Cover Story |CRM

Amrita Gangotra, Group Chief, IT Solution Engagement, Bharti Tele-ventures, built a CRM system that ensures both customer loyatly and growth.

Airtel, a telephony superbrand, is well on its way to mastering the art of managing customers. The journey has been evolutionary and CRM now gives them the power to study the lives of its customers and offer them personalized services.
By Rahul Neel MaNi & SuNil Shah

S
ImagIng by b In esh sreedharan

waminathan Iyer, a jet-setting subconsciously he knows that this is Airtels executive from Chennai, is in New moment of truth. If he doesnt get what he wants Delhi for a critical board meeting. hell switch to a competitor; it's a test being Atypically, it is an eleventh hour call replicated, in one form or another, in the hectic and its going to be a couple of days lives of millions of Airtels customers. Urgency before he can get back and lasso his project out was the norm in their lives and Airtel would do of bureaucratic quagmire. Snowed in with work, well to keep up. he has completely forgotten about an overdue Five minutes and much button-punching later, cellphone billuntil his boss reminds him that Iyers found a way to make his payment. Airtels it's imperative he be reachable on his phone. He Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system has spent a restless night imagining the tellingnot only allows him to make a payment in Chennai, off hell receive when his service disconnects him. but also to locate an Airtel outlet nearby. As he drives to the meeting he works himself into CRM's more than a test for Airtel, Indias a tizzy, taking for granted that largest mobile service provider Airtels gargantuan operations its a lifeline. Airtels CRM is Reader ROI: will not stop to help one person. roping in more business in a game Why it's critical to involve As a last resort, Iyer makes a that's getting hard, everyday, end-users in CRM design frantic call to Airtels helpline just to stay in. CRM, mere jargon Why getting business 121. As an Interactive Voice for most until recently, is now sponsers pays dividends Response (IVR) leads him bandied in junior management Why CRM ob jectives have to through a maze of possibilities, conversation and has become translate into measureable business goals his impatience builds and crucial for many businesses. From
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Cover Story | CRM

managing customer transactions to cross-selling, up-selling and preventive security, CRM does it all. And, at Airtel, executives struggle less as they fight customer churn, build loyalty and find new avenues to sell value. When we created Airtels macro vision of CRM, we aspired to provide a single-window of service throughout the 23 circles across the country. Centralized and integrated were definitely two pillars we were looking for, Gangotra says. Today its integration and centralization distinguishes Airtels CRM from other run-of-the-mill deployments, adds Gangotra. Manoj Kohli, President Mobility, Bharti Televentures, Airtels holding company, believes CRM was not built merely as a tool but to be part of Airtels culture. It reflects Airtels brand message: Think fresh, deliver more. Delivering more was the driving force when Airtel made a call to deploy a composite tool that would serve millions of its customers. Anurag Parashar, Head of Customer Service Delivery, Bharti Televentures, says it was essential for them to have a standard platform. Why shouldnt a person from Assam, holidaying in Kashmir, be able to make payments? he asks rhetorically. Airtel would make that possible and it would be among mobile telephonys pioneers to make it the norm. But before it could achieve this, it had to create a system that kept records of a customers portfolio, profile, payment history, etcetera. Airtel also made a crucial decision at this stage. It chose to take an interest in the lives of its customers. And that , it found, made all the difference.

Cover Story | CRM

ExpressYourself
When Iyer dialed into Airtels CRM, he set off a chain reaction that activated one of the CRMs two modules. Airtels CRM consists of two parts explains Gangotra: Analytical and operational. The operational CRM makes sure everyday customer transactions hum along efficiently and the analytical module pieces together data based on customer habits that can help market a variety of services. The analytical module sits on a data warehouse, which contains customer profiles, usage patterns, demographics, revenue per customer, and other information. After Iyers frantic call, for instance, Airtel offered to bump up his credit limit but also urged him to move to a talk plan that involved a higher monthly rental, cheaper talk time and smarter roaming rates. In the main, however, CRM is associated with retaining and servicing customers. Few people harness the potential of CRM to crosssell and up-sell, says Gangotra. Market analytics of a ready customer database can do wonders in converting prospective customers into real ones. Understanding what a prospect is looking for is key. It was towards that end that Airtel sought to integrate all its processes across multiple functions with a centralized CRM.

I Dont Want Excuses

Wise maxims like The customer is king and Customer service is critical have created who want solutions pronto. But right-away solutions werent always something Airtel could provide admits Amrita Gangotra, Group Chief, IT Solution Engagement, Bharti Tele-ventures, who led the CRM initiative at the company. As Airtel grew a national footprint, it cobbled together a number of local players, spreading into new circles (23 today), and accumulating a number of different systems. In the resultant chaos, it was hard to service customers across circles, let alone implement an idea pan-Airtel. Delays in service, or worse a lack of it, were fraying the image Airtels brand managers were busy creating. In the time between a first call to the resolution of a query or a problem, Airtels brand image grew clumsier. It was evident that without an integrated and a centralized CRM system it would be impossible to process data and manage Airtels humongous customer base.

InfograPhICs: vIkas kaPoor

Feeds from different areas within the company made sense, especially when business intelligence (BI) was applied to the data. Identifying prospective customers was made easier and BI ensured that whenever a customer interacted with one or multiple touch points, an auto alert was sent to a customer service representative who then made an up-sell or cross-sell bid. And customer relations has to make every contact count. Airtels customer privacy policy forbids them to solicit a customer beyond a fixed number of times. Thanks to CRM, up-selling is now both more focused and accurate. With such a narrow window, we have to make sure we score every time. We use CRM analytics to generate accurate leads from a customer database. If, for example, someone uses ten minutes worth of international dialing a month, were going to try and capitalize on that information and make a cross-sell that will allow him to use the service more. Its win-win, says Parashar. The CRM also serves to segment customers, thereby helping Airtel proactively identify the needs of its customers. There are well-established events or stages in customers lifecycle that clue us into his or her needs. For example, the aspirations of a corporate customer are very different from those of a retail customer. The former segment is attracted to our Blackberry offer and the

CRM's Road to
BR

Activation
Activation

Happy Clients
WELCO

ANDI

ME

Bil l

Final Bill

n Collectio

Disconnection

Prospecting

NG

Welcome Process

Operations
PEggIng ThEIR CLIEnTs
airtel's ability to chart out an average lifecycle allows it to market additional services. the Crm is divided into operations and analytical. operations deals with bill tracking, etc
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Acquisition

3
gARLAnDs AnD BOuquETs
airtel's well-planned welcome process includes a visit from a service representative and a call informing clients of the airtel help line: 121. at the end of this stage, their first bill is generated.

analytics
CRm gETs InTO ITs ELEmEnT
airtel makes its first collection. It marks the start of up-selling and cross-selling. the analytical module, which forms the basis of marketing, steps in. Crm has to make every attempt count since clients can be approached only a fixed number of times.
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Base Management

Churn

Retention

InvITIng ThEm InTO ThE fOLD

this stage combines provisioning and verification. airtel activates a customer's account and makes a first rating of him or her based on their application.

A sLIPPERy sLOPE COnquERED

this stage may see an airtel client wishing to leave. to keep churn down, airtel uses retention policies and loyalty processes to bring clients back to the fold. many clients are won back.

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Cover Story | CRM

latter cant get enough Hello tunes. One segment could be happier with an eBill, while another likes regular paper invoices. But we couldnt have differentiated one group from the other without CRM, Kohli says. From the companys standpoint, it is also hard to overstate how far a little CRM can go in addressing an exchange of information between Airtel and its millions of customers. Its power to trigger off an SMS to large defined chunks of users is formidablesomething even law enforcement agencies have picked up on. the doors have access to a customers file which makes it possible for them to field queries of varying natures. If an agent is able to help a customer in the first go, it is called a first time resolution and the call is closed. Calls that require specialized help are escalated, by the CRM, to appropriate departments. Given that the CRM is centralized and supports workflows specific to queries, problems are fixed fast. But it has meant a lot of scripting on the CRM system. The beauty of this solution lies in the amount of automation that is built into the CRM system, says Parashar. Automation has also made self-service possible. The eCRM allows customers to access some information and is moving towards making interaction possible, doing away completely with a human interface. We are trying to give the IVR more intelligence to make information available as a self service. Some of our work includes speech recognition, which will enable the IVR to take on more natural languages, says Gangotra. Its hard for Airtels customers, both internal and external, to wrap their minds around the worth of the CRM. They envisage a morning when they awake without the CRM and stop dead in their tracks. Thats because the CRM crunches millions of transactions, all of which generate data that has a specific place in the system. Some of the areas where the system has brought change include customized and simplified bill formats, payment collection centers, network deployments, and the activation process. Now, its just as hard to remember the days when customers agreed to wait or call back for an answer to their queries. Whether customers need to increase their credit limits or merely check the status of an additional offering like voicemail, agents manning the call centers and hooked on the CRM react quicker because they have customer history and credentials ready. Parashar, like his colleagues, cannot imagine life with the CRM. Ultimately, it boils down to an ability to attend to millions of customers. Ninety-nine percent of complaints that find their way into the CRM can be resolved in a first call. he says. The CRM doesnt only reduce back-end traffic, it also regulates it. Service requests, like issuing a duplicate bill, that are sent to the back-end now have a cut-off time. If a request is not attended to and breaches a pre-set time limit, it is automatically escalated to a superior authority. According to Parashar, neither networking issues nor problems related to coverage area are referred to the backend anymore. Customers, of course, benefit the most. Customers moving between circles, reveals Gangotra, best show up the advantages of CRM. Immaterial of where they are, they can dial a number and access the CRM or speak to a call center agent who is logged on the system. According to her, almost all customer information is available online, enabling the company to answer queries 99 percent of the time. Data collected by the CRM also helps Airtel take defensive action against customers they suspect are either misusing Airtel's services or arent planning to pay for them. Airtel, however, apprently lives by the saying, offense is the best form of defense. CRM is at its best saving Airtel from defecting customers. Frustrated clients are likely to make a last call and give the call centre a piece of their mind before announcing (sometimes triumphantly) that theyre switching to another operator. This is where the CRM steps in. We use the CRM tool to intelligently suggest appropriate products to them so that they continue with us, says Parashar. Since Airtel adopted CRM for its postpaid customers, they have experienced considerable savings in the form of fewer calls, a tremendous reduction in churn, increased productivity and further revenues from value-added services. Parashar claims that theres been a cross and up-selling revolution in Airtel. The efficiency is enormous. We would have collapsed without the system, says Kohli.

Cover Story |CRM

Press One for Acceptance

With any technology worth its acronym, IT managers realize that implementation is less important than getting the user community to adopt it and Airtels CRM was no exception. Given that users are forced to work harder to create processes and reengineer systems around the new implementation, chances are user bodies arent going to initially accept an IT implant. Gangotra backed her chances with groundwork in the form of a vision. She says that a broader vision is required before implementing new technologies. The vision includes a blueprint of how different lines of business and ranges of products, across various phases, will react to change. She came up with a three-step program to implement new technologies, one which she applied to the CRM system. First, technology, equipment and technical evaluation must be driven firmly into the ground, she says. Without these, gap

Your Anytime, Anywhere Customer Service'

Iyer's frantic call didn't raise an eyebrow at Airtel, which receives thousands of queries everyday, many in the we hours of the night. Airtels CRM system is closely linked to a host of other back-end systems. Once a customer is acquired, information to serve him better is available with the front-end (help desk)the doorway to the CRM system. The people manning

how Airtel Chooses its Wands

If you thought they were taught how to select technology at hogwarts, think again.
airtel follows a standard procedure for all technology deployment decisions. In order to decide on commercially-available, off-theshelf packages, the companys technology team has to first select the top-three products that have success stories in the telecom vertical. It then looks at parameters such as the financial viability of a vendor, their support network, a track record of problemresolution times and the technologys future. last but not the least, the products features and functionalities are taken into consideration. then, the matter is referred to what airtel calls an architectural board. the board evaluates the product in a simulated architectural set-up and watches closely for the products ability to integrate with other products and applications. It is also tested for its open standards. In this process, the company also looks at scalability issues. Its only at this stage that an agreement is sent for a final sign off by the architectural review board. r. m.

With such a narrow window, we have to make sure we score every time. We use CRM analytics to generate accurate leads from a customer database. Were going to try and capitalize on information.
Anurag Parashar, Head, Customer Service Delivery, Bharti Televentures

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Cover Story | CRM

analysis is impossible and hordes The best buy-in in the world, of ill-fitting customizations will though, wont cure teething lay siege to the implementation. problems and Gangotras Once a blockade is team saw their blueprint to constructed, internal rethe end by training users. structuring can begin. During Continuous training, they the process of reengineering, the realized, was among the most IT department looked carefully direct ways to ensure that the at issues surrounding scalability, CRM was used. At that point, business growth and market more focus was placed on the and regulatory environments. quality of training. Even bestFeedback was received at the in-class products have been Amrita gangotra, group Chief It solutions end of every major pilot when known to fail graduation engagement, airtel users registered their problems because of poor training. and suggestions. These were A lot of the IT departments rolled into Airtels strategic success came from a general roadmap. Once the processes consensus that CRM was were reengineered with the mission critical to the new changes, user validation company. The kind of was sought. virtualization thats required The commitment to is humongous. We realized reengineer has to come from we couldnt afford to have usersnot really the information a few front-end agents and technology community. Its selfa few sales guys attached evident that buy-in has to come to number of customers. from users. And they must also says Gangotra. understand that they have to build efficient processes around that product, says Gangotra. Fortunately Parashar, who represents customer service The CRM mission at Airtel delivery, agrees with her. Among is far from over. According the first successes of Airtels IT to the company, another team was finding a business underutilized area of interest, sponsor. CRM was sponsored by which they have their eyes the customer service department on is customer profile and who recalls that aligning both history management. IT and business was critical. Theres a lot I can do if I So critical, in fact, that internal know that my customer is in a users were temporarily taken off specific age group, belongs to their normal jobs and dedicated to certain economic strata, likes the project till it was declared a successful implementation. to listen to music and has a precise usage pattern. Its possible to These embedded staffers started a process of osmosis and customize service according to his or her taste, says Parashar. as a result, Parashars team realized that they needed to And Airtel would like to offer its customers personalized reengineer their processes to accommodate the CRM. It was services like never before. Especially clubbed with the user department that took a call, says Parashar. researchan example of which Parashar shares. He Weve had success because internal users demanded says studies have noted how older people have a higher the automated channels from us. They figured that IVRs propensity to churn if they live with younger people. Its were more accepted in many markets. They even asked us the sort of insight that can save Airtel a lot of money and for more automated processes, Gangotra concurs. With heartburn if its tied in with the CRM. each circle required to sign off before the deployment could Personalized service, it is hoped, will also help the go live, the project could have been grounded a number of company retain more customers for a longer period. times. But, once again, the business sponsor took charge Unlike the hotel industry, which handles small numbers, and lined up the 23 circles. it is tougher for Airtel to offer personalized services with

Cover Story | CRM

Few people harness the potential of CRM to cross-sell and up-sell. Market analytics of a ready customer database can do wonders in converting prospective customers into real ones.

nine neat spells for CRm success

It looks magical, and you doubt you can replicate it. Worry not, heres how to do it.
DEfInE yOuR vIsIOn. you must develop a clear vision of how you want to manage customer relationships, and then cultivate strategies which translate to definable and measurable action. sPELL mEAsuRABLE BusInEss gOALs. Corporate vision and strategy, once defined, result in specific and measurable goals that help you track where you are in your plan, and how well your strategy is working. gET suPPORT fROm mAnAgEmEnT. before embarking on a Crm program, make sure you have the full support of the companys top executives. fleshing out clear objectives that can be achieved from Crm will further your bid for general consensus. remember the successful execution of your strategy will need the alignment and integration of multiple departments. sTOP AT nOThIng TO gET EnD- usER Buy-In. Implementing a Crm program without buy-in from all concerned departments will lead you absolutely nowhere. dont railroad them, individual departments are going to suffer disruptions and inconvenience as their workflows are changed. Convince them instead of the benefits of the program. note: buy-in needs to be maintained over the life of the program. InvOLvE EnD-usERs In CRm DEsIgn. Its important to ensure active participation of end-users while youre designing the Crm. no program or solution implementation can succeed if those on the front-line refuse to accept it. TALk In ThEIR TOnguE. business goals drive solution functionality. Clearly define functionality requirements based on business needs, rather than technical interests. keep in mind, however, that while a technological implementation is built around business needs, a cost effective program will also allow for changing work practices to suit the capabilities of you technology. TRAIn AnD COmmunICATE effective Crm is about people, process, and technology. People need to understand how Crm will change processes they are used to. It is a good idea to remind yourself that, often, a Crm program will make many processes explicit for the first time. If end-users do not know how to use a solution properly or feel that they cant keep up with it, they have a tendency not to use it as much. Consequently, the solution will fail to deliver its true potential and that affects you. TAkE A PhAsED APPROACh. a big bang opening might be good for movie premiers but they can live with creative licenseyou cant. Complete the Crm process in multiple steps. let each step be guided by business priorities, financial constraints, your people and the maturity of your processes, andmost important of allwhat you learnt from the last step. mEAsuRE REsuLTs. set benchmarks and targets and measure your progress against them. the metrics should focus on business value or placeholders for value.

Customer Freedom

r. m.

18.4 lakh subscribers in Delhi alone. Airtel aspir es to provide personal service to crores of its customers through CRM analytics. Without a CRM, we cant even think of attempting this, says Gangotra. Another front is integrating mobility, landline and broadband customers and serving them through a centralized CRM. Today, landline customers arent in the loop about the other services Airtel offers. Integration of these three areas is vital, says Parashar. Airtel would also like to see the CRM help them with self-service. They want

to empower their customers by enabling them to interact with Airtel in a way they want. If the customer wants to deactivate a certain service at 2 AM, were going to facilitate that process. We want the CRM to be intelligent enough to interact with our customers, says Gangotra. Its the sort of intelligence and service the Iyers of the world would have once called magic. CIO

Bureau Head North Rahul Neel Mani can be reached at rahul_m@cio.in

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