Customer Relationship Management

Every business unit emphasizes on spurting a long-term relationship with

customers to nurture its stability in today’s blooming market. Customer’s
expectations are now not only limited to get best products and services, they
also need a face-to-face business in which they want to receive exactly what
they demand and in a quick time.
Customer Relationship Management is an upright concept or strategy to
solidify relations with customers and at the same time reducing cost and
enhancing productivity and profitability in business. An ideal CRM system is a
centralized collection all data sources under an organization and provides an
atomistic real time vision of customer information. A CRM system is vast and
significant, but it be can implemented for small business, as well as large
enterprises also as the main goal is to assist the customers efficiently.
Usually, an organization consists of various departments which predominantly
have access to customer’s information either directly or indirectly. A CRM
system piles up this information centrally, examines it and then makes it
addressable within all the departments.
Let’s take an example of an international call center which uses a CRM tool
called ‘xyz’ and is integrated with a phone and a computer system or laptop.
Now this system automatically perceives which customer is calling. Before the
executive attends the phone, the CRM system brings forth the customer
details on the computer or laptop screen and also indicates what the
opportunity of deals is with that particular customer, what the customer had
already purchased or ordered in past and what is the probability of buying in
future. Not only this, it can also highlight what all products best suit this
customer. For finance department it may show the information regarding the
current balance and for accounting department it may pop out the information
regarding the recent purchases by the customer. All these pieces of data are
stored in the CRM database and are available as and when it is needed.
According to this example, CRM system provides a well-defined platform for all
business units to interact with their clients and fulfil all their needs and
demands very effectively and to build long-term relationship.
Wangling this kind of relationship with customers is not easy to manage and it
depends on how the systematically and flexibly a CRM system is implemented
or integrated. But once it’s accomplished it serves the best way in dealing with
customers. In turn customers feels gratitude of self-satisfaction and loyalty
which results in better bonding with supplier and hence increasing the
business.
A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also
useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a
customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system
which is also called an ‘Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field
representatives then try getting business out of these customers by
sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal.
Customer Relationship Management strategies have given a new outlook to all
the suppliers and customers to keep the business going under an estimable
relationship by fulfilling mutual needs of buying and selling.

Need of Relationship with Customers

Building relationship with customers in current market trends is the most
important aspect that an organization should focus on. Distinction and
eminence are now most sustainable and affirm for which developing good
relationship with customers is must. Some of the substantial outcomes of
building a quality relationship is explained below by which need of relationship
with customer are insight:
1. Better Customer perceptiveness- As the customer lengthens to deal
with a supplier, the supplier tends to explicate a better insight of
customer’s needs and expectations. By this a high level of relationship
can be developed between them. This will result in selling more
products and retain the business with the customers which finally will
lead to profitable business.
2. Lead to Customer Satisfaction- Customer satisfaction is the measure of
how the needs and responses are collaborated and delivered to excel
customer expectation. It can only be attained if the customer has an
overall good relationship with the supplier. In today’s competitive
business marketplace, customer satisfaction is an important
performance exponent and basic differentiator of business strategies.
Hence, the more is customer satisfaction; more is the business and the
bonding with customer.
3. Lead to Customer Loyalty- Customer loyalty is the tendency of the
customer to remain in business with a particular supplier and buy the
 products regularly. This is usually seen when a customer is very much
satisfied by the supplier and re-visits the organization for business deals,
or when he is tended towards re-buying a particular product or brand
over times by that supplier. To continue the customer loyalty the most
important aspect an organization should focus on is customer
satisfaction, hence it can be said that customer loyalty is also an
outcome of good relationship.
4. Lead to Customer Retention- Customer retention is a strategic process
to keep or retain the existing customers and not letting them to diverge
or defect to other suppliers or organization for business and this only
possible when there is a quality relationship between customer and
supplier. Usually, a loyal customer is tended towards sticking to a
particular brand or product as far as his basic needs continue to be
properly fulfilled. He does not opt for taking a risk in going for a new
product. More is the possibility to retain customers the more is the
probability of net growth of business.
5. Chances of getting referrals- It is always a cost-free advocacy by
customers to provide referrals to supplier when they feel satisfied and
encouraged and when they have a healthy relationship with customers.
These referrals or customer’s reference of other customers acts like a
piece of cake for suppliers as there is no cost and struggle involved in
this. This could be treated as the best outcome of quality relationship
what a supplier can think of.
6. Growth in revenue- When suppliers have healthy relationship with
customers the revenue of the organization always increases as
customers tend to buy more and more. There is possibility that a
satisfied customer seeks to buy special category of related products
apart from the regular ones from that particular supplier. For instance, if
a satisfied and loyal customer has a home insurance from an insurance
company then there are positive chances that he could also insure his
property and car also if he is fully satisfied with the services of that
insurance company. This will definitely result in growth of business.
7. Cost to serve is low- Cost to serve existing satisfied customers is always
very less for the supplier as they know and understand customers.
Customers never come back with complaints and queries because they
know the actual business flow and completely rely on the relationship
with supplier.
By the above substantial outcomes, it is prominent that creating and
maintaining relationship with customer is always a key to success.

STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CRM

Despite differences among organizations, a basic approach to CRM can still be
outlined. Take the essential steps below to guarantee that all key aspects are
covered, and that all strategic milestones and executive decision points are
identified and monitored.

1. Assess the situation and gather information.

Before embarking upon any CRM initiative, assess the situation with
respect to where your organization currently stands in relation to CRM.
Is there a clear internal definition?
Is there management buy-in from the top down and throughout all areas
of the organization?
Are the teams in place to manage each aspect of process development
and implementation?
Once the decision is made to move forward, it becomes even more
critical to have the right information, both internal and external,
available at all times to ensure that you are moving in the right direction.

2. Develop the CRM strategy.

The CRM strategy needs to be developed with senior-level people from
the different parts of the organization to ensure that all aspects are
taken into account, and to create high-level acceptance for the new
situation.
External assistance might also be necessary to facilitate the process and
to inject external views.

3. Assess the existing situation.

After the development and acceptance of the overall strategy, you will
need to assess exactly where your organization stands at this moment—
the situation analysis—both internally and externally.
 Internal assessment deals with the existing business processes,
organizational structure, information and communications technology
(ICT) environment, and performance indicators.
External assessment involves a verification of the customer
requirements, a competitive analysis, and a best-in-class definition.
When conducted together, these assessments identify the gaps and
opportunities between the organization’s current position and its
desired position, based on the chosen CRM strategy.
As a result of the analysis of these gaps/opportunities, an improvement
plan can be developed to close these gaps and take full advantage of the
identified opportunities.

4. Develop the new business processes.

Based on the results of the gap/opportunity analysis, a reengineered set
of business processes can be developed and implemented to support
the selected CRM strategy.
Focused workshops conducted with the appropriate internal process
owners can be used to ensure accurate assessment and create internal
buy-in, as well as to identify new and/or reengineered processes;
develop the required functional requirements to support the processes;
determine which tasks, if any, should be outsourced or partnered;
establish the high-level ICT requirements to support the processes and
reduce cost; and define the key performance indicators that will be used
to measure, monitor, and track the success of the overall CRM initiative.

5. Develop the organizational and ICT requirements.

Once the high-level business process requirements are developed, a
detailed gap analysis can also be conducted with respect to the
organizational and ICT requirements.
This will result in a detailed ICT plan to close any gaps and an
organizational plan designed to facilitate the transition via retraining,
hiring, and/or outsourcing.

6. Create an implementation plan.

Based on the results of the activities conducted thus far, a formal
implementation plan can be developed, including all future planning and
budgeting for investments.
 The result will be a detailed implementation plan that can be utilized as
the blueprint for change.

7. Implementation.
The actual implementation depends entirely on the unique business
situation of the organization.
However, by following each of the above-mentioned steps, a greater
likelihood exists that all of the critical components of CRM will be
incorporated into the final plan; all key management and staff personnel
will have bought into the process, and the actual implementation will be
rolled out in a more organized manner.

The transformation to a CRM-focused biomedical/clinical engineering

organization will not be easy. A great many roadblocks may occur along the
way that will require attention, and the political and regulatory sensitivity of
certain solutions will require a careful, step-wise, and well-documented
approach. For these reasons it is often helpful to look for outside assistance
and external support to help develop and manage the overall process.
However, once in place, you will find that your ongoing CRM initiative is just
what the doctor ordered to allow your organization to compete—at its best—
in an ever-increasing competitive marketplace.