ASSIGNMENT

Name Muhammad Ahmad.

Class MBA-1.
Course Marketing.
Submitted to Sir Shahid Yaqub.
Date 5-11-2008.

THE ISLAMIA UNIVERSITY OF

BAHAWALPUR.
RYK SUB CAMPUS.
 Customer Relationship Management
(CRM)
Its is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its
customers. CRM is used to support these processes, storing information on current and
prospective customers. Information in the system can be accessed and entered by
employees in different departments, such as sales, marketing, customer service, training,
professional development, performance management, human resource development, and
compensation. Details on any customer contacts can also be stored in the system. The
rationale behind this approach is to improve services provided directly to customers and
to use the information in the system for targeted marketing and sales purposes.

CRM history
The term CRM was first invented in the mid-1990s. CRM is used to help businesses deal
with their customer relationships in those days. From sales force automation that paid
attention on customer contact management to incorporated knowledge organization
solutions; these were the early foundations of CRM.
For the past three years the term has become wider to cover a more tactical approach and
the capital of more than a billion dollars globally into CRM solutions and services has
followed.

Overview:
Customers interacting with a company perceive the business as a single
entity, despite often interacting with a variety of employees in different roles and
departments. CRM is a combination of policies, processes, and strategies implemented by
a company that unify its customer interaction and provides a mechanism for tracking
customer information.

CRM includes many aspects which relate directly to one another:

• Front office operations :Direct interaction with customers, e.g. face to face
meetings, phone calls, e-mail, online services etc.
• Back office operations : Operations that ultimately affect the activities of the front
office (e.g., billing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance,
manufacturing, etc.)
• Business relationships : Interaction with other companies and partners, such as
suppliers/vendors and retail outlets/distributors, industry networks (lobbying
groups, trade associations). This external network supports front and back office
activities.
• Analysis :Key CRM data can be analyzed in order to plan target-marketing
campaigns, conceive business strategies, and judge the success of CRM activities
(e.g., market share, number and types of customers, revenue, profitability).
Types/Variations of CRM
There are several different approaches to CRM. In general, Campaign Management and
Sales Force Automation form the core of the system (with SFA being the most
popular[citation needed]).

Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, e.g. to sales,
marketing and service staff. Interactions with customers are generally stored in
customers' contact histories, and staff can retrieve customer information as necessary.

The contact history provides staff members with immediate access to important
information on the customer (products owned, prior support calls etc.), eliminating the
need to individually obtain this information directly from the customer.

Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:

• 'Managing Campaigns'
• Enterprise Marketing Automation
• Sales Force Automation

Sales Force Automation (SFA)

Sales Force Automation automates sales force-related activities such as:

• Scheduling sales calls or mailings

• Tracking responses
• Generating reports

Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:

• Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns

• Designing and executing campaigns, e.g. customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-
selling
• Analysing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and
services (e.g. pricing, product development)
• Management decisions (e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability
analysis)
• Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining.
Sales Intelligence CRM
Sales Intelligence CRM is similar to Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct
sales tool. Features include alerts sent to sales staff regarding:

• Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities
• Customer drift
• Sales performance
• Customer trends
• Customer margins

Collaborative CRM
Collaborative CRM covers aspects of a company's dealings with customers that are
handled by various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and
marketing. Staff members within the departments can share information collected when
interacting with customers. For example, feedback received by customer support agents
can provide other staff members with information on the services and features requested
by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected by all
departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company.[2]

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

CRM Strategy
The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its
customers' needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives can
support the development of marketing strategy by developing the organization's
knowledge in areas such as identifying customer segments, improving customer
retention, improving product offerings , and by identifying the organization's most
profitable customers.
CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity, and scope. Some companies consider a
CRM strategy only to focus on the management of a team of salespeople. However, other
CRM strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization.
While there are numerous reports of "failed" implementations of various types of CRM
projects,these are often the result of unrealistic high expectations and exaggerated claims
by CRM vendors.
Many of these "failures" are also related to data quality and availability. Data cleaning is
a major issue. If a company's CRM strategy is to track life-cycle revenues, costs,
margins, and interactions between individual customers, this must be reflected in all
business processes. Data must be extracted from multiple sources (e.g.,
departmental/divisional databases such as sales, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics,
finance, service etc.), which requires an integrated, comprehensive system in place with
well-defined structures and high data quality. Data from other systems can be transferred
to CRM systems using appropriate interfaces.
Because of the company-wide size and scope of many CRM implementations, significant
pre-planning is essential for smooth roll-out. This pre-planning involves a technical
evaluation of the data available and the technology employed in existing systems This
evaluation is critical to determine the level of effort needed to integrate this data.
Equally critical is the human aspect of the implementation. A successful implementation
requires is an understanding of the expectations and needs of the stakeholders involved.
An executive sponsor should also be obtained to provide high-level management
representation of the CRM project.

Privacy and Data Security

One of the primary functions of CRM is to collect information about customers. When
gathering data as part of a CRM solution, a company must consider the desire for
customer privacy and data security, as well as the legislative and cultural norms. Some
customers prefer assurances that their data will not be shared with third parties without
their prior consent and that safeguards are in place to prevent illegal access by third
parties.

CRM future
CRM has become very popular in the world of Customer Service and it continues to do
so. Because of that many more companies become customer-centric folks that fail to do
so will lose competitive advantage. As technology enhances to develop at a astonishing
rate the key importance will be how we can fully exploit it within our big business.
Nevertheless let's not lose the focus of sight that Customer Relationship Management is
regarding peoples’ first and technology second. That’s where the actual value of CRM
lies, connecting the potential of people to produce a greater customer experience, using
the CRM technology as the follower.