Customer Relationship Management
Abstract
The study will be discussing the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) and the ways it is becoming an essential tool for the business to create a competitive edge. The study will further be discussing how business can shape their business in a better manner. Within the study, there are company examples, showing the extent of benefits that they have received from practising CRM. Moreover, the study will be comprehending the strategies that the business can develop out of the received information from the CRM software. Within the study, how CRM can aid a firm in increasing its sales and loyal customer base has been considered.
Introduction
Customers are considered the main element of a business process. In this study, the discussion is regarding how a business should manage its targeted customers with the help of which they can sustain their process. The study will further focus on the different tools that the businesses use for managing their customers. Moreover, the study will comprehend the works of various authors and journals, which will help in assessing the most effective way of CRM. There will be company examples, which will help in assessing how the businesses have managed their customers. The chosen country for this study in the UK. Different issues and benefits of different approaches to customer management will even be there within the study. The study will be focusing on customer business strategies that are for customer management.
Brief Overview
7 Eleven is a convenience store located in Texas, the United States. The international chain was founded in 1927 with the parent company in Japan. The company sells frozen drinks, Slurpee drinks and several products in Texas. However, the company is known for the large drink sizes that have 24-hour accessibility. The company is located in the prime area where there is a sensing trend of soft drinks and ice-cream is felt. The company has more than 50,000 stores that have outgrown in Japan and America. America ranks at the top level with 8000 stores in the country. The CRM customer relationship management concepts are created to achieve a competitive advantage in the market.
The platform used for the collection of data
Mobile CRM is used by 7/11 as the platform to sell the products with convenience. This platform is used when the company is in the closing sale stage. At this stage, the mobile CRM used is very important. 7/11 largely uses mobile CRM to update the progress and work on sales. This is the hassle where the manager goes through in terms of working on challenging activities and bringing important information regarding real-time knowledge with the help of mobile CRM for 7/11. There are benefits that mobile CRM has provided to an organization which include accessing information from any area or anytime, the sales cycle is shortened, collaboration and enhancing customer service (Goodnight, 2011). Most of the customers of 7/11 were using a digital platform and felt that store experience should be effective. Then a CRM system was built in the year 2013 that provided integrating transaction data to be launched with 7 Rewards mobile app. This was a big challenge for the company to focus on interacting on the real-time problems and solving customer queries while working on a mobile app connection.
ZOHO CRM
ZOHO CRM is used by 7/11 that helped to run the business with the help of a Smartphone. Working with ZOHO CRM, the managers in 7/11 manage the activities and the workday activities clearly while scheduling the task and working on events that are on the list. There appear the reminders that are set by the managers to focus on log calls, activities and capture the details of further follow-ups. 7/11 takes a major step in considering customer data. This is a ubiquitous convenience store chain that is helpful to focus on collecting and managing data with a mobile app. The company is the largest convenience store brand but it knew nothing much about individual customers and data collection strategies. As discussed, ZOHO CRM manages the activities that start with the routine activity to be performed with several tasks and events with further follow-up. ZOHO CRM helps in navigating the workday so that the customer locations are recorded and the meetings are organized and planned as per the data. In this way, ZOHO helps 7/11 to plan smart and manage the timing to schedule meetings efficiently (Overby, 2015). ZOHO even helps to manage and access the records.
The CRM activities include reviewing the notes, deals, details and attachments for important meetings. ZOHO CRM ensures employees to access and modify the records even when the employees are offline, the data will sync automatically. The collaboration is made very easily as it connects the colleagues no matter where the employees are. In this way, the team members engage with each other while mentioning the name and attaching photos that directly feeds in terms of easy access (Peppers & Rogers 2011). ZOHO CRM is a customer relationship management tool that helps to function the business well while contacting with the dealers and managing the functionality. Inventory management is properly carried on with the help of ZOHO and order management is focused while working and planning the tool for data with integrated process and programs. There are several other features such as targeting the customers and working on the sales process that 7/11 implements in the business.
CRM components
Several components of CRM help to ensure the success of the organization. As such the components should be unique and work on the undeniable role for the prospects. The components of CRM in 7/11 are salesforce automation, human resource management and customer service. Salesforce automation is essential as it helps to manage the relationship between employees and maximizes business organizations. It largely includes recording sales processing, forecasting and keeping track of communication. Human resource management component involves human resources skills and competencies to work towards a specific situation and moment while performing intellectual levels of tasks.
Effective people strategy is implemented in this component and the growth is associated with achieving human resource development. Customer service is the main component that 7/11 focuses on as it helps to collect customer data, purchase information and involve several patterns to connect with the customers with the necessary department (Burnett 2018). For this component, all the departments such as sales, management, marketing, etc need to take effective steps to develop the strategies and work towards awareness programs to achieve customer satisfaction rate. This strategy of combining the departments and working on customer service will lead to brand recognition and achieve a quick response from the customers. Sales are thereby addressed quickly with an increase in trust and dependence on the organization. CRM components in retail industry like 7/11 tend to work as major success criteria.
Literature Review
As opined by Bhat and Darzi (2016), customer relationship management is considered to be one of the most essential ways of creating a competitive edge over the rivals in a saturated market condition. The businesses need to understand the response of the customers to provide them with the required product or services. With the help of CRM, a business can understand the potential customers and even their behaviours, which allows the business in serving them in a better manner. With the help of CRM activities, a business not only creates the image of their process among the customers but also creates an identity among the rivals of the business. As studied by Zhang, Watson IV & Palmatier (2018), there are four different stages of CRM, transactional, transitional, communal and damaged. Transactional is the stage where the customer relationship begins and stays for the most, while the transitional stage demands more of the trust and commitment factors. In the communal stage, the relationship is in the highest state and allows the firm in producing continuous sales. Lastly, in the damaged stage, the level of trust and commitments are low but there is a medium level of customer dependency (Zhang, Watson IV & Palmatier, 2018).
The study of Zhang, Watson IV & Palmatier (2018) also states that “The relationship between Apple Inc. and Corning Inc. is like a marriage”. Corning Inc. is the firm that develops screen glass for Apple and this has helped the business in providing the best quality products to its targeted customers. This shows that it is not only the process of customer management but also helps the businesses in determining the level of standards that their customers’ demands, which can accelerate their sales. The activities of CRM even involve product developments that are more interesting to the customers. The main motive of CRM is to generate better sales and even to provide customer support quickly. Marks and Spencer, on the other hand, have planned for a strategic partnership with Starcount to create a better assessment of the customers’ needs and demands. Partnership with Starcount will even help the business in providing a seamless experience to their customers along with that it will help the business to generate better revenue (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019).
At present, customers and their perception towards the offered products are essential for the business to understand. With the help of customer feedback assessment, a firm can understand the degree of satisfaction that the customer feels while acquiring the services or products from them. This, on the other hand, allows the business in setting up a standard and in developing their products as per the customer needs. CRM can be applied in various areas of a business process to ensure that the customers of the businesses are well managed. Customer information is one of the main concerns of businesses and managing these data can aid the business not only in understanding their behaviours but also in providing them with the required goods or services. As opined by Anshari and Lim (2016), at the present moment, businesses are engaging themselves with a huge number of customer and it is becoming essential for the businesses to manage them accurately. With the proper practice of CRM, a business can generate leads of their customers and this can help organizations in segmenting them accurately.
Another example that can be cited would be of 7/11 convenience stores which are headquartered in Texas, USA. They are more than committed to SAVEQC principle. This means service, assortment, value, environment, quality and cleanliness. They are using Zoho Software to collect data for CRM planning. This program identifies every individual’s shopping preferences and the place where one regularly shops from. Based on the same, people are grouped and various programs are offered to them. This software is completely automated and has a simple user interface (Tode, N.A.). They are using the sales automation, lead management and customer service management with the help of this software.
As defined by Tao (2014), “CRM is a set of advanced management ideas and techniques, it integrates human resources, business processes and professional technology, and so that enterprises can meet customer demand cheaper and more efficiently“. The main motive of CRM is to improve the customer-business relationship, providing the organizations with a strategic analysis of their customers, which further helps the firm in identifying their potential ones. There are mainly four different areas of customer relationship management and they are marketing management, sales management, service management and technical support management. Beside managing customers, CRM can even be used for the management of partner channels. CRM is one of the main tools with the help of which the business can communicate with the partners of the business in an effective manner (Yogesh, 2013). This helps the companies in even managing their stakeholders, which further aids the firm in receiving the required support from their customers. Furthermore, with the support of CRM, it becomes easier for the firm in converting the interactions with the customer into the scope of revenue generation. This helps the businesses in generating better income into the business while developing a better relationship with their clients.
Interactions of the customers with the business is essential for making the firm know about the issues that they faced while acquiring any service or product from the firm. The interactions from the side of the business help in creating a positive image of the firm in the minds of the customers. As mentioned in the study of Yogesh (2013), telemarketing, telesales and IT support is a part of CRM. As per the study of Chew (2014), CRM allows the business in customer profiling and customer filtering, which further helps in developing better promotional content. Promotion of organizational activities involves a huge amount of money and it is relevant for the business to understand the minds of the customers before advertise them. It is necessary to understand the customers’ background and preferences and to segment them accordingly, which can enable the business in developing better content for their promotional activities, which can connect the customers more. Thus, attracting better attention from the customers’ end, leading to better sales and profit to the business. Additionally, response analysis is even essential to understand the impact that their promotion strategies have created upon the targeted customers, which further allows the business in developing better strategies for promotion.
As per the statement of Ck (2015), CRM is computer-based software with the help of which an enterprise can track and maintain the data and information that are related to their customers with the motive to provide better services to them. Along with this, the business can even acquire customers that are more profitable to their process, which enables the firm in creating a competitive edge over its competitors. The scheme of Nectar Card that is used by Sainsbury’s is one of the ways to manage their customers through CRM (About.sainsburys.co.uk, 2019). The nectar card helps the customers to receive loyalty points, which they can utilise as money off in their next purchase. This scheme has helped the business in attracting a better number of customers and even in determining the pattern of purchase behaviour of their customers, which the firm can use for managing their products as per their needs. The study of Magatef and Tomalieh (2015) states that “The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction“. It is not only about managing the existing customer or about attracting a better number of clients but at the same time retention is another area that the businesses need focus to create better growth and sustainability of the firm.
Customer retention is considered one of the most crucial parts of business making (Magatef and Tomalieh, 2015). In this era of digitization, consumers are more willing to buy products from an online platform, which creates a huge information base for the business (Assets.kpmg, 2019). This shows that it is becoming relevant for the businesses to access the customer information to derive the future trends of purchase from their end, which can help the firms in developing better strategies for managing their business within their selected market. However, business-like M&S and Sainsbury’s can make fuller utilization of their developed product, leading to better execution of their sales activities and minimum percentage of product wastes. For an instance, if the organization feels that their developed products are not gaining better sales in a particular market, with the help of derived purchase behaviour of the customers from a different market, the business can provide those customers with their developed product. This will help the business in utilizing their already developed products in a proper manner, creating better sales to the firm. This involves assessment of consumer behaviour of purchase, which can be done with the support of CRM software that provides accurate market demand to the business. CRM can even be used for making up-sales and repeat purchase from the side of the potential customers, contributing to better revenue generation to the firms (Nguyen and Mutum, 2012).
Furthermore, the development of new products can even be done from the received perception of the customer on their existing products. This will not only help the business in performing their activities most effectively but will also allow the firm to connecting more with their targeted customers, leading to a loyal customer base. Moreover, the nectar card scheme that is developed by Sainsbury’s has helped the firm in increasing their customer numbers from all over the world. With the help of this scheme, the enterprise has generated redeem points of £100 million (Hassan and Parves, 2013). This, on the other hand, has allowed the firm in assessing the potential customers, which further allowed the business to targeting the market for future expansion. This shows that CRM is not only for managing business relationship but also guides the business in their decision-making process. The formulation of best business strategies can be done with the use of CRM software within the business (Hassan and Parves, 2013). It is understood that to make a strong presence within the UK market, the businesses need to understand the demands of the people that are there within the market. In case the business fails in doing so, the business will be developing products or services that are not demanded by the people, leading to failure in the execution of their process.
Conclusion
While accomplishing the study, it is understood that at present the majority of the businesses are using CRM software to provide better support to their customers and other stakeholders. It can be concluded that the businesses as Apple Inc. have used CRM for understanding the perception of their customer towards their developed products, which has enables the firm in determining the right partners for their product development. This has further helped the company in receiving positive receives from the side of the customers. It can even be concluded that customer relationship is one of the keys to success, which the business needs to focus to retain the existing ones and even in generating better clients for their products or services.
It can even be concluded that it is essential for a business to understand their process before the selection of CRM software for their business, as CRM does not align with many business types. In the present era of online business, management of information is becoming necessary to create better management of their business elements and even in maintaining the relationship with its stakeholders. With the use of CRM, a firm can understand the future demands of the targeted customers, which pushes the firms in developing the right products for the right ones.
Reference List
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Appendix
URL: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/nectar-business-why-sainsburys-trialling-changes-its-loyalty-scheme/1461344
URL: https://www.decisionmarketing.co.uk/news/ms-brings-in-starcount-to-put-shine-on-sparks-strategy