CUSTOMER

RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT

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 Learning Objectives
• Understand the customer relationship process.

• Know the evolution, current status, and categories of

the customer relationship management (CRM) system.

• Understand the components and architecture of CRM

systems.

• Examine the CRM life cycle and its relationship with

other enterprise software.

• Examine the impact of CRM on an organization.

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 Preview
• A good strategy coupled with a well-defined set of
requirements, identification of key success factors, and
good partnerships will usually lead to success in CRM
technology.

• It is important for the company to understand that CRM

implementation needs to be customer driven more than
technology driven.

• CRM implementation must involve people, process, and

systems, rather than just a narrowly defined IT
application.

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 What Is CRM?
• A true CRM integrates corporate strategy, business
methodology, and technology to accomplish a myriad of
goals for companies that want to operate in a customer-
driven environment.

• No business can survive without understanding its

customers and having a positive relationship with them.

• CRM provides support for the front-end customer facing

functionality (e.g., marketing, sales, and customer
service), which are usually not available in traditional
ERP systems.

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 CRM Evolution
• In the 1980s through the mid-1990s companies started
using IT to automate customer processes with discrete
customer-centric applications.
• Late 1990s, companies started integrating these
discrete systems into what is now known as CRM.
• CRM began in response to a changing market
environment as mass marketing gave way to focused
segment marketing, and finally to target marketing an
individual.
• Enabled by new technologies that collected consumer
data, companies progressed to focused segment
marketing.

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Figure 12-1 Evolution of CRM Programs

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 CRM Today
• Globalization and ubiquitous connectivity are forcing
companies to re-evaluate how to deliver value to
customers.

• Large and small companies now deliver similar products

at low cost with an abundance of options for customers
mainly due to globalization.

• To be successful in this competitive environment,

companies have to deliver both quality products and
unique and dynamic experiences for the customer
depending on his/her needs.

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 Types of CRM
• Operational CRM
– Provide front- and back-end support for sales and marketing,
administrative personnel, or customer-service processes.

• Analytical CRM
– Provide tools for collection and analysis of data gathered
during the operational process to help create a better
relationship and experience with clients or end-users.

• Collaborative CRM
– Deal with the interaction points between the organization and
the customer.

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 Business Strategy Perspective of CRM
Business Promotes customer-centric approach
Customer segmenting
One-on-one marketing
Increase customer retention

Technology Foster close customer relationship

Analyze customer information
Coherent view of customer

Customer Increased interaction opportunity

Increase customer loyalty
Better “word-of-mouth” advertising

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 Customer Relationship Processes
• A good CRM should provide support for the following
functions.
– Capture and maintain customer needs, motivations, and
behaviors over the lifetime of the relationship.

– Facilitate the use of customer experiences for continuous

improvement of this relationship.

– Integrate marketing, sales, and customer support activities

measuring and evaluating the process of knowledge acquisition
and sharing.

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 CRM Delivery Processes
• Campaign Management
– To generate “leads” or potential clients for the organization.

• Sales Management
– To convert the lead generated by campaign management into a
potential customer.

• Service Management
– Provide ongoing support for the client and to assist in the
operation of the product or service purchase.

• Complaint Management
– To improve customer satisfaction by directly addressing the
complaint of the customer and supporting a continuous
improvement process.

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 CRM Support Process
• Market Research
– Focuses on systematic design, collection, analysis, and
reporting of data, and on findings relevant to specific sales
activity in an organization.
– Involves integration of external and internal data from a wide
variety of sources.

• Loyalty Management
– Provides the processes to optimize the duration and intensity of
relationships with customers.

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 CRM Analysis Processes
• Lead Management
– Focus is on organizing and prioritizing contacts with the
prospective customers.

• Customer Profiling
– Focus is to develop a marketing profile of every customer by
observing his or her buying patterns, demographics, buying and
communication preferences, and other information that allows
categorization of the customer.

• Feedback Management
– Consolidates, analyzes, and shares the customer information
collected by CRM delivery and support processes with the
analysis process and vice versa.
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 CRM Technology
• CRM technology implements a companywide business
strategy in an effort to reduce costs and enhance
service by solidifying customer loyalty.

• With the rise of the Internet, data mining and analytics

techniques have advanced to where they can be
considered an integral component of CRM.

• True CRM brings together information from all data

sources within an organization to give one, holistic view
of each customer in real time.

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 CRM Components
• Market Research
– The two key functionalities here are campaign management and
market analysis.
• Campaign management provides support for preparing such things
as marketing budgets, ad placement, sales targeting, and response
management.
• Marketing analysis tools provide statistical and demographic
analysis.

• Sales Force Automation (SFA)

– Provide basic functionality for sales personnel to automate sales
lead distribution and tracking etc.

15 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

 CRM Components (Cont’d)
• Customer Service Support
– Typically includes help desk ticket management software, e-
mail, and other interaction tools connected to a fully integrated
customer database, which is connected to the SCM and ERP
application.

• Data Mining and Analytics

– Data must be collected, sorted, organized, and analyzed for
trends, demographics, cross-selling opportunities, and
identification of other sales patterns.

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Figure 12-2 CRM Components

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 CRM Packages and Vendors
• Big CRM vendors provide more features than the
smaller vendors do, but there is no software package
that can work directly off-the-shelf.
Target Market Vendor
Large Enterprises Siebel, Vantive, Clarify, and Oracle
Midsize Firms Servicesoft, Onyx, Pivotal, Remedy, and Applix
Small Companies Goldmine, Multiactive, and SalesLogix

On-Demand CRM
– Provides firms with the option of a scalable CRM application
suite via a browser, and pay a per-month, per-user set fee.

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 CRM Architecture
• Typical CRM systems follow client – server architecture.
The system environment consists of the following
components:
– Application server: Runs either front-end processing or
querying data and possibly a Web interface for the CRM system.

– Database server: Houses the back-end database and possibly

retrieves information from other database systems in the
company to present through the application server.

– Web server: Used if the CRM provides an extranet access point

for such external users as vendors or customers and an intranet
access point for employees.

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Figure 12-3 CRM Architecture

20 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

 On-Demand CRM
• High-speed secure Internet connectivity has recently
spurred a lot of interest and demand in hosted CRM
systems.

• Using thin-client architecture, such vendors as NetSuite,

Inc. and Salesforce.com have provided firms with the option
of a scalable CRM application suite via a browser and pay a
per-month, per-user set fee

• Other on-demand CRM vendors include Siebel, RightNow,

Microsoft, and Oracle

• Small businesses are slowly shifting to on-demand software

due to high costs of installation, maintenance, and security
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 CRM Life Cycle
• A CRM system life cycle involves focus on people,
procedures, company philosophy, and culture, rather
than just information technology.

• Adequately outline the corporate CRM goals and the

practical process changes that have to occur before
focusing on possible technology solutions.

• Functional requirements must be considered before

making a decision on the architecture.

• There are many CRM products from which to choose,

depending upon the complexity of the information needed
and the resources to manage the program.

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Figure 12-4 CRM Life Cycle

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 Implications for Management
• CRM is a strategic business solution and not a
technical solution.

• CRM should not be implemented as a single system or

at one time.

• CRM systems come in a variety of shapes and sizes,

but there is no real off-the-shelf solution.

• Even though CRM provides a great solution for one-on-

one individualized marketing, it also provides good
mechanisms for privacy and ethical violations.

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 Summary
• Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are
an integral part of enterprise systems for today’s global
market where many organizations are competing for the
same customers.
• No business can survive in a competitive environment
without keeping a customer happy.
• CRM systems can be categorized by functionality,
business strategy, and implementation perspectives.
• The customer relationship process is complex and
integrates several functional areas of the organization.

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 Summary (Cont’d)
• A CRM system combines a wide variety of computer and
communication technology.

• The major components of the CRM system are market

research tools, sales force automation software,
customer service and support tools, and data mining and
analytics.

• CRM solutions exist in hosted and installed

environments.

• CRM implementation must never focus on a technology

solution.

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 Review Questions
1. Why is it necessary for an organization to have a good
customer relationship management (CRM) system?
2. Define the role of CRM in your own words.
3. What are the key differences between today’s CRM
and the early generation of CRMs?
4. How does CRM impact the company’s bottom line or
performance?
5. What are the major types of CRM?
6. Briefly describe the customer relationship processes.
7. What are the major components of CRM?

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