscape In the financial arena, distinct industry sectors are giving way to the concept of financial services retailers. This trend is exemplified by mega-mergers such as Citicorp and Travelers. Financial services companies are now able to combine to form one-stop financial supermarkets where they can define themselves by the customers they target and the distribution channels best suited for those customers. These trends are putting pressure on financial institutions to increase revenues in a shrinking base of opportunity and to deliver growth in shareholder value. With the market for retail financial services suffering from overcapacity and the growing competition from online providers, the industry standard of 10 percent to 15 percent growth in earnings per share is increasingly hard to achieve. Companies are searching for greater economies of scale in an effort to control costs and increase return on investment while at the same time drive market share through cross-selling
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opportunities and global

expansion.

Increasing competition, deregulation, and the internet have all contributed to the increase in customer power. Technology has reduced barriers to entry and exit for the customer, making it easier to switch banks or brokers without feeling the pinch in the wallet. Retaining customers and minimizing churn are both major concerns for financial services institutions, and financial companies need to effectively leverage existing customer relationships and make better use of customer information across the enterprise.

3.3 Fragmented Data and Legacy System Issues Most financial services organizations have multiple repositories for collecting the mounds of customer data generated every dayfrom static data (e.g., names and addresses) to summarized transactional data (e.g., interactions, callbacks, and sales). Customer management issues are exacerbated when there are many disconnected systems and no central location to capture all of the accumulated customer data.

The systems that record customer orders and manage customer payments are the transactional backbone of a business. All too
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frequently, however, each system has its own set of customer information. For example, marketers may not be able to reach the total potential customer base because operational systems, such as billing or Enterprise Management (formerly called enterprise resource planning) systems, typically hold customers in a file with little or no meaningful relationships to other customers or people associated with these customers. This is especially true of household information, where it can be a challenge to associate people who reside at the same address. A companys ability to effectively information is manage very valuable. household

Examples include generating leads from among other family members and being aware of the relationship of new or potential customers to existing premium customers so as not to risk losing that customer if a family member isnt accorded appropriate attention.

Historical data collected from legacy systems tends not to have been collected in any standard form. Say, for instance, that a marketer wants to execute a direct mail campaign aimed at all CEOs in the database. For this campaign to be effective, the system would need to record customer profiles in a structured format.
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Many companies also find their customer data fragmented by virtue of channel segmentation (e.g., broker or direct), by product (e.g., superannuation or short-term insurance), or by company organizational structure. Large companies are typically organized into a hierarchy with a head office or holding company and two or more subsidiaries plus branch offices that may or may not share the same database. Customer data is often fragmented as a result of mergers and acquisitions because each of the merged companies maintains its own separate data.

The collection and integration of data into a single logical repository that salespeople, contact center agents, and marketing and support personnel can all use is crucial to a companys success. This can be achieved only if the front-end system that interacts with the customercall centers, internet, and branch also interacts with the back endthe billing, statements, and other account information. Increasingly, product data is being exposed to consumers (e.g., account balances in deposit accounts and portfolio performance) so that the distinction between front-end systems and back-end systems is dissolving to better satisfy the end customer. The ability to view all customer interactions and information is essential to providing the high quality of services that todays customers demand.
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Chapter 5.

Information Technology Methods in Customer

Relationship Management. 5.1 Internet Architecture for the New Millennium. Financial services companies need an internet architecture that provides not only for multiple delivery and access channels (personal computer, kiosk, and mobile devices) but also for further detailed customer intelligence, focused marketing, and crossselling. Such architecture enables information to be accessed in a standardized way, allowing information to be combined and used across the financial services spectrum. It also becomes easier to integrate other data sources such as geographical data sources and credit reference agencies and information from partner service providers. PeopleSoft CRMs internet architecture provides such a system.

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5.2 Technology for Collaborative Relationship Networks. In the next five years, instead of just automating individual channels, collaborative e-business solutions will support more complex many-to-many relationship networks. In addition to optimizing vendor-to-partner relationships, as PRM solutions do today, collaborative solutions will ensure that the enterprise, partners and customers can all work together in a profitable relationship network or "C-Web." The same competitive forces that caused CRM to become a multibillion dollar industry in a few short years are also driving CWebs. Competitive advantage based on a "hot product" is fleeting. Increasingly, enterprises must create tighter, collaborative linkages with partners, suppliers and customers, squeezing out time and costs while enhancing the customer experience and total value proposition. In the future, automating individual relationships, the current state-of-the-art with multi-channel CRM, will not be enough to create a sustainable competitive advantage.
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Traditional CRM is shifting outside the enterprise. First, to customers and partners in the eCRM and PRM trends. Then, over the next few years, to a multi-enterprise or "collaborative ebusiness" approach to enable business process integration, content management and work team collaboration. Goal: create, grow and retain profitable networks of customer and partner relationships. Sounds a lot like CRM, doesn't it, just updated for the interconnected world, the real world in which we live.

Chapter 6 Customer Relationship Management with People. 6.1 The Organization of People and Information Must be Client Centric. The organization of people and information must support the need to manage contacts, knowledge and information on a local and global basis. Many corporate financial executives complain about the difficulties in identifying and contacting the appropriate person for a particular question or problem. Also, they complain about the inability of some of their banks to provide a complete picture of business dealings with the company.
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The corporate client prefers that a bank be organised on a sector basis. Major corporate clients should have a dedicated individual or team for each service area. They want the relationship manager to be the focal point between themselves and the other resources of the bank. They also want direct access to product and service specialists who know them and the business they have transacted. Sector specialisation should permeate the entire structure of the corporate banking operation. Corporate banking is a knowledge business. The bank's information technology must support the communication and networking of people, the accessibility and presentation of information, the tailoring of innovative solutions and the efficiency of decision making processes. Information must be comprehensive, accurate and accessible providing a comprehensive picture of the company, the sector, the bank's capabilities, the business conducted with the bank and the business environment.

6.2 Usage of Customer Relationships Effectively. A financial institution using its greatest assetknowledge of the customercan turn the customer relationship into a key competitive advantage by retaining those customers who represent the highest lifetime value and profitability. Financial institutions
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develop customer relationships across a broad spectrum of touchpointsbranches, kiosks, ATMs, internet, electronic banking, smart cards, call centers, and phones. The shift of focus to all aspects of customer interaction has brought demand for systems that range from marketing and lead generation, to sales process automation, customer information systems, and customer service management. The full integration of these systems, their associated business processes, and the methods for which information is extracted and used forms the basis for customer relationship management or CRM. A CRM system links together the disparate customer data residing in transaction systems into a single, logical customer repository or several repositories that feed into one system. The goal of CRM is to manage all aspects of customer interactions in ways that enable companies to maximize the profitability of every customer relationship. CRM is not new to the financial services industry. The first customer-focused software applications were single point solutions for specific departments, such as Support or Help Desk. Contact management and sales force automation (SFA) are examples of point solutions that capture data on certain customers. Banks and financial institutions have invested heavily in CRM, especially in the development of their call centers. In the past, call
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centers were designed to improve the process of handling inbound calls. In the future, they are evolving to encompass more than just cost reduction and improved efficiency. In fact, according to Gartner Group, by the year 2003, more than 80 percent of all banks in the United States will develop their call or contact centers as alternative delivery channels and revenue centers to be used for the delivery of existing products and services, while only 10 percent will develop them as strictly information portals (from The Role of a Bank Contact Center: Still a Moving Target, Gartner Group, 1 August 2000).

But to be successful today, a company needs more than the ability to handle customer service calls. It needs a comprehensive CRM strategyan integrated solution that involves every department in the company. This includes not only call centers but also sales, marketing, and support working as a team and sharing information to provide a single view of the customer to anyone in the company with appropriate security permission. For example, insurance agents do not always have access to all of the pertinent customer information. According to a large United States insurance company, 70 percent of its incoming calls are from insurance agents wanting information about its customers. This is a nonrevenue generating activity. CRM can streamline this process, by enabling agents to access an insurance customers information over
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the web via a browser. Employees and customers using CRM systems want assurance that every conversation But to be successful today, a company needs more than the ability to handle customer service calls. It needs a comprehensive CRM strategy an integrated solution that involves every department in the company. This includes not only call centers but also sales, marketing, and support working as a team and sharing information to provide a single view of the customer to anyone in the company with appropriate security permission. For example, insurance agents do not always have access to all of the pertinent customer information. According to a large United States insurance company, 70 percent of its incoming calls are from insurance agents wanting information about its customers. This is a nonrevenue generating activity. CRM can streamline this process, by enabling agents to access an insurance customers information over the web via a browser. Employees and customers using CRM systems want assurance that every conversation.

The key to successful interaction is to understand the overall relationship the organization has with the customer. This can be accomplished with the aid of software that is easy to use and that accurately tracks all aspects of the relationship so that the customer receives a consistent experience no matter which interaction method he or she chooses. A customer should be able to initiate
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contact with the organization through one channel, such as the internet, and then complete the interaction through another, like the call center, with seamless transfer of information between the different underlying technology. For example, insurance companies are constantly challenged with effectively managing and resolving claims. This includes not only managing the interactions between the many parties involved in settling the claim but also defining the process behind prioritizing and assigning the claim for completion. All too often customers are asked to repeat the same information over and over again to several different members of the insurance company who are involved in resolving the claim. This extends the life of the open claim and helps to foster the familiar perception of insurance companiesthat they are eager to collect premium payments from customers but are not as eager to assist customers when it comes to paying out a claim.

It is also important to understand the relationships that customers have with their intermediaries, other customers, and potential customers. For instance, a major bank denied an automobile loan request from a young customer because of a lack of acceptable credit history. It turns out that this person was the son of one of the banks most profitable private banking customers, but this
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important connection between the two customers was not documented anywhere and, as a result, the bank lost money. A CRM system would help hold information about customers and their contact people in meaningful ways.

The challenge for any CRM solution is to help identify the point at which customer value balances shareholder value. Having an integrated view of customer profitability, acquisition costs, management costs, and lifetime value can provide such an answer. The aim is to define an appropriate positioning strategy and to build competitive advantage by targeting appropriate customers with appropriate products at the points in their economic cycles when they would be most receptive. Chapter 7 Customer Relationship Management In Banking A new type of financial organization is emerging that provides the full range of corporate investment and commercial banking products and services. This is a logical market development based on the ability of companies to deal with fewer banks because they offer the full range of products and the need for banks to achieve a greater financial return through the provision of lucrative fee based services. This increase in the scope of bank offerings will have a

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dramatic impact on client relationship management associated with corporate banking. The basis of business success in today's corporate banking market is related to a bank's ability to design and deliver unique value creating solutions for its clients. The desired role of the relationship manager is that of a problem-solving professional and company champion. Full service banks that best master this more sophisticated way of doing business will theoretically have the competitive edge. To provide a better understanding of today's more sophisticated relationship management requirements, I have been meeting with financial directors and treasurers of major companies in the UK to discuss their needs and practices and identify the best providers. I led this research initiative in my capacity as a Senior Associate of Capital Markets Partners, a network of specialist 'City' capital markets advisors and consultants. Detailed findings are presented in a series of sector reports as part of the Capital Markets Partners British Large Corporate Banking Relationship Management Survey. Below are some observations from the research that will impact relationship management needs and practices. 7.1 Full Service Banking Advantages are Being Neutralized by Disadvantages.

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Corporate financial executives acknowledge both advantages and disadvantages associated with full service banking. Some of the advantages include 'the simplicity of a one-stop-shop', 'a deeper understanding of the company's needs' and 'the ability to save time'. Some of the disadvantages include 'their knowledge is generally less specialized', 'they tend to be less competitive / hungry for business' and 'there is a potential for conflict between the investment and commercial bankers'. Several relationship specific disadvantages were recognized as well. For instance, many clients are experiencing considerable pressure from their banks to provide fee based advisory business as a quid pro quo for loans, to the point of destroying the relationship. Also, bankers who leverage the overall relationship to push products that the company does not need or want are considered to be wasting valuable time. Surprisingly, it was also reported that some bankers were 'whining and moaning' when they lost business to competitors, to the point of destroying the relationship. Too many banks appear driven by short-term deal making practices. Full service banks need to take a long term view of the client relationship. They should not expect to win all the business in the short term. Each business opportunity presents a chance to learn and develop intellectual capital. This knowledge when disseminated to other bankers faced with similar circumstances becomes a valuable corporate asset. Personal reward
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programmes should recognize the value of knowledge generated associated with failures. 7.2 Full Service Banking Relationship Managers - New Breed of Banker. Corporate financial executives expect their banks to provide a single-point of contact for investment and commercial banking relationship purposes. They want their relationship manager to be a senior decision-maker with clout who can get things done for them. The relationship manager is expected to be knowledgeable of the company, its management, its financial needs and the range of capabilities the bank offers. They are also expected to manage the relationship proactively as a problem-solving professional using their knowledge to tailor unique and innovative financial solutions that will create company value. There is a clear need for banks to invest in the continuous development of this new type of banking professional. A large proportion of the financial executives interviewed in the Survey felt that it was 'important' or 'very important' for their relationship managers to improve their knowledge of and interactions with the company. The need for a well-defined career path and development programme is especially critical given that the clients

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are also complaining about the lack of relationship manager continuity. The required skills of a full service relationship manager transcend the skill set of the traditional deal making or lending banker. This new type of financial professional will undoubtedly provide the full service bank with a distinct competitive advantage given their potential for tailoring unique solutions using a broader range of products. 8.2 Indian Scenario. 1) CRM Market The market is still at infancy stage. At present in India market size is valued at around 5 million US $. And expected value in 2003 is around 30 million US $. Market currently dominated by the Siebel, Clarify, Sap, Peoplesoft (Vantive), Oracle, QAD, NCR, VT Plex, Hyperion etc. Currently a complete CRM solution is in the range of Rs 8-10 crores. 2) CRM Initiators Lakme Lever - Customer Kiosk Chain
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Godrej GE - Call Center Management ICICI - one of the first organization to work upon it. It has already spent millions in data warehousing and data mining technology Orange (Mumbai) & Airtel(Delhi) - Pioneers in their own rights in introducing data mining techniques to identify & reduce churn rates India will dominate e- CRM services (Sinha-co-founder and president e-gain communications) There is a scope of over a million e-CRM service agents on Indian soil by 2007, working up to a potentially lucrative $ 20 billion industry, self service is the thrust area which would used artificial knowledge management where customer would get an intelligent response from the m/cs. This will make human and m/c work seamlessly together. 8.3. Issues to be Addressed for Strategic Planning and Implementation of CRM in Indian Industrial Environment Infrastructure and Technological Requirements- Ease and

cost of all areas of implementation not just the solution. Training Budget and areas of training for making CRM an operational system and seamless process.
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ROI- Identification of real return of investment for the business in future. Developing models for customer value analysis and measurement of lifetime value of customers especially in terms of future profitability. Change Management- Changes required to be managed in organizational philosophy and practices Shift from Reactive to Proactive CRM - Development and implementation of proactive CRM Future- Whether the business can afford to sustain the ongoing cost of CRM.

Chapter 9. Challenges to CRM 1. Evaluate and Plan

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CRM tools would be valuable when they are used to identify and differentiate customers to generate offers and fulfill customized solutions. CRM strategy and program development is a crucial task. CRM tools in fact supplement CRM strategies. Therefore appropriate strategy and excellent implementation are both needed for successful CRM. It requires a holistic strategy and is an enterprise wide operation. Planning for CRM should be preceded by an evaluation phase, analyzing the requirements of the user industry, finding out the possible gaps or mismatch between the offerings and requirements and then designing a CRM solution catering to the needs and specifications of the user industry. Thus a shared vision of both project team & end user could add value in evaluation and planning for CRM projects. 2. Strong and Co- leadership System integrators and strategists should work together with crossfunctional teams, as tackling any one competence alone will lead to a dysfunctional business. One competence does not make customer relationship management

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3. Customized Solutions Most CRM systems allow for very little freedom to customize to specific industry verticals. Successful customization is crucial for increasing the market for CRM. As user industrys needs emerge from the products and offerings of the industry, CRM solutions need to be industry or user specific. Expertise in particular vertical industries will further strengthen the competitiveness of CRM solutions.

5. Process Alignment Channels are a delivery mechanism. The effectiveness of the mechanism is achieved when it is seamless. There is a need for developing fully integrated CRM capabilities supported by business operations, business management and business intelligence. 6. Customer Knowledge Management

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Development of customer knowledge management systems Integrating customers life processes with company processes- a basis to develop customer driven strategies- Right to left thinking. There is a need to develop an integrated CRM platform that collects relevant data input at each customer interface and simultaneously provide knowledge output about the strategy and tactics suitable to win to front line people.

7. Change Management Project team should record and report proposed changes and explain the implementation problems in advance and also the expectations from the users in changed management processes. Organizational policies and procedures should be aligned to CRM initiatives. There is a need for employee empowerment and training for building the skills in new techniques. 8. Strategists and IT Joining Hands It is vital to have deep expertise not only in CRM technology but also the customer service process as appropriate strategy and excellent implementation are both needed for obtaining successful CRM. Companies have handed over the responsibility of CRM implementation to IT Dept. They are focused on simply installing
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CRM software solutions without a CRM strategy or program in place. The CRM initiatives must be viewed from a business perspective. and this requires IT professional and strategists joining hands and working together.

9.1 CRM Success Strategy first, technology second. Business experts agree that CRM projects go off track when companies buy technology first before they have their CRM business goals clearly in mind. Therefore, the first step is to develop a strategy to understand and anticipate the needs of the current and potential customer base. Consider the lifecycle value of customers, taking into account different groups of customers, and which ones are likely to yield the highest returns over the long run. Then select the technology and vendors to help capture customer data and external sources, and consolidate the
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information in a central warehouse to add intelligence to the overall CRM strategy. Iron out the organizational and people issues. Companies must overcome such issues before a system that ties analysis and action can be fully effective. For example, marketing staffs and salespeople dont always communicate well, let alone share data. This is particularly true in the traditional insurance industry where independent brokers represent more than one companys insurance products. Marketing, sales, and service must work as a team and share information. In order to facilitate sharing information, the business users (not just management) must realize benefits to them before they adopt and advocate shared information via any software system. Develop the right contact strategy. By knowing which offers and incentives to offer to which customers and when, an organization wont over market to customers and it will build loyalty and retention. Such goals can be at least as important as realizing crosssell opportunities. Give the customer lots of contact points. Customer interaction should happen through multiple touchpointsdirect contact, telephone call center and interactive voice response (IVR), email, fax, letter, kiosk, ATM, internetand information from all channels should be available to each.

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Integrate, analyze, and refine data. First, collect and consolidate customer-related data from the customer touchpoints, current accounts, non-account internal information (gathered from forms completed by customers during the opening of accounts or during loan applications), and external data sources (including credit agency services, marketing agencies, and customer information exchange). Next, integrate analysis across all customer touchpoints and from additional customer profiling data measuring customer profitability, customer segmentation, and customer retention. Finally, once knowledge is gained from data integration and analysis, refine and focus business processes and organizational structures based on improved customer understanding. Using the derived knowledge of the customer, various strategies, such as one-to-one mass marketing, have the potential to enable improved business and financial planning. Change accounts into customers. The traditional approach in many organizations has been to associate their customers with accounts to the point of calling the account the customer and vice versa. Customers feel alienated when they are treated like a number instead of a person with personal needs and a history. A conventional account structure usually contains very little information and recommendations about the people, their needs, and relationships to other people and organizations in the
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marketplace. This limited view has arisen from a product-centric concept of running a business where an account is the mechanism to determine which products are to be billed and when. Build customer loyalty by offering excellent service. In a competitive marketplace where price is not a differentiator, customers are easily lost through indifferent service. It can be as simple as not calling a customer back when promised, through to delivering an inferior product without prompt rectification. Investment in a CRM system that tracks customer interactions with the business and facilitates automating business processes (workflow management) will lead to service excellence, paying dividends in higher customer retention levels. Improve profitability by matching channel cost to customer value. Today, more than ever, it is important to identify the profitable customers of a company, and to retain and grow them. This will be achieved by regularly re-evaluating the profitability of all customers typically done by intensive analysis of information in a data warehouseand feeding back the revised profitability indices to business users of a CRM system. A practical outcome of this exercise can be priority call routing in call centers, where profitable customers get preferential treatment. Assign a CRM customer number to link customer accounts. A single customer might have several accounts that may require

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linking to an identifying master customer number for telephone or internet banking. 10.1 Growth on CRM Industry forecasters are agreed that the markets for CRM software and services will grow rapidly in the next few years. US researches predict a worldwide market for CRM of $16.8bn by 2003 - up from $3.7bn last year and representing a compound annual growth rate of 49 percent. According to Researcher International Data Corporation (IDC), from 1997 to 1998 the European market for CRM grew by 47 per cent and expects this trend to continue through 2003. It says that front-end applications - such as sales, marketing and customer support - and help desk applications are the fastest-growing segment in the applications market. AMR research CRM is a red hot business and an important issue for managers. The market for CRM application is expected to grow to $11.5 billion in 2002 from 41.2 billion in 1997. CRM grows at 50% rate (Meta group market research report). The world wide market for CRM will expand by 50% This means the global CRM market worth more than 13 billion US $ in 2000 will mushroom to 68 billion US$ in 2004.

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Chapter 11. Conclusion. Relationship marketing is emerging as a new area of focus for service firms in India. But these are mainly based on some loyalty programs and investments in technology for enhancing the capability of databases. Managers should ensure that while investing in databases, technology, human resources and relationship marketing programs, attempts should also be made to develop milestones, which help them sustain these initiatives. These milestones become benchmarks against which future programs get evaluated. Measurement metrices get developed over a period of time when one starts collecting information about customers, their buying patterns, usage behavior, referrals, etc and start linking them to the marketing programs. Successful firms take a long-term strategic view of customer relationship management. It cannot be solely managed through periodic programs. A holistic approach which leads firms to develop customer centric process, integrate technology through customer oriented approaches, motivate employees to perform to their full potential through empowerment are prerequisites for firms to successfully utilize their customer knowledge to enhance relationships with their customers. Customer relationship management is do-able. Presently in India, companies have wonderful opportunity to fully utilize the power of
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a CRM Software Solutions. It is unrealistic to implement all the features and integration possibilities all at once. If a phased approach is adopted in an planned manner with cross functional teams implementing the customized solutions under the coleadership of both the IT and strategists, it will obtain the appropriate approvals at each stage and organization will have a successful CRM system to compete globally.

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