Introduction.
To
attain higher levels of productivity, every business unceasingly seeks to perfect
the performance of its operations, using Intelligence technologies, especially
when it involves alterations in practice management. Intelligence systems and
technologies are major empowering instruments for the organisations to develop new
services and products as well as engineering advanced business models.
Many
businesses have acknowledged the importance of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) and its opportunity to obtain new customers,hold to the existing clients as
well as become a standout organisations among competitors. But in order to run
such technique and maintain a close relationship with clients a solid-based interaction
between marketing and IT departments is required.
Customer
Relationship Management is the creation, elaboration, maintenance and improvement
of long-lasting valuable cooperation between businesses and its clients. The
main purpose of such technique is to research the pool of clients for the
potential ones, attract former customers back and minimise costs of marketing
and customer service.
CRM technique
is “the computer software designed to help companies keep a track of an easily-accessed
information about the customers the business is dealing with”(Managementstudyguide.com,
2014). CRM was created with a purpose of providing fast and effective customer
service by developing a relationship with each customer while putting
organisation strategy and IT together. Such combination is vital because of linking
together technologies and intelligence with business operations throughout the
entire organization.
The main
aim of this report is to identify the utilisation of CRM systems and hence establish
the challenges and benefits which could emerge using CRM systems within the
organisation.
Challenges and benefits of adopting CRM
The
CRM application traces the preferences of customers and their shopping habits;handles
with complaints as well as different types of requests.Accumulated customer
information helps to provide services much faster and acquire new clients. The CRM
software opens an opportunity for every member of sales team to access
information on each customers, their contacts and sales transactions in no time.
It also "underlines the primary tasks to be done following up the sale's
transactions" (Kokemuller, 2014).
Advantages:
It is
important to meet the deadlines in a today's world of business. Every day
businesses waste valuable time using different types of software and
spreadsheets in order to trace all transactions and complaints. The largest
advantage of utilising CRM technique is the combination of all these software packages,
used to track down the clients' activities, therefore there is no need for searching
same information multiple amount of times across contact systems or various
databases. Consequently CRM enables a completion of all daily tasks in a short
time with the same saving thousands of hours each year, the time which could be
used to accomplish other business goals (Biobm.com, 2014).
Confronting
a huge amount of customers is most likely to lead to disorganisation and
overwhelming of business operations. However CRM system makes it easy to store client
information in an organised way, by storing all customer details in the same
place, which could then be obtained by anyone with a correct permission within
the business. Another benefit of having a CRM system in place is that even if one
of the employees falls out of the organisation, an access to up-to-date
customer information is still at hand, regardless of employee turnover or lost
data.Some platforms also introduced synchronisation of this data with a calendar
that informs managers about upcoming deadlines and tasks. For example when a
manager has a scheduled sales call or a valuable transaction in his calendar,
CRM system sends an email beforehand as a reminder. Whenever a customer has an
upcoming birthday, CRM notifies about it, so the birthday wishes could be sent
over. Consequently, this makes customers feel more valued and allows building deeper
relationships between a client and organisation with the same giving an
opportunity for the managers to make sure"that each customer gets the
attention and nothing is forgotten" (Schaeffer, 2014).
For
many businesses one of the reasons of a revenue downfall is in a failure of replying
with the instant quote request and leaving invoices unattended. And with the
CRM at hand quoting and invoicing is rationalized. As a rule the invoices and
quotes are created in a short period of time which leads to the quotes being
looked after and all the invoices mailed in time (Small Business - Chron.com,
2014).
Usually
as information on customers piles up, more potentials emerge. For instance, tracing
particular buying habits of customers would build up a list of their
preferences. Therefore, when launching a similar product,based on a sales
history, CRM will help to prioritise a list of customers, who would be
particularly interested in it. As a result, the use of CRM system enables a
sales growth with no need to advertise the product to new customers(Preact.co.uk,
2014).
It is
also possible for the head managers of the companies to trace their employees,
once CRM software is implemented. For instance when one of the staff is away on
holidays or sick leave, CRM will easily provide a live roster with the
potential employees who would be available to cover the missing worker. Also CRM
system allows tracking of a progress of all staff and their schedules, including which
transactions they’re involved into, how many sales they are closing and as a
result enables the owner to make changes based on performance immediately.
One of
the huge advantages of CRM practice is that it can assist in marketing by
creating profitable marketing campaigns once analysing the purchase history of
customers.The benefit of evaluating such buying history is in identifying relationship
between factual sales performance and campaigns. This supplementary information
lets to comprehend customers thoughts regarding their purchases and helps to
identify which types of campaigns results in success. Some platforms also
introduced such feature as integration with social media networks like Twitter,
Pinterest, LinkedInand Facebook. Such technique enables tracking all subtleties
of a social media campaign. For instance, it allows to recognise which networking
services account for the most traffic, what is the customers' opinion about one
or another brand and the overall experience(Itinfo.am, 2014).
The
privilege of the today's business world is that portable devices such as
netbooks,tablets and smartphones became a norm of every company, enabling a
task completion and staying up-to-date on projects regardless of location. CRM
programs, which can be easily installed on these devices,allows an access to the
same information that could be viewed from an office.With an access to internet,
staff can instantly update customer information, arrange orders any minute, search
database for any complaints and plan meetings. Thus a boost of productivity is
done on the move within a few clicks. Mobile version of CRM software is perfect to
schedule and reschedule service calls and provide employees with a fast update regarding
the recent changes. CRM also allows the employees to trace inventory while
running the business outside the office, look into the contact history between
every customer and a company. Most mobile CRM platforms give an opportunity to
manage calendar and events,invoices and task schedules(Worketc.com, 2014).
A
cloud CRM is a version of CRM software that is commonly accessed via internet,
which means there is no need to host CRM on a personal computer. The key
distinctive elements of cloud CRM involve an advanced customer service regarding
troubleshooting issues,high standard security and an easily accessible
information from any device. Since all the data and the software itself are
stored in a cloud purchasing hardware and its constant updates are not
required. The businesses that use the web-based CRM usually have to obtain only
licences, which in this case creates an advantage for customers as they have to
pay only for particular features they are using. Those who have limited IT
departments could experience a lot of troubleshooting while installing the
programs and managing the server problems as an aftermath. Hence cloud solution
makes the task easier as it saves time as well as resources and makes work of
employees more productive. Another beneficial feature of Cloud CRM solutions is
that the providers take responsibility for storing and backing-up of
information with the same relieving their customers from an additional trouble
(Benefitsofcrm.com, 2014).
Challenges:
Despite
a huge amount of advantages, utilising of CRM also brings some problems. The initial problem begins with the expensive
costs that occur when implementing the system and maintaining a customer
database. Additionally, the finances are required for the computer hardware,
software, and personnel to keep CRM running.
Thusexcessive costs can become burdensome and might result in a CRM
collapse(Sites.google.com, 2014).
Taking
into an account the amount of tasks performed by CRM, it becomes obvious that
the system itself is far from simple. Sufficient employee training is required in
order for them to comprehend and deal with the difficulties at the later stages.
Companies need to keep in mind that the
business needs are the most vital. An
issue stands out when an organisation on installing this technology applies it
to company problems to discover whether it solves the main problems. In this
case analyses of the company problems must be performed beforehand and only
then a search for an appropriate CRM solution(Rishabhsoft.com, 2014).
Ideally,
CRM system is customer-based;however on implementing CRM system the company may
lose its prior focus. The problem arises when the employees forget of this fact
and utilise the system in a wrong way. It is highly essential for every
organisation to encourage their employees maintain focus on its primal target,
which can be expensive(Sssworld.com, 2014).
Also, CRM
system,unfortunately, pays off at a slow pace. In other words it takes time to
return the budget investment and can take years. As a result a company gives up
on further improvement of the system, which in its turn makes CRM a useless
tool.
CRM
system holds huge amount of private and valuable information about existing or
potential clients. Thus an issue of a security arises, especially when it comes
to CRM system being hosted in the Cloud. A chance of a virus attacking a system
or a "black-hat" braking into it is not excluded.
Utilisation of CRM by the levels of Management
The levels
of each organization's hierarchy tightly depend on each other. Therefore it is
vital to maintain focus on relationship between all three of them.
In
order to guide its decision the top management follows a strategic plan which
is usually a long-term forward looking campaign that concentrates on a future
growth of the company as a whole. Relying on the very aggregated information received
from the CRM allows the top managers to make their decision with regard to such
areas as service or product development, markets and products, strategic
alliances, etc. In other words whether the company should remain in business,
which products to produce, where to locate its facilities, what production
equipment to use. CRM is designed to
provide the executive level of management with detailed and rich information on
up-to-date basis, accessed 24/7, which means it is more effective and quick
than a static weekly report. Having such opportunity the top management can
make just-in-time decisions to improve the performance of the organisation and
get more revenue.
Once
the executive level of the management chooses the general direction of the
organisation, it is up to middle management resolve smaller tactical
objectives, which would accomplish the strategic goals of the company. Tactical
plans that are more detailed comparing to strategic ones, are usually a medium
range plans, meaning it can take from 6 months to two years into the future. As
a rule, the medium management utilises CRM in order to concentrate its
attention on department functionality and productivity, for instance whether
one or another objective requires some quality improvement or measureable
efficiency. Also, though basic production capacity is usually resolved by a
long-range consideration, it can also be managed within limits in the medium
term. Just like the executive level, the medium level of management has an
instant access to the database of CRM, throughout a year, every day, seven days
a week(Plus, 2013).
Day-to-day
business involves operational planning, which are short-term activities
targeting the needs of the customers on daily basis. Operational planning
requires very detailed information in order to accomplish the objectives set by
a middle management. When decisions are to be made, the operational management,
known also as a first line management, relies onto CRM to identify the most
immediate requirements of organisation, for instance what to produce, when or
what machinery to utilise, in what quantity or in what order, etc. In general
the first line management tends to concentrate its attention on such areas as
departments and sections hence with an access to CRM, a weekly or daily
scheduling will help to analyse the productivity, change a system and adapt to
one or another alteration. As a rule a
short range operating takes the orders directly from the customers(Managementstudyguide.com,
2014).
Conclusion
Attraction,
satisfaction, and retention of the most valuable customers are the main
features of CRM system, which make every company successful. Byorganising and
controlling all the company's processes looking after customers in sales,
marketing, and service CRM allowsincrease revenue, improve customer satisfaction,
and optimise customer retention.
Customer
Relationship Managementsoftware brings together a significant amount of information about customers the business is
dealing with:
-
market,
- responsiveness
-
marketing effectiveness,
- trends
-sales,.
This program
is utilizedfor storing information on customers thatcould be reached by
employees across the board. For large and small organisationsweb-founded
software becomes a best approach in a scenario when the staff is working
outside the office premises or has poor IT resources.
Ideally
CRM categorises and stores information in a user-friendly format and is aimed
to offer the best services to customers, based on the history transactions.
This improves the company's effectivenessand efficiency which results in theincreased
revenue margins.
Accumulated
information within the system helps every organisation improve its
profitability by interacting with each and every customer in a friendlier way
through individualisation. Its keygoal is to enhance and retain satisfaction of
every customer by integrating technologiesinto business processes.