Essay on Customer Relationship Management

The most effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are deliberately designed to align and enhance the strategic initiatives and programs of a given business or enterprise. They must take into account customer preferences, needs and wants as well, and strive to create a foundation of shared information and insight over time There are a myriad of studies that show how effective CRM systems are in transforming businesses and making them more customer-centric, profitable and responsive to rapidly changing market requirements. The level of adoption and continued use of CRM systems also assures a company's culture stays agile enough to respond to changing market conditions while also keeping the level of expertise and knowledge about customers continually growing (Chen, Chiu, 2010). Having a single system of record pertaining to all customer interactions give companies a competitive advantage in that they have greater insight into how prospects make buying decisions (Wang, Feng, 2012). When implementing a CRM system there are five critical success factors that are essential to its success and these include cost, risk, scope, time, and quality. The most effective CRM implementations that deliver the greatest value balance all five of these factors and synchronize them together to create strategies that deliver consistently profitable results. These five critical success factors are essential

This paper shall chronologically recap the growth and the development of customer relationship management and its role in the business world today.

An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can be used to identify, retain, satisfy and obtain customers by using technology to optimize strategies for understanding customers’ needs to manage business interactions with current, former, and prospective customers. Additionally, CRM also enables companies to maximize internal, external, marketing and customer service operations to better address the needs of the customer building a better relationship with customers that a more profitable. (Ahmad & Buttle, 2001)

Ling and Yen, 2001 assume CRM to be a vital element of a business strategy while Wayland and Cole, 1997 find it as the means to develop long term relationships with customers, given all the facts. Various experts and scholars could have various perspectives but their basic aim is to generate a remarkable customer experience. To make the most of the system lies in the hands of the organization and not the system itself. An evaluation between two stores with similar quality services and products, shows that the one with an intense customer understanding and knowledge will have its customers coming back to its store for more (Linoff and Berry 2011). They also reason that campaign management, lead tracking and call centre softwares are the components of the same CRM system. Its a radical change for most of the companies to develop a system that revolves around customer relations. The crucial points that need to be emphasized are

Therefore, while the amount of customer data is increasing steadily, and customers are becoming more sophisticated, it becomes crucial to be able to harness the value of customer data, and CRM systems, in this regard, are the solution.

Relationship marketing is very important concept to attract and keep the customers in organizations. In modern business world, marketing focus reflect the move away from transactional marketing to relationship marketing. Establishing, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships have always been an important aspect of business. However, over the last few years there has been a significant increase in customer relationship marketing (CRM). The concept of customer relationship marketing (CRM) is widely understood, both academically and professionally. Its goal is to bolster strong relationships and convert indifferent customers into loyal ones. Customer relationship marketing is determined by trust, commitment, empathy, power, cooperation, financial

2000, managers plowed millions of dollars into information systems meant to track and strengthen customer relationships. Often built around complex software packages, these customer relationship management (CRM) systems promised to allow companies to respond efficiently, and at times instantly, to shifting customer desires, thereby bolstering revenues and retention while reducing marketing costs. But most firms failed to reap the

Over the past fifteen years Relationship marketing (RM) has been slowly developing into customer relationship management (CRM) (Gilligan et al 2003). Markets change, even when profitable, they may mature and saturate, so we cannot be surprised that companies are changing their strategies in order to satisfy the consumer (Sturdy et al 2001). The difference between the two can be seen within the two definitions; Relationship marketing as a company that specialises in relationship marketing helps clients build relationships with their channel partners and

In the present growing economy the market is full of cut throat competition. Acquiring new customers is manifolds more costly than retaining an old one. It is important to target those customers that could return maximum benefit. Thus this study could help in targeting

Today, more and more companies find that cultivating customer loyalty is a key factor to achieve success. Customer relationship management (CRM) focuses on the relationship between customer and company. Due to this feature, many companies are trying to establish their own CRM system for helping them to connect new customers and boost old customers’ long-term loyalty. CRM systems include operations and analysis, and relationship marketing strategy and supporting, customer-centric business processes (Buttle 2004). With the development of information technology (IT), using CRM system

As mentions above, Kumar et al. (2012) have provided a new definition of customer relationship management refers to the collection, storage and analysis of customer information, and the results into the practice of enterprise decision-making process. This also pertains to the automation, enhancement and integration of core business processes, such as production, operations, sales, marketing and finance. The power of customer relationship management in its adaptability to further business, and even the performance of the entire business of any individual activities, business, and even the performance of the entire business of any individual

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) may be methodology} that supports degree organization’s decision-making method to retain long-term and profitable relationships with its customers. Some define CRM as simply a business strategy whereas others define it as a data-driven approach to assess customers’ current desires and gain

The most important aspect of any company that is involved in medium to big projects, is the company’s relationship with its clients. It is so important that companies like BNSF Railways, which was awarded Customer Relationship Management Excellence Awards in 2006 by Gartner Inc. (Schwalbe, K., pp 56, 2010), boosted its sales by simply investing more in customer relationship management. To reinforce the importance of CRM, studies conducted by HUFS College of Business, Korea, suggests that implementation of a good CRM positively impacts the customer satisfaction (Adalikwu, C., pp 6684, 2012).

Rich customer relationships that generate loyalty and revenue are critical to sustained business performance. Now more than ever, organizations must be able to flexibly adapt to the unique needs of individual customers. To meet this challenge, companies of all sizes are deploying Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and strategies across their organizations. They are coordinating multiple channels: including the web, email, call centers, direct mail and face to face – to interact with customers and meet their needs.

Salesforce CRM software improves the gathering of important information about customers, which pays big dividends by improving customer satisfaction. Understanding customers and their buying profiles generates greater success in converting them, generating leads and