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INTRODUCTION: The first three steps in the marketing process are understanding the market place and customer needs, driving customer driven marketing strategy, and constructing marketing programs all lead up to the fourth and most important step: building profitable customer relationship(Kotler, Amstrong 2008). Customer relationship management is the most important concept of modern marketing. Initially CRM is considered as customer data management activity which involves managing information of the customers efficiently. But it took a broad meaning. In the broader sense Customer relationship management is the overall process of creating and maintaining profitable relationship with customer. A tool on building long-term and sustainable customer relationships that add value for both the customer and the company In this assignment I am going to critically evalvate CRM lettarature and going to describe a case study that is related with implementing customer relationship management and conclude with final thought about CRM.

2. CRM LETARATURE REVIEW: Ryals has qoated hobbys words that a management approach that enables organisation to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers by managing relationships with them(lynette ryals-crm). One main aim of CRM is to use the information about customers in the best way to satisfy them .The main aim of implementing such a programme are to create and sustain a customer driven culture which enables to identify customer, build strong relationship with customer and retain the identified customer.(neil Russell-crm). In short crm helps to identify, satisfy, retain and maximise the value of a companys best customer(lynette ryals-crm).

There are various reasons for the CRM to get important. D.Peppers feels that this era of marketing as age of Interactivity or era of customer relationship management. The reason is many company are trying to sell their product to same set of customer. So CRM is used for competitive advantage. CRM can only be framed based on the strategy of the organisation. So the strategy should clearly set out the vision, goals and targets to provide the strategy frame work for any Customer Relationship Management initiatives(N Russell). CRM strategies has to be framed based on two things. 1. way to find solution to customer problems 2. ways to make customer feel special so that they can attract new customer.(g. Robert pg 43) Customer Relationship Mangement uses a variety of technique such as marketing, research, communication, service tailoring, pricing to allow better understanding of customer, isolate the best customers(crm- neil ruseel). So when we consider all experts opinion about crm it has two major objectives. 1. to retain existing customer 2. to pull and satisfy new customer. Maintaining exixting customers is very important becaue it has an impact on creating a new customer. As quoted by Graham 96% of unhappy customer never complain. But if theire problem remains unsolved they tell ten other customer. so it is equally important to satisfy existing customer. But m.stone opinions that customer campaign should not be just a series of campaign, unconnected with each other, and interrupted by long periods of silence. One should not just talk to customer when, only the product has to be sold. He opinions that the relationship should be a true relationship. He also feels CRM depends on the collection, maintenance and regular use of information about customer. So it is clear that maintaining datas about preference of the customers are important.

So for this regard M.Stone suggests contact strategy. It starts from initial contact of customers and concludes with a phase whereby can get an idea about whether the customer has agreed to meet our objectives(make a purchase etc) or decide not to. The role of IT in enabling crm is emphasised(ryals). CRM can be defined as a data driven marketing. This means that marketing and IT will have to work together or more closely to maximise the return on thiere customer information. Ryals quotes couldwell words to define importans of IT in crm. He quotes as customer relationship management is a combination of business process and technology that seeks to understand a companys customers from the perspective of who they are, what they do, and they are like. Data warehousing and data mining are very important for the CRM system to function UK based manufacturing conducted a study which suggested that CRM is a combination of business and technology. So crm is not just a software or application but the philosophy the way a company works so as to build a good relationship with customers. CRM is a comprehensive strategy and the proccedd of acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customer to create superior value for the company and the customer.(journal) Nowadays technology is being considered to measure the strength of the business. Fletcher opinons in his work that technology was the most important weapon that a company has at its disposal for implementing CRM. So it is clear that IT plays a vital role in implementing CRM. So many tecnologys are used in CRM. In many Authors opinion IT can be used as a best medium to serve customer if used properly or can be a barrier if not used properly. But technologys does not determine the success of CRM program but the human power using it. So a proper knowledge about the new implementation is very

necessary. The human resource using the technology should be given proper training for the tecgnology to be successful. CRM helps to use the information gathered about customers in the most efficient way to satisfy them and ways to attract new customer. E.Blery feels that companies implemented CRM make better relationship with customer, achieve loyal customer and a substantial payback, increase the revenue.

3. CASE STUDY: There are many organisations that have implemented CRM. Some have gained profit from it and some have failed in successfully implementing CRM. Here I have considered a Greek bank which succeeded in implementing CRM and gained from it in their management. I have taken this case study from a journal named Customer relationship management: A case study of a Greek bank", Journal of Financial Services Marketing, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 116-124 by Blery, E & Michalakopoulos, M. 2006 The journal from which I have taken this case study have kept the banks name anonymous. So I like to refer to the bank as Greek bank in the assignment. 3.1 COMPANY BACKGROUND: The bank was established in July 1991 in Thessaloniki by a group of famous Greek entrepreneurs. The vision of its founders was to create a modern and flexible bank, which would satisfy its customers by providing best service and would gain a significant share of the Greek banking market. Now the bank is having a network of 64 branches, four bank centres an seven affiliates. This banks main focus is customer satisfaction and it has

significantly improved its financial position by implementing many modern management methods. The revenues of the bank arrived at S 192m in 2003 and its profit (PBT) at S 29.6m. It is an innovative bank with modern technologies to provide good service to customers. It frames its strategy on two main aspects: continue to develop and increase its financial results and, to provide better service to customers.

The bank prepared to achieve this by implementing many modern management strategy like CRM

3.2 REASON FOR CRM IMPLEMENTATION: This was not the case of the bank before the implementation of the CRM. In 2002 the bank had only 15 employees not well trained. At that time the customer service centre was very small. The customer had to wait approximately for 20 min to get a response and even then only information customer can get is about their account balance. So the bank faced problem of long queues and the dissatisfied customers were high. Many employees in the service department resigned their job due to long working hours. The cost of service was high. The duration for employee training was more than 2 months which is a long time period which incurred a lot of expenses. The bank was also suffering from high operational cost which affected its profit. The bank considered to higher more employees for call centre but this

could increase the operational cost further. So bank was in need of modern and flexible call centre with relatively low cost. This will improve and strength the relationship with the customer by offering them an alternative way service apart from branches and would improve banks service for customer in all area. So bank considered to implement CRM system that integrate all existing application and database. For the new call centre, a CRM solution offering a unique platform was preferred as this will enable integration of all application and database. The discussion for the new call centre was carried out between CRM vendor, Consultancy Company experienced in CRM implementation and bank. Finally CRM project begun in January 2004.

3.3 IMPLEMENTATION AND BENEFITS OF CRM

In the new call centre all application and database of the bank are integrated. The integration of voice banking helped the bank to make their phone banking more efficient. By phone banking the customer can be well serve of all information that a customer need unlike the previous method where customers are given information only about their account balance. Since customers are well served by phone banking the problem of high quid has been eliminated as they are served by phone banking.

This process reduced cost. Since a common platform for the bank decreased the need for integration, one contact point was established and decreased the need for technical support. As a result the bank came close to the customer. The phone banking manager said before CRM the service offered by the all centre concerned only the account balance, now we can serve our customer with various banking stock exchange and transaction as well as loans. Many operations were transferred from bank to call centre. So bank dont have to hire more hire more employee. The cost of employee in the call centre is half the cost of employee in the bank. The bank also enjoyed many technical benefits. By integrating all the application and database of the bank

there were many benefits like easier architecture for the maintenance aspect is concerned, limited data management is enough as all the data related to a customer are integrated. This is an easier architecture because it incurs only low cost of maintenance and support for one platform. The need for data management has decreased because data are taken from central system so up to date information about phone call appearing on the screen of the employee. The bank enjoyed many corporate benefits. The banks investment in the new phone banking system facilitated bank to transfer operations from the branches to the new call centre and transferred almost 70 employees to sales aiming at increasing banks revenue. As the direct banking manager said CRM solution gave us the possibility to transfer more than 70 employees from other operations to sales, strengthening in this way the possibility for a further increase of the banks financial indices. The volume of phone call increased to 40 per cent. So bank enjoyed many technical and corporate benefits. The successful implementation o CRM has created many opportunities for the bank. It is expected to create a revenue of 10=m in five years. As the it manager states the unique and integrated platform consists of the call centre, G/L, stock exchange services, risk management services etc.Competitons is far behind in many of these So this gives the bank a competitive advantage.

3.4CONCLUSION FOR CASE STUDY The bank had a lot of benefits from the implementation of CRM. The important benefit of all is the reduction cost. The bank has reduced a lot of operational cost by implementing CRM. Another main advantage is the reduction of complexity. Since there is only one platform and one contact point. The bank has increased its efficiency by implementing CRM. CRM enabled bank to come closer to the customer. CRM implementation helped bank to 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The reason for the successful implementation of CRM can be listed as good project management, a realistic time schedule, perfect programming and not exceeding the predefined budget. This bank has fallowed all these directions for the successful implementation of CRM. 4.CRITICAL EVALUATION OF CRM From the literature reviews and case study it is clear that CRM is not just a management buzzword. Many organisations are investing a lot in CRM. This clearly proves the important gained by CRM strategy in management. The impetus behind the adoption of CRM come from managers who believe that getting closer to customer will result in higher profit in the future (Ryals, Knox, Maklan 1988). Though CRM is a successful strategy some organisations failed in implementing it. So CRMs success dements on its implementation. One of the reasons is inflexible business structure. There are certain organisation structures which are not flexible to adapt sudden change. This may be due to the nature of the business or other reasons. The success of CRM also depends on the user using it. There are three factors deciding

the success. The organisation and its nature, technology implemented, human resource using the technology. There must be efficiency maintained equally in all this three factors. There are also ethical factors to be considered. Since dealing with sensitive details about customers privacy maintained in it. The organisation should also see to it that personalization is not getting too personal. CRM is an iterative process that turns customer information into positive customer relationships

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REFERENCE

Blery, E. & Michalakopoulos, M. 2006, "Customer relationship management: A case study of a Greek bank", Journal of Financial Services Marketing, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 116-124 Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G, Principles Of Marketing, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P. 2012, Management information systems: managing the digital firm, Pearson, Essex. Roberts-Phelps, G. 2001, Customer relationship management: how to turn a good business into a great one

Russell Jones, N. 2002, Customer Relationship Management-A practice approach to effective strategy London:charted Institute of Bankers.
Ryals L., Knox S. and Maklan S. (2000). Customer Relationship Management: The Businee case for CRM. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Ltd Stone, M., Woodcock, N. & Machtynger, L. 2000, Customer relationship marketing: get to know your customers and win their loyalty, Kogan Page, London. .

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