Index

1. Introduction… 1
2. Customer Relationship Management… 1
3. Objective… 3
4. Loyalty And Customer Satisfaction… 3
5. Need Of CRM… 5
6. CRM Consists of… 6
7. Types Of CRM… 6
8. Key Elements… 7
9. Tools Of CRM… 8
10. Goal Of CRM… 8
11. Performance Metrics… 9
12. React… 9
13. Business Not A Technology… 10
14. To Steps Implement CRM… 11
15. CRM Applications… 11
16. CRM Benefits… 12
17. Latest Trends… 14
18. Challenges… 15
19. The Future Of CRM… 17
20. Conclusion… 18

III

1
The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise
is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business
is a satisfied customer.
- Peter Drucker

• Introduction

In less than a decade Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, has

escalated into a topic of major importance. Although the term CRM, more
recently relabeled Customer Management, only came into use in the latter
part of 1990s, the principles on which it has been based have existed for
much longer. CRM builds especially on the principles of relationship
marketing, the formal study which goes back 20 years but the origins of it,
involving building relationships of mutual value between suppliers and
customers, have existed since the start of commerce. However, what has
changed over the past decade is a series of significant trends that collectively
shape the opportunity better to serve customers through information-enabled
relationship marketing, or CRM.

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer relationship management or CRM as is better known is a hot

word today. Simply stated, it is the liaison between the product and the
customer. It promises a better understanding of customers, strengthens
customer loyalty and provides what customer wants and how they want it. It is
a concept encourages repeat buying from regular and frequent consumers. It
is very old concept, though was not very prominent concept, to lure customers
by offering services to stick to their product. Brand loyalty had almost become
a passe in the last 2 - 3 decades but now again concepts like CRM is trying to
bring it back into the picture.

It is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually

Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in
an organized way.

It is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its

contact with its customers. It is a strategy used to learn more about
customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships
with them. Good customer relationships are at the heart of business success.
There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM
in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think
about CRM is as a strategic process that will help you better understand your
customers’ needs and how you can meet those needs and enhance your
bottom line at the same time. This strategy depends on bringing together lots
of pieces of information about customers and market trends so you can sell
and market your products and services more effectively.

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 The transformation of the role of customer from that of passive audience
to active players in co-creating value has given a new dimension to CRM. The
reason for this transformation is largely due to wide coverage of Internet,
consumers are increasingly engaged in active and explicit dialogue with
companies. Moreover consumers are becoming business collaborators who
have as much to contribute to value creation as companies themselves do.
CRM is a relationship process which a company can cultivate with its
customer groups / segments in such a ,way that it would benefit both the
customer and the company is a process of acquiring, retaining and partnering
with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the end
user. It is about the management of technology, processes, information
resources and people needed to create an environment that allows a
business to take a 360 - degree view of its customers. CRM should not be
linked to just opening a call center or contacting customers via mail or having
a discount scheme for regular customers rather it is well planned strategy
engulfing the objectives of the organization and setting short term targets to
achieve that objective.

CRM software is used to support these processes, storing information

on current and prospective customers. Information in the system can be
accessed and entered by employees in different departments, such as sales,
marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance
management, human resource development and compensation. Details on
any customer contacts can also be stored in the system. The rationale behind
this approach is to improve services provided directly to customers and to use
the information in the system for targeted marketing and sales purposes.

For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers

that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management,
salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly

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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.

Companies’ e-business prospects are often derailed by poor customer

support because companies don’t understand the frantic pace of Internet time.
Procurement, fulfillment, and post-sale support can be severely crippled by
poor communication channels. Customer Relationship Management explains
the circular relationship between suppliers, technology, and customers, which
together provide the infrastructure for customer support in an e-business
environment. Managing relationships with customers has become a critical
organizational competency.

• Objective
The objectives of CRM should be in resonance to the objectives and goals
of the organization. CRM is an overall strategy for the organization and not
just a sales tool with a short-term orientation. CRM requires a long-term plan,
and anything long-term requires a strong organizational commitment and
appropriate investment.
Putting it more sharply, a recent Gartner Group Research Note Tutorial
from Gartner Group, Stamford, Conn., declared, "The objective of CRM is the
optimization of profitability. It begins with the premise that not all customers
are created equal."

• Loyalty And Customer Satisfaction

ASPECTS of CRM include loyalty and customer satisfaction. These two

aspects point out to the fact that different customer segments/groups would
be interested in different dimensions of the offerings made by the marketer.
The implication of this aspect will be reflected in the manner in which loyalty
programmes are planned and satisfaction parameters are monitored, apart
from the fact that the selection of target segment or specific companies in a
business-to-business context is of utmost importance. This is because
profitability of a CRM programme will vary across segments (or companies).

While loyalty and satisfaction are strongly linked to CRM programmes, the
specific objective of a CRM programme for a customer may have to be
decided by a company before planning the appropriate programme. For
example, reducing the cost of distribution may be the objective of a CRM
programme at a given point of time. This may involve working out and
restructuring ordering patterns, taking into consideration the consumption
patterns and inventory levels at the customer's end and the production
systems at the manufacturing end. The co-operative and collaborative
aspects mentioned earlier can be noted here. Similarly in consumer
marketing, the objective of a CRM programme for a fast food company may
be to increase the frequency of purchase of a food item. A promotional
programme for the brand could be roped in as a part of the CRM programme.

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This would result in rebuy at least from a cross - section of consumers and
they may also be satisfied with the manner in which the company has gone
about it (for example, providing a variety of recipes with the food item for a
segment which the company believes could exhibit loyalty). Loyalty in
categories like fast foods, soaps and confectionery could be driven through
innovative CRM programmes.

• How to keep a customer for life

 Select the right customers through market research

 Know your purpose for being in business
 Move customers from satisfaction to loyalty by focusing on retention and
loyalty schemes
 Develop reward programmes
 Customize your products and services
 Train and empower your employees in excellent customer service
 Respond to customer’s need with speed and efficiency
 Measure what’s important to the customer- always add value
 Know why customers want in their relationship with you
 Know why customers leave your enterprise by producing customer exit
surveys
 Conduct a failure analysis on your enterprise
 Know your retention improvement measures- have a strategy in place
 Use market value pricing concepts
 Do what works all over again!

• Misconceptions

The key to implementing a successful CRM initiative is to first understand

exactly what CRM is. Often, business begins with an initial understanding,
right or wrong, that motivates them to pursue a CRM initiative. Several
misconceptions emerge once they attempt to apply CRM to their business.
The most common believes that CRM is the new cure-all for customer
management evils that, if implemented, will result in almost immediate benefit.
Unfortunately, CRM by itself is no guarantee of customer retention.

Companies at the forefront of CRM think of it as an integrated business

strategy that places the customer at the center of a business's consciousness.
CRM provides a holistic view of the customer across all of an organization’s
products and channels.

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• Need of CRM

Let’s analyze what’s the need of CRM in today’s scenario:

 Opening of the Indian market or rather we can say globalization gave our
customers a feel of the international market. Customers have an access to
wider range of products.
 Fast changing technology and advent of Internet set up an interactive
platform between the marketer and the customer.
 Increased competition gave the need to the marketers to carve a niche for
themselves by offering something unique.
 Change in the role of customer. Customers do business on their own
terms, whenever, however, wherever they want. So there is a need to
mould ourselves according to customers needs.
 Changes in the mode of communication – by e-mail, Internet, phone, fax,
WAP or face to face. Customers can participate in the development of
products and services.

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• CRM consists of

• Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and

target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns with clear goals
and objectives, and generate quality leads for the sales team.
• Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales
management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and
streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile
devices).
• Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers,
with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits;
identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level
of service.
• Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to
know their customers, understand their needs, and effectively build
relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution
partners.

• Types Of CRM

• Operational CRM - This is the area that is concerned with the

automation of business processes involving front-office customer contact
points. These areas include sales automation, marketing automation and
customer service automation. Historically, operational CRM has been a major
area of enterprise expenditure as companies develop call centers or adopt
sales force automation systems. CRM vendors focus on offering an
increasingly wide range of operational CRM solutions.

• Analytical CRM - This involves the capture, storage, organization,

analysis, interpretation and use of data created from the operational side of
the business. Integration of analytical CRM solutions with operational CRM
solutions is an important consideration.

• Collaborative CRM - This involves the use of collaborative services

and infrastructure to make interaction between a company and its multiple
channels possible. This enables interaction between customers, the
enterprise and its employees. For example, feedback received by customer
support agents can provide other staff members with information on the
services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate
goal is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality
of services provided by the company.

• Sales Intelligence CRM - Sales Intelligence CRM is similar to

Analytical CRM, but its intended as a more direct sales tool. Features include
alerts to sales staff regarding:
 Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities
 Customer drift

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 Sales performance
 Customer trends
 Customer margins

• Geographic CRM - Geographic CRM (GCRM) combines geographic

information system and traditional CRM. Geographic data can be
analyzed to provide a snapshot of potential customers in a region or to
plan routes for customer visits.

• Key Elements
People: The people throughout the company from the CEO to each and
every customer care employee need to know and support CRM.

Process: A company's business processes must be reengineered to

bolster its CRM initiative, often from the view of - How can this process better
serve the customer?

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 Technology: Firms must select the right technology to drive these
improved processes, provide the best data to the employees and be easy
enough to operate.
If one of these three foundations is not sound, the entire CRM structure
will crumble. It's a strategy used to learn more about customer's needs and
behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. Good
customer relationships are at the heart of business success.

• Tools Of CRM
Infrastructure: The infrastructure should be in resonance with today's
needs. The modes of communication with the customer are as varied as
Internet, e-mail, fax, phone, mobile, SMS etc. therefore the infrastructure of
the company should also be built upon accordingly.

Manpower : The manpower should be competitive and there must be a

drive to build customer relationship. They should be well conversant, should
be willing to put in full effort and target oriented. They should be given
complete product knowledge training along with adequate technical training.

Database : This is the foremost requirement of implementing the CRM.

The company should have a database of potential customers. This database
should be segregated in different segments (according to Financial status,
Demography, Gender etc.)

Call centers : Call centers are burgeoning these days. The objective of
setting up a call center should be in accordance with the organization
objective. It could be cutting of intermediary costs, retaining existing
customers, making new customers etc. Merely setting up call center does not
conclude that the CRM is implemented. Rather, there should be proper
strategic planning and according the manpower should be recruited to handle
the customers.

• Goal Of CRM
The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology and human
resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of
those customers. With an effective CRM strategy, a business can increase
revenues by:

• Providing services and products that are exactly what your customers
want
• Offering better customer service
• Cross selling products more effectively
• Helping sales staff close deals faster
• Retaining existing customers and discovering new ones

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 • Increased customer acquisition and retention, as well as greater loyalty
• Expansion of profitable, long-lasting customer relationships
• Delivery of a consistent, relevant, high quality customer experience
• Continuous learning about customers (both business and consumer) and
communication of that knowledge across the organization
• Increased customer equity
• Improved cost management

• Performance Metrics
Less than 10 percent of companies have a single, integrated view of the
customer which is a prerequisite for winning customer loyalty. With this in
mind, performance metrics should include:

• Customer profitability
• Customer loyalty
• Customer lifetime value
• Return of CRM investment
Therefore, CRM is about the transformation of the entire enterprise and
how it views and conducts business with its customers.

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• React
Here is a new twist on an old Customer Management philosophy, REACT.
This stands of Responsiveness, Empowerment, Anticipation, Consideration,
and Truthfulness.

 Responsiveness - Managing the element of time is critical.

Some of the biggest frustrations come not from what you are saying to
your customers but rather what you are not saying. Examples include
leaving people on hold too long and not returning phone calls. The best
thing that you can do is to manage expectations up front. If you can't
return a call for 3 days then tell them that. If you think someone will be
left on hold for an unreasonable amount of time then offer to call the
back when you can give his or her call the attention it deserves. Watch
for trends in your business so that you can staff for this appropriately. If
your customers are working 24 hours a day, then you probably have to
as well.

 Empowerment - Make sure that the representatives you have dealing

with your customers are empowered to handle the issues that are being
presented to them. If you don't trust the people who work for you then
get new people. A customer should have to go through layers of your
organization to get an issue resolved. Empowering people makes them
more effective and helps your organization grow.

 Anticipation - Know what your customers want before they do. Look at
industry trends and study best practices. Signals and economic
indicators such as large mergers and changes in trade regulations could
be affecting your customers. Continually look at how this is impacting
your customers and then update your staff regularly so that they are
ready to deal with these new issues. Your customers will notice that
your are on the ball and appreciate that you have a clear understanding
of where they are at.

 Consideration - Remember that the people that you are dealing with
are literally your bread and butter. This should never be an adversarial
relationship, These are people who mean everything to your bottom line
and the best way to keep them happy is quite simply to be nice. Staff
should be trained about using the correct tone of voice and learn a
multitude of non-threatening phrases and answers. Make sure that your
customers know that you are on their side and that you really care.

 Truthfulness - There is nothing more damaging to a company than

lies. If you lie to a customer once, you have lost them. If you are having
supply issues tell them. If half of your staff is out with the flu and the
only temp agency in town just folded, call your customers before they
call you. Let them know where you are at and show them that you have
a plan to get back on track. Bottom line, people may not like it - but they
will respect you for telling the truth.

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• Business Not A Technology
Customer Relationship Management is a business, not a technology,
solution. It is a logical extension of your company's image and culture. Your
image can be a powerful one if based on sound principles of human
interaction and common sense. You must have a clear vision of the
objectives you hope to achieve and that vision must be embraced throughout
your organization. A great deal of thought and planning must be done on the
front end to effectively lead and manage changes to your customer
management model. Most of all the company as a whole needs to "buy in" to
the concept.

• Steps To Implement CRM

1) Develop a system to get frequent customer feedback. This system will
work through the dealer. The dealer gets first hand feedback from the
customer about the product. This system can be worked through the
handbook (suggestions). These feed backs can be analyzed through
the software, which is based on the feedback format. Feedback will be
helpful if given after using the product.

2) This information will be sent to the marketing dept. Mktg. Dept. In

coordination with the production dept. tries to implement the
suggestions given by customers.

3) Based on the changes in the product Mktg. Dept can modify their mktg.
approach, which helps in better mktg. approach.

This checklist encourages managers to rate their organization's level of

preparation relative to 6 key areas of:

• CRM Drivers
• CRM 'Way Forward' statements
• CRM role specifics
• CRM integration issues
• Preparing for the impact of CRM on managers
• Planning CRM project resources

• CRM Applications
CRM solutions must bring a broad range of actionable analysis and
modeling capability based on events or rules that drive the business. By
savings and re-using these analysis steps as well as their results,
managers gain understanding of actions already taken and those to be
taken. Additionally, CRM must have a cross-channel view to understand
the whole customer, which includes all transactions, interactions, and
customer preferences, in other words, "knowing the customers."

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 The essential criteria that differentiates companies lagging from
those leading in CRM (e.g., marketing and interactive commerce) are:

• The ability to manage all aspects of a customer relationship

• Regulating frequency and quantity of contacts (and predetermining
quality )
• Privacy-enabling the integrated customer database and managing
permissions (and store all opt-ins and opt-outs on a detailed basis)
• Personalizing offerings and messaging based on customer
transactions, interactions, advice, surveys, queries, and preferences

To successfully achieve these criteria:

• Be able to modify rules to optimize each customer communications

stream
• Integration and manage across all channels - right content by touch
point
• Capture learning based on all interactions (and associated analytical
models)
• Build two-way interactions to sell, service, or learn the customer's
needs/issues

• CRM Benefits
The popularity of CRM is due to its fundamental and increased focus on
customers. CRM benefits include its ability to help to ensure excellent
customer service as it is aware of customer needs and is able to react to them
effectively. It enables an organization to anticipate and respond to its
customers needs in the right way.
A look at some of the benefits of CRM:

• It is a business strategy that applies to almost every organization;

therefore almost all organizations stand to gain from its use.

• Customers are motivated to return again and again as they receive

good customer service and continue to do business

• Since acquiring a new customer is far more costly than retaining an

existing customer more and more companies are turning to CRM as it
is able to achieve this. Companies need this in order to stay
competitive.

• Many forms of advertising are not as effective as they need to be. CRM
enables a company to target their audience more precisely and gain
customer retention, all at a lesser cost. CRM helps your business as it
lets you do more for your customer and gain more from them.

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• Since every organization needs to understand the importance of cross
selling and since CRM does that they are able retain their customers
for longer periods.

• CRM delivers company-wide access to customer information.

• Using CRM applications can lead to increases in revenue from almost

all areas.

• Reductions in operating costs is a by-product of CRM implementation.

• Simplification of marketing and sales processes is achieved in

organizations implementing CRM by their understanding of customer
needs

• Better customer service is achieved through improved responsiveness

and understanding. This builds customer loyalty and decreases
customer loss.

• CRM enables a company to build a database about its customers so

that management, salespeople etc could access information, match
customer needs with plans and offerings, render better customer
service etc.

• It enables an organization to create detailed profiles such as customer

likes/dislikes etc.

• CRM gains the trust of customers by meeting their needs in a more

personalized way.

• CRM delivers personalized, informed service that customers expect.

This is because of a system that contains and provides a complete
profile of the customer, including all past and present behavior
patterns.

• A higher percentage of cross-selling is possible in companies opting for

CRM

• With globalization CRM offers companies a chance at increased

customer loyalty, higher margins and customer retention

• Companies achieve more success in attracting new customer on

account of their quicker and more efficient responses to customer
leads and customer information.

• CRM helps an organization to develop better communication channels

• CRM helps an organization to collect vital data, like customer details

etc. This data can be used for customer interaction.

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 • Companies opting for CRM find it easy to identify new selling
opportunities.

• The traditional systems used by Customer Service, Sales and

Marketing can now be done away with and the gaps filled with CRM
implementation

Customer relationship management is gaining importance as a

management tool globally and is ranked as the second most important
management tool. On account of CRM benefits, its position as the customer
centric strategy of the decade is slowly gaining ground. Despite the huge
costs involved companies prefer to opt for it on account of the tremendous
benefits of CRM.

• Latest Trends of CRM

For many years the desire to link all aspects of a business has been
growing. In the past, software was fundamentally segregated, for example,
accounting, sales, marketing and production were all working on separate
software, which was not linked. At higher levels of management, data would
filter up in the form of reports from various departments. The mind of the
manager was the focal point. Management would then have to lead the
company based on the conclusion of disparate reports, and non internal
factors such as the economy, trends in the industry and so forth.

The Holy Grail of CRM has come to be the display in one location of all
relevant data for a company. From the perspective of a CRM package such
as ACT!, which is Sales or Marketing based, such data as accounting and
order tracking was available only with hand coded add on products. Various
enterprise systems have attempted to customize their products to an
enterprise level client, with mixed success.

Many times office politics was more a factor than the quality of the
product in the success or failure of the project. Sheer size of the integration in
enterprise level installs, along with the disparate interests and turf of software
products, such as accounting and marketing made overwhelming obstacles to
success. Millions of dollars were lost in the attempt.

Dictating to the client from the perspective of the software vendor, rather
than truly conducting a Needs Analysis from the perspective of the client, and
customizing the software as a result, actually occurred on occasion.

Many vertical market products such as accounting for manufacturing

added on other applications, such as contact management. Often these add
on, while sometimes overly functional were rejected by Sales and
Management as hopelessly inappropriate. As a result the prospects for
integration have seemed dim; particularly when "web based" became popular
as an excuse for usability.

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• Challenges
Companies around the world have leveraged CRM strategies to gain
competitive advantage. As more and more companies rush to implement
CRM, precautions must be taken to do it right. It is approximated that 50-70%
CRM implementations fail, depending on the Industry vertical. Hence, it is
essential to identify the key challenges, address risks and build a strategy that
can make your CRM successful. CRM is full of talk about strategy, but at the
end of the day, someone has to lead the way and implement. Listed below are
some practical tips to consider when building effective CRM strategies and
implementation plans.
1) Understanding of CRM: CRM is not a software : It’s a business
philosophy. It is a strategy, implemented using a software solution, that
typically overs all customer facing departments like sales, marketing,
customer service, etc of a company. Hence CRM is a term, collectively
used to refer to a combination of strategy & software.

2) Getting Clarity on Objectives: What are the set of objectives the

company wishes to achieve with CRM? Trivial as it may sound, a majority
of implementations don’t have these goals spelled out. Ensure that these
objectives are listed and define a measurement metrics to be used to
access the success of the implementation. Without these, the companies
can’t access the benefits or the ROI of the CRM system.

3) No Core CRM Team: Unlike other software implementations, IT team

alone should not be expected to roll out a CRM system. It is very critical
for companies to form a core CRM team, which in addition to IT draws
participation from Top Management, Senior Executives of Sales,
Marketing and Customer Service departments and finally the end-users.
Decisions related to the implementation should be discussed in this forum.

4) The Costing Ice-berg: It is not unusual for CRM implementations to

overrun costs and timelines. When assessing the costing always calculate
the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). There are two ways of getting CRM,
the license model or the ASP (hosted) model. In the licensing model,
licenses typically represent 9 - 18% of the TCO. The actual TCO will need
to include the cost of hardware, software, engineering, operations, AMC’s,
etc. On the other hand, in the ASP model, a subscription fee represents
the true TCO. Since ASP models offer a fully managed and a continuously
evolving system, it also saves implementation time, upgrade costs and
ownership hassles. Any implementation delays also have a cost
associated with it, in form of lost time and opportunity.

5) Product Evaluation Metrics: In most companies, investment in IT are

need based. With time, this buying pattern results in multiple systems that
fragment customer data. While short-listing CRM products, it is essential to

16
 analyze overall capabilities of the product, in addition to the ‘need driver’
module. As the company matures in its CRM initiative, the expectation
from its CRM system multiplies. As a rule of thumb, consider only those
CRM products that offer multiple modules like Sales Force Automation,
Marketing Automation, Customer Support & Services, etc. This will enable
companies to span horizontally, as requirements evolve.

6) Expectation Curve: Every CRM implementation starts with a desire to

improve productivity and streamline processes, fast. However, CRM
implementation is a cultural change. It has to be planned, and executed in
phases. If the change is too fast, it will get derailed, if the change is too
slow, CRM will pale into obsceneness. Don’t compromise on your
expectation, but be sure to have a roadmap to get there. Remember,
Rome was not built in a day.

7) Getting User Adoption: User Adoption is the key for success of any
CRM. It is important to design effective training programs in order to
provide enough skills and understanding to end users for them to be able
to effectively use the system. Ensure that the user interface is kept simple.
Consultants often underestimate or miss the motivation required to get the
end-users to start using the system. Consider the sales executives, their
motivation is to meet the targets to get to the incentive cheque. They are
happiest when selling, to them everything else is a waste of time. Don’t
expect them to navigate complex screens or fill detailed time consuming
information because it simply won’t fly.

8) Managing the Application: Once the CRM has been rolled-out, it is

important to re-align the working culture of teams around it. At times, the
“As-is” bug bites people. To illustrate, the VP sales direct his sales team to
carry excel sheet prints of their pipeline when coming for a review. Here
either the report was not configured well in the system, or users have not
been updating it enough. Such scenarios need immediate correction or
else the CRM system will slowly loose its relevance. The core team must
review such anomalies from time-to-time.

9) Process, Process, Process: Clearly defined processes and their

enforcement are critical to the success of any CRM rollout. The objective
is to cut out the ambiguity in the system. It is advisable to create a central
depositary, accessible to all, which store all the process definitions. Some
key processes that need to be defined are Change Management process,
Feature re-evaluation process, Success evaluation process, Business
flows, etc. Any process implemented via CRM, must map your real-world
process and vice-versa.

10) Finding the Right partner: The rate of CRM success considerably goes
up with the right solution partner. While strategy consultants are good, it is
the solution partner who will make it work. Ideally select a partner who can
do both, strategy & implementation. It is important that your partner shares
the risks of your implementation. Pay only for success. While global
knowledgebase is impressive, local issues can often negate these

17
 learning’s. Work with a vendor who understands local - work culture,
technology limitations, cultural sensitivities and is willing to listen.

• The Future of CRM

CRM has already made a big impact in the world of Customer Service and
will continue to do so. As more and more companies become customer-
centric those that fail to do so will lose competitive advantage. As technology
increases to develop at a startling rate the key emphasis will be how we can
fully utilize it within our business.

However let's not lose sight of the fact that Customer Relationship
Management is about people first and technology second. That’s where the
real value of CRM lies, harnessing the potential of people to create a greater
customer experience, using the technology of CRM as the enabler.

CRM may or may not prove to be the answer to providing excellent

customer care, but the philosophy of putting customers at the heart of our
business is definitely a step in the right direction.

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• Conclusion

Excelling and managing customer relationships is the future of your

business, or any business. Product and service advantages can come and go,
price and marketing promotions can be effective, but they are usually
expensive and increasingly their results are less reliable and more short-term.
Price-led marketing is also unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.

 The secret is to know who your customers are- all of them.

 Get to know what your customers want- individually and as associated

groups.

 Work to make every customer feel special- at every opportunity

Remember that there are three S’s in successful customer relationship

management:

 Standards

 Systems

 Skills

Work constantly to improve your standards. Implement systems that allow

you to track and manage customers, and create a skill level and attitude in
your staff that makes customers go WOW! After all, the purpose of a business
is to create and keep a customer, everything else in detail.

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