Running head: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT 1

Customer Relationship Management Report

Name

Institution
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT

Table of Contents

Title Page 1

Introduction 2

Conceptual Background 3

Analysis 4

Findings 5

Recommendations 6

Conclusion 7

References 8
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT

Introduction

This report discusses Customer Relationship Management of national Australia Bank

especially the approaches it use in comparison to its competitors. This report uses CRM to mean

the strategies, practices and technologies that many companies utilize to manage and which in

analyzing interactions of customers as well as data in process of their daily financial behaviours

with an aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the customers in the continuous process of

improving the relationships (Aranata, 2006). Basically, CRM systems are designed such that it

can compile customer information in different points of contact with the Company which in this

report is NAB. The points of contact could be via emails, social media, ATMs, telephone or

website as well as marketing materials (Finextra, 2004).

National Australia Bank, an international company committed itself over ten years ago to

a CRM strategy and as a matter of fact it has tremendously grown and expanded in crucial

customer segments (Forbes, 2004). The environment which NAB operates is hostile to large

banking institutions, and it is why NAB has recently pursued a different relationship-oriented

strategy. The fundamental strategy of Nab is providing both individuals and small business

clients with efficient tailored financial solutions. This is as a result of the Bank’s early adoption

of CRM. Notably, the bank adopted a CRM strategy in 1999 which linked all customer

information which included products, usage and profitability in the US, Australia and New

Zealand. The most notable CRM strategy used by The NAB is the NCR solution; the relationship

optimizer (Lemay, 2012).

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This report is divided into seven major parts, the introduction which will elucidate on the

reports subject matter, Company overview which will give a glismp of the bank and where it has

come from in as much as CRM is concerned, Conceptual framework which will describe CRM

and its context, analysis of theories related to CRM, findings which will capture the specifics of

Nab’s CRM, recommendations and Conclusion.

Company overview

The National Australia Bank was formed in 1982 by the merger of two banks; National

Bank of Australia and Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. After the merger, there was an

expanded financial base which facilitated offshore expansion in Chicago, Beijing, Seoul, Dallas

Kuala Lumpar, Athens, Shangai and Frankfurt. It went ahead in the ensuing years to acquire a

number of banks including Clydesdale in Scotland, Northern Bank in Ireland among others

(Techtarget, 2016).

Today, NAB is among the largest financial institutions in Australia in customer base and

market capitalization. In fact in 2014, the bank was ranked at 21 in the world in market

capitalization and 41 in terms of total assets. It has over 1590 branches across Australia, Asia and

New Zealand with 4,412 ATMs and a customer base of over 12.7 million (Finextra, 2016).

As an early adopter of CRM strategy, National Australia Bank has been continuouly

reinventing its CRM strategies to suit the dynamics of customer relations and the ever changing

business environment. The Nationa Australia bank is currently the biggest user of Siebel and

Teradata technologies as part of its main agenda and new line of business herein called cross-
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT

selling (Finextra, 2016). In 2006, national Australia Bank was awarded IFS/Cap Gemini

innovation awards for its succesful CRM system: National Leads. Due to the 2010 system

malfunction which resultd in a loss of over 60, 000 accounts, and an occurrence dubbed biggest

failure in Australian Banking history, the bank has since upgraded its banking through a project,

Nextgen, which introduced a new system, Oracle based solution at a cost of $1 billion. Through

the adoption of oracle based solution, the company has been able to reassure its customers to

continue banking with them, and has managed to establish an innovative CRM system to fulfill

this promise.

Conceptual Background

Customer relationship management is premised on the need to wholly understand the

needs and financial behaviours of customers with the aim of improving the relationship with the

company in terms of provision, retention and utilization of services (Rigby & Ledingham, 2004)

This understanding is obtained through different points of contact between the customers and

company such as through marketing articles, ATMs, emails, phone calls, live chats and

company’s websites.

Customer relationship management is important to the company in improving its

provision of financial and other services to its customers. Specifically, through CRM system, a

company is able to acquire information about its customers concerning their needs and other

financial aspects, afterwhich it can tailor its services to suit the desires of its customers (Porter,

1985). Moreover, through CRM systems, a company is able to establish what is important,

necessary or urgent, and go ahead to specifically address the identified issue without having to
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT

beat around the bush to find out customer’s needs. This reduces the cost and time used in aimless

marketing. The CRM system also aids the segmentation of markets which is a very important

aspect of marketing. Segmentation of a market requires a lot of information which CRM system

can provide, and as such Nab has been able to use CRM to segment its market according to the

needs of its clients.

Critical to CRM is the implementation process. Notably, the most common and succesful

way of implementing CRM is through Kalakota’s theoretical mode; life cysle model which

presupposes that every phase has varied effects on the customer, and thus organizations need to

adopt a strategy which best suits its objective. The objective being either distinguish the

products, separation or adapting new products from the organizational point of view. On the

other hand, CRM could be implemented through a swift model theory which follows steps such

as knowledge discovery, customer interaction, market planning and finally analysis of refinement

(Argyris & Schon, 1987). Basically the swift model proposes that CRM should be a continuous

process of learning whereby the information about each customer would lead to establishing a

better relationship with them. It further provides that information of a customer alone is not

enough, and also their needs should be recorded and analyzed so as to give necessary response.

Analysis

Customer relationship management as noted ealier is a very important dimension of

businesses in the currently globalized world where customers have a variety of choices in terms

of choosing products. The business world is competitive more than ever, and organizations that

succeed in remaining competitive are the ones which adapt and are innovative (Finextra, 2016).
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT REPORT

National Australia Bank being the first adopter of CRM has been able to remain competitive in

its business endavours. The success of National Australia bank has not been accidental; rather it

has been as a result of robust and innovative programs it has adopted in as much as customer

relationship management is concerned.

Through Relationship optimizer, Siebel and Teradata technologies, all of which are CRM

system, the bank has been able collect data about its customer, establish their needs and put in

place necessary measures to meet the needs of the customers according to Life cycle theory and

swift model theory. The two theories guide the processes of establishing customer relationship

management system that will in the end improve the relationship between the bank and the

customers (De Felice & Britt, 2005).

Findings

The national Australia Bank in 2015 crossed the bridge by adopting a new tech agenda

which has since transformed customer relationship management with its 4500 business bankers.

As the CEO stated, National Australia Bank was more than prepared to fight and protect its

position as the biggest business bank in Australia and beyond. The bank also through its

NextGen CRM system courtesy of Oracle has been able to collect information about its

customer’s accounts, wealth status and in the wholesale division. Through NAB View, the bank’s

staffs are able to see their customer’s complete relationship through a single screen, thus making

it easier to make follow on the clients, and makes it easier for the staff to prodvide advice to the

customers. More importantly, the NAB View does the work that would have taken a week in a

day and therefore saving time which can then be used to deliberate on the future needs of the
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clients, and it is the reason NAB is always a step ahead of its competitors in the banking sector.

Moreover, National Australian Bank is currently using ATMs, emails and other information

technology platforms to extract information that is necessary for better establishment of customer

relationship mangement. It is also planning to have a big migration of existing customers in a

slow roll out so as to take care of new customers.

Recommendations

After going through all the findings and analyzing them based on the theories adopted in this

report relating to customer relationship management, this report wish to recommend the

following for National Australia Bank:

 The bank is so far so good ahead of its competitors and therefore needs to keep up the

pace so as not to be got

 The bank should utilize all the points of contact with the customers in collection data

which is not utilizing currently

 The should also use its website more creatively to contact and collect customer data

necessary for CRM

 National Australia Bank needs to try another CRM system in a few of its branches so as

to make comaprisons in perfomances.

Conclusion
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Customer relationship management indeed is a game changer for companies in the

globalized world of business where customer’s needs have to be met in order to remain

competitive. Through the CRM’s system discussed in this report, and through the application of

appropriate theories, companies are able to not only collect information necessary for aiding a

better relationship with the customers but also be able to retain them by providing financial

services that meet their respective needs. It is also apparent that CRM has facilitated

segmentaion of the market and reduced the time and cost of having to market products that at

times are not needed by the customers. National Australia bank has indeed managed to remain

ahead of its competitors by adopting CRM systems and applying them in their operations.

National Australia Bank has also been able to prioritize its operations accordingly courtesy of

efficient customer relationship management strategy. Moreover, national Australia bank has

expanded its operations to 12.7 million customer base as a result of using Customer relationship

management system. However, it is worth noting that failure to put in place appropriate

theoretical framework with which to apply CRM could be meaningless. In a nut shell, customer

relatioship management is and will always be the better option for organizations in terms of

building sustainable relationships with their customers, and also in retaining them.
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References

Aranata, M. (2006). CRM Resurgence in Asia: Which Banks Lead the Change? Finacial Insights.

Argyris, C & Schon, D. ( 1978). Organizational Learning: A theory of action perspective.

Reading, Mass: Addison Wesly.

Barnes cited in stauss, B & Seidel, W.(2004). Complaint Mangement: the heart of CRM. 1st

Edition, Thomson, America.

De Felice, A & Britt ,P. (2005). Banking on Big Green", Medford: Customer Relationship

Management. Vol 9:11, p.34

Finextra. (2016). NAB consolidates customer data on new CRM system.

https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=26675

Forbes, S. (2004). Creating Profitable Customer Experiences. American Banker, Vol.169, Issue

221, p 22rd-22rd,1p

Hershey, L. (2001). Why CRM Implementation fail. What Part Don’t you Understand."

Imhoff , C, Geiger & Lofits,L. (2001). Building the customer-centric Enterprise. February 2001,

Jhon Wiley & Sons.

Jackson, D. (2002). CRM in financial services", A service excellence white paper. p.10 retrieved

April 14, 2011 from www.serviceexcellenceawards.com

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Joyner, E .(2002)."Customer Relationship Management in Banking ".SAS White paper, North

Carolina offices.

Lemay R. (2012). How to understand NAB’s core banking strategy. Delimiter.

https://delimiter.com.au/2012/11/23/how-to-understand-nabs-core-banking-strategy/

Porter, M E. (1985)."Competitive Advantage :creating and sustaining superior performance".

2004 Edition, Free Press , Newyork.

Rigby. D & Ledingham, D, (2004)." CRM done right". Harvard Business Review, November

2004, p.11

TechTarget. (2016). Customer relationship management.

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/CRM

Treacy, M & Wiersema, F. (1996), "The discipline of Market Leaders". London. HarperCollins

Business.