Customer Retention – A Strategic Process to Retain Existing Customers
It is difficult to exactly define customer retention as it is a variable process. A basic definition could be ‘customer retention is the process when customers continue to buy products and services within a determine time period’. However this definition is not applicable for most of the high end and low purchase frequency products as […]
Should Long Term Shareholders Have Double Voting Rights ?
The long term success of a company depends on the decisions made by its management. The appointment of management is done by the shareholders. However, the problem is that shareholders are considered to be one homogenous group. This is not an accurate reflection of reality. Different kinds of shareholders invest in a company. Some shareholders […]
Making Corporations Accountable for their Actions by Voluntary and Involuntary Means
Why Corporations Must be Made Accountable for Their Actions Throughout the history of the modern corporations, there have been cases where corporations have literally and figuratively gotten off with murder and wanton destruction and exploitation of the natural environment. Indeed, the 20th century is littered with examples of how rapacious corporations have both extracted resources […]
International Retailing – Features and Challenges
International Retailing and branding has been one of the sectors that is seeing exponential growth. With increase in standard of living and disposable income, people in developing countries are getting exposed to international brands. Rise of internet and multi-media has further provided impetus to the dream of people to aspire for branded consumer goods. Along […]
Classification of Retail Formats, Key Features, Advantages and Disadvantages
Retail Formats can be classified into the following categories: Store Based: Store based formats can be further classified into two formats based on the basis of Ownership or Merchandise offered. Non Store Based Classification: Non Store retail organizations focus on establishing direct contact with the consumer. This may be both personal (direct personal selling) and […]
Every business unit emphasizes on spurting a long term relationship with customers to nurture its stability in today’s blooming market. Customer’s expectations are now not only limited to get best products and services, they also need a face-to-face business in which they want to receive exactly what they demand and in a quick time.
Customer Relationship Management is an upright concept or strategy to solidify relations with customers and at the same time reducing cost and enhancing productivity and profitability in business. An ideal CRM system is a centralized collection all data sources under an organization and provides an atomistic real time vision of customer information. A CRM system is vast and significant, but it be can implemented for small business, as well as large enterprises also as the main goal is to assist the customers efficiently.
Usually an organization consists of various departments which predominantly have access to customer’s information either directly or indirectly. A CRM system piles up this information centrally, examines it and then makes it addressable within all the departments.
Lets take an example of an international call center which uses a CRM tool called ‘XYZ’ and is integrated with a phone and a computer system or laptop. Now this system automatically perceives which customer is calling.
Before the executive attends the phone the CRM system brings forth the customer details on the computer or laptop screen and also indicates what the opportunity of deals is with that particular customer, what the customer had already purchased or ordered in past and what is the probability of buying in future. Not only this, it can also highlight what all products best suit this customer.
For finance department it may show the information regarding the current balance and for accounting department it may pop out the information regarding the recent purchases by the customer. All these pieces of data are stored in the CRM database and are available as and when it is needed.
According to this example, CRM system provides a well defined platform for all business units to interact with their clients and fulfill all their needs and demands very effectively and to build long-term relationship.
Wangling this kind of relationship with customers is not easy to manage and it depends on how the systematically and flexibly a CRM system is implemented or integrated. But once it’s accomplished it serves the best way in dealing with customers. In turn customers feels gratitude of self-satisfaction and loyalty which results in better bonding with supplier and hence increasing the business.
A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an ‘Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal.
Customer Relationship Management strategies have given a new outlook to all the suppliers and customers to keep the business going under an estimable relationship by fulfilling mutual needs of buying and selling.
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