CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

UNIT – 1 : BASIS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

TOPICS COVERED :
o Overview of Relationship Marketing
o Basis of Building Relationship
o Types of Relationship Marketing
o Customer Life Cycle

Overview of Relationship Marketing:

Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses
on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like
customer acquisition and individual sales. The goal of relationship marketing (or customer
relationship marketing) is to create strong, even emotional, customer connections to a brand
that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion and information from
customers that can generate leads.
Relationship marketing stands in contrast to the more traditional transactional
marketing approach, which focuses on increasing the number of individual sales. In the
transactional model, the return on customer acquisition cost may be insufficient. A customer
may be convinced to select that brand one time, but without a strong relationship marketing
strategy, the customer may not come back to that brand in the future. While organizations
combine elements of both relationship and transactional marketing, customer relationship
marketing is starting to play a more important role for many companies.
What exactly does relationship marketing involve ?
Relationship marketing involves all those tools needed to inform the customers about
the new offers and variants of the brand. It also takes to earn referrals from existing
customers and make strong customer relations. It does not involve strategies only to
increase the number of consumers, but a lot more things than this.
It involves processes or steps like customer experience management, lead generation
management, targeted information, automation tools for marketing, interlinking of
customer relationship management tools, etc. these processes blend together to give the
desired relationship marketing strategies and tools. The effect is not specific to a product or
service that the brand has to offer while it has its effect on the company as a whole. It is
upon the company’s brand image and trust that relationship marketing can make or break.
Relationship marketing is all about making a long-term association with any customer.
It is catering to the changing needs of the customer and making him/her happy. It takes into
account every step that would lead to retaining and gaining new customers. It also has to be
in sync with the company’s vision and ideation. The customers should feel it as a burden but
should genuinely connect to the company and the brand. It is making meaningful,
long-lasting with a relational approach towards customer retention.

Basis of Building Relationship :

• Communicate frequently
• Offer customer rewards
• Hold special events
• Build two-way communication
• Enhance your customer service
• Launch multicultural programs
• Implement omnichannel marketing experiences

Examples of Brands that uses Relationship Marketing Strategy :

1. Starbucks
Starbucks changed the way the world drinks coffee. The company taps into the
power of social media to connect with their loyal customers, using their social
channels and app to send special offers to their followers and build anticipation for
product launches. When they bring back seasonal favourites, they have long lines of
returning, loyal customers patiently waiting. They also share quick videos and images
of customers drinking their product on Instagram. Sharing user-generated content
shows that you appreciate your fans, and those fans will come back for more.

2. Amazon
Amazon is the master at making things easy for their customers, which drives loyalty
and repeat business. They drive sales through customer wish lists, make the
purchase and shipping process easy, and offer lightning fast, free delivery for
 customers who pay for prime membership. They also make returns easy – and free –
with their drop-off locations or return shipping labels. People like simple. Amazon
makes things simple.

Types of Relationship Marketing:

• Basic Marketing
• Reactive Marketing
• Accountable Marketing
• Proactive Marketing
• Partnership Marketing

Importance of Relationship Marketing :

1. Long-term customer retention
2. Reduces marketing and advertising expenses
3. Raise sales volume
4. Provides valuable feedback
5. Offers competitive edge
6. Provide sustainability

Implementing a relationship marketing strategy :

Relationship marketing is based on the tenets of customer experience management (CEM),

which focuses on improving customer interactions to foster better brand loyalty. While these
interactions can still occur in person or over the phone, much of relationship marketing and
CEM has taken to the Web.

With the abundance of information on the Web and flourishing use of social media, most
consumers expect to have easy, tailored access to details about a brand and even expect
the opportunity to influence products and services via social media posts and online reviews.
Today, relationship marketing involves creating easy two-way communication between
customers and the business, tracking customer activities and providing tailored information
to customers based on those activities.

For example, an e-commerce site might track a customer's activity by allowing them to
create a user profile so that their information is conveniently saved for future visits, and so
that the site can push more tailored information to them next time. Site visitors might also be
able to sign in through Facebook or another social media channel, allowing them a simpler
user experience and automatically connecting them to the brand's social media presence.

This is where CRM and marketing automation software can support a relationship marketing
strategy by making it easier to record, track and act on customer information. Social CRM
tools go further by helping to extend relationship marketing into the social media sphere,
allowing companies to more easily monitor and respond to customer issues on social media
channels, which in turn helps maintain a better brand image.
Benefits of relationship marketing :
1. Establish trust and loyalty with customers.
2. Improve customer retention rates.
3. Increase word-of-mouth marketing
4. Gain a competitive advantage
5. Enhance customer lifetime value
6. Improve customer satisfaction levels
7. Boost brand awareness and equity
8. Reduce marketing costs
9. Generate higher quality leads
10. Increase sales and revenue

Characteristics of Relationship Marketing :

1) Showing genuine concern for your customers
2) Building trust and commitment
3) Providing excellent customer service
4) Prioritizing customer retention (not acquisition)
5) Focusing on how a product/service benefits the customer
6) Maintaining ongoing communication with customers
7) Offering multiple ways customers can get in touch for support
8) Rewarding customer loyalty with gifts, discounts, etc.

Best Practices for Relationship Marketing :

Building a relationship marketing strategy with a solid foundation is possible when you follow
relationship marketing best practices. Here’s what to focus on when adding relationship
development strategies in marketing:

1) Focus on the needs of your customers

2) Listen to your customers’ feedback
3) Be available on your customers’ terms
4) Be authentic and informative with your content and message
5) Add a personal touch to your customer experience (i.e., personalized offers)
6) Offer ongoing support to customers
7) Show customers you appreciate them (i.e., send gifts or use loyalty programs)

Challenges for Relationship Marketing :

• Adopting omnichannel methods if you don’t have the staff or tools to do so

• Responding to customers questions and concerns quickly
• Personalizing content and campaigns based on data
• Trying to rekindle interest from an old customer
• Getting company-wide adoption of a relationship marketing approach
• Dealing with complex software tools
Customer Life Cycle :

Definition :

Customer lifecycle refers to the steps a consumer passes through on the path to becoming a
loyal customer. A customer goes through various steps regarding product discovery,
purchase, and loyalty to the brand. A consumer goes through various stages before, during,
and after they complete a transaction is called a customer’s journey.

You have to put efforts to nurture customers throughout these stages that allow you to grow
customer loyalty. It is good to document these stages in a customer journey mapping, a
documentation presentation of the consumer’s touchpoints with your brand.

Stages in Customer Life Cycle :

• Reach
• Acquisition
• Conversion
• Retention
• Advocacy
 UNIT – 2 : INTRODUCTION TO CRM

TOPICS COVERED :
o CRM - Overview and Evolution of the Concept
o CRM and Relationship Marketing
o CRM Strategy
o Importance of Customer Divisibility in CRM

CRM - Overview and Evolution of the Concept :

History
It’s no secret that customers and customer satisfaction drive the growth of your organization.
Since the pre-PC era, business owners and entrepreneurs have been forging ways to
capture and capitalize on invaluable information of their customers. Let’s take a look at how
their CRM journey has progressed from being a mere necessity for data entry to becoming a
boon for their business.
The 1950s
Businesses recorded their day-to-day tasks on pen and paper. File cabinets were purchased
in bulk to support the documentation process while tracking information and updates
became increasingly frustrating. Later in the year 1956, the first rolling index or Rolodex was
invented to store contact information of business prospects.
The 1960s
Most businesses reached out to their customers by scheduling on-ground meetings. Sales
executives would sell products either by engaging with people in one-on-one sessions or
cold calling.
The 1970s
With the emergence of early mainframe computers came the ability to register customer
information such as name, address and transaction history on a standalone digital database.
Database marketing enabled businesses to customize communications to their customers
with targeted messages and monitor business relationships as they progressed, on a
screen.
Customer databases were created to enable business-to-customer(B2C) marketing, and
business databases were created to allow business-to-business(B2B) marketing.
The 1980s
In the year 1987, a digital version of the Rolodex called ACT! was launched by Conductor
Software. It had a contact management tool built-in and paved the way for Content
Management Systems or CMS prototypes to be developed.
ACT! Was earlier known as Activity Control Technology and later renamed as Automated
Contact Tracking before settling on the acronym.
The 1990s
Database marketing expanded its set of features like tracking and analysing customer data
while allowing trivial tasks to be automated, transforming itself into Sales Force Automation
(SFA). By 1995, SFAs were capable of converting leads and automating marketing
campaigns at the click of a button, and the term Customer Relationship Management or
CRM was coined. In 1999, Salesforces launched the first cloud-based CRM as an affordable
alternative to on-premise CRM.
2000s: The Age of Start-ups and Innovation
CRM matures to incorporate all business interactions and processes on a single platform.
Cloud adoption was catching up and Mobile CRM was a revolution. Social CRM was
famous.
The 2010s - Modern CRM Systems
With the advent of mobile computing and Big Data in recent years, CRM solutions are now
fully equipped to manage sales pipelines and deliver outstanding customer experiences for
small businesses, mid-size enterprises, and large multinational corporations. Modern CRM
tools can project pragmatic sales forecasts for every quarter and can be integrated with
social media platforms and a surplus of applications, including Zapier and Gmail.

FUTURE TRENDS TO RESHAPE THE FUNCTIONALITIES, SCOPE,

AND IMPACT OF CRMS :

1) Customer centricity is the key: CRM will focus on creating engagement and
experiences that delight the customer.

2) A Voice- for both customers and sellers: Smart voice assistants will be a demand not
only for back office support but also to help reps with tedious tasks.

3) AI and ML will become a norm: For higher customer success, CRMs will increasingly
to smart algorithms and neural networks to assist humans with better decision making.

4) Blockchain technology: For security-related capabilities blockchain may find a huge

application in protecting customer data.

5) IoT: Data produced everywhere will improve customer success. Connected CRMs will
help users significantly improve customer service/success efforts.

6) Mobile: Complete sales engagement via mobile can be empowering.

7) Personalization: One-size-fits-all CRMs will find it more difficult to close a deal.

Customizations and personalization are an increasing demand among the tech-savvy
sales teams.

8) Social Network Component: CRMs without a social network component are dead.
Customer Relationship Marketing :
Customer relationship marketing (CRM) is a technique based on client relationships and
customer loyalty. Using customer data and feedback, companies utilizing this marketing
strategy develop long-term relationships with customers and develop laser-focused brand
awareness. Customer relationship marketing varies greatly from the traditional transactional
marketing approach that focuses on increasing individual sale numbers.

Companies that prioritize customer relationships, on the other hand, strive to create strong
customer connections, which may be emotional, to their brand to promote customer loyalty
and increase customer lifetime value. They benefit from word-of-mouth promotion and
develop brand ambassadors.

Customer Relationship Marketing and Relationship Marketing :

In general, relationship marketing is a sales and marketing method, while the CRM concept
refers to the software and processes used to manage the marketing methods. Relationship
marketing is implemented as a strategy and includes activities such as identifying long-term
sales and retention goals, public relations, marketing and advertising campaigns.

The use of customer relationship management includes the operational tasks that support
the relationship marketing strategy. Activities may include gathering data about the
customers, then organizing and analysing it to create target customer profiles. CRM data is
also effective in finding opportunities to create special offers to reward long-time customers
for their loyalty, further building the relationship.

Relationship marketing seeks to increase sales by building trust and engaging customers. A
CRM guide notes that by using a customer relationship management system effectively, a
salesperson can quickly and consistently deliver what customers are looking for with each
and every interaction, because their preferences and buying history are recorded.

The system benefits the customers, in a way, because they see the business "knows" them.
CRM systems coordinate, automate and deliver online and offline advertising and marketing
activities that help build long-term customer relationships. This is the essence of modern
marketing, and it is by using these methods that companies can create a successful
relationship marketing strategy.
Features of CRM :
• Customers’ Needs
• Customers Response
• Customer Satisfaction
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Retention
• Customer Complaints
• Customer Service

Functions of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) :

• Acquiring & Storing Information
• Customer Management
• Management Of Marketing Policies
• Increase Sales
• Proper Communication Network
• Cost Controlling
• Improve Quality

Scope of CRM :
• CRM for sales management
• CRM for marketing
• CRM for customer service
• CRM for business intelligence

Benefits of CRM :
• Better customer service
• Increased sales
• Improved customer retention
• Detailed analytics
 • Higher productivity and efficiency
• Centralized database of information
• Managed communications with prospective leads
• Improved customer segmentation
• Automated sales reports
• More accurate sales forecasting
• Streamlined internal communications

Factors Affecting Success of CRM :

• Top Management Commitment and Support

• Define and Communicate CRM Strategy
• Culture Change
• Inter-Departmental Integration
• Skilful Staff
• Key Information on Customers
• Manage IT Structure
• Customer Involvement

CRM Strategies :

• Proper Business Strategy

• Suitable Interaction Medium
• Train Employees
• Proper Sales Process & Channel
• Set Target for Team
• Establishing Data Management Techniques
• Choosing Proper CRM Software

Implementation of CRM Strategies :

Importance of Customer Divisibility in CRM :

The more a company knows, or can find out, about its customers and then apply, the better
it's able to personalize and customize each experience, and so influence to loyalty
behaviour. Every customer touching process comes down to gathering, managing, and using
data to optimize loyalty. At the peak of customer insight is the opportunity to make the
customer 'divisible' down to an individual level.

Most customers have some customer data, drawn principally from transactions. The
feedback they get is largely reactive, where the customer initiates contact. There are
tremendous gaps between information and insight. Insight : An understanding of customer
needs, problems, expectations and complaints that is thorough enough to provide value in
the relationship with each customer. Companies need disciplined techniques to gather,
store, share and apply customer data so that it can be distilled into strategic insight.

When they do this optimally, they often find that customers have multiple identities, different
demographic, lifestyle, purchase, and other characteristics which can be leveraged
depending upon the marketing, communication, or promotional program, new product
development effort, or process improvement or modification activity being conducted. We
can say that the customer is divisible. Applying customer divisibility techniques in the pre-PC
days was pretty primitive stuff, more about blending art and science, data availability, data
management and warehousing, and software sophistication for profiling has made divisibility
much more possible today.

A good example of an industry which illustrates customer divisibility on a fairly large scale is
the gaming business. This industry is both highly competitive and pretty advanced in how
they gather and use customer data. Loyalty cards, with data generated when the players first
become customers, and then updated at cashless slot machines and gaming tablets enable
them to overlay casino play with changing customer profiles. With a clear understanding of
each customer's likes and dislikes, patterns and preferences, can deliver targeted offers and
incentives, and use the information to improve our operations.

Knowing customer better will give company a distinct competitive advantage in the
marketplace. And that advantage will mean increased customer loyalty. Some people are
known to have multiple personalities. Multiple personalities are useful metaphor for
considering the opportunities represented by customer divisibility. The same individual may
save several identities, depending upon the marketing, communication, promotional program
planned, product or concept being developed, frequency and type of contact desired, or
customer-related process being created or modified. This is the essence of personalization.

With sufficient detailed information about each customer, supplier’s marketers, sales and
service should treat divisibility as a competitive advantage. They can parlay customers data
into the insight which enables them to optimize value for each customer, no matter what
aspect of the customer's individual profile, or personality, is involved.
 UNIT – 3 : SALES FORCE AUTOMATION

TOPICS COVERED :
o Sales Force Automation
o Contact Management – Concept
o Enterprise Marketing Management – Core Beliefs
o CRM in India

Sales Force Automation :

Automation is essential in CRM considering the requirement of handling a huge size of

customer base and the level of complexity in each sales force related or marketing related
tasks. CRM makes use of three types of automation: Sales Force Automation (SFA),
Marketing Automation (MA), and Services Automation (SA).
CRM needs to be accessed by various people in the business. It is most frequently
accessed and used by salespersons and managers of the sales activities at various ranks of
seniority. Salesforces is a software that works as a supporting system for the salespersons
and managers to achieve their work related objectives. SFA technology helps a business to
collect, store, modify, analyse, and transport the sales related data. SFA is the strategy used
to drive efficiencies in your sales processes.

SFA Solution Providers

Some SFA providers are specialists focus on a particular functionality of SFA. They compete
against enterprise solution providers (who provide a complete range of business solutions
such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and
CRMs) and also some providers of CRM suites that include SFA modules. Some renowned
SFA specialists are as given below –

SFA Specialist SFA as Part of CRM Suite SFA as Part of Enterprise Suite

Cyberform Microsoft Dynamics IBM

Salesnet Salesforce.com Oracle

Selectica SalesLogix SAP

The CRM solution providers also come up with configurators, the software engines that
allows the customers to customize their products. Since the configurators help to build
customized products, the stress on the salespersons of handling complex data without errors
is reduced. In turn, their training cost is also reduced.
For example, Dell computers allows its customers to interact with the configurator. The
customers can select devices of their own choice and specifications, and build their own
computers.
SFA software is used by various salespersons such as salespersons in B2B and B2C
contexts, door-to-door salesmen, direct sellers, online sellers, etc. It is used by managers to
track customers, manage sales pipelines, customize the offers, and generate reports, to
name a few.

Functionalities of SFA Software

1. Account management
2. Contact management
3. Contract management
4. Document management
5. Event management
6. Incentives management
7. Lead management
8. Opportunities management
9. Order management
10. Pipeline management
11. Product Encyclopaedia
12. Product Configuration
13. Product Visualization
14. Quotation management
15. Sales prediction

Benefits of SFA :
1) It increases accuracy
2) It allows your sales team better use of their time
3) It ensures no lead is forgotten
4) It fosters smart sales forecasts
5) It boosts employee engagement and retention
6) It reduces the cost of workforce resources
7) It allows quick responses

Contact Management :
Contact management is a means of entering customer and lead data for storage, quick access,
editing and tracking. Contact management can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complex as
customer relationship management (CRM) software.

By digitizing contact management, you can give your employees access to valuable customer
data. All departments can view the same data, so you speed up communication and streamline
processes. When you make communication more efficient, you can focus less on business tasks
and more on your customers.

In today’s business environment, you have to do more than just personalize a sales email with
someone’s name in order to make a sale. Customers are loyal to companies that remember their
specific preferences, and they expect a stellar experience every time they place an order online
or receive a package in the mail. Going above and beyond not only creates repeat sales but also
encourages referrals, which could significantly decrease your overall customer acquisition
costs.

Contact management software

Contact management software can keep information about your prospects and current
customers organized in a searchable format. The software can handle basic information,
such as names, phone numbers and email addresses. It can also track fundamental
interactions between the company and the contact, and keep track of important calendar
events.

How can contact management within a CRM help your business?

• Updated contact information

• Targeted customer interactions
• Lead progress monitoring
• Higher returns via analytics
• Omnichannel communication
• Centralized data platform

Enterprise Marketing Management :

Enterprise Marketing Management in CRM is a module that helps in providing, maintaining, and
monitoring the structure of promotional campaigns by an enterprise. It is like a marketing
assistant for enterprises. Enterprises are large organizations that generate $100 Million+ in the
Annual Recurring Revenue. So, for these enterprises, enterprise marketing management module
works as a single platform to fulfil all their marketing needs such as omnichannel campaign
management, campaign analysis, managing marketing resources and customer experience
management. EMM in CRM ensures excellent customer experience from presales to post sales
stages.
Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) is closely related to Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), but it supports majorly the marketing related activities. Apart from
maintaining the customer database, it also assists in generating new leads.

Components of Enterprise Marketing Automation in CRM :

1. Market Segmentation
2. Campaign Management
3. Retargeting
4. Promotional Partnership
5. Call Centre Management
6. Response Management
7. Event Marketing

Tips for Successful Enterprise Marketing Management

• Find a balance between account-based and enterprise-based marketing

• Diversify and scale

• Always take a helping hand

• Networking is the key

• Go beyond your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Examples : Monday.com, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Adobe Workfront, Oracle CX Marketing,

Wrike, HCL Unica

Core Beliefs :

1. Integration of data at every touchpoint. Information is critical in the marketing decision

process and as such it must flow freely at every point in the process.

2. Collaboration—not just within the internal marketing value chain but also with the
external value chains of suppliers and vendors.

3. Availability of data, resources, materials, and documents. It is important that marketing

resources are available to all when needed to complete their job.

4. Proactive tracking and management of marketing strategies, tactics, campaigns, and

initiatives. You need to know where everything is; what is on time and what is late; who
has too much work and who doesn’t have enough; what has worked and what hasn’t.

5. Key marketing performance indicators defined within a balanced framework available

to all. This entails a disciplined approach to defining objectives and facilities to allow
team members to understand cause and effect. It also entails providing managers with
information on performance through either lead or lag measures.
CRM in India :
Store data The CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a great strategy for the
business and in the world, where there exists cutthroat competition. The CRM is a
discipline that allows the companies for identifying and also for targeting the profitable
clients and customers. The Impact of Customer Relationship Management in
India incorporates advance and new marketing strategies for retaining the existing clients
and customers, and also for acquiring new clients and buyers. The concept and practice
to maintain one to one relationship with the clients was originally introduced in the 90s,
when the financial services, and some other industries as well as the airline sector stated
for rewarding for retaining the existing clients and service users by introducing various
loyalty programs.

The various facets of CRM in India

Nowadays, several financial organizations are the pioneers in creating strategies for
retaining the clients as well as the customers. Institutions such as banks, now hire
dedicated team of relationship managers. Many institutions have felt the need and Impact
of Customer Relationship Management in India for providing the customers with the variety
of customized or personalized services. Most of the time driven by reasons such as
improving the satisfaction of the clients and also retaining the older customers, Customer
Relationship Management aids to understand the customers or even segmenting the focus
to sales and also for various marketing activities. Individuals will notice that their
profitability increases in the cross-selling promotions, pricing of the products and also
anticipated information of the clients, customers as well as service users.

More about Customer Relationship Management

The life-time value of an organization escalates or increases if one allows for thinking about
the probable prospects and also over-all returns on relationship, which is developed over
a period of time. The CRM systems should perfectly blend with the operational and back
office systems for providing seam-less, real-time data of the customers. The Customer
Relationship Management not only serves the customers far better, but also serves the
clients in the most excellent and interesting ways as well. Well, the Impact of Customer
Relationship Management in India helps the businesses for thinking about and considering
ways for re-establishing their businesses. The future is bright for the Indian companies,
and CRM would bring new methods and ways for mid-sized as well as small businesses
for communicating, operating and managing the strategies for the businesses.

The future is bright for the Indian companies

After-all, each and every business aspires for earning big! The aim of Customer
Relationship Management is for evaluating and creating ways for building strong bonds
between the company and its employees, or the clients and the customers. Nowadays,
the companies slowly understand the strong and positive Impact of Customer Relationship
Management in India.

Choose Impact of Customer Relationship Management in India and know the details
If you are looking for the best deal then you will have to understand the need for different
software and the ideas that you may have to put in. There is good Impact of Customer
Relationship Management in India and perhaps that can take you a long way. So, finally,
take charge of things and understand the options well. You will have to decide the final
line and that will give you many different opportunities as such.

Get basic ideas about what would work for you

If you are about to make the relevant solutions then you will have to decide that what really
gives you the best direction. The Impact of Customer Relationship Management in India is
relevant and you will see that there are many such things in life that can offer you the better
management solutions. So, with such things in mind you will have to be clear about the
final line.

Understand the effects of the ideas that you put in

When it comes to the right line of action, you will get to know the basics and perhaps that
will make things work in the right direction for Impact of Customer Relationship
Management in India.

• The other method can be to transcribe the data from the questionnaire to a coding
sheet.
• Whatever method is adopted, one should see that coding errors are altogether
eliminated or reduced to the minimum level.
 UNIT – 4 : Value chain and Vendor selection

TOPICS COVERED :
o Value Chain – Concept
o Integration Business Management
o Benchmarks and Metrics
o Culture Change
o Alignment with Customer Eco-system
o Vendor Selection

Value Chain :

The concept of a value chain was derived by Michael Porter. He put forth the idea of the
value chain as a means of identifying all actions, processes or stages that are involved in
creating outputs from inputs. These outputs are offered to a customer who is at the end of
the line of the value chain. The amount a customer is willing to pay for a product or a service
is its value. The revenue for a business is the total value less the cost that it has incurred in
providing the product to the customer. CRM Value Chain Model is a set of strategies that a
business ought to follow when developing their CRM strategies. Most modern businesses
work on the principle of Customer Relationship Management as it helps to deliver value to
customer and creates, as well as, manages the relationship of a business with its customers
in a more effective manner. A valuable relationship with one strategically significant
customer can lead to customer loyalty, retention and finally to referrals to other potential
customers.
Who is a strategically significant customer?
A customer who creates great value for a business is deemed to be a valuable customer for
the business. In order to retain such a customer for a period of time, the business has to
follow some strategies. Only about 20% of all the customers of a business can be said to be
strategically significant customers. They generate more revenue, value and loyalty for a
business and the business has to deal with them in an entirely different manner than the rest
of its customers. Strategically significant customers (SSC) buy more, are trend setters, and
act as referrals for the business.

There are four types of SSC. The one on top is the High lifetime value customer as these
customers create the greatest value for the business. Lifetime value potential of a customer
is derived by calculating the present value of all future profits that a business might earn
from one single customer. One thing to consider is that not all high volume customers can be
regarded as high lifetime value customers. The next type of SSC is known as Benchmarks.
These are the well-known customers, and that other consumers are likely to emulate. The
third type is the Inspirations. These are customers who inspire a company to change its
products or reduce costs. The last of the SSC are what are referred as the cost magnets.
These customers pay for a large percentage of fixed costs so that the product can be sold to
smaller consumers at a profitable margin.

5 Primary Stages for Implementation of CRM Value Chain

1. Customer portfolio analysis,
2. Customer intimacy,
3. Network development,
 4. Value proposition development and finally
5. Manage customer lifecycle.

Integrated Business Management :

What Is Business Integration?

The shape of business is changing, and this change is being driven by digitization. Today’s
global business ecosystem both requires and enables companies to digitally connect,
communicate and collaborate with customers, suppliers, partners, service vendors, and all
other players in the supply chain. Indeed, the modern supply chain has become a digital
ecosystem in itself, through which closer collaboration and new joint work practices are
made possible.

Why Do We Need Business Integration?

The foundations of business integration stem from companies needing a way to exchange
information quickly and efficiently. The simple fact of the matter is that in the digital world,
faxes and emails don’t cut the mustard anymore. But of course, as organizations have
moved along their own digital transformation journeys, they each have taken their own
approach to exchanging messages and files with trading partners. However, this results in
each business in a supply chain using its own distinct blend of applications, cloud resources,
and various other systems, all of which rely on differing formats and platforms, and are
subject to different security, compliance and governance considerations. These disparate
systems don’t necessarily communicate with one another, and it is simply too inefficient and
costly to deploy a multitude of solutions to contend with the sheer diversity of communication
standards, data formats and security frameworks each business deals with. And so,
business integration solutions, strategies and technologies are required to manage the
chaos, and enable separate companies to seamlessly communicate and exchange
business-critical information between each other quickly and efficiently.

The ultimate goal of business integration, then, is to improve upon the speed and
productivity of conducting digital transactions across the supply chain and value chain. In
addition, business integration reduces the need for error-prone, costly, and time-consuming
manual processes.

For example, most companies now receive purchase orders from other businesses
electronically, often via email. In the past, processing these purchase orders was a manual
affair – an employee had to conduct a review, and then manually enter the information into
an order fulfilment system of some kind. But with a business integration solution, when the
company receives a purchase order, it is automatically reviewed and passed along into the
order fulfilment system, minimizing delays for orders being fulfilled.

Competitive Advantages
As working with external companies is fundamental to practically every business operating
today, business integration essentially represents the digital transformation of these external
relationships. Business integration solutions present a clear competitive advantage – they
make it easier to share and receive mission-critical information between an organization and
its trading partners.

More specifically, key advantages include reduced costs through eliminating human handling
in areas such as data entry, clerical document preparation and mailroom sorting. In addition,
the risk of human error is reduced, thereby avoiding costly corrections in business
documents.

Organizations can also expect improved operational efficiencies within their trading
community. The secure, fast, and effective transmission of data means trading partners can
cooperate, collaborate and communicate more effectively. And with better collaboration,
spending visibility is improved, as is visibility into inventory pipelines, and supplier activity.

Business integration solutions also lead to better data quality, again, as there is less chance
for human error from employees manually entering data. The error rate for manual data
entry is around 1% – which can be very damaging and costly for businesses. If an order is
incorrect, it has to be rectified, and a new order must then be issued, slowing the whole
process down, while increasing the costs involved for all partners. Business integration
solutions improve data quality not only by reducing the risk of human error, but also by
creating a “virtual quarantine” that ensures the integrity and accuracy of data flowing from an
organization’s trading partners before it enters enterprise applications. In this way,
organizations can have full confidence in data quality, and thereby in the business
integration system to facilitate the end-to-end data exchange required to automate business
processes

Benefits of Integrated Business Management :

• Information security best practice.
• Efficiency
• Scale more easily
• Alignment
• Strategy
• Whole-brain thinking
• Consistency
Benchmarking :
What is benchmarking?
In business, benchmarking is a process used to measure the quality and performance of
your company’s products, services, and processes. These measurements don’t have much
value on their own—that data needs to be compared against some sort of standard. A
benchmark.
The objective of benchmarking is to use the data gathered in your benchmarking process to
identify areas where improvements can be made by:
• Determining how and where other companies are achieving higher performance levels than
your company has been able to achieve.
• Comparing the competition’s processes and strategies against your own.
• Using the information, you gather from your analyses and comparisons to implement
changes that will improve your company’s performance, products, and services.

Why is benchmarking important?

The goal of your business should be to grow, improve processes, increase quality, decrease
costs, and earn more money. Benchmarking is one of many tools you can use as part of any
continuous improvement model used within your organization. Consistent benchmarking can
help you:
• Improve processes and procedures.
• Gauge the effectiveness of past performance.
• Give you a better idea of how the competition operates, which will help you to identify
best practices to increase performance.
• Increase efficiency and lower costs, making your business more profitable.
• Improve quality and customer satisfaction.

Types of benchmarking
• Internal benchmarking
• Competitive benchmarking
• Strategic benchmarking

8 steps in the benchmarking process

1. Select a subject to benchmark
2. Decide which organizations or companies you want to benchmark
3. Document your current processes
4. Collect and analyse data
5. Measure your performance against the data you’ve collected
6. Create a plan
7. Implement the
8. Repeat the process
Metrics :
Metrics play a vital role in the development and success of any business. Talking about
CRM, we use the term metrics for tracking the complete performance and success. It allows
us to have appropriate control over the marketing and selling efforts. Using CRM metrics, we
can react effectively by tracking the happenings closely. It gives us dedicated precision to
our efforts in marketing and sales. Metrics are exceptionally good for tracking CRM success.
But which particular metrics we should track depends completely on our sales and marketing
objectives.

Types of CRM metrics

• Business performance metrics
• User adoption metrics
• Customer perception metrics
5 Essential CRM Metrics to Track
1. Net promoter score
2. Customer effort score
3. Rate of renewal
4. Customer churn
5. Customer retention costs

Cultural Change :
Cultural change is the process in which an organization encourages employees to adopt
behaviours and mindsets that are consistent with the organization's values and goals.
Cultural change may be necessary to better align the behaviours of employees with current
and future business objectives (such as, for example, after a merger of two organizations
with distinct cultures).

Successful cultural change initiatives are often gradual and must be done at a sustainable
pace so that employees can acclimate and adjust to the change without becoming
disengaged.

Implementing a CRM Culture

• Make Sure Everyone “Buys in” to the CRM Implementation

• Know the Expectations

• CRM Implementation Should Support Strategic Decisions

• Not a Cut and Dry Solution

• Implementing a CRM Culture Takes Time

 • Know the Right Size CRM to Get

• Stay with It

• Reward Employee Performance

• Listen to Employee Feedback

Alignment with Customer Ecosystem :

A customer ecosystem is a business network that’s aligned to help customers get things
done—both the things they want to accomplish and the things they want to manage.
What makes a customer ecosystem valuable to customers is that:
• It contains everything that customers need to be successful in a particular endeavour.
• Customers can add new activities as they discover new ways to simplify, streamline, and
transform how they reach their goals.
• The ecosystem attracts new suppliers and partners to the network to support customers’
changing activities and needs.
• It’s driven by customers’ needs and goals and optimized to achieve customers’ success
metrics, for example: to meet targets and deadlines, save time, reduce the number of steps,
save money, have the peace of mind that everything is on track, recover from the
unexpected within acceptable thresholds, build trust.

Six Critical Success Factors for a Viable Customer Ecosystem

1. Help customers achieve and/or manage something they care about.
2. Design for specific target audiences.
3. Provide a “secret sauce” that transforms customers’ ability to get things done.
4. Attract partners & suppliers who can contribute to these customers’ success.
5. Align the entire ecosystem to meet customers’ success metrics.
6. Embed, co-brand, and be ubiquitous so customers will encounter and use your
secret sauce no matter what their starting point is.

Vendor Selection :
The vendor selection process is a series of procurement steps to determine product or
service requirements and match them with vendor capabilities and pricing. It includes
identifying potential vendors, obtaining quotes or proposals with competitive bids, evaluating
vendors by contacting references and applying a company’s vendor selection criteria
checklist, and contracting.
Factors to Consider Before the Vendor Selection Process

Steps in Vendor Selection :

UNIT – 5 : MARKETING DATABASE

TOPICS COVERED :
o Database Marketing
o Prospect Database
o Data Warehouse and Data Mining
o Analysis of Customer Relationship Management Technologies
o Best Practices in Marketing Technology
o Indian Scenario

Database Marketing
Database marketing is defined as a personalized marketing campaign that accomplishes its
personalization goals by using databases of existing and potential customers while promoting
a product or service.

Customer relationship management or database marketing collects data on your potential

clients to develop personalized communication that addresses the customers’ wants or needs.
The database contains all types of data like demographic data and even purchase history.
Database marketing is a type of marketing that collects customer data such as names, contact
details, purchase history, etc for developing personalized marketing strategies to pull in,
engage and convert potential customers.

It is the process of organizing, interpreting, and analysing new and existing customer data to
learn more about them to promote the product or service in a more customized and result-
driven manner. It is a form of direct marketing that utilizes databases heavily, plus its emphasis
is on the effective use of statistical techniques.

Types of Database Marketing :

1. Customer Database Marketing

2. Business Database Marketing

Importance of Database Marketing :

Nowadays, businesses have the access to a great amount of customer data than ever
before and that is why the result-oriented use of those data is very crucial. Database
marketing helps in utilizing the sea of data for running more personalized marketing
campaigns that resonate with target audiences more effectively and optimize the sales
potential.

Some of the common reasons behind the growing importance of database marketing are-

• Optimizes the customer segmentation process by separating existing

customers from new leads
• Helps in prioritizing your most valuable accounts and enables you to get the
ability to predict customer behaviour.
• Assists you in testing new ideas and products for instance Google first rolls out
new features to a few specific advertisers before launching them to everyone
• Alleviates the process of gathering feedback and understanding your
customers’ needs
• Empowers your brand to be relevant by optimizing engagement, plus also
optimizes customer retention by building relationships
• Helps in thought leadership credibility and builds brand affinity, plus it can be
used for promotional campaigns of the future

Database Marketing Strategies :

1. Start with identifying your target market

2. Collaborate With Other Departments to Gather and Cross-reference Data
3. Finding the Right Home for Your Database
4. Have the Right Balance of Data
5. Respect the Sanctity of a Customer’s Privacy
How to build a Marketing Database?

1. Create thought leadership articles

2. Offer free trials
3. Design a free tool
4. Collect customer information
5. Acquire a business contact database
6. Collect website visitor data
7. Create a Chatbot on your business page

Database marketing challenges

Despite the benefits an organization can see from database marketing, there can also be a
few challenges as well. Those include the following:

• The collected data can become outdated. If someone changes jobs, for example, their
job title and business email may change. Their address may even change if they had
to move for the new position. Data should be kept up to date as much as possible.
• The data originally collected will also be incorrect if the individual inputs incorrect
information. Using drop-down menus and checkboxes on forms can help acquire more
accurate information. However, with limited options, this too may limit accuracy.
• The cost of managing a database server could be high if there's no way to get value
from the information being collected.
• Accidently marketing to the wrong contacts, or grouping contacts together incorrectly,
will drive customers away.

Database marketing benefits

Database marketing can provide benefits to marketers, advertisers and consumers in the
following ways:

1. Finds the best channel to contact customers.

2. Identifies customer groups, such as loyal, first-time or potential customers.
3. Organizes prospects on existing and potential demographics, such as potential
interests.
4. Prioritizes valuable accounts.
5. Personalizes marketing messages toward individual prospects.
6. Potential to increase customer retention.
7. Data collected can be used for future promotional campaigns.
8. Saves expenses on sending campaigns to unlikely customers.

Database Marketing Examples

1) Facebook Customer Database

The way Facebook segments its user data is one of the key database marketing examples.
For ensuring personalized experiences, Facebook segments user data based upon their
location, first name, last name, phone number, email, date of birth, gender, and interests.

This personalized database of Facebook is further quite useful for advertisers and marketers
who use Facebook to run ads. As per a rough estimate, Facebook currently incorporates data
of more than 2 billion people.

2) LinkedIn Customer Database

The use of database marketing can also be seen in LinkedIn that comprises a customer
database of around 660 million business professionals.

LinkedIn utilizes its database with a variety of monetization strategies like LinkedIn Premium,
Talent Solutions, Sales Navigator, and LinkedIn Ads that took its database marketing to the
next level. Marketers use LinkedIn customer base for running their b2b ads and marketing
campaigns.

Prospect Database
Prospect Database refers to a repository containing various contact names, addresses,
company name etc managed in an organized way. A prospect database comprises of
various records pertaining to your potential customer or sales lead which is qualified on the
basis of certain criteria like target industry, geographic location etc.

How to build a Prospect List Database?

1. Business Directories/Databases
2. Purchased List
3. Events
4. Newsletters
5. Opt-in Forms
6. Website lead intelligence
7. Referrals
8. In-house research and database development

The Benefits of Having an Effective Prospect Database

1. A reliable source of data
2. Proper segmentation of contacts
3. Boost customer support service

Data Warehousing:
It is a technology that aggregates structured data from one or more sources so that it can be
compared and analysed rather than transaction processing. A data warehouse is designed
to support the management decision-making process by providing a platform for data
cleaning, data integration, and data consolidation. A data warehouse contains subject-
oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile data. The Data warehouse consolidates
data from many sources while ensuring data quality, consistency, and accuracy. Data
warehouse improves system performance by separating analytics processing from
transnational databases. Data flows into a data warehouse from the various databases. A
data warehouse works by organizing data into a schema that describes the layout and type
of data. Query tools analyse the data tables using schema.
Features of Data Warehouses:
• Subject Oriented
• Integrated
• Time-Variant
• Non-volatile

Advantages of Data Warehousing:

• The data warehouse’s job is to make any form of corporate data easier to
understand. The majority of the user’s job will consist of inputting raw data.
• The capacity to update continuously and frequently is the key benefit of this
technology. As a result, data warehouses are perfect for organizations and
entrepreneurs who want to stay current with their target audience and customers.
• It makes data more accessible to businesses and organizations.
• A data warehouse holds a large volume of historical data that users can use to
evaluate different periods and trends in order to create predictions for the future.

Disadvantages of Data Warehousing:

• There is a great risk of accumulating irrelevant and useless data. Data loss and
erasure are other potential issues.
• Data is gathered from various sources in a data warehouse. Cleansing and
transformation of the data are required. This could be a difficult task.

Data Mining:
It is the process of finding patterns and correlations within large data sets to identify
relationships between data. Data mining tools allow a business organization to predict
customer behaviour. Data mining tools are used to build risk models and detect fraud. Data
mining is used in market analysis and management, fraud detection, corporate analysis, and
risk management.
Features of Data Mining:
• It is good with large databases and datasets
• It predicts future results
• It creates actionable insights
• It utilizes the automated discovery of patterns

Advantages of Data Mining:

• Data mining aids in a variety of data analysis and sorting procedures. The
identification and detection of any undesired fault in a system is one of the best
implementations here. This method permits any dangers to be eliminated sooner.
• In comparison to other statistical data applications, data mining methods are both
cost-effective and efficient.
• Companies can take advantage of this analytical tool by providing appropriate and
easily accessible knowledge-based data.
• The detection and identification of undesirable faults that occur in the system are one
of the most astonishing data mining techniques.
Disadvantages of Data Mining:
• Data mining isn’t always 100 percent accurate, and if done incorrectly, it can lead to
data breaches.
• Organizations must devote a significant number of resources to training and
implementation. Furthermore, the algorithms used in the creation of data mining tools
them to work in different ways.

S. Basis of
No. Comparison Data Warehousing Data Mining

A data warehouse is a
database system that is
designed for analytical
analysis instead of Data mining is the process of
1. Definition transactional work. analysing data patterns.
S. Basis of
No. Comparison Data Warehousing
2. Process Data is stored periodically.
Data warehousing is the
process of extracting and
storing data to allow easier
3. Purpose reporting.
Managing Data warehousing is solely
4. Authorities carried out by engineers.
Data warehousing is the
process of pooling all
5. Data Handling relevant data together.
Subject-oriented,
integrated, time-varying
and non-volatile constitute
6. Functionality data warehouses.
Data warehousing is the
process of extracting and
storing data in order to
make reporting more
7. Task efficient.
It extracts data and stores
it in an orderly format,
making reporting easier
8. Uses and faster.
When a data warehouse is
connected with operational
business systems like
CRM (Customer
Relationship Management)
9. Examples systems, it adds value.
Data Mining
Data is analysed regularly.
Data mining is the use of pattern
recognition logic to identify patterns.
Data mining is carried out by
business users with the help of
engineers.
Data mining is considered as a
process of extracting data from
large data sets.
AI, statistics, databases, and
machine learning systems are all
used in data mining technologies.
Pattern recognition logic is used in
data mining to find patterns.
This procedure employs pattern
recognition tools to aid in the
identification of access patterns.
Data mining aids in the creation of
suggestive patterns of key
parameters. Customer purchasing
behaviour, items, and sales are
examples. As a result, businesses
will be able to make the required
 S. Basis of
No. Comparison Data Warehousing Data Mining

adjustments to their operations and

production.

In today’s market, organizations are regarding CRM as a necessity to survive and stay
competitive. Although there are companies succeeding and receiving huge benefits from
the CRM implementation, there are more failed cases than succeeded. Many firms
invested huge amounts of money into a CRM system and instead of gaining benefits,
they received constant integration problems, bad adoption rate and complicated
processes. This has made the choice of CRM system very important for organizations.
Baltzan and Phillips (2008) make two distinctions to explain CRM systems.
The first distinction (Baltzan and Phillips 2008), regards the phases of the CRM
evolution, which consists of: CRM reporting technologies, CRM analysis technologies
and CRM predicting technologies. Reporting technologies is defined as technology that
supports the identification of customers across different applications and throughout the
organization. Analysis technologies assist the organization to categorize their customer
into segments that have common characteristics. The final technology, predicting,
supports organization in predicting specific customer actions.

The second categorization is the separation between Operational CRM and Analytical
CRM. The Operational CRM handles the traditional front-end operations, which
directly interacts with the customer. The Analytical CRM is the backend operations that
support, for example, analysis and strategy that does not come into contact with
customers directly.
In Figure 14, Baltzan and Phillips (2008) gives some examples how the distinction
between operational and analytical CRM can be made. As you can see in the figure,
operational CRM concerns the “front” of the organization while analytical belongs in
the “background”.

There is also
something
called Collaborative CRM, as can be seen in Figure 14.
Collaborative CRM is various technologies that facilitate the interaction with the
organizations customers (Thompson, Devadoss and Pan 2006).

Operational CRM Technology

To understand operational CRM technology, it is good with some examples, Baltzan and
Phillips (2008) spells out 9 different types of operational CRM technologies divided
into three categories.
1. Marketing
o List generator: creates list of customers and segments them.
o Campaign management: helps with the definition, planning, scheduling,
segmentation and success analysis for a campaign.
o Cross selling and up-selling: two concepts that can be used to cross sell (Selling
additional products or services) or up-sell (trying to increase the value of the sale) to
the customer. The technology can assist in decisions whether to use cross selling or
up-sale and with what products or services.
2. Sales
 o Sales management: technology that handles the whole sales process, from the
opportunity to billing the customer.
o Contact management: organize customer contact information and help organization
to sort the customer in order to see potential customers.
o Opportunity management: assists in the process of locating new sales
opportunities.
3. Customer Service
o Contact centre: helps the organizations support to provide consistent and quality
support to their customers.
o Web-based self-service: technology that lets the customer use the web to find
answers or solve problems.
o Call scripting: find out information about customers in order to assist the support
service before the customer reaches the call centre.

Operational CRM handle more traditional functions within an organization. It tries to

assist and enhance the organizations operational functions like support or sales.
Operational CRM technology is an area where organizations usually can see a direct
benefit. CRM providers usually focus their marketing using these functionalities. It is
speculated, that later on, when all these functionalities are regarded as “must-have” for a
CRM system, the providers will focus on other parts of the technology.
Analytical CRM Technology
Baltzan and Phillips (2008) regard analytical CRM technologies as technology that
supports decision making. The technology identifies patterns in the data stored from the
different parts of the operational CRM systems. Baltzan and Phillips (2008) give several
examples of information that can be used with analytical CRM technology in Figure 15.
Analytical CRM technology normally requires a strategic perspective to exploit. It requires
that the organization continuously collect customer data and realize how to use it. There is
many ways to analyse data and conclusions derived from the data can result in new
innovative ways to serve the customer.

Collaborative CRM
As mentioned above Thompson, Devadoss and Pan (2006), collaborative CRM is
technology that facilitates interactions with customers. The collaborative CRM is concerned
with the channels that connect the customer directly with the organization (e.g., face-to-face,
phone, etc.) (Thompson, Devadoss and Pan 2006). In their case study, Thompson,
Devadoss and Pan (2006) mention some key technologies used by the company:

• Integrated IP-based voice and data infrastructure

• Voice response system
• Web portal
• Queue management system
• Correspondence management system
• Enquiry counter system
• Integrated CRM portal, gateway for customer and CSOs (Customer Service Officer)
Collaborative CRM technologies usually ease or improve the processes of communication
with the customer. Collaborative technologies mainly focus on increasing customer
satisfaction or minimize customer dissatisfaction. Collaborative CRM technologies can have
huge impacts on customer’s experience, but it can also be less successful. Most people that
were present when organizations started implementing voice response system probably can
recollect the mistakes that were made by the voice interpreter.

Best practices in marketing Technology :

1) Keep your data clean

2) Use automation
3) Integrate with other systems
4) Customize your reports
5) Train your employees
6) Create and leverage documentation
7) Get feedback from your employees
8) Be prepared for change
9) Create simple workflows

Indian Scenario :
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is as old as commerce itself. However, in the
last couple of decades, the meaning of CRM has changed to CRM software. The concept of
CRM has evolved to a large extent, especially in Indian context. A couple of decades before
it was predominantly used by the large enterprises and was also limited to the basic
functionality, generally customer database only. However, in recent years even SMEs have
started to take advantage of CRM.

This has been possible because of the advent of newer technologies and concepts like
SAAS and Social Media integrations. Also, now the scope of CRM has increased from a
mere customer database to a 360 view of customer interactions from various channels
including but not limited to telephony, chat, emails, customer portals and mobile apps.

Evolution of CRM as a concept:

Basic Customer Database

Initially, CRM was used as a customer database and an extension of any larger ERP
implementation. These were large database applications which had essential enquiry
management features. The primary purpose of these CRM systems was to give MIS reports.
These were more of reporting tools than day to day productivity tools as the CRM is today.
The MIS reports were merely used by marketing division to understand customer segments
and target marketing efforts accordingly.

Advent of Email Automation

When email became the primary tool of business communications, people started to realise
the importance of email automation in their CRM strategy. Slowly the line between marketing
and sales began to disappear in case of CRM definitions. Email marketing started to become
the part of CRM.

Inside sales

Apart from the marketing and sales department, inside sales team began to get in shape.
Inside Sales is more relevant to B2B as compared to B2C. The primary role of inside sales
team was to generate direct leads for sales team or do prospecting of the leads generated
by marketing teams.

Telephony & CRM

The integration of Telephony and CRM has led to the popularity of Call Centre or better
known as Contact Centers. Initially this was accomplished by On Premise Telephony
Servers. These are now being replaced by Cloud Telephony Solutions. It has become crucial
for businesses to use telephony solutions to engage with their customers. Hence, integration
of Telephony with CRM is the need of the hour.

Social CRM

The latest buzzword in CRM space is Social CRM. Consumers and buyers are relying on
social media to a great extent for their buying decisions. So sellers are using CRM with
social media capabilities to monitor and influence buying patterns of buyers. With the advent
of online E-commerce, the importance of social media in CRM has increased many folds.

SAAS – The Great Leveller

Initially, CRM was affordable only to Enterprises, because of its enormous cost. This was
because of costly software and expensive infrastructure required to implement CRM. But
SAAS changed everything. Now, the expensive CRM software became available as a
service, affordable to almost everyone. The biggest challenge in the adoption of SAAS as
the mainstream solution was internet access.

Internet – The Game Changer

With wide spread usage of internet across the country and broadband becoming cheaper,
CRM is accessible to almost everyone and everywhere in India. Mobile internet revolution in
India is also changing the CRM landscape in India to an extreme level.

Mobile CRM – Enterprise to Personal

Cheap smart phones with more affordable mobile internet plans helped to take Mobile CRM
to the next level. Mobile CRM has completely changed the way CRM is thought and used in
India. Now it has become one of the biggest productivity tools for sales and service teams.

Conclusion
CRM in India has made considerable progress to its present situation and is far to proceed.
Considering the huge and diverse market that India has, arrangements intended for the
western countries cannot be deployed here. Hence it is of great significance for the Indian
market to have a CRM streamlined on the basis of Indian management principles and
practices. What could be better than we doing it for ourselves, hence following the statement
“Of the Indians, by the Indians, for the Indians”.