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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)By Sohaib Masood Customer Relationship Management focuses on improving sales and productivity by effectively catering to customer demands, queries and complaints. The wide range of CRM software options vary from those that provide simple customer records to the more complex ones that combine all information about the customers of an organization; i.e. their tastes, preferences and their average monthly purchases etc. it serves as a tool for small and medium businesses to enhance their online communication and decreases the time taken for replying to customer complaints and questions. It acts as a data warehouse for a firms sales, marketing and customer service departments. While the customer benefits from CRM the firm has some advantages too like greater volume of sales, larger turnover and above all satisfied customers. The history of CRM: In the 1980s firms started to setup customer service groups who would speak to customers individually about their problems and assist them to get rid of them. Later data would be organized to point out the exact department or region where an improvement was required. As time passed companies began to improve CRM. In 1990s companies did not only gather greater data but they also gave incentives to customers such as gifts and special discounts for frequent buyers. This actually led to improving sales as well as maintaining good a relationship with customers. Later CRM softwares gradually developed into more interactive ones compared to previously uses static databases. CRM softwares now divide information into smaller and smaller subsets so that they could evaluate tastes and possibly predict reactions of the customers. Today, many firms like financial institutions, high tech co corporations and telecommunication organizations use different CRM software, which are compatible with their business processes and are easily integrated into their systems.
Overview of the CRM market: About 50% of the CRM market is currently divided amongst five major players in the industry; namely: · PeopleSoft · Oracle · SAP · Siebel · Telemation PeopleSoft: In 1990s PeopleSoft branched out from their traditional human resource platform and started to develop softwares for various other functions, such as customer service, supply chain management etc. their major contribution to CRM was their detailed analytic program that identified and ranked customers based on various criterias like their amount of purchase, frequency of buying and the cost of supplying the service to the customer. The program is a user-friendly system and therefore its easier for employees to operate. Another advantage that it has is that its in expensive to deploy, so small and medium businesses find it convenient for their use. Oracle: Oracle continues to be one of the leaders in the enterprise market, with its Oracle Customer Data Management System. It proved to be a success for small and medium businesses, which readily integrated the software in their firms. Telemations CRM Solution: Although comparatively new to the CRM software market the company has setup a good name for itself offering a flexible and user-friendly CRM solution. The system is easy to operate, provides quick learning and can be easily customized with the help of a toolkit developed by the company. It was originally developed for Linux but is compatible with Windows. Relatively new advancements in the CRM market: In 2002 Oracle released its global CRM which promised quick implementation of CRM throughout the co-operate world. In the same year SAP began using a 'middle' hub that was capable of integrating SAP systems to externals, front and back office systems for a unified operation that links partners, employees, processes and technologies in a closed loop function. Siebel, which previously based their business primarily to enterprise size businesses willing to invest millions of dollars in CRM systems, launched CRM OnDemand in 2003 in collaboration with IBM, just to enter the hosted, monthly CRM solution market. How can CRM benefit our local businesses? The businesses in Pakistan are realizing over time the importance of customer relations and now firms have started to implement such softwares in order to achieve better results. Although traditional way of maintaining good customer relations is still being used the importance of CRM cannot be neglected. When organization implements CRM software it has all the relevant data of its customers for e.g. names, addresses and telephone numbers, monthly sales etc in a single location. So it becomes easier to analyze the customer sales patterns and their likes and dislikes. Once an organization knows about its customers tastes it is in a better position to offer new products to specific customers, which in the long run creates brand loyal customers. Such customers can later be given special discounts to further strengthen their belief in the organization. This not only brings more profits in the long run but also creates goodwill amongst the customers, which is invaluable for the firm. About the Author: I am studying at the Institute of Business Administration Karachi, currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Computer Sciences. keywords: CRM | Customer Relationship Management | Customer Service
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