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crm dissertation

Thesis · April 2018

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33252.30080

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 Dissertation
On
Study Of Customer Relationship Management
By
Saurabh Singh
23GSOB2010572
MBA - Class Of 2025
Under The supervision
of Dr. Palak Gupta
Assistant Professor
Galgotias University
In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master
Of Business Administration
at
Galgotias University
Galgotias University, Greater Noida (U.P.)

1
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project on Customer Relationship Management and related sales
benefit. Submitted by me for the partial fulfilment of the degree of MBA in Taxation in
Business is my original work and has not been submitted earlier to any other University
/Institution for the fulfilment of the requirement for any course of study.

I also declare that no chapter of this script in whole or in part has been incorporated in this
report from any earlier work done by others or by me. However, extracts of any literature
which has been used for this report has been duly acknowledged providing details of such
literature in the references.

Signature of supervisor:

Name of the candidate:

Saurabh Singh
23GSOB2010572
Place : Greater Noida MBA Class of 2025
Date:

2
 CERTIFICATE

I Dr. Palak Gupta hereby certify that Saurabh Singh student of Master of Business
Administration at Galgotias University, Greater Noida has completed the dissertation on ―
Study Of customer Relationship Management.

Dr.Palak Gupta
Assistant Professor
Galgotias University
Greater Noida

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

An undertaking of work life - this is never an outcome of a single person; rather it bears the
imprints of a number of people who directly or indirectly helped me in completing the present
study. I would be failing in my duties if I don't say a word of thanks to all those who made
my training period educative and pleasurable one.

I must thank my faculty guide Dr.Palak Gupta (Assistant Professor, Galgotias University )
for her continuous support, mellow criticism and able directional guidance during the
project.

I must also thank Store My Goods Pvt.. Ltd. For giving me opportunity to work on this project.

I would also like to thank all the respondents for giving their precious time and relevant
information and experience, I required, without which the Project would have been
incomplete.

Finally I would like to thank all lecturers, friends and my family for their kind support and to
all who have directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this project report. And at last I am
thankful to all divine light and my parents, who kept my motivation and zest for knowledge
always high through the tides of time.

4
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PARTICULAR Page No.

1. Need of the Study 6
2. Introduction 7
• Customer Relationship Management(CRM) 8
3. Research Objective and Research question 9
4. Aims of CRM 10
5. Literature review 11-14
6. Goals Of Customer Relationship Management 15-16
7. Implementation of CRM 17
8. Why – Customer Relationship Management 18
9. Benefits of CRM 19
• Customer service
• Marketing 20
• Sales 21
10. How to introduce CRM in the company 22
11. Challenges 23
12. Significance of the study 24
13. Research methodology 25
• Questionnaire 26-29
• Results 30-34
14. Findings 35
15. Analysis 36-41
16. Limitations of Customer Relationship Management 42
17. Recommendation 43
18. Conclusion 44-45
19. Reference 46

5
 1. Need Of The Study

In today’s extremely competitive, quickly changing & highly complex business environment
characterized by diminishing customer loyalty, the need to be market focused & customer
centric is more critical than any other time in past. Firms use technology as a key tool to
enhance the information flow within their business units, helping their employees better
understand the ever changing and increasing need and wants of their customers.

It is certain that the internet will continue to change the ways customers and
organizations interact with one another in terms of speed and ease. This fact requires that
the
integration of internet technology into CRM activities occur at all levels throughout the
organization. Thus, it would be wrong to say that keeping its customer satisfied is in
the best interests of the organizations.

The purpose of this study is to bring insight and deeper understanding into the
objectives, strategies and the expected benefits of CRM initiatives by the organization.

6
 2. INTRODUCTION

"Customer Relationship Management"

The biggest management challenge in the new time of liberalization and globalization for a
business is to serve and maintain good relationship with the king – the customer.
In the past producers took their customers for granted, because at that time the Customers
were not demanding nor had alternative source of supply or suppliers.
But Today there is a radical transformation. The changing business environment is
Characterized by economic liberalization, increasing competition, high consumer choice,
demanding customer, more emphasis on quality and value of purchase etc.
All these changes have made today’s producer shift from traditional marketing to modern
marketing. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a product, pricing it,
promoting it and making it accessible to target customer. It demands building trust, a
binding force and value added relationship with the customers.
The process of developing a cooperative and collaborative relationship between the buyer
and seller is called customer relationship management shortly called CRM.

7
CRM (customer relationship management):-

CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for

methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage
customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a
database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that
management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly
could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings,
remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had
purchased, and so forth.

According to one industry view, CRM consists of:

 Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target
their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads
for the sales team.
 Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management
by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining
existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
 Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the
Aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying
the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
 Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know
their customers understand and identify customer needs and effectively build
relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.

8
 3. Research objectives and research questions

Manufacturing sector are one of the first sector that started to use CRM and there are lots of
research studies and theories regarding this concept. This research study will not give an
accurate implementation of CRM or explain how manufacturing firm use this tool.
This research stays focused on the customer point of view and the data collection will be
conducted among the customers of the company . The main purpose of this research is to
state the expectations of customer from the company to maintain good online customer
relationship.
First of all, this research will try to explain the role of services marketing in the customer
experience and the importance of implementing an effective relationship if want to increase
engaging customers and build long-term relationships.
Second, this research will continue to identify the involvement of customer relationship
management in the customer retention.
In order to achieve stated objectives, these research questions will be considered:

1. What is customer relationship management? Why organization want to retain their

existing customers. Why organization introduce loyalty programmes to retain their
existing customers.
2. Why organizations are interested in one to one marketing. Why they want
mass customization

3. To study the current practices of CRM.

4. To find out the impact of CRM on the profitability of the organization.

9
 4. Aims of CRM:-

The CRM is a new technique in marketing where the marketer tries to develop long term
relationship with the customers to develop them as life time customers. CRM aims to
make the customer climb up the ladder of loyalty.
The company first tries to determine who are likely prospects i.e. the people who have a
strong potential interest in the product and ability to pay for it.
The company hopes to convert many of its qualified prospect into first time customers and then
to convert those first time customers into repeat customers. Then the company tries to
convert these repeat customers into clients – they are those people who buy only from the
company in the relevant product categories. The next challenge for the company is to convert
these clients into advocates. Advocates are those clients who praise the company and
encourage others to buy from it.

10
 5. Literature Review

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

- Mahatma Gandhi –

This chapter provides the background and the problem discussion of the area of this
study, leading down to t he specific research questions. As discussed in chapter one,
CRM established between companies and customer has been identified as the research
area of this thesis. Hence, theoretical, this study is positioned within this area.
Particularly, the focus is g iven to the study of how company ’s uses CRM, with the
emphasis is on the objectives. Furthermore, the CRM process is covered as well as how
the companies’ organizational structure is affected by CRM.

Marketing
In today’s business world, there are different marketing approaches or strategies that fit
to different circumstances. Marketing strategy has a range, where relationship
marketing is placed at one end of it and transaction marketing is placed at the other end.
In the relationship marketing approach the focus is on building relationships with customers,
while in transaction marketing the focus is on creating single transactions with customers.

Companies producing consumer packed goods will probably benefit more from using a
transaction marketing approach. This is mostly because they usually do not have direct
contact with the customers and therefore there is no need for focusing on the customer
relationship. In contrast, service companies usually have close customer contacts
and for that reason have to focus on customer interactions.

11
“Relationship marketing is one of today’s most powerful business marketing
techniques. It is an extension of “1 to 1 marketing, ” where you satisfy each individual
customer ’s needs and wants. You can make more mone y, save time, and deliver
outstanding customer service. You gain a larger share of each customer ’s business, and
you benefit from their referrals.
Accountants, real estate agents and brokers, financial companies, and other businesses
where building strong customer relationships really make a difference are increasingly
using CRM techniques. CRM uses today ’s powerful, low -cost technology to help you,
work smarter.” (Charles W. Jaeger - p. 1)

Customer Relationship Management

“To survive in the global market, focusing on the customer is becoming a key factor for
companies big and small. It is known that it takes up to five times more money to
acquire a new customer than to get an existing customer to make a new purchase. A
Second aspect of CRM is that know ing the customer and his /her problem allows to
acquire new customers more easily and facilitates targeted cross -selling.” (Tariq
Mohiuddin Ahmed – p. 9)
“CRM is based on the based on the basic marketing belief that an organization that
knows its customers like individuals. Its components may include data warehouse that
store all a company’s information, customer service system, call centers, e -commerce,
web marketing, operations system (that handle order entry, invoicing, payments, point
of sale, inventor y system, etc.) and sales systems (mobile sales communication,
appointment making, routine, etc.). In practices, CRM system range from automated
customer-contact system to the company - wide pooling of customer information. ”
(Kotler – pp. 409 - 410)
“The implementation of CRM needs the close cooperation between suppliers of one of
the many CRM system on offer, such as Visual Elk, Avenue and Relationship Organizer,
and the user.” (Ibid)

12
“CRM system is capital investments that integrate strategy, marketing and IT. As such,
they cut across traditional organizational structures and force the integration of activities.
Implementing CRM system is no small task. And one that risks doing harm of done badly.
There is no doubt that CRM can be major factor in achieving competitive advantages,
according to Malcolm McDonald, but get CRM wrong and customers leave, never to return.”
(Ibid)

“CRM is one of the key process in any firm. Although CRM is a relatively new business
term, and therefore, the definition can vary depending on the background of the
individual writing it. The “F. Dwyer and Tanner ” believe that CRM as those process that
address all aspects of identifying customers, creating customer knowledge, building
customer relationship, and shaping their perception of the organization and its
products.” (Kotler - p. 304-305)

“CRM builds especially on the principles of relationship marketing; the formal study of
which goes back 20 years. CRM builds on the philosophy of relationship marketing. This
emphasis on relationships, as opposed to transactions, is redefining how companies are
interacting with their customers. Customer relationships have received considerable
attention from both academicians and practitioners. The increasing emphasis of
relationship marketing is based on the assumptions that building committed customer
relationships results in greater satisfaction, loyalty, positive word of mouth, business
referrals, references, and publicity. Intense competition for market share in today’s
market requires managers to attend to customer retention and the how ’ s or whys of a
patron returning and continuing to repurchase.” (Tariq Mohiuddin Ahmed – p.1)

“CRM is a highly fragmented environment and has come to mean different things to
different people. As the thought and approach to CRM is in the initial stages and not
fully matured, one can find different perspectives and definitions of CRM. According to
Gummesson, CRM is the values and strategies of relationship marketing - with particular
emphasis on customer relationships - turned into practical application. Swift ’s states that
CRM is an enterprise approach to understanding and influencing customer behaviour

13
through meaningful communications in order to improve customer acquisition, customer
retention, customer loyalty, and customer profitability.” (Ibid)

“From another perspective, CRM is a strategic view of how to handle customer relations
from a company perspective. The strategy deals with how to establish, develop and
increase customer relations from a profitability perspective. Based upon knowledge
about the individual customer ’s need and potential, the company develops customized
strategies describing how different customers should be treated to become long -term
profitable customers. The basic philosophy underlying CRM is that the basis of all
marketing and management activities should be the establishment of mutually beneficial
partnership relationship with customers and other partners in order to become
successful and profitable.” (John Johansson & Fredrik Strom – p . 2)

“The activities a business performs to identify, qualify, acquire, develop and retain
increasingly loyal and profitable customers by delivering the right product or service, to
the right customer, through the right channel, at the right time and the right cost.
CRM integrates sales, marketing, service, enterprise resource planning and supply –
chain management functions through business process automation, technology solutions, and
information resources to maximize each customer contact. CRM facilitates relationships
among enterprises, their customers, business partners, suppliers, and employees.” (John
Johansson & Fredrik Strom – p . 3)

“As can be seen above, the three definitions have the following in common:
a) They all include activities in all parts of the company.
b) The reason for CRM is to create a customer relationship focused company. In essence,
CRM provides management with the opportunity to implement relationship marketing
on a company-wide basis.”

14
 6. Goals Of Customer Relationship management

CRM, in its broadest sense, means managing all relations and business with customers. This
includes, but is not limited to, improving customer service. A good CRM program will allow
a business to acquire customers, service the customer, increase the value of the customer to
the company, retain good customers, and determine which customers can be retained or given
a higher level of service. A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating
communication in several ways:

• Provide product information, product use information, and technical assistance on

web sites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• Identify how each individual customer defines quality, and then design a service
strategy for each customer based on these individual requirements and
expectations.

• Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls to assess
post-purchase cognitive dissonance, repurchase probabilities, repurchase times, and
repurchase frequencies.

• Provide a mechanism to track all points of contact between a customer and the
company, and do it in an integrated way so that all sources and types of contact
are included, and all users of the system see the same view of the customer
(reduces confusion).

• Help to identify potential problems quickly, before customer occur

• Provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints (complaints

that are not registered with the company cannot be resolved, and are a major source of
customer dissatisfaction).

• Provide a fast mechanism for handling problems and complaints (complaints that are
resolved quickly can increase customer satisfaction).

• Provide a fast mechanism for correcting service deficiencies (correct the problem
before other customers experience the same dissatisfaction).

• Use internet cookies to track customer interests and personalize product

offerings accordingly

• Use the Internet to engage in collaborative customization or real-time customization

15
• Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling maintenance, repair,
and ongoing support (improve efficiency and effectiveness)

• Mechanism to evaluate Potential customer

• To develop integrated Database.

• Assessing the need of Potential customer.

• Ways to meet those needs.

• Identify the softer elements.

• To develop Strategy and action plan on quarter & annual basis.

• To gain knowledge about consumer behaviour

• To know, how to maintain relationship with customer?

• To know, the customer perception about company’s products & services

• To know, the grievances among the customers about products &services The
CRM program can be integrated into other cross-functional systems and thereby
provide accounting and production information to customers when they want it.

16
 7. Implementing CRM:

CRM requires an integration of a firm's resources; people, operations and marketing

capabilities to deliver added value to the customers. CRM should provide businesses and
organizations with a ‘single view’ of their customers and across irrespective of the interactive
channel or medium through which the customer accesses the service or product. For
example, a business (e.g. factory) customer’s profile and personal references should be
accessible to the business irrespective of channel i.e. whether the customer books online,
calls in or walks into any location should not make a difference to the service provided based
on the personal profile of the business client. It is enabled through:

• Information

• Processes

• Technology

• Applications

A firm that wants to implement CRM must align it’s business processes cross-functionally in the
best possible way to allow increased customer focus with an aim to deliver added value to
the customer.

To implement CRM, the following steps must be followed:

• Develop a CRM framework

• Align current business processes

• Design new cross-functional business processes (where required)

• Develop Functional Specifications (client-side services)

• Match Technical Specifications to available technology (Systems, software, etc.)

• Product Configuration

• Data Migration and Integration

• Staff Training

17
8. Why – Customer Relationship Management:-

 A satisfied customer in 10 years will bring 100 more customers to the company.

 It costs 7 times more to attract a new customer than to serve an old one.

 20% of the companies loyal customer’s account for 80% of its revenues.

 The chances of selling to an existing customer are 1 in 2; the chances of

selling to a new customer are 1 in 16.

18
 9. Benefits of Customer Relationship Management:-

A Customer Relationship Management system may be chosen because it is thought to

provide the following advantages:

• Quality and efficiency

• Decrease in overall costs
• Decision support
• Enterprise ability
• Customer Attentions
• Increase profitability
• Improved planning
• Improved product development

Customer service:

CRM software provides a business with the ability to create, assign and manage requests
made by customers. An example would be Call Centre software which helps to direct a
customer to the agent who can best help them with their current problem. Recognizing
that this type of service is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers,
organizations are increasingly turning to technology to help them improve their clients’
experience while aiming to increase efficiency and minimize costs. CRM software can
also be used to identify and reward loyal customers which in turn will help customer
retention. Even so, a 2016 study revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe
their employees have the right tools and authority to solve client problems.

19
  Increase in customer retention
 Customer satisfaction ratings improved
 Service calls deflected from call center to online forum
 Reduction in overall customer service costs

Marketing:

CRM systems for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and
generate leads for the sales team. A key marketing capability is tracking and measuring
multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, telephone and direct
mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue.
Alternatively, Prospect Relationship Management (PRM) solutions offer to track
customer behavior and nurture them from first contact to sale, often cutting out the active
sales process altogether.

In a web-focused marketing CRM solution, organizations create and track specific web
activities that help develop the client relationship. These activities may include such
activities as free downloads, online video content, and online web presentations

 Product- or company-related postings

 Positive product comments, reviews
 Visitors following link from social channel to online store’s URL
 Visitors referred to website from online friend

20
Sales:-

Sales Force Automation : involves using software to streamline all phases of the sales
process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each
phase. This allows a business to use fewer sales representatives to manage their clients. At
the core of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage
in the sales process for each prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition.
Many SFA applications also include insights into opportunities, territories, sales
forecasts and workflow automation.

• More sales lead with expressed interest or need

• Increase in referrals

• Reduce cost per lead acquired

• Key social influencers identified and engaged (invited to write a blog,

for instance, or otherwise participate in a company’s online community)

• Overall increase in online sales and/or online customers

• High response rate to coupon or promotion offered on Facebook or

other social channel

• Increased purchasing from social channel visitors vs. regular online visitors

21
 10. How to introduce CRM in the company:-

Four key steps for putting one to one marketing program to work –

Step 1: Identify your customers:

To launch a one to one initiative the company must be able to locate and contact a fair
number of customers or at least a substantial portion of its valuable customers. It is
crucial to know the customer details as much as possible, not just their names or address,
but their habits, preferences and so forth.

Step 2: Differentiating your customers

Customers are different in two principal ways; they represent different levels of value and
have different needs. Once the company identifies its customers differentiating them will
help the company to focus its efforts to gain the most advantage with the most valuable
customers.

Step 3: Interacting with the customer

Interaction is also a crucial component of a successful CRM initiative. It is important to

remember that interaction just not occur through marketing and sales channels, customer
interact in many different ways with many different areas of the organization so to foster
relationship all the areas of the organization must be accessible to the customer.

Step 4: Customize your enterprise’s behaviour

Ultimately to lock a customer into a relationship a company must adapt some aspect of its
behavior to meet customer’s individually expressed needs this might mean mass
customizing a manufactured product or it might involve tailoring some aspect of the
service surrounding the product.

22
 11. Challenges

Successful development, implementation, use and support of customer relationship

management systems can provide a significant advantage to the user, but often there are
obstacles that obstruct the user from using the system to its full potential. Instances of a
CRM attempting to contain a large, complex group of data can become cumbersome and
difficult to understand for ill-trained users. The lack of senior management sponsorship
can also hinder the success of a new CRM system. Stakeholders must be identified early
in the process and a full commitment is needed from all executives before beginning the
conversion. But the challenges faced by the company will last longer for the convenience
of their customers.

Additionally, an interface that is difficult to navigate or understand can hinder the CRM’s
effectiveness, causing users to pick and choose which areas of the system to be used,
while others may be pushed aside. This fragmented implementation can cause inherent
challenges, as only certain parts are used and the system is not fully functional. The
increased use of customer relationship management software has also led to an industry
wide shift in evaluating the role of the developer in designing and maintaining its
software. Companies are urged to consider the overall impact of a viable CRM software
suite and the potential for good or bad in its use.

23
 12. Significance of the study:-

The CRM (customer relationship management) is an integrated effort to strengthen the

network of relationship for the mutual benefit of both the parties. The biggest
management challenge in the new millennium of liberalization and globalization for a
business is to maintain good relationship with the king – the customer. This study is of
great significance because

Ø A 5% increase in the customer retention will increase the profit up to 125%.

Ø It costs seven times more to attract a new customer than to serve an old one.

Ø 20% of the company’s loyal customers account for the 80% of its revenues.

Ø To study on customer relationship management would enable the researcher to know

about the CRM practices adopted in the machinery industry / automation industry.

24
 13. Research Methodology:-

A research design is simply a plan for study in collecting and analyzing the data. It
helps the researcher to conduct the study in an economical method and relevant to the
problem.

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a research problem. The

methodology should combine economy with efficiency.

Research design
The study conducted here is exploratory cum descriptive.

Collection of the data

There are two types of data.

Primary data – primary data is that data which is collected for the first time. These data
are basically observed and collected by the researcher for the first time. I have used
primary data for my project work.
Questioners & Surveys collected from the employees and customer of WAM Group.

Secondary data – secondary data are those data which are primarily collected by the
other person for his own purpose and now we use these for our purpose secondly.
1. Internet
2. Journals & Magazines(hubspot and pipedrive) Books.

25
Questionnaire
1. Who are your customers?
a) Dealer
b) Industry

2. Are your customer’s needs clearly defined?

a) Yes
b) No

3. Do you conduct customer satisfaction surveys?

a) Yes
b) No

4. Do you communicate results of your customer satisfaction surveys regularly

throughout the company?
a) Yes
b) No

5. Do you actively seek out customer comments and complaints?

a) Yes
b) No

6. How do you get customer comments and complaints?

a) Face to face .
b) Toll free numbers, formal surveys.
c) Others means

26
7. How do you get information about the customers?
a) Face to face interviews
b) Surveys.
c) Any other means.

8. Do you analyze channel effectiveness? In which channel is most effective

in serving the customer?
a) Yes
b) No

9. Do you provide credit facility to your customers?

a) Yes
b) No

10. Do you give concessions to your regular customer?

a) Yes
b) No

11. Do you take feedback from your customers?

a) Yes
b) No

12. Do you customize your product or services according to the customer?

a) Yes
b) No

13. Do you have a concept of “internal service”?

a) Yes.
b) No.

27
14. Do you communicate with your customers frequently?
a) Yes.
b) No.

15. Do you regularly review the business process to eliminate non value- adding
activities and improve customer satisfaction?
a) Yes
b) No.

16. Is the working environment is conducive to the well-being and morale of

all employees?
a) Yes
b) No.

17. How much is the role of computers in serving the customers?

a) Plays a big role
b) Not much role to play
c) No role to play.

18. Do you have centralized database for customer information?

a) Yes
b) No such database.

19. Does the staff have access to the customer database?

a) Yes
b) No

28
 20. Is there commitment from top management to support the customer-focused
service concept?
a) Yes
b) No

21. Is there any improvement in average sale per customer?

a) Yes
b) No

22. Is there any improvement in customer response rate to the

marketing activities?
a) Yes
b) No

23. Is there any improvement in customer retention and loyalty?

a) Yes
b) No.

LINK TO THE SURVEY.

https://goo.gl/forms/o6oAS6DiLXI1XhT63

29
Results of the survey:-

30
31
32
33
34
 14. Findings:-

The customers of COMPANY are industries throughout India.

The needs of the customers are clearly defined and the products are customized
according to the needs of the customers.

Customer’s comments and complaints are welcomed and resolved quickly and
positively. Comments and complaints are taken through face to face
interviews. The company conducts customer satisfaction surveys.

The company provides credit facility to its customers up to 45 days. If the

customers pay within 30 days they are given 5% cash discount.

Sales persons of the company maintain frequent and informative communication

with the customers.

Business process is regularly reviewed to eliminate non value-adding activities.

The average sale per customer has increased by 10% and customer’s response to
the marketing activities is also improving. Customer retention is also improving.
The factors which have an impact on the CRM are – organization culture, support
from top management, interpersonal skill of the sales personals and working
environment of the company.

35
 15. Analysis:-

The customers of the COMPANY are the direct industries. So it is not possible for the
company to approach to the retailers. Company directly sells to company or through own
distributors.

Customers are encouraged to give suggestions and complaints so that the company can
improve its working and services. If the customer’s complaints are not resolved the
customers will be dissatisfied and the company may lose its customers.

Different customers have different requirements. So the company customizes its product
accordingly to satisfy the customers. It also gives more choice to the customers.

To get the information about the customers and to measure the satisfaction the company
conducts surveys through Business development sales persons.

The company gives credit facility to its customers to increase the sales volume. If the
company do not sell on credit the customers may switch over to other companies.

The company maintains frequent communication with the customers. As soon as the
product is ready or a new product is launched the information is provided to the
customers. Communication is also necessary to maintain the interest of the customers in
the company.

The company gives concession to its regular customers so as to retain it’s most valuable
and profitable customers.

36
The company regularly reviews the business process in order to eliminate non value
adding activities, to reduce the cost and to make the whole work efficient and effective. If
the internal customers are not satisfied and there is lack of coordination among the
departments then it will affect the external customers also.

“What is the benefit of a CRM process? The primary benefits of CRM are improved
marketing methods, better customer retention, customer profitability analysis, and
market share growth. CRM can improve marketing methods by targeting customers
with value propositions that make sense. Customer retention improves, as product
offerings are a better fit for customer. Customer profitability analysis enables firms to
utilize the costs and benefits of servicing customers in making decisions about who they
should do business with now and in the future. If companies do things properly, market
share should grow. All these benefits can be a source of sustainable competitive
advantage.”

Customer Retention Strategies

One the most important advantage of CRM is its ability to improve customer retention.
According to Frederick F. Reichheld, author of “Loyalty Rules! How Leaders Build Lasting
Relationships”, a five -percent increase in customer retention results in a 25 to 95 % increase
in profits.
Customer retention is important, because it is cheaper to keep existing customers happy
that to attract new ones. This helps explain why businesses continue to spend money on
CRM, because the cost of customer turnover can be attributed to larger loss. Customers
consider the satisfaction and value they receive from doing business with a company
now and in the future.
There are factors beyond price of a good or service that may affect a customer’s bottom
line. The decision of whether to continue a product or service relationship, consumers
not only consider current and past evaluations of the firm ’s performance satisfaction, service

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quality, perceived quality) but also incorporate future considerations regarding the service.

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Customer Profitability

Customer profitability analysis is another benefit of a successful CRM implementation. It

is the process of defining the right customers and also to converting marginal customers
into profitable ones. Customer relationship processes should incorporate a means of
determining how much customers are costing an organization so that the more
profitable relationships can be targeted.
This type of analysis can be beneficial for both the customer and vendor involved.
Because such targeting efforts are predicated on analysis of customer-level data and the
profitability of customers, we speculate that understanding customer –level profitability
can lead to better targeting and therefore create win -win situations. This creates an
opportunity to eliminate transactions that may not add value to a supply chain and to
reengineer the process for symbiotic gains among the supply chain partners rather than
continue the typical adversarial relationships between a supplier and its customers.
The cost of performing services for customers is an important consideration that is not
always easily tracked in the organization. Some customers demand more time and
services than other customers. High maintenance customers that require frequent
assistance, service calls, or technical expertise should be monitored appropriately in a
customer relationship. Organizations must be able to determine when a relationship is
costly; however, potential customer relations should be considered.

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Factors Causing Lessen Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty

If customers perceive that a company has deficiency in any of the factors that positively
contribute to customer loyalty, they may be less loyal. There are other factors that tend
to lessen loyalty as well. Some of these factors are explained here:

Competitive Similarity

When the offerings of different organizations are not differentiated, competitive

similarity exist. If customers perceive that brands are identical, perceived risk is low and
there is a greater tendency for brand switching as the likelihood of loyalty toward the
product declines.

Variety-seeking Behaviour
People who become bored and have a need for variety may engage in variety -seeking
behaviour. People may simply want a new experience because of the declining benefits
associated with repeat patronage or because they feel energized by the prospect of
having a new experience. Organizations can benefit from variety seeking behaviour by
satisfying the need and creating flanker brands, new flavours, or other extensions of the
basic product.

Low Involvement
A low level of personal relevance or perceived importance of a product or service to the
individual is referred to simply as low involvement.
Low involvement consumers often engage in “satisfying” behaviour in which they make
decisions that are “good enough ” and not necessarily optional. If a person has a low
interest in a product category, he or she is less likely to be loyal to a particular company
or brand. Customers who are low in involvement tend to be price sensitive, another
factor which lessens loyalty toward the brand or organization.

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Putting It All Together
“For having a competitive business that is able to attract and retain loyal customers,
CRM process should be designed in context of “begin with the end in mind". For CRM
which is sometimes perceived as CR & RM, the long-term retention of customers is
what that should be considered as a happy ending.

Capitalization on CRM

One of the primary powers of CRM is that its benefits are not limited to one department
of a company. Instead its functions flows across the business from Marketing through
Sales and then into Services and Supports. For taking a full advantage of CRM, this
continuation should be captured and understood. Rather than just making a sale to a
customer, firms should provide “solutions” that satisfy their needs. So it is a move from
sales into relationships and from isolated transactions into an honourable circle of
interactions.
Product classification would help companies with better and efficient production lines.
But it does not help them to retain customers and build lasting relationships with them.
To be customer focused, the services and products should be focused on Customer
Cycles that mentioned above.

Different practitioners have defined CRM in many ways. People were trying to
find out about the key factors that increase customer relationships for capitalize on CRM.
Here are some common key attributes of creating a good customer relationship:

1. The relationship will develop over time. This happens through Pre -Sale,
Post-Sale and ongoing support activities that a company provides to its customers

2. The relationship requires two way communication. Customers should be

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listened and provided with continuous solutions. Complains should be considered as opportunities
of getting closer to customers.

3. The relationship adds to the value proposition of our solution. Giving away
things doesn’t create customer loyalty. But good lasting relationship does.
Quality of products and service go hand -to-hand wit h customer valued relationships.

4. Every relationship is different. One of the advantages of using CRM is its

ability to fine tune the relationships. To make loyalty a reality, all involved people of an
organization should gauge their actions against customers’ needs.

5. The relationship facilitates the ability to demonstrate benefits. The relationship

brings benefits to the customer and the business.
CRM tools appear to offer companies theopportunity to capitalize on their resources and
work towards new mode ls of customer intimacy, thereby enabling companies to transform their
customer relationship from vendor into supplier and ultimately to partner.

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16. Limitations of Customer Relationship Management:-

1. Time constraint is unavoidable limitation of my study.

2. Getting whole information about the customer.

3. Inadequate disclosure of information is also the problem.

4. Sales or marketing person not disclosing their contacts.

5. And the cost of subscription for CRM software.

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17. Recommendations:-

• There should be more and more emphasis given by the company for
satisfying the customer up to an apex limit and by providing the utility of every
penny of his money.

• There should be more use of information technology.

• The company should be flexible to bend its rules and procedures in the
clients favour.

• The company can communicate and develop stronger customer bonding by

providing social and financial benefits.

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 18. Conclusion:-

The goal of this research was to study the impact of Customer Relationship Management systems
and practices on today ’s Customer Retention . CRM has been a key
element of the modern marketing in recent years. All a round the world companies in different
sizes have been trying to utilize CRM systems to help them with their competitive
businesses. On the other hand because of vigorous competition, not only acquiring new
customers is becoming difficult but also holding existing customers is a quite challenging
task.
During our research we learned that it is a lot cheaper to keep existing customers happy than
to attract new ones. But maintaining relation with existing customers in level that
constantly encourage them to stay with a company is a dynamic and meticulous job.
That is why computerized CRM system can play a critical role in success of a company. But
the way that CRM systems are used can make substantial different on the outcome. Along
with sales and marketing, all the other departments of a business should be involved with
CRM processes.
One of the other important facts we learned in this research was; a fundamental
principle of CRM is that all customers are not the same. CRM is based on the idea of
treating different customers differently. Another word s, it is not possible to attract and
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a good strategies for company to implement it
.Because it will make company more understand their potential and existing customer in order
to customize product that suit them and enhance customer loyalty thus company can built
long term profitability with customers.

Customer relationship management has a certain impact on the profitability of the company.
Customer response rate towards marketing activities is improving There are various factors
affecting the customer relationship management like working environment of the company,
support from top management and coordination among the departments of the company.
Information technology is not used as much as it should be.

CRM strategy such as provides good quality services and products, design the products to suit
customer needs and wants, maintain interaction with customers regularly and so on. It

45
also will affect company profitability like successful CRM will increase company revenue,
vice versa. Besides, IT takes an important role in the process of implement CRM such as
communication channel through internet, television and radio. Company should implement
CRM by using the modern CRM tools like salesforce and web based survey tools.

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 19. References:-

• Kotler,Philip & Armstrong, Gary, “Principles of Marketing” 12th edition

• Ramaswamy, V S & Ramakumari, “Marketing Management” 3rd edition

• DeGregor, Dennison(2011), Customer- Transparent Enterprise beyond 20th
Century CRM.
• http://www.google.com
• Freeman, H (2004), Why Services are so Important, online
available; www.serviceindustriestren.org.
• Rampal M K & Gupta S L, “Service Marketing” 4th edition.
• https://academy.hubspot.com/

• “Customer Relationship Management; Emerging Practice, Process, and Discipline”

• Journal of Economic and Social Research 3(2) 2001, 2002 Preliminary Issue, 1-34
• Adrin Payne (professor)

• “Developing a Strategic Approach to CRM. Key issues in creating a customer centric

• postal. Key issues in creating a customer centric Key issues in creating a customer
• centric postal”. Nov. 2001 – p. 7-9.

• American Marketing Association web site – 12 / 2004 - page 1 (main page)

 “Analytical CRM”Copyright 2001 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

http://www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/crm/pdf/AnalyticalCRM_50046585.pdf

 “Content Analysis. What it is, and where it is used” - 2005

http://www.tele.sunyit.edu/notes_content_analysis.htm
Rizal Ahmad, Canterbury Business School, The University, Canterbury, Kent; Francis
Buttle, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney,
Australia

 Payne A., 2006, Handbook of CRM: Achieving Excellence in Customer

Management, UK: Oxford

 Wellington P., 2010, Effective customer care, The Sunday Times

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