Chapter 1 – Introduction

Overview of Industry as a whole:-

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. The Bank offers the entire
spectrum of financial services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-corporate,
MSME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses. The Bank has a large footprint of 4,050 domestic
branches (including extension counters) with 11,801 ATMs & 4,917 cash recyclers spread
across the country as on 31st March, 2019.

The overseas operations of the Bank are spread over nine international offices with branches
at Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai (at the DIFC), Colombo and Shanghai; representative
offices at Dhaka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and an overseas subsidiary at London, UK. The
international offices focus on corporate lending, trade finance, syndication and investment
banking and liability businesses.

Axis Bank is one of the first new generation private sector banks to have begun operations in
1994. The Bank was promoted in 1993, jointly by Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of
India (SUUTI) (then known as Unit Trust of India), Life Insurance Corporation of India
(LIC), General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), National Insurance Company Ltd., The
New India Assurance Company Ltd., The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and United India
Insurance Company Ltd. The share holding of Unit Trust of India was subsequently
transferred to SUUTI, an entity established in 2003.

With a balance sheet size of Rs. 8,00,997 crores as on 31st March 2019, Axis Bank has
achieved consistent growth and with a 5 year CAGR (2013-14 to 2018-19) of 16% in Total
Assets, 14% in Total Deposits, 17% in Total Advances.

BANKING IN INDIA

Without a sound and effective banking system in India it cannot have a healthy economy.
The banking system of India should not only be hassle free but it should be able to meet new
challenges posed by the technology and any other external and internal factors. For the past
three decades India's banking system has several outstanding achievements to its credit. The
most striking is its extensive reach. It is no longer confined to only metropolitans or
cosmopolitans in India. In fact, Indian banking system has reached even to the remote corners
of the country. This is one of the main reasons of India's growth process.
 Profile of the Organization

The Bank's registered office is located at Ahmadabad and their Central Office is located at
Mumbai. With 3,485 domestic branches (including extension counters) and 14,332 ATMs
across the country as on 30 September 2017, the network of Axis Bank spreads across 2,033
cities and towns, enabling the bank to reach out to a large cross-section of customers with an
array of products and services. The bank also has nine overseas offices with branches at
Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai (at the DIFC), Shanghai and Colombo; representative offices
at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Dhaka and an overseas subsidiary at London, UK.

The Bank has five wholly-owned subsidiaries namely Axis Securities and Sales Ltd, Axis
Private Equity Ltd, Axis Trustee Services Ltd, Axis Asset Management Company Ltd and
Axis Mutual Fund Trustee Ltd.

Axis Bank was incorporated in the year 1993 with the name UTI Bank Ltd. Axis Bank is one
of the first new generation private sector banks to have begun operations in 1994. The bank
was promoted in 1993, jointly by Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) (then
known as Unit Trust of India), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), General Insurance
Corporation of India (GIC), National Insurance Company Ltd., The New India Assurance
Company Ltd., The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and United India Insurance Company
Ltd. The share holding of Unit Trust of India was subsequently transferred to SUUTI, an
entity established in 2003.

In the year 2001, the bank along with Global Trust Bank (GTB) had a merger proposal to
create the largest private sector bank, but due to media's issues both the banks withdraw the
merger proposal.

In the year 2003, the Bank was given the authorized to handle Government transactions such
as collection of Government taxes, to handle the expenditure related payments of Central
Government Ministries and Departments and pension payments on behalf of Civil and Non-
civil Ministries such as defense, posts, telecom and railways. In December 20003, the Bank
launched their merchant acquiring business.

In the year 2005, the Bank raised $239.3 million through Global Depositary Receipts. They
won the award 'Outstanding Achievement Award' for the year 2005 from Indian Banks
Association for IT Infrastructure, delivery capabilities and innovative solutions.

In December 2005, the Bank set up Axis Securities and Sales Ltd (originally incorporated as
UBL Sales Ltd) to market credit cards and retail asset products. In October 2006, they set up
Axis Private Equity Ltd, primarily to carry on the activities of managing equity investments
and provide venture capital support to businesses.
In the year of 2007, the bank again raised $218.67 million through Global Depository
Receipts. They opened 153 new branches during the year, which includes 43 extension
counters that have been upgraded to branches and 8 Service branches/ CPCs. They also
opened new overseas offices at Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong and a representative office
in Shanghai.

During the year 2007-08, the Bank opened 143 new branches, taking the number of branches
to 651 which included 33 extension counters that have been upgraded to branches. Also, they
expanded overseas with the opening of a branch at the Dubai International Finance Centre.
The Bank changed their name from UTI Bank Ltd to Axis Bank Ltd with effect from July 30,
2007 to avoid confusion with other unrelated entities with similar name.

During the year 2008-09, the Bank opened 176 new branches that include 12 extension
counters that have been upgraded to branches taking the total number of branches and ECs to
835. During the year, they opened 831 ATMs, thereby taking the ATM network of the Bank
from 2,764 to 3,595. Also, they opened a Representative Office in Dubai.

In May 2008, the Bank established Axis Trustee Services Company Ltd as a wholly owned
subsidiary company, which is engaged in trusteeship activities. In December 2008, they
launched their new investment advisory service exclusively for High Net Worth clients.

In January 2009, the Bank set up Axis Asset Management Company Ltd to carry on the
activities of managing a mutual fund business. Also, they incorporated Axis Mutual Fund
Trustee Ltd to act as the trustee for the mutual fund business.

During the year 2009-10, the Bank opened 200 branches taking the total number of branches
Extension Counters (ECs) to 1,035. In March 209, 2010, they opened their 1000 branch at
Bandra West, Mumbai. In September 2009, Axis Bank launched the private banking business
in the domestic market, christened 'Privee' to cater to highly affluent individuals and families
offering them unique investment opportunities

During the year, the Capital Markets SBU was restructured with the debt capital market
business (hitherto a part of the capital markets) carved into a separate vertical. As a result, the
Bank's Capital Markets SBU comprises equity capital markets (ECM) business, mergers and
acquisitions and private equity syndication. In February 24, 2010, the Bank launched the
'AXIS CALL & PAY on atom', a unique mobile payments solution using Axis Bank debit
cards. Axis Bank is the first bank in the country to provide a secure debit card-based payment
service over IVR.

During the year 2010-11, 407 new branches were added to the Bank's network taking the
total number of branches and extension counters (ECs) to 1,390. Of these, 564 branches/ ECs
are in semi-urban and rural areas and 826 branches/ECs are in metropolitan and urban areas.
The Bank is present in all states and Union Territories (except Lakshadweep) covering 921
centers. The ATM network of the Bank increased from 4,293 to 6,270.
During the year, the Bank also opened a Representative Office in Abu Dhabi. This was in
addition to the existing branches at Singapore, Hong Kong and DIFC (Dubai International
Financial Centre) and representative offices at Shanghai and Dubai.

In March 7, 2011, the Bank incorporated a new subsidiary namely Axis U.K. Ltd. as a private
limited company registered in the United Kingdom (UK) with the main purpose of filing an
application with Financial Services Authority (FSA), UK for a banking license in the UK and
for the creation of necessary infrastructure for the subsidiary to commence banking business
in the UK.

On 8 January 2014, Axis Bank announced the opening of its Shanghai Branch, thus becoming
the first Indian private sector bank to set up a branch in China.

On 4 December 2014, Axis Bank announced that it had closed its Senior Unsecured
Redeemable Non-Convertible Debenture issue of amount Rs 5705 crore and priced at 8.85%
p.a. payable annually maturing on 5 December 2024.

On 9 December 2014, Axis Bank announced the launch of limited period offer of 20 year
fixed rate home loan for affordable housing at 10.40%.

On 27 July 2015, Axis Bank announced that it had signed a $200 million 7 year bilateral loan
deal with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for extending affordable agriculture credit to
farmers in India.

On 22 November 2015, Axis Bank announced the opening of its Representative Office in
Dhaka, Bangladesh in a bid to strengthen its international presence.

On 9 March 2016, Axis Bank announced the launch of the world's first Forex prepaid card
issued in conjunction with Diners Club International, a business unit of Discover Financial
Services.

On 30 March 2017, Axis Bank announced a strategic partnership with Wells Fargo &
Company to offer seamless remittance facility to their NRI customers from The United States
of America (USA).

On 17 June 2017, Axis Bank in association with Kochi Metro Rail Corporation (KMRL)
launched India's first single-wallet contactless, open loop metro card to allow cashless
commuting for commuters in Kochi.

On 5 July 2017, Axis Bank announced its foray into the luxury bikes loans segment for 500cc
& above bikes.

On 11 July 2017, Axis Bank announced its collaboration with Inter-American Investment
Corporation (IIC) to facilitate trade with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Axis Bank on 27 July 2017 announced that it has entered into an agreement with Jasper
InfoTech Private Limited to acquire 100% stake in its subsidiaries viz. Free Charge Payment
Technologies Private Limited and Accelyst Solutions Private Limited, which together
constitute the digital payments business under the 'Free Charge' brand. The deal marked the
first such acquisition of a digital payments company by a bank in India.

Problems of the Organization

After months of speculations, the private sector lender Axis Bank will finally have a new MD
& CEO Amitabh Chaudhry by January next year. The bank has been in news for all the
wrong reasons in the last one year from deteriorating asset quality, leak of financial results,
non-compliance with its asset classification norms, to falling stock price. In fact, Axis Bank
was among the very few private banks with high non-performing assets (NPAs). Earlier this
year, the bank lost its MD & CEO Shikha Sharma, who decided to take an honorable exit
after RBI asked the board to reconsider her reappointment. As the new MD & CEO wears her
shoes, he has many challenges awaiting him:

1) Stability of top management:

The Axis Bank saw a big transition from its 'own cadre' in the senior management team to
outside professionals at the top. Deputy MD V Srinivasan came from outside. Rajiv Anand,
Executive Director, came from the fund management business. Rajesh Dahiya, who came
from Tata Group, joined the HR department and today is the executive director. The new MD
has to take them along. They may have concerns of more professionals joining the bank
laterally. So stabilizing the senior management team will be a big challenge.

2) De-risking the corporate book:

The Axis Bank took big bets in the corporate segment where it saw massive deterioration in
asset quality. Infrastructure was one sector where it saw massive deteriorating. The new MD
has to strengthen the corporate team, risk management and also the right sectors to be in. The
corporate will remain a big drag on the bank's book in terms of provisioning. At the same
time, Chaudhry has to beef up the resolution mechanism with a right strategy (one time
settlement, IBC, ARC, AMC, AIF etc)

3) The next big bet on retail:

The retail segment is already over-heated with margins under pressure in segments like
mortgages, personal loans, auto loan etc. There are banks that are venturing into consumer
durable financing through subsidiaries or affordable housing. The banks need to think of
scaling up some of the retail segments where future potential lies.

4) Boosting the employee’s morale:

There has been a buzz in the market that Axis Bank will eventually go to Kotak Bank or
some other private bank. Many say the bank is an easy target for merger & acquisition. This
has demoralized the work force in the last one year. If this sword will keep hanging over
bank's head, it would be very difficult to attract fresh talent.

S.W.O.T Analysis of the Organization

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Axis bank

Axis bank has been given the rating as one of top three positions in terms of fastest growth in
private sector banks.

Financial express has given number two position and BT-KPMG has rated AXIS bank as the
best bank with some 26 parameters.

The bank has a network of 1,493 domestic branches and 8,324 ATMs.

The bank has its presence in 971 cities and towns.

The banks financial positions grow at a rate of 20% every year which is a major positive sign
for any bank.

The company’s net profit is Q3FY12 is 1,102.27 which has a increase of 25.19% growth
compared to 2011.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Axis bank

Gaps – Majorly they concentrated in corporate, wholesale banking, treasury services, retail
banking.

Foreign branches constitute only 8% of total assets.

Very recently the bank started focusing its attention towards personal banking and rural areas.

The share rates of AXIS bank are constantly fluctuating in higher margins which makes
investors in an uncomfortable position most of the time.
There are lots of financial product gaps in terms of performance as well as reaching out to the
customer.

There are many fraudulent activities involved in credit cards as the banks process credit card
approval even without verification of original documents.

Their financial consultants are not wise enough to guide the customers towards right
investments.

Customer relation has to improve a lot in order to be in race with other major players.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Axis bank

In 2009, Alliance with Motilal Oswal for online trading for 10 million customers.

In 2010, acquired Enam Securities Pvt. Ltd. – broking and investment banking.

In Sep 2009, SEBI approved Axis Asset Management Co. for mutual fund business.

No. of e-transactions increased from 0.7 million to around 2 million.

Geographical expansion to rural market – 80% of them have no access to formal lending.

24% unregulated money lenders.

Now number of branches increased to 1493 from 339.

Last quarter there were 48 new branches opened across the Nation.

Since it’s a new age banking there are lot of opportunities to have the advance technicalities
in banking solutions compared to existing major players.

The assets in international operations are growing at a very faster pace with a growth rate of
9%.

The concept of ETM (Everywhere teller machine) by AXIS Bank had a good response in
terms of attracting new customers in personal banking segment.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Axis bank

Since 2009, RBI has increased CRR by 100 basis points.

Increased repo rate reverse repo rate by 50 points – 11 times of late.

Increasing popularity of QIPs due to ease in fund raising.

RBI allowed foreign banks to invest up to 74% in Indian banking.

Governments schemes are most often serviced only by govern banks like SBI, Indian Banks,
Punjab National Bank etc.
ICICI and HDFC are imposing strong threats in terms of their expansion in customer base by
their aggressive marketing strategies.
 Chapter-2

CRM is an abbreviation for Customer Relationship Management, which is an information

industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an
enterprise to manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise
might build a data about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that
management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could
access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind
customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and
so forth.

HISTORY AND THEORY

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is in growing importance due to the

challenging business environment faced by organizations throughout the world today. It is
particularly critical in industries undergoing changes in traditional channel configuration.
CRM is a means of addressing increasing competition, changing economic conditions and
promotional dependence through the use of intimate customer knowledge; knowledge gained
through relationship development and past marketing programs. CRM is increasing in
prominence because it focuses on current users who are the source of the majority of business
revenueand the best option for improving business in uncertain times. There are number of
working definitions for CRM. In fact the letters CRM have been used to identify Continuous
Relationship Marketing, Customer Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship
Management. Each term represents the same process. CRM can be defined as a process that
maximizes customer value through on-going marketing activity founded on intimate
customer knowledge established through collection, management and leverage of customer
information and contact history. CRM is about perfecting relationships to maximize a
customer’s value over time.

CRM is a part of an evolution in corporate thinking that began with the Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) initiative of the 1990’s. ERP forces all resources within a corporation to
work within one business system. In the 1990’s, over $300 billion was spent on centralizing
and organizing information and resources throughout U.S. corporations. The results however,
have been mixed in terms of payout. What is indisputable is that information system
processing skills acquired in implementing ERP programs enabled many organizations to
support CRM and E-commerce programming; initiatives not in existence when ERP began.
CRM was developed, in large part, as a result of data mining, or segmentation and targeting
research, made possible from the centralization of customer records. Organizations began to
realize that they could better serve customers since they better understood customers.CRM
has benefited from advances in data management and middleware new software that allows
disparate data resources to work as a single integrated database. CRM has also been
supported by a new generation of promotional tools such as Spectra. In the U.S., CRM is
now practiced by approximately 45% of the companies in retailing, aircraft and utilities; 50-
55%of the companies in financial services, pharmaceuticals and transportation; 70% of the
companies in telecommunications and credit. The development and popularity of electronic
marketing as a tool has produced a rich source of consumer data for access by organizations
in many industries. Focusing on the retail grocery industry in the U.S., Frequent Shopper
Programs (FSP’s), are used by grocery retailers who comprise over 60% of the All
Commodity Volume. They have produced consumer files that will be the key to more
profitable grocery promotion for them in the future. Companies like Safeway, Kroger and
American stores are heavily invested in these programs. Frequent shopper programs in
the grocery industry developed as a loyalty program extensions. These programs are
consumer card-based programs that track purchases based on the use of scanners and reward
customers with discounts based on brands purchased.
These programs were developed to provide customers with an additional reason to increase th
eirshare of purchase in a particular chain of stores. The concept of customer lifetime value,
the money value of customer relationship overtime, has evolved to enable savvy direct
marketers the opportunity to differentiate the
profit potential for each of the various market segments that they serve. Loyalty marketing
has always focused on the fact that retaining and improving business with current consumers
costs less than acquiring new customers. Customer retention, as a strategy, is founded on the
ability to segment and differentially target current users to improve the value of the
relationship for both seller and buyer. Lifetime value is calculated by identifying the revenue
stream over a period in time, applying a retention rate for each year, subtracting total cost and
then applying a discount rate to gross profit in order to determine the net present value of
a customer. The calculation is completed for a number of years using different retention rates.
Midas Mufflers uses customer lifetime value as the backbone for their direct marketing
efforts. Midas tracks cars based on vehicle mileage and contacts customers to remind them of
service and brake opportunities over the life of their vehicle. There is a difference between
Frequent Shopper Programs and Loyalty Focused Programs. For example, in the U.S. grocery
industry today, the focus for supermarkets is on promotion rather than on the development of
comprehensive loyalty programs. Customers participate in these programs in large part to
ensure they earn the lowest possible discount, not because of any loyalty to a retailer. Less
than half of all managers believe that their CRM programs are attaining corporate objectives
despite the advances made in data technology, ERP, new software linking databases, e-
commerce and customer loyalty programming. The problems with CRM to date have been
the following: lack of overall project responsibility, poorly written objectives, and inferior
technical performance. Many feel that the results for CRM to-date have been disappointing.
However, we are early in the effort. Required for improvement are the establishment of
clearly stated objectives, the establishment of organizational authority and improvements in
the use of information technology. Segmentation is the process of placing individuals or
organizations that have similar needs into groups. Target segments are selected are selected
based on an organization’s ability to satisfy respective segments’ needs. Organizations match
benefits with the respective needs of sub-segments by developing positioning strategies for
each sub segment. CRM professes that markets are “segments-of-one”. However, it is not
feasible to create a specific segmentation and subsequent positioning strategy for each
individual.

COMPONENTS OF CRM

Customer:

The customer is the only source of the company’s present profit and future growth. However,

A good customer, who provides more profit with less resource, is always scarce because
customers are knowledgeable and competition is fierce.

Relationship:

The relationship between a company and its customers involves continuous bi-directional
communication and interaction. The relationship can be short term or long term, continuous
or discrete, and repeating or one-time. Relationship can be attitudinal or behavioral. Even
though customers have a positive attitude towards company and its products, their
buying behavior is highly situational.

Management:

CRM is a not an activity only within a marketing department. Rather it involves continuous
corporate change in culture and processes. The customer information collected is transformed
into corporate knowledge that lead to activities that take advantage of the information and of
market opportunities. CRM requires a comprehensive change in the organization and
its people.

DEFINITIONS OF CRM

“CRM is an integrated cross-functional focus on improving customer retention, maintaining

relationships with customers and profitability for the company.”

Other definitions could be:

“Process of creating and maintaining relationships with business customers or consumers”

“A holistic process of identifying, attracting, differentiating and retaining customers”

“Integrating the firm’s value chain to create enhanced customer value at every step”

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRM

Well-designed CRM includes the following characteristics:

1. Customer-Oriented:

Relationship management is a customer-oriented feature with service response based on

customer input, one-to-one solutions to customers’

Requirements, direct online communications with customer and customer service centers that
help customers solve their questions.

2. Sales force automation:

This function can implement sales promotion analysis, automate tracking of a client’s
account history for repeated sales or future sales, and also coordinate sales, marketing, call
centers, and retail outlets in order to realize the sales force automation.

3. Use of technology:

This feature is about following the technology trend and skills of value delivering using
technology to make “up-to-the-second” customer data
available. It applies data warehouse technology in order to aggregate transaction information,
to merge the information with CRM solutions, and to provide KPI (Key Performance
Indicators)

4. Opportunity management:

This feature helps the company to manage unpredictable growth and demand and implement
a good forecasting model to integrate sales history with sales projection.

OBJECTIVES OF CRM

CRM, the technology, along with human resources of the company, enables the company to
analyze the behavior of customers and their value. The main areas of focus are as the name
suggests:
Customer relationship and the management relationship and the main objectives to
implement CRM in the business strategy are:

To simplify marketing and sales process

To make call centers more efficient

To provide better customer service

To discover new customers and increase customer revenue

To cross sell products more effectively.

The CRM processes should fully support the basic steps of Customer Life Cycle. The basic
steps are:

Attracting present and new customers

Acquiring new customers

Serving the customers

Finally, retaining the customers

SELECTION OF THE RIGHT CRM TECHNOLOGY

There is no single CRM software or formula which will give instant success to all companies.
For small or medium enterprises, the requirement is different from that of big firms. Most
CRM packages provide excellent sales force automation, but not equally good integration
with computer telephony, or with web. These are adequate for small and medium firms but
not for large firms. A mix of different software to link the databases, data warehousing
software, contact management software, and a CRM package will go a long way in helping to
upgrade the small companies. Other internet enabled applications available are enterprise
resource planning packages, e-commerce applications, relationship management packages,
enterprise portal applications etc. One can adopt the best practices to slash costs, introduce
efficiencies into supply chain and internal operations. Today the global market for CRM
services and solutions is currently worth $148 billion. This proves to show the numerous
choices available in this field.

BENEFITS OF CRM

The following are the benefits of adopting CRM processes:

Develop better communication channels

 Collect customer related data

Create detailed profiles of individual customers

Increased customer satisfaction

Access to customer account history, order information, and customer information at all
touch points

Identify new selling opportunities

Increased market share and profit margin

Increased revenues

More effective reach and marketing

Improved customer service and support

Improved response time to customer requests for information

Enhanced customer loyalty

Improved ability to meet customer requirements

Improved quality communication and networking

Reduced costs of buying and using product and services

Better stand against global competition.

CRM IN BANKING SECTOR

Over the last few decades, technical evolution has highly affected the banking industry. For
more than 200 years, banks were using branch based operations. Since the 1980s, things
have been really changing with the advent of multiple technologies and applications. Differen
torganisations got affected from this revolution; the banking industry is one of it (Sheriff
2002). In this technology revolution, technology based remote access delivery channels
and payment systems surfaced. ATM displaced cashier tellers, telephone represented by callc
enters replaced the bank branch, internet replaced the mail, credit cards and electronic cash
replaced traditional cash transactions, and interactive television will replace face-to-face
transactions (Sheriff 2002). In recent years, banks have moved towards marketing orientation
and the adoption of relationship banking principles. The key motivators for embracing
marketing principles were the competitive pressure that arose from the deregulation of the
financial services market particularly in India. This essentially exposed clearing banks and
the retail banking market to increased competition and led to a blurring of boundaries in
many traditional product markets (Durkin, 2004). The bank would need a complete view of
its customers across the various systems that contain their data. If the bank could track
customer behavior, executives can have a better understanding, a predicative
future behavior and customer preferences. The data and
applications can help the bank to manage its customer relationship to continue to grow and
evolve (Dyche, 2001). According to Stoneet al. (2002) most sectors of the financial services
industry are trying to use CRM techniques to achieve a variety of outcomes. In the area of
strategy, they are trying to:

• Create consumer -centric culture and organization;

• Secure customer relationships;

• Maximize customer profitability;

• Integrate communications and supplier – customer interactions across channels;

• Identify sales prospects and opportunities;

• Support cross and up-selling initiatives;

• Manage customer value by developing propositions aimed at different customer segments;

CRM is a sound business strategy to identify the bank’s most profitable customers
and Prospects, and devotes time and attention to expanding account relationship with those
customers through individualized marketing, reprising, discretionary decision making, and
customized service through the various sales channels that the bank uses. Any financial
institution seeking to adopt a customer relationship model should consider six key business
requirements (Chary & Ramesh, 2012), they are:

1. Create a customer-focused organization and infrastructure.

2. Gaining accurate picture of customer categories.

3. Assess the lifetime value of customers.

4. Maximize the profitability of each customer relationship.

5. Understand how to attract and keep the best customers.

6. Maximize rate of return on marketing campaigns.CRM is developing into a major element

of corporate strategy for many organizations (Rangarajan, 2010; Shibu, 2011). A greater
focus on CRM is the only way.

The banking industrycan protect its market share and boost growth. With intensifyingcompeti
tion, declining market share, deregulations, smarter and more demanding customers, there is
competition between the banks to attain a competitive advantage over one another or for
sustaining the survival in competition. In India, the banking sector has been operating in a
very stable environment from last thirty -forty years. In current scenario of banking sector,
the falling of interest rates and tough competition between these players had made Indian
bankers to realize that the purpose of their business is to create and retain a customer and to
see that the entire business process is consistent with an integrated effort to discover, retain
and satisfy customer needs. But the success of' CRM Strategy depends upon its ability to
understand the needs of the customer and to integrate them with the organization's demands
are increasing.

FUTURE OF CRM

In just a few years Customer Relationship Management has emerged as a powerful business
trend. However, the best is yet to come. Recently the Internet portal CRM Guru.com hosted
an online panel discussion featuring four distinguished CRM experts debating the future of
CRM. Speaking of trends and challenges ahead, they agreed that CRM is here to stay but will
evolve. Erin Kinikin, vice president of CRM for Giga Information Group set the tone
echoed by other participants by saying CRM is one of the most dramatic, fundamental
changes in the history of business. High-Yield

Marketing’s

Dick Lee agreed: CRM is fundamentally the expression of the customer-centric business
philosophy. It is how you respond to the fact that customers are now the drivers in our
economy. Insight Technology Group just finished its annual state of the CRM marketplace
review, and managing partner Jim Dickie sees major changes. A major West Coast financial
institution is realizing that you have got to sell the way customers want to buy. Lee traces the
rise of customer power concurrent with what we now call CRM from the early 80s, when the
supply and demand curves in our economy really started switching over from being a
predominately seller-driven economy to a predominately buyer-driven economy. It started
that long ago? Well, Lee admits, it took us a lot of time to respond to it
because basically business didn’t want to do business the customer way, and customers have
finally forced the issue.

Liz Shahnam of META Group was blunt about the importance of customer touch points:

CRM projects that don’t integrate customer touch points are destined for abject failure.
Dickies West Coast financial firm recently did a direct mail campaign that invites people to
respond any way they like, be it via the company Web site, call center, branch office or
whatever, but wherever they come in, that information is shared with the rest of the sites. You
don’t want customers knowing things their account managers don’t know. Vertical solutions
are another hot trend. We are approaching the end of the one size fits all CRM market, and
entering an age of virtualization and specialization, Kinikin says. There are different types of
customers, different types of business models and selling strategies, and over time there
will be different CRM software to support these different models. Dickie agrees: What you
had in the past was companies developing a tool set, and saying go and customize it for your
industry. But now you have vendors coming into the market saying they will give you a
110 percent solution for a specific vertical. Shahnam went so far as to predict that in
a few years, there will be no horizontal or generic CRM.

Most panelists saw increased functionality in CRM suites coming soon, even as functions
associated with CRM are cropping up elsewhere. Dickie sees it as an efficient versus
effective issue: A lot of the stuff we have done has been focused on efficiency, like giving the
sales rep more time to make average sales calls. We are realizing the issue is really
effectiveness. I need my average rep to make great calls. I need my average service person to
make great service calls.

CRM customers are also demanding more and more knowledge management functionality.
Essentially, in the e-Business economy, you need to deliver customer organizational
knowledge on demand, anytime anywhere, Kinikin said. We are seeing a push to a lot more
functionality being put into the CRM tools themselves, agrees Dickie. Lead tracking systems
are great, but what I really want now is knowledge management systems, sales coaching
systems, and service intelligence systems to help take the next step.

In short, the future of CRM is bright indeed. CRM will become deeply ingrained as
a business strategy for most companies. Technology will evolve while technical andorganizat
ional challenges are overcome. Much will change in the years ahead, but one thing is certain:
CRM is a journey, not a destination, and customers have their hands on the roadmap and the
steering wheel.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this research, multiple choice questionnaires were designed. For collection of data
Questionnaire was filled up by AXIS bank customers (respondents). Mean, percentage,
Standard deviation were used for data analysis. Findings of this research have been
Define and explained with the help of bar diagram and pie charts.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To know whether the customers are satisfied with services provided by Axis bank.
2. To know whether the customers are satisfied with the staff employed in Axis bank.

3. To know whether the customers are satisfied with promotional factors of Axis bank.

4. To know whether the customers are satisfied with the working environment of Axis bank.

NEED OF CRM IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY

A Relationship-based Marketing approach has the following benefits: -1. Over time, retail
bank customers tend to increase their holding of the other products from across the range of
financial products / services available.2. Long-term customers are more likely to become a
referral source.3. The longer a relationship continues; the better a bank can understand the
customer and his/her needs & preferences, and so greater the opportunity to tailor products
and services and cross-sell the product / service range.

Customers in long-term relationships are more comfortable with the service, the organization,
methods and procedures. This helps reduce operating cost and costs arising out of customer
error. With increased number of banks, products and services and practically nil switching
costs, customers are easily switching banks whenever they find better services and products.
Banks are finding it tough to get new customers, and more importantly, retain existing
customers.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. Some customers might have given biased information.

2. There might be mistakes in interpreting the information obtained correctly.

3. Due to time constraints the study was limited in extent.

4. We could not reach all the departments due to lack of time

5. Finally, this study did not examine whether courteous expressions on personal connections
play a role in other customer outcomes such as loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.