Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT (2021– 22)

Proposed Course Outline
Customer Relationship Management
Course Code Term VI
Title of the Course: Customer Relationship Management Credit: 1.00
Name of the Faculty: Surayanarayana Valluri & M.S. Nageshwar Rao
Email ID: suri_valluri@yahoo.com Contact No.: 9880165222
realetnagesh@gmail.com 9845055736

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Motivation for the course:

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are
dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an
outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is
doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

The relevance of the quote and its utility with suitable contextual variations largely explains the
importance Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has gained and the massive following as
the focus of Marketing shifted from Product Centricity to Customer Centricity. Further, path
breaking research & studies on customer behavior and their relationships with firms across
geographies, have demonstrated the economic sense of retaining and mining existing customers
in product and services markets in B2C and B2B landscapes.

The spotlight is on various Customer Relationships, its management theories in the academic
circles and the board rooms of companies large & small across the world. While the business
world witnessed large scale implementations of CRM processes and associated technology
solutions, there are clear winners and losers, with some of these organisations reaping the
benefits and others losing out on account of misplaced expectations. Further, the outsourcing
wave, which has caught the fancy of both the developing and developed nations, has led
companies to embrace relationship orientation and develop suitable customer relationship
strategies.

The innumerous products and service choices that the customers have and the multiple means
and modes to access them have brought about considerable change in the way business are
viewing their customers. The fast paced digital and social transformation coupled with
enhanced e-commerce capabilities and innovative technology solutions are turning CRM on its
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head and reconstructing what it means to serve customers.

The dynamic marketplace in the post Covid-19 world will continue to witness constant churn
in the ways businesses attract, retain, and exchange value with their chosen customers. The
canvas of customers’ views of a business and business’s view of customers is of myriad hues.
The paths that companies tread to navigate the competitive landscape will determine their
relevance, longevity, and beneficial existence to multiple stakeholders, all based on the
strength and depth of relationships they forge.

Through this elective offering, an attempt is being made to equip students with tools,
frameworks, concepts and disruptive ideas for engaging customers.

Target audience for the course:

The course is being offered to PGP and PGPX participants as a one-credit elective.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. To inculcate deep interest among participants in the importance of Customer Relation-

ship Management
2. To be a destination for specialized skills that can attract companies with varied needs

PEDAGOGY / TEACHING METHODOLOGY:

The pedagogy will be based on: Lectures by the course faculty.

Usage of case studies with a view to understand the underlying concepts.

Bring into the classroom, industry experts who will share the wealth of their understanding of
this domain.

Participants are expected, to broadly follow the assigned readings

EVALUATION:
Component Weightage %
Attendance & Class Participation 10
Quiz 20
Group Assignment 30
End Term 40
TOTAL 100

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 DETAILS/INSTRUCTIONS FOR EVALUATION: None

TEXT BOOKS:

 G. Shainesh, Jagdish Seth (2006) “Customer Relationship Management - A Strategic

Perspective”
 Frederick Newell (2004) “Why CRM Doesn’t Work”,

ADDITIONAL BOOKS / READINGS:

 V. Kumar “Managing Customers for Profit”; Ram Charan “What the Customer Wants You
to Know”
 Dhruv Nath “Nuts and Bolts of CRM”

The course pack will also have several relevant scholarly articles on the topics covered as part of
this course.

Detailed Schedule (Session wise topics with list of cases/reading materials):

Sl No Faculty Topic Cases / Readings

1 Nageshwar Course Overview Case: None

Concept of CRM Faculty-led discussion

Criticality of Customer Relationships
Explosion of CRM both in Marketing and IT
Evolution of CRM
CRM Defined

2 Nageshwar Building CRM Frameworks Article: Putting the Service-Profit Chain

to Work (HBR Classic), by James L.
Process View of CRM Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W.
Relationship Building as a Process Loveman, W. Earl Sasser Jr., and Leonard
A. Schlesinger

Article: Crash Course in Customer

Relationship Management

3 Nageshwar CRM in Services Industry Case Study: Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.,

by
CRM in Services Rajiv Lal, and Patricia Martone Carrolo

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 Building Customer Loyalty
Readings:
 The Four Things a Service
Business Must Get Right, by
Frances X. Frei Publication

4 Nageshwar CRM in B2B Markets Case: Cognizant Technology Solutions, by

Robert G. Eccles, David Lane, and
Characteristics of Business Markets Prabakar Kothandaraman
Importance of CRM in B2B Markets

5 Nageshwar CRM in Product Markets Caselet: First hand account of a Farmers

Tractor Acquisition
Relationship Overview of Product Markets

6 Nageshwar CRM in B2C Markets Case: Recall of Maggie Noodles

Service Recovery Starbucks Caselet

7 Suri Valluri CRM in Digital World
Sales Force Automation
Data warehousing and Data Mining
Campaign Management
Sales force Automation
Customer Service and Support
8 Suri Valluri CRM in the Mobile/Mobile Apps World
Understanding Customers –
Case: HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and
Web 2.0, by Thomas Steenburgh, Jill
Avery, and Naseem Dahod
Case : Telenor Revolutionizing retail
Banking
Readings
1. How Do They Know Their
Customers So Well?, by Thomas
H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris,
and Ajay K. Kohli

2. Tuning in to Your Customers, by

Kristen B. Donahue

9 Suri Valluri Contact Centers – Omni Channel Support Class Exercise: Caselet to be circulated
Centres

An Understanding of Strategy, Structure, Video: HCL Employees First, Customers

Metrics Second

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10 Suri Valluri CRM : Plethora of Tools , Plethora of Exercise on identifying top tools, detailing
Applications using FAB ( Feature, Advantage , Benefit )
1. Sales CRMs Models,
2. Service Desk CRMs Application Industries , Target Markets
3. Chatbots ( Large, medium, sme, soho)
4. AI/ML Apps
5. AR/VR solutions
Enterprise CRMs ( zoho etc)
11 Suri Valluri CRM - Key Account Management Case: Siemens AG: Key Account
Management, byThomas Steenburgh,
Need for Key Accounts Michael Ahearne, and Elena Corsi
Customer Management Life Cycle

12 Nageshwar Challenges in CRM Implementation Case: Implementing Sales Force

Automation at Quantum Technology, by
James Lattin, and Dana Nunn

13 Nageshwar What’s new in CRM Role Play followed by Faculty Lead Class
Discussions
Readings: Avoid the Four Perils of CRM
Customer Orientation, Focus & Centricity (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition), by
CRM to CMR Darrell K. Rigby, Frederick F. Reichheld,
and Phil Schefter

14 Nageshwar Customer Experience Design & Readings: Developing a customer-

Management experience vision
by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and
Nicholas Toman. A Mckinsey Article

15 Nageshwar Customer Satisfaction Surveys Case: NPS at Manipal Hospitals

Readings
NPS How NPS Drives Profitable Growth: The
Economic Payoff of High-Quality
Customer Relationships-And the Net
Promoter System, by Fred Reichheld, and
Rob Markey

16 Nageshwar Customer Complaints – Land Mine to Gold Caselet : To be circulated

Mine
Readings: Customer Complaints a lousy
source of startup ideas

17 Nageshwar Relevance of CRM going forward Video followed by Panel Discussions

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 Managing Genx
Impact of SMAC

18 Nageshwar Changing Role of Customers & CRM A Perspective

19 & 20 Suri Valluri Group Project Presentations

&
Nageshwar

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES:
The utility of the course to the participant will depend largely on the ability of the participant to
closely follow the readings and invest the required time to prepare for the sessions. It is ex-
pected that participants will have read the specified material prior to each session.
1. The material presented in the prescribed textbook will not be covered through instruc-
tor’s lectures in the class. It is expected that all participants will read the specified chap -
ter(s) of the textbook as well as assigned articles BEFORE the session, prior to embarking
on case preparation.
2. Regularity in attending the sessions, preparing for the sessions before the class, and ac-
tive participation in the learning experience are vital.
3. This is a demanding course and only participants seriously desirous of enhancing their
knowledge of Customer Relationship Management are advised to take this course.
4. The participants are expected to be punctual to the class.

Our best wishes and we hope you have a great learning from the course!

FACULTY PROFILE

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The proposed course is planned to be offered collaboratively by Suryanarayana (Suri) Valluri
& Nageshwar Rao

SuryanarayanaValluri
Phone: +91 98450 55736
email: suri_valluri@yahoo.com

Suryanarayana Valluri (Suri)is an independent consultant with over 28 years of experience in the
IT & Telecom Industries. He holds a B.E (ECE) degree from Osmania University and a Post
Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI with specialization in Marketing and
Systems.

Teaching Experience : Suryanarayana (Suri) has been teaching as a guest faculty in some of the
IIM’s and Executive Programs and also at several Executive Training programs at leading
corporates in India. Suri has facilitated several key programs on Sales, Marketing ,Teamwork,
Account Management and Customer Relationship Management over the past 20months. He has
delivered multiple programs for Automobile OEMs in their dealership development programs.

Over the past 20 months he has taken key modules of Real Estate Management (IIM Indore, IIM
RAK Dubai), Non Linearity in the IIT Industry (IIM Indore), few sessions in B2B Marketing
Management ( IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad).

Suri has also developed the Case Study on Wipro –Non Linearity along with Prof DVR Seshadri
and David Ranjit William.

Consulting: In addition to his teaching assignments Suri consults with several large corporates ,
two start-ups one in the Emerging Electric Vehicle space which has recently secured venture
funding and another start up in the ITO/BPO productivity space.

 Work Experience: Over the past two decades he has worked with leading IT and Telecom
organizations in India. His strength areas are

 Strategy, Sales & Distribution, B2B Marketing & Product Management, Operations &
Customer Service. Large Deal Management and Large Program Delivery.

 Domain: IT and Telecom Industries with over 2 Decades of Experience overall, extensive
experience in both Indian and Global Markets.

 Next Generation Concepts such as Non Linear Models in IT , Mobility, Total

Outsourcing, VAS in Telecom.

His articles have been published in Communications Today and have been
interviewed by Telecom Forums such as TM forum globally.
M.S.Nageshwar Rao

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Phone: +91 98801 65222
E-mail: realetnagesh@gmail.com

Nageshwar Rao has over 22 years of sales & marketing experience in Engineering plastics,
Polyester Yarn & films, Construction materials, Construction Equipments and in the Real Estate
sector. After working with a highly reputed real estate and construction giant in India for over 10
years, he became an entrepreneur setting up organizations that specialized in real estate
consultancy, interior design and execution. During this journey, he assisted multiple property
development companies to set up real estate operations in Bangalore. In his experience spanning
over two decades in estate sector, he has worked closely with the top management teams and the
customers of major property development companies.

With deep understanding and exhaustive knowledge of the real estate sector, Nageshwar founded
a software product company Real-eT Matrix Pvt. Ltd. Under Nageshwar’s leadership, Real-eT
has developed an end to end Real Estate Marketing and Customer Relationship Management
Software Product that is specifically built for real estate sector implementing the best-in-class
business processes and changing needs of the real estate sector. The product incorporates features
that provide clear advantages to real estate companies over other prominent ERP packages that
have been extended to real estate sector from other industries.

Realizing the pressing need for professionalism and structured management skills in the real
estate sector which is on a massive growth trajectory, Nageshwar is now focused on people
transformation in the sector. Under the guidance of renowned faculty members of highly reputed
management institutes, Nageshwar conceptualized, designed and developed a unique course on
“Real Estate Management”. & Customer Relationship Management (CRM),

He is a visiting faculty at the country’s premier management institutions - IIM Ahmedabad, IIM
Indore, IIM Shillong and IIM Udaipur offering these electives.

Nageshwar is a civil engineer from UVCE Bangalore and is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore where
he completed his residential long-term executive management certification program.

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