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CRM and Technology
CRM is an acronym for 'Customer
Relationship Management'. CRM is a set
of strategies, processes, metrics, organizational culture and technology
solutions that enhance an organization's ability to see the differences
in its customers and prospects' behavior and needs, track new
opportunities to better serve their customers and act, instantly and
profitably, on those differences and opportunities. Recently CRM
has taken a center stage in the business world with businesses
concentrating on saving money and increasing profits by redefining
internal processes and procedures. It costs a company dramatically less
to retain and grow an existing client, than it does to court new ones.
It is said that 'It is seven times more expensive to acquire a new
customer than to keep an existing one'therefore the value of
customer information and management should never be underestimated.
Customer relation management analysts
says CRM is "a buzzword that's really not so new. What's new is
the technology is allowing us to do what we could do at the turn of the
century with the neighborhood grocer. He had few enough customers and
enough brainpower to keep track of everyone's preferences. Technology
has allowed us to go back to the future to this model." The aim of CRM
is optimize the use of technology and human resources for the business
to gain insight into the behavior of costumer. Seeing the new market
(CRM) emerge, the world�s leading business software vendors have
reinvented themselves to focus on CRM, and there has been a fierce
competition for the dominance in this market. Technology is now an
essential part of CRM nowadays but buying technology before defining CRM
business goals, is a recipe for disaster. It is important to remember
that technology used for CRM should be �tailor made� depending on the
type of consumer base of the company and the business goals. Companies
need to understand CRM in relevance to customers and customers only.
Technology like
call center services and software�s will prove helpful only
if they improve the customer services and relation, otherwise all fancy
technology is useless if it fails to benefit the customer. The CRM
services consist of the following major segments:
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Consulting services
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Implementation services
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CRM Outsourcing services
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Training services
There are various technical components of
CRM like customer information, sales, marketing trends and marketing
efficacy that act in tandem to improve relationship between companies
and consumers. From a technological perspective,
it involves capturing customer data from across the organization and
consolidating all internally and externally acquired customer-related
data in a central database. This data is then analyzed and the results
of the analysis are distributed via customer touch points like mobile
sales force, inbound and outbound call centers, web sites,
point-of-sale, email, etc., for use while dealing with customers at
these very touch points. The
Internet has revolutionized the way business is done and has virtually
taken the enterprise information system within the reach of the
customer. It can be accessed through the call centers, through the
Internet and increasingly through mobile devices.
It has been predicted that the total
worldwide market for CRM services will grow to US$ 125.2 billion by
2004. With a vast talent pool India is fast becoming an important
development base of major CRM companies. Indian companies and other
institutions that offer jobs are jumping into the CRM bandwagon to seize a chunk of the global market, both products as well as
services
Call centers, catering primarily to the American and European
markets are coming up in and around the metros. With the easing of
infrastructure constraints, India is likely to emerge as a significant
player in this segment. India even has a CRM Foundation in New Delhi,
founded with the purpose of assessing and improving CRM practices.
Although many Indian call centers have come up that cater to
international market, there are only a few Indian companies that have
actively taken up CRM. The CRM enabled companies include Tata Telecom,
TVS Electronics, HP India, Tata Infotech, Carrier Refrigeration, Tata
Teleservices, Satyam Infoway, Planet M, and Epicenter Technologies among
many others. Recently some of the mobile phone companies in India have
started to integrate CRM services to increase the consumer satisfaction.
For the big mobile operators, customer care is becoming the
differentiator. Other sectors like Banking and Insurance services are
also deploying CRM solutions. ICICI bank and ICICI prudential
(insurance) along with several other large banking and insurance
companies are adopting CRM solutions.
Vendors and analysts agree that the need to
acquire, retain and support customers will stimulate greater investment
in CRM. Like all other IT enabled services, CRM is likely to grow at a
rapid pace in India during the next few years. |
