UNIT-1

DEFINITION OF CRM

Customer relationship management is a process in which a business or other organization

administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts
of information

KEY ELEMENTS OF CRM

 Technology: Applications and infrastructure. When people talk about CRM, they

are usually referring to a CRM system, used to manage digital interactions with
current and potential customers. Data is collected from the entire customer
lifecycle, including marketing and sales platforms, digital commerce, and
customer service interactions.

 Strategy: Business goals and objectives. Your CRM strategy should be based on

clear goals and objectives. It should also align with your company’s positioning,
culture, vision, and values. 
 Processes: Procedures and business rules. For a CRM strategy to work, all internal
and external processes should be customer-centric. Do they provide the best
possible customer experience ? Do customers trust what you do with their data?
 People: Organizational structure, skills, and incentives. People form the core of
any CRM strategy. Are employees focused on customer engagement ? Are
departments cross-functional? Is there a top-down commitment from the entire
staff? Are bonuses connected to customer satisfaction  goals? 

What are the steps in the CRM process?

The five steps in the CRM process are a collaborative effort between Marketing, Sales and
Support departments. To help you understand how each team works together, we will go through
how each step works in practice. We will cover not only how each part of the process can be
completed with a CRM tool but also who is responsible for each step.
1. Generate brand awareness

The first step in acquiring new customers is to introduce them to your business. The Marketing
team generally takes on this task using a number of measures:

1. Learning about your target audience: Marketers will conduct research to identify their
audience’s target demographics, interests, preferred channels of communication, what messaging
they respond most to and what they care about.

2. Segmenting your target audience: Audience personas are created to segment a

brand’s target audience into similar groups based on similar interests or demographics.
This helps marketers identify which types of people are most likely to become customers
and who their campaigns should target.

3. Creating marketing campaigns that speak to the target demographics: A/B tests

and marketing automation can be used to identify what works and what does not, to
create unique campaigns for unique customer segments such as on social media or email
and to create strategies for lead acquisition.

When it comes to completing these steps, CRM software contains a wealth of information. The
tool can show patterns in past leads and customers to give marketing teams a clear picture of
their target audience. Beyond understanding similarities in demographics, marketers can also
analyse sales notes in their CRM technology to understand what led to conversions in the past.
By understanding what resonated with leads, marketers are better equipped to create effective
campaigns.

2. Acquire leads

Introducing your brand to a potential customer is just the beginning of the CRM process. From
there, you have to encourage them to learn more about your business and engage with it.

Depending on how your company is structured, this lead acquisition step could be a marketing or
sales team responsibility — or both. Your marketing team, for example, might encourage
website visitors to share their email with a newsletter signup CTA or a social media giveaway.
Sales, on the other hand, could use their CRM system to set up live chat on your site. With this
feature, your team can proactively reach out to potential customers who land on your website.
If your CRM technology comes equipped with a lead enrichment tool, like Reach, lead
acquisition is unbelievably simple. All the tool needs is a lead’s email address to instantly reveal
detailed information about the person. With customer data, you can personalise your outreach
with the lead to start the relationship off on the right note. Not to mention, you can save tons of
time by not needing to research leads yourself.

3. Convert leads into customers

You have successfully engaged with your leads and they are interested. Now it is time to turn
those leads into customers.

To do so, sales reps must first be skilled at identifying how interested leads are and, specifically,
whether they are interested enough to make a purchase. A CRM is very helpful here. The
historical data from past successful sales can be used to identify lead-qualification criteria. These
criteria can be added as “attributes” to your CRM’s lead-scoring tool to help reps identify
opportunities with the highest probability of a sale.

If leads do seem likely to make a purchase, reps must then be able to nurture them further and
build their trust enough to convert. One way to do this is for reps to send leads case studies,
white papers and other resources that may sway their decision.* *

Reps should also use their CRM platform to set reminders and tasks to follow up with interested
leads. After all, studies have shown that “63% of consumers need to hear a company’s claim 3-5
times before they actually believe it.” Use your CRM’s dashboard to help you remember to
follow up to ensure that no opportunities are missed.

4. Provide superior customer service

You have successfully converted your lead into a customer. Great! But the CRM process does
not end when a customer converts. In order to grow as a company, you need to retain customers.
How do you keep the customer coming back? With excellent service from Support.

5. Drive upsells

When we think of a returning customer, we imagine a shopper continually coming back to the
same business to buy the products they know and love. But there is another key way existing
customers provide value — by upgrading to more expensive products.
How do you convinc

7 BENEFITS OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT

Implementing a CRM system is well worth the time and effort it takes to get started. Here are
just a few of the benefits your business will see with a CRM implementation.

1.  Customer Service and Retention

One of the main benefits of CRM is improved relationships with your customers. A CRM system
manages all your business contacts and stores important information about them across all
channels, including demographics, purchase history, and previous communications.

Additionally, a CRM system makes it easy for anyone in your company to access this
information. Each interaction between a team member from your company and a customer is an
opportunity to boost customer satisfaction. A CRM system makes it all possible.

Great customer service builds customer loyalty. High customer turnover is never good for your
business and can have a negative impact on everything from sales to brand reputation. A CRM
can improve your customer service, thereby building customer loyalty. It can automate customer
support, track behavior, and even provide sentiment analysis. All of these features will help you
identify and address issues before they become problems. Using a CRM to improve overall
customer service will keep your customers coming back.

2.  Increased Sales

When customers keep coming back, your sales will keep increasing. CRMs help you build your
sales pipeline by streamlining the sales process and automating the main tasks. It allows you to
analyze all of your sales data and store it in one centralized place, which can be accessed by
anyone who needs it. This capability will help your business set up a step-by-step sales process
that your employees can adapt as needed.

3.  Analytics

Analytics are essential to understanding customer behavior. There is plenty of customer data to
collect, but do you and your employees understand what it means and how to use it? In fact, it
can and should be used to optimize your business. CRM systems will have built-in analytics that
are able to contextualize customer data. These metrics, such as click-through rates, bounce rates,
and demographic data, can demonstrate the success of a campaign and highlight opportunities for
further optimization.

4.  Higher Productivity

Using CRM software with marketing automation tools can free up your employees by handling
more mundane menial tasks. Employees can then focus on more human-centered work and
building customer relationships. It also ensures tasks are completed and don’t fall through the
cracks. Many CRMs have dashboards for your business processes and workflows. Using these
features, you will be able to see where your workflow can improve.

5.  Cultivating New Leads

Customer relationships thrive when they are nurtured. Nurturing requires good communication.
There can be many steps in the communication process along with many opportunities. Being
able to alert your employees when it is time for them to reach out to a prospect and track every
interaction is a massive advantage for your business.

CRMs provide a holistic view of the customer journey. They let you see every piece of
communication with your customers and potential customers. From this viewpoint, you can
easily determine the next move—an essential capability when cultivating new leads and
nurturing existing customers.

6.  Better Marketing
CRM allows you to create more targeted marketing aimed at your customers’ specific needs. It
allows your business to cultivate a personal approach to your communications, and you will also
be able to develop new products and services that your customers actually need and want.

7.  Increased Profitability

Using a CRM allows you to identify which customers are profitable and which are not. This
knowledge helps you deal with each segment in the most cost-effective manner. Not only will
you be able to optimize your costs by doing this, but you will also be able to increase
profitability by being able to focus on your most profitable customers.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Factor # 1. Top Management Commitment and Support:

Top management involvement in the CRM implementation plan has been identified in almost all
success factors studies as a crucial factor that ensure the successful implementation of CRM.
Considering the scope of CRM implementation as an enterprise-wide strategy requires a full
support by the top level of the organizational structure. The role of board level is essential in
backing the CRM implementation process and securing required amount of financing for putting
CRM projects into action.

Factor # 2. Define and Communicate CRM Strategy:

A clear definition of the CRM strategy and alignment of this strategy to the company’s strategy
would facilitate the transition of changing work structure and environment toward customer-
centric approach. The absence of a clear CRM strategy or the lack of developing such a plan
could cause the failure of CRM implementation. Additionally, publishing the strategy to the staff
is required to raise their awareness of the CRM objectives, implications, and benefits.

Factor # 3. Culture Change:

In order for CRM to succeed in realizing its objectives, organization should develop a culture
where all staff are encouraged to share and learn from new work structure and information that is
based on customers. Expected resistance of new ways of conducting work tasks within the
organization’s culture should be addressed and minimized.

Factor # 4. Inter-Departmental Integration:

From s strategic perspective CRM implementation has an organization-wide influence. Different

functions and departments of the organization should be integrated and connected with a
structure that support the flow of information.

Although all aspects of the organization should be integrated, a special consideration should be
devoted to functions that have direct interaction with customers such marketing, sales, and
services. Such integration is required to deliver a unified view of the organizations and its
products to the customers.

Factor # 5. Skillful Staff:

Employees play a key role in the success of CRM projects. Issues of the nature of learning new
work systems, training programs, change resistance, willingness to share information, and
motivating staff should be taken to consideration.

Factor # 6. Key Information on Customers:

Acquiring and analyzing the right quantity and quality of information on customers helps to meet
customer’s needs. The right information is the base for designing customized products and
services.

Factor # 7. Manage IT Structure:

Considering CRM as only a technological solution is a vital misconception that resulted in

increasing failure of CRM projects. Nevertheless, IT is an enabler for acquiring and managing
valuable data on customers. Technological aspects such as data warehouse capabilities and
software configuration in addition to the influence of the internet are crucial for CRM successful
implementation

Factor # 8. Customer Involvement:

Direct and indirect Involvement of customers in CRM designing is a tool for strengthening
practical CRM. Such an involvement helps the organization to analyze the customer relationship
life cycle and consequently find the areas of problems that can be managed by CRM.
Furthermore, customers’ acceptance and interaction with CRM systems could be enhanced by
involving those customers in building CRM systems.

INTEGRATED CRM
Drive revenue growth in your business

Forward-thinking business owners and managers need new ways of growing their businesses.

Automate processes in your business to achieve more with less effort. It pays to ensure
employees can work smarter and management have the information they need to make more
informed business decisions.

Only then can you control costs, increase revenues and accelerate the success of your business.
Our integrated CRM solution enables small and medium businesses to achieve a competitive
advantage in the marketplace.

With a complete view of customer activity across your business, you will gain better business
insight, increase the productivity of your teams, and put your business on the path to growth.

Outperform the competition

Companies all around the world are already experiencing the power of an integrated CRM and
business management solution. Bring together every area of your business including sales,
finance, marketing and customer service.
Deliver better customer service

Your service team can resolve queries faster and with more personal responses and see every
stage of the customer buying journey.

Send targeted marketing campaigns

Using Sage CRM and MailChimp, create targeted campaigns and earn more from your next
campaign.

Empowers more productive teams

An integrated solution gives your colleagues what they need to become more productive and
avoid duplication of work. Customer service teams handle customer queries more efficiently, and
sales teams can source quotes faster and meet specific shipment and delivery requirements.

Works faster and smarter

Automating work-flows that seamlessly connect one department to the next ensures your
business processes run smoothly and efficiently.

Uses visibility to drive profitability

Using real-time information about the volume and value of trade in your company, you can
identify sales patterns and cross-sell opportunities.

Pitches new products to the right people

With better business insight, you will be able to leverage reliable customer data and target
customers who want your new products and services.

PLANNING AND MANAGING CRM

STRATEGIC CRM PLANNING PROCESS:

 
•      Defining the business objectives.
 
•      Understanding CRM Three dimensions (people, process, IT)
 
•      Using a structured approach to manage CRM
 
•      Identifying both corporate and customer needs
 
•      Using customer needs to re-engineer business processes
 
 •      Selecting technology based on business needs and functionality
 
•      Ensuring systems development is business led
 
•      Ensuring actionable measures of customer performance
  •      Actively managing culture and change, win buy in
  •      Using a phased implementation strategy
 
 
 
 
CRM IMPLEMENTATION (PHASES)
 
•      Develop the CRM Strategy
 
•      Build CRM Project foundations
 
•      Need specifications and partner selection
 
•      Project implementation
 
•      Performance evaluation