Customer Relationship Management Term Paper Assignment (Term Paper Sample)

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
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Contents
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Executive summary PAGEREF _Toc459830470 \h 3
1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc459830471 \h 4
2.0 Description of CRM PAGEREF _Toc459830472 \h 4
2.1 How CRM fits in enterprise systems (ES) PAGEREF _Toc459830473 \h 5
3.0 Processes within CRM PAGEREF _Toc459830474 \h 6
3.1 Sales force automation PAGEREF _Toc459830475 \h 6
3.2 The marketing automation process PAGEREF _Toc459830476 \h 7
3.3 Service automation process PAGEREF _Toc459830477 \h 7
4.0 Analyzing Plexipave’s CRM strategy PAGEREF _Toc459830478 \h 8
5.0 Analyzing McGraw-Hill/Siebel-hosted CRM application PAGEREF _Toc459830479 \h 9
6.0 Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc459830480 \h 10
7.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc459830481 \h 11
Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc459830482 \h 12
Executive summary
Customer management has become an integral part of every business. Today, business owners strive to understand the needs of customers after which products and services matching the preferences are developed. However, these activities may not amount to anything valuable if the information collected is not well stored. Again, the storage of information is not enough; the retrieval has to be seamless as well. In essence, the development of a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy has to consider other factors such as the environment of the business. The analysis of the Plexipave Company reveals that the company did not have an effective CRM strategy since the information was not integrated. Additionally, the CRM systems were not user-friendly.
1.0 Introduction
In every business, clients are the most integral part for without them an organization cannot achieve its objectives. In a bid to ensure clients’ needs are met, most organizations craft various customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. Briefly, CRM refers to the tactics, practices, and technologies employed by businesses to analyze and manage customer data and interactions throughout their lifecycle. If the CRM is not well crafted, its effectiveness will be limited and culminate in the loss of customers. However, such eventualities are preventable with a well-developed CRM system. In this assignment, the case study of Plexipave will be analyzed where its CRM will be assessed after which relevant recommendations will be highlighted. Furthermore, the paper will also describe the different processes found in a CRM.
2.0 Description of CRM
As indicated, CRM helps in the analysis and management of customer information and relationships throughout the cycle. In every company the CRM systems are developed primarily to integrate and automate marketing, subsequent sales, and customer support. The CRM utilizes technology and human resource in gaining insight into consumer behaviors and their value to the business. An effective CRM culminates in improved services and business-customer relationship. Additionally, the cross-selling of products becomes more effective; call centers become more efficient, marketing and sales processes are simplified and companies offer only the products that fit customers’ preference (Ranjan 2010; Blumberg 2016). Subsequently, businesses achieve higher revenues since they understand the customers’ needs and strive to achieve the same.
Besides the customers, an effective CRM impacts even the employees with crucial knowledge about the customers. Gautam (2011) asserted that a CRM helps workers to understand customer preferences after which they strive to satisfy them. Also, an effective CRM strategy ought to ensure that the collection of customer data occurs across all the platforms. For instance, telephones, company websites, social media, emails, and lives chats are some of the platforms from which customer information and preferences could be gathered (Low and Anshari 2013). A CRM will be lacking if it does not have the three major elements: sales force automation, campaign management, and customer service. According to Goldsmith (2010), customer service represents all the systems and processes that enable companies to sell products or services to its clientele.
For CRM to be effective, each customer interaction ought to be recorded and stored in a system where it can be easily retrieved to understand or improve customer experience. Similarly, the sale force automation requires the recording of each contact with the clients. The campaign management is geared toward winning new clients to the business. The sales teams record and store their interaction with the customers with an aim of understanding their needs but with an ultimate goal of winning them. Essentially, the CRM systems are developed with a sole objective of strengthening business relationships with its clientele, driving sales growth, and to help in customer-retention.
2.1 How CRM fits in enterprise systems (ES)
The enterprise systems (ES) refer to large-scale applications that essential to business. Typically, ES help in business processes, data analytics, reporting, and the flow of information. In light of the above description, the CRM fits in the ES since it is focused on the recording of information, data analysis, and the flow of information. In the business world, CRM is one of the enterprise systems, only that its main focus is the clients. The rest include the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise planning systems (EPS). The latter focuses on the internal and external factors faced by an enterprise while the former helps in providing an integrated view of business processes (Motiwalla and Thompson 2012).
Just as the other two systems are concerned with data collection and management for use in other business processes, so is the CRM. While the EPS collects data about the internal and external factors affecting a business, the CRM’s data collection is focused on the customer. Since ES systems are used in the gathering and analysis of all data that could help an enterprise, the CRM perfectly fits in the same. That is to say, the CRM is part of the ES for without it no meaningful customer information will be available. The essence of CRM is so critical that businesses would not know the customer trends and buying decisions.
3.0 Processes within CRM
As already indicated, the CRM is solely customer-oriented, and all actions and decisions are made to boost the business-customer relationship. Thus, three major processes are incorporated in the CRM strategy including service automation, sales force, and marketing automation. The three processes are implemented through collaborative, operation, and analytical methods. Each of these processes seeks to achieve the overall objective of strong customer relationship, though the exact activities might differ. The following section elaborates each of the three processes of the CRM.
3.1 Sales force automation
The sales force automation enters contact information and strives to convert a prospective buyer into an actual client. It achieves the objective by analyzing the prospective history and behaviors. Furthermore, the sales force automation (SFA) is critical in automating the business tasks related to sales such as order processing, order tracking, and inventory management (Chang, Wong and Fang, 2014). Also, the SFA is essential in customer contact management and information sharing. Besides, it is integral to employee performance evaluation and sales forecast analysis. According to Kumar (2010), a company with an effective CRM ought to understand its current clients and accurately predict its future prospects judging by the information in the SFA. Moreover, the analyzed consumer behavior helps in predicting their future trends and assist executives in decision-making.
3.2 The marketing automation process
The marketing automation eases the marketing process with an aim of achieving effectiveness and efficiency. Without marketing automation, the implementing CRM would be somewhat tedious as it would require manual approach. However, the marketing automation ensures that systems are working efficiently. Typically, it helps in the definition, segmentation, scheduling, and tacking of all the marketing campaigns. In essence, the marketing automation seeks to turn a sales lead into a client. Often, companies use the collaborative approach to ensure the effectiveness of the process. The collaboration incorporates the external stakeholders to share client information throughout the organization (Lambert 2009; La and Yi 2015). Stakeholder such as a vendors, distributors, and suppliers are critical in this approach as the collected information helps in understanding customer behaviors, trends, and interests.
3.3 Service automation process
As for the service automation, it focuses on the customer service technologies whereby clients are supported through various channels including emails, phones, and other methods. It is one of the processes that take the analytical approach to work effectively. For instance, service automation analyzes the clients’ data that has been collected through various channels and presents the same to managers who subsequently make informed decisions (Fan and Ku 2009). Often, analytical systems employ correlation, pattern recognition, and data mining techniques to analyze customers (Kumar 2010). In essence, the three CRM processes could be said to serve unique areas but with the goal of strengthening the entire process. Service automation is concerned with performance measurement; marketing automation is about creating customer value while SFA is essential information management.
4.0 Analyzing Plexipave’s CRM strategy
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