1. Please discussion at lease 150 words. A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a system that is customer centered and customer focused. Companies focus on customer service by analyzing their needs and wants. Companies realize that customers are the engine that sustains a companies growth and earning potential. The process begins with marketing efforts to get as well as keep customers. This can be done in the form of advertizing on T.V., radio, the web or by direct marketing like text messaging. The next step is to rate customer satisfaction. This can be done by using customer satisfaction surveys, feedbacks, and direct customer rating by using telephone calls or e-mails asking for feedback. The last step is that now the company should analyze the customer feedback and address areas of concern and adjust the operation when necessary in order to satisfy the most customers.
There are several categories of CRM systems. There are two components on the operations side, that is the front office business processes. One is customer-facing applications and the other is customer-touching applications. Customer-facing applications are ones in which the sales force and marketing people actually interact with customers. This can be customer service and support. For example, an information help desk that tries to help with basic questions may be a part of this. Other component's are called sales force automation, marketing, and campaign management. Customer-touching applications are ones where the customer can help themselves. This includes search and compare, technical and other information services. For example, some companies allow you to download technical manuals for a particular product. FAQ's or frequently asked questions, allows for customers to see if their problem is a common and let's them see if it has already been answered. And finally loyalty programs like best buy's reward program. Basically you get so many points each time you purchase items. Once you reach so many points, you will get a certain amount off your next purchase.
One CRM system that I have used before is Norton's internet antivirus. If you have a computer, you need an antivrus program because of the dangers of all of the virus's that are out there that can ruin your computer. Recently, I purchased Norton's internet antivirus 2011 and I had trouble running it. I chose the internet chat program to attempt to fix it. Once the chat box came up, the person asked to take over my computer. I agreed to this and the person had full control over my computer. He was able to download the program and it ran perfectly. At the end, I was able to disconnect him from my computer. Norton also has a 1-800 phone number for technical support.
The chat capability would be considered customer service and support under the CRM system. I think CRM systems has a huge impact on the success of a business. Imagine a customer oriented business where that business uses none of these CRM applications. I don't think that they will be in business for long. People will simply forget that they even exist because there will be other options out there that will try to get their business.
2. Please discussion at lease 150 words. A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management System. It is simply defined as a means for a business(es) to personalize customer's experiences that they have while using the businesses services or systems. A CRM is a much faster way to accomplish the tasks that once had to be done by a person. The customer information is stored into a database and that information can be shared by virtually any aspect of the business whether it be marketing, sales, customer service and billing just to name a few. The information stored is but not limited to location, customer interests, their purchase history just to give a few examples. From the consumer standpoint it allows you to place orders, track the shipping and the progress of the order and download numerous manuals and training guides. This allows the customer to get everything they need to done without the hassle of talking to someone after you have been placed on hold for several minutes. This is not only convenient for the customer but cost efficient for the business since they do not have to pay as many employees.
One aspect of a CRM system is operational CRM. Operational CRM is customer touching applications and customer facing applications. In dealing with customer touching applications they are when the customer can place orders or find out anything they need to without physically talking to someone. In customer facing applications this is when the customer interact directly with someone at the business. For instance if they were talking to customer service or the sales department.
Another area of CRM is the analytical CRM system. The analytical CRM system is analyzing the consumer trends, habits, location and other behaviors. This type of analysis provides actionable business intelligence (paraphrased from Rainer & Turban, 2009). An analytical CRM gives the business the customer response to their marketing campaigns. This is useful so that the company can make an educated marketing plan and use their resources wisely in terms of allocating money for their plan. This form of CRM system allows the company to design specific marketing campaigns to target their targeted customer base. It also gives the company a good model of how to retain customers and to increase customer profitability.
One company that uses a form of CRM is Lowes Home Improvement. The type of CRM they use is Electronic CRM. This allows the customer to buy the product(s) that they want and look at the catalogs online. It also allows them to see if the product is in stock at their selected Lowes store, if it is not it allows them the option to order it and have it delivered to their home, their selected store or reserve one that is in stock at another local Lowes store. Lowes also has uses software called Xpert in which they can mange their inventory and allows the company to manage their inventory. Lowes saves thousands of dollars a year just by implementing these few things in manpower hours alone.