Semester Fall 2011

Customer Relationship Management (Mkt610)

Total Marks: 15
Topic: Nature of Customer Relationship Management
Lessons: 1,2 and 7

Case Study
Style Inn is a fashion house and makes ready to wear clothes as well as make customized
clothes for its selected clientele. Its regular customers that normally buy ready to wear clothes
range from housewives to working ladies. Its loyal customers mostly comprising of selected
clientele likes to have customized clothes. All these customers are looking for variations in
style, cut, design and fabric in their clothing. Many customers of Style Inn are members of Go
with the style club and enjoy a multitude of benefits due to this membership. Style Inn can
track their buying patterns, can offer discounts and can even initiate buying at special occasions
like Eid festivals, and even particular occasions that the customer value and has previously
identified in the consultancy sessions held at the start of every season for members.
When Hina a working woman walks into Style Inn for the buying of casual dresses at the start
of season she is greeted by a style consultant who figures out her needs and preferences
regarding her dress collection for the upcoming season. She keeps into consideration the kinds
of dresses that would go with her complexion, her style needs, and the office environment
where she works. Hina gets this consultancy biannually i.e. at the start of every season for she
is member of the Go with the style club at Style Inn. Not only this, but she gets fashion
updates posted at her house twice in every season. Since she like many other working ladies
and housewives would like to go for price discounts she is also catered for that at envious
discounts.
Zuna, being a newscaster at a private T.V channel requires an in-depth consultancy for her
dress needs. Her requirements are a bit different from housewives and working ladies. She
requires consultancy not particularly at the start of the season but for the T.V program that she
is doing. She too is a member of the club. She gets a yearly surprise gift in the form of a formal
dress that she could wear at one of the most important occasions of her personal life. Zuna
indicated that the most important occasion for her is her wedding anniversary. The CRM
systems available at Style Inn have recorded all important customer details in their data
warehouse.
The annual profits at Style Inn have trebled since its inception three years back. According to a
survey conducted by Fashion magazine of a renowned newspaper, Style Inn has been viewed as
number one fashion house for the year 2010-2011 by general public. Many of its celebrities
have been awarded for best designer wear clothes by fashion connoisseurs.

Requirement
You are required to analyze and conduct cost and benefit analysis from organizations and
customers perspective which should include----what benefits does a CRM system offer to
Style Inn and what are the potential costs of a CRM system for Style Inn? Similarly what
benefits does a CRM approach offer to the customers of Style Inn and what are the potential
costs of a CRM system for customers?

Teachers Note

You are suggested to read the concept of the nature of customer relationship
management as this is one of the most fundamental topic of CRM. This topic has been
discussed in the lesson number 1, 2 and 7. You can also consult several good books on
Customer relationship Management that are cited in the reference section on VULMS.
The sole purpose of this assignment is to enrich your understanding regarding the nature
of customer relationship management and its practical application in CRM.
A couple of more important instruction regarding how to attempt the assignment is
given in the announcement since it has been observed that many site and blogs are
promoting the culture of cheating and copy/paste among the students and adversely
damaging the grades and career of VU students. You all are requested not to copy or
read such sub-standard answer that not only kills the creativity but also sabotage the
career as well.

Important Tips
1. This Assignment can be best attempted from the knowledge acquired after
watching video lecture no. 1,2 and 7 and reading handouts as well as recommended
text books).
2. Video lectures can be downloaded for free from www.youtube.com/vu.

Schedule
Opening Date and Time
October 21st , 2011
Due Date and Time
October 28th , 2011 At 11:59 P.M. (Mid-Night)
Note: Only in the case of Assignment, 24 Hrs extra / grace period after the above mentioned
due date is usually available to overcome uploading difficulties which may be faced by the
students on last date. This extra time should only be used to meet the emergencies and above
mentioned due dates should always be treated as final to avoid any inconvenience.

Important Instructions:
Please read the following instructions carefully before attempting the assignment solution.
Deadline:

Make sure that you upload the solution file before the due date. No
assignment will be accepted through e-mail once the solution has been
uploaded by the instructor.

Formatting guidelines:

Use the font style Times New Roman and font size 12.
It is advised to compose your document in MS-Word 2003.
Use black and blue font colors only.

Solution guidelines:

Use APA style for referencing and citation. For guidance search APA
reference style in Google and read various website containing
information
for
better
understanding
or
visit
http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/APA01.html
Every student will work individually and has to write in the form of an
analytical assignment.
Give the answer according to question, there will be negative marking
for irrelevant material.
For acquiring the relevant knowledge dont rely only on handouts but
watch the video lectures and use other reference books also.

Rules for Marking

Please note that your assignment will not be graded or graded as Zero (0) if:

It has been submitted after due date

The file you uploaded does not open or is corrupt
It is in any format other than .doc (MS. Word)
It is cheated or copied from other students, internet, books, journals etc
Do not copy or exchange your answer with other students. Two identical
/ copied comments will be marked Zero (0) and may damage your
grade in the course.
Books, websites and other reading material may be consulted before
posting your comments but copying or reproducing the text from books,
websites and other reading materials is strictly prohibited. Such
comments will be marked as Zero (0).