CASE STUDY: CRM APPLE

Apple Overview

Apple is one of the most well-known retailers of innovative technology,

from personal computers to handheld devices such as tablets and
mobiles. It is the third largest maker of PCs in the US, and since 2001
has had a much higher focus upon retail and customers than its
competitors.
The customer relationship is now an essential part of Apple’s growth
strategy, and is almost as much of a brand feature as the iPad or
iPhone.
A Mac CRM is a combination of a cloud based app built with Apple's
programming language Objective-C or Swift (programming language).
Mac CRMs involve using Apple only devices and technology to
organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer
service, and technical support.
Salesforce and Apple will work together to create enterprise-focused
apps. Apple and Salesforce are developing the first Salesforce Mobile
SDK that is optimized for Swift. This will enable businesses and
developers to build and deploy iOS apps on the Salesforce Lightning
Platform
Apple’s CRM Needs

 The company has been using CRM in its customer service

departments for nearly a decade, and this has ranged from
sending a series of emails to customers who’ve used their in-
store services, to focus upon assessing the feelings of the
customers when they are talking to Apple staff.
 The purpose of using CRM in their retail base is to encourage a
long-term relationship between Apple and its clients. Part of
retaining that relationship involves enhancing the customer
experience so that it is a unique memory of buying a phone.
Rather than concentrating upon making customers buy a phone,
they instead focus upon teaching customers to love and
appreciate the benefits of having an iPhone or iPad. This is a
central point of the Apple strategy.
 There are several different strands of using CRM within the
Apple infrastructure. The primary purpose of CRM is data
collection. This occurs whenever a customer makes a purchase,
whether it is an iPhone, use of software such as iTunes, or
registering their product using their Apple ID.
 However, Apple has not only used CRM for their own purposes,
they have also developed a CRM tool for their customers. The
tool is entirely cloud-based and means that there is a pyramid
effect of businesses benefiting from CRM data collection which
Apple can also use.
 The focus of their strategy is to inform and educate the
customers about the benefits of having their high end products
rather than concentrating only on selling their products.
 To maintain a long term relationship between Apple and its
clients, the company has been using CRM in their retail base.

How Apple Use CRM

 By far the most important focus of CRM is improving the

customer service experience for new and existing customers.
 The Apple Genius process is part of the Tech support, which
focuses upon allowing customers to meet face-to-face with
technicians and discuss problems and solutions in depth.
 CRM helps to manage the effect of this face-to-face contact, and
also helps to enhance brand awareness when focusing upon
CRM-based advertising and targeted emails in the future. By
using CRM so extensively in their retail structure, Apple has
effectively produced a lifestyle experience rather than simply a
purchase.
 Apple is a multinational company which has had success in a
number of different fields and needs a CRM system which can
help them to reach customers on a face-to-face level. Small
businesses can also benefit from this type of interpersonal CRM.

ADVANTAGES OF CRM IN APPLE

 Better customer service: A CRM system can help personalize a
company’s relationship with its customers. The program usually
comes with a repository that can keep customer profiles, treating
every client individually instead of collectively.
 Increased customer revenues: CRM can help facilitate customer
retention through introduction and implementation of loyalty
programs that are based on the customers’ needs and
preferences.
 Faster sales processes: A business can benefit from the faster
closing processes of deals. CRM can make it happen through
speedier and more efficient response to customer information
and leads.
 More efficient and effective call centre: A business call centre
can benefit from the faster solutions CRM systems bring about.
As customer support and call centre agents gain access to
customers’ order histories and details in a much faster manner,
targeting of clients can be much easier
DISADVANTAGES OF CRM IN APPLE
 Record Loss: Some Customer Relationship Software utilizes
remote Internet Connections to keep customers’ data. The
downside of this kind of CRM is that the organization has no
control of customers’ details, and in case there is an outage in
the CRM system, it will be next to impossible for the business to
retrieve the relevant details.
 Overhead: If a business chooses a local Customer Relationship
Management software, there will be overhead costs linked to it.
If the application is proprietary, the organization will need to pay
for professionals such as system administrator, software
developers, and maintenance personnel to ensure the efficient
running of the software.
 Training: If it’s a small business, the issues of training aren’t so
much pronounced. Nonetheless, the large companies will be
required to roll out training sessions for the workers. For CRM of
larger scale, this will mean appointing professional to conduct
the training.

 Eliminate Human Element: Although CRM applications allow

for the automation of processes within a company, there is a
loss of human element in the organization, something which
essential for creating an excellent business relationship with
customers.

CONCLUSION
CRM is a tool, which helps to track down the changing customer
profiles, build in this information to get the necessary product design &
add value to the individual customer. Today’s customers are global &
have high degree of need for cognition, recognition, approvals &
respect. They prefer marketers who can give good product, deliver
first service, repair, solve problems & improve products. Marketers are
striving for a bond with customers, who will be strong & long lasting
with the customers.
RECOMMENDATIONS

 Marketers have realised that if they retain customers the cost

will certainly reduce. On the supply side, it really pays more to
develop closer relationship with customer through people,
equipment and procedure. It is high time that they re-engineer
the marketing department.
 As customer expectations have rapidly changed over the last
two decades. Fuelled by new technology and growing
availability of advanced product features & services, customer’s
expectations are changing almost on a daily basis. Customers
are less willing to make compromises to trade off in product &
services quality. So companies should continuously search for
value building approaches through a system of total quality
management review process, which will be, resulted in value-
laden-relationship with customers.

PRESENTED BY:- YASH BHANSALI (18030122092)

PEUSH MAROTHI (18030122056)