CRM

10 Tips For Implementing Customer Self Service

2011-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

• Learn everything about your customers.
• Conduct focus groups to ensure that they want self-service.
• Define clear business goals.
• Evaluate the technology for its technical and financial merits.
• Does it match your customer base? Will it boost profitability?
• Learn everything about your customers.
• Conduct focus groups to ensure that they want self-service.
• Define clear business goals.
• Evaluate the technology for its technical and financial merits.
• Does it match your customer base? Will it boost profitability?

Intelligent agent
A program that automatically performs a service, such as gathering specific information, or that personalizes information on a Web site based on a user’s registration information and usage analysis.

Enterprise relationship management
The practice of analyzing customer data from sales, marketing, service, finance and manufacturing databases in order to relate efficiently to customers.

Data warehouse
A database that stores large amounts of historical business data.

Data mining
The practice of extracting data from a data warehouse in order to analyze patterns, trends and relationships.

Hot Questions

Question:
Given that CRM software integration is key, what role do you think that business managers and IT should play? In other words, do you think that business managers should lead the efforts strongly relying on IT? I think in some companies, IT is leading these efforts. It seems to me that this is a strategic error.

Reply:
Clearly IT is a critical player and an important voice in CRM software integration. But I strongly believe in the value of having a general manager lead such efforts. Organizations need the cross-functional perspective of the general manager to get the most of their CRM efforts. Consider what happens once CRM software is

Question:
Given that CRM software integration is key, what role do you think that business managers and IT should play? In other words, do you think that business managers should lead the efforts strongly relying on IT? I think in some companies, IT is leading these efforts. It seems to me that this is a strategic error.

Reply:
Clearly IT is a critical player and an important voice in CRM software integration. But I strongly believe in the value of having a general manager lead such efforts. Organizations need the cross-functional perspective of the general manager to get the most of their CRM efforts. Consider what happens once CRM software is

What causes CRM projects to fail?

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Many things. From the beginning, lack of a communication between everyone in the customer relationship chain can lead to an incomplete picture of the customer. Poor communication can lead to technology being implemented without proper support or buy-in from users. For example, if the sales force isn't completely sold on the system's benefits, they may not input the kind of demographic data that is essential to the program's success. One Fortune 500 company is on its fourth try at a CRM implementation, primarily because its sale force resisted all the previous efforts to share customer data.

As the largest health insurance provider in New York, Empire manages more than 29,000 corporate employer accounts, of which about 26,700 are small to midsize companies employing 50 people or fewer. Empire services these "community rated" employers via some 1,800 registered independent sales brokers. Because each customer's needs are different, brokers must produce customized coverage estimates for each one. For example, some companies want preferred provider plans, and some want health maintenance plans. Each plan has different "riders," or options, attached, such as vision care or prescription coverage.

In the past, a broker would call Empire's broker relations department, pass along the customer's specs and then wait for Empire to calculate a price quote. The broker then relayed the quote back to the customer, who would either accept it or ask for modifications—in which case the broker had to contact Empire again and request a revised quote. When a quote was finally accepted, the broker filled out and filed one set of paperwork while the customer filled out a group application and sent it directly to Empire. Whenever Empire revised its plan structure, brokers found themselves with outdated enrollment forms.
The company then made 60 copies of the enrollment paperwork, filing it within 11 departments at Empire. Even then, fully 67 percent of the forms had to be returned or double-checked by phone with the brokers because of errors or omissions. Since they couldn't generate quotes themselves or process the paperwork, the brokers were completely dependent on Empire's broker relations staff, who were around only during normal business hours. As a result, it took about 27 days to shepherd a new customer through the sales and enrollment process. Then employees had to wait another week to 10 days to get their ID cards.
The Quest to Streamline
In late 1998, Stephen Bell, vice president of e-business operations, and Kenneth O. Klepper, senior vice president of systems, technology and infrastructure, began developing a "print on demand" system to reduce the vast mountains of quickly outdated benefits brochures and contracts that sat in storage rooms.
First, Snow and his team took a hard look at the existing paper-based process. They took over a conference room and created a color-coded map of the sales process; no one had ever before tracked it from start to finish. "It was like a grapevine," Bell says of the process map. "It just got bigger and bigger. For the first time, we realized that there were 33 redundancy audit checks—where we go over information to make sure it's correct—built into the process. We had created this nightmare."

They began by eliminating all the loops and unnecessary steps, such as the need for brokers to keep calling the company for revised quotes. "Wherever there were repeats, we tried to eliminate them," Bell says. The team managed to cut the essential steps from 80 to 40. That was the easy part, he says; then came the daunting task of finding an application to make the streamlined map a reality.

Because Empire's sales channel was so complex, Bell decided that Empire couldn't go with an off-the-shelf application. And he quickly saw the value of moving the process to the Web. Bell and Klepper hired Firepond of Waltham, Mass., to customize its proposal configurator and develop a quote engine and group enrollment process for Empire. Because Empire lacked in-house experience and resources for handling an enterprisewide application, they kept the IT department close to the project so that staffers could learn from the experience. The department also had to integrate the application with Empire's legacy mainframes, a process that was tedious but critical, according to Bell.

Empowered Brokers
Empire's Broker Services Application, which includes the quote engine and proposal configurator and enables online group enrollment, went live in October 2000. The browser-based quote engine frees brokers from having to call Empire to crunch numbers every time they need a quote. Instead, they can now enter the relevant customer data themselves online, and an automated formula generates a quote in a matter of seconds. If the client isn't satisfied with a particular quote, the broker can go back online and change the specifications. Upon making a sale, a broker no longer has to wade through piles and piles of paper, but can go online to enroll a new account. The password-protected system also lets agents maintain customer information online, where it's accessible around the clock.

By Oct. 31, 2001, all of Empire's 1,800 independent brokers had registered on the site, Bell says. When the site went live, Empire aimed for getting 15 percent of the brokers to use its self-service functionality. As of October, more than 45 percent were regularly generating their own quotes online.
Empire agents using the site now handle an average of 45 percent more quotes; brokers who used to process 20 quotes a day, now handle 50. Most important, the enrollment process that once dragged out over 27 days now takes just two to three days to complete online

the impact of CRM on the organisation

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Implementing a CRM strategy will have far-reaching implications across your
organisation, from back-office functions (such as finance and logistics) through
customer-facing activities (such as sales, marketing and service) and beyond to
suppliers and partners. The enterprise-wide implications must be fully understood
before organisations embark on a CRM project.

The cultural implications of CRM are significant. Historically,many projects have failed,
despite effective IT implementations, because people-related issues have not been
tackled.

CRM projects will fail, unless they have board-level buy-in and are driven from the top.
Fundamentally, CRM is a business philosophy; not a technology. All projects should be
approached from a corporate, strategic perspective. As such, technology is merely the
tool which allows your organisation to achieve its strategic goals.

There are several practical steps which can be taken to ensure that a CRM-related
project runs smoothly. While some of these are common to all IT projects, front-office
implementations bring unique challenges.With less of a legacy in systems
implementation than the back office has, there is additional pressure for speedy,
tangible returns.

Outside of greenfield sites, the big bang approach to implementation is rarely
recommended. Early adopters typically favour incremental projects which offer quick
wins. Front-office implementations bring unique challenges, as there is less of a tradition
of systems implementation, compared with the back-office.

THE IMPLEMENTER/PROJECT LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

CRM is fundamentally a business philosophy: technology is the tool which allows the
business goals to be achieved. Unless an organisation understands the business drivers
and the implications of embarking on a customer management strategy, no amount of IT
expertise will bring success. IT developments must be closely aligned to business needs.

The key to successful customer management is to build a unified view of each client,
drawing together data from a wide variety of sources, making it available in a relevant
format to business managers and users. The IT implications are vast because, ultimately,
CRM will touch every system in the organisation, as well as the systems of suppliers and
partners. As a result, integration is one of the biggest challenges which IT departments
face in the CRM arena.

Implementing a CRM strategy does not affect just customer-facing employees. Because
of the need to transmit information both within the organisation itself and externally to
customers and suppliers, every function is likely to be affected by a CRM project. This
means that every department should have a representative involved in planning and,
where necessary, rolling out a major CRM project.
Ongoing training for users is essential and may eventually make the difference between
success and failure.
The introduction of CRM systems is likely to have some degree of impact on every job in
an organisation. At an individual level, the aim is to provide each person with better
information, allowing him/her to operate more effectively.At a departmental level, by
monitoring the effectiveness of different activities, organisations can better achieve
their strategic goals.

THE IT PERSPECTIVE
Glossary of termsBack-office: financial applications which automatically manage the transaction part of
customer interaction

Call centre: centralised telephone contact centre
Database marketing: the basis on which enterprises can start to engage in the process of
one-to-one marketing

E-marketing: based on using information gathered from interactions deriving from customers’
activities on a commercial Web site

Field service: applications which automate the service provision for personnel who are not
office-based

Front-office: sales and marketing applications which have an immediate and direct impact on
customer interaction

Integration: the requirement to have all applications running seamlessly together, so that
individual application components are invisible to the user
Marketing automation: a method by which marketing activities may be streamlined

Personalisation: software which allows the marketer to interpret customers’ lifestyles, needs
and preferences, facilitating the use of one-to-one marketing via the Web

Product configuration: a system which allows customers to build complex products where
there are choices over product components

TAS – technology-assisted selling: applications which track and manage the sales process
automatically, from inception to order placement

TDS – technology-driven support: applications which automate the service delivery aspect of
the customer relationship
Web self-service: a method of delivering service, using Internet technology

Are there any indications of the need for a CRM project?

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Not really :)
But one way to assess the need for a CRM project is to count the channels a customer can use to access the company. The more channels you have, the greater need there is for the type of single centralized customer view a CRM system can provide.

How long will it take to get CRM in place?
A bit longer than many software salespeople will lead you to think. Some vendors even claim their CRM "solutions" can be installed and working in less than a week. Packages like those are not very helpful in the long run because they don't provide the cross-divisional and holistic customer view needed. The time it takes to put together a well-conceived CRM project depends on the complexity of the project and its components.

How much does CRM cost?
A recent (2001) survey of more than 1,600 business and IT professionals, conducted by The Data Warehousing Institute found that close to 50% had CRM project budgets of less than $500,000. That would appear to indicate that CRM doesn't have to be a budget-buster. However, the same survey showed a handful of respondents with CRM project budgets of over $10 million.
What are some examples of the types of data CRM projects should be collecting?
• Responses to campaigns
• Shipping and fulfillment dates
• Sales and purchase data
• Account information
• Web registration data
• Service and support records
• Demographic data
• Web sales data

What are the keys to successful CRM implentation?
• Break your CRM project down into manageable pieces by setting up pilot programs and short-term milestones. Starting with a pilot project that incorporates all the necessary departments and groups that gets projects rolling quickly but is small enough and flexible enough to allow tinkering along the way.
• Make sure your CRM plans include a scalable architecture framework.
• Don't underestimate how much data you might collect (there will be LOTS) and make sure that if you need to expand systems you'll be able to.
• Be thoughtful about what data is collected and stored. The impulse will be to grab and then store EVERY piece of data you can, but there is often no reason to store data. Storing useless data wastes time and money.
• Recognize the individuality of customers and respond appropriately. A CRM system should, for example, have built-in pricing flexibility.
Which division should run the CRM project?
The biggest returns come from aligning business, CRM and IT strategies across all departments and not just leaving it for one group to run.

What is CRM

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CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. After all, good customer relationships are at the heart of business success. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.
What is the goal of CRM
The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers. If it works as hoped, a business can
• provide better customer service
• make call centers more efficient
• cross sell products more effectively
• help sales staff close deals faster
• simplify marketing and sales processes
• discover new customers
• increase customer revenues
That sounds rosy. How does it happen
It doesn't happen by simply buying software and installing it. For CRM to be truly effective, an organization must first decide what kind of customer information it is looking for and it must decide what it intends to do with that information. For example, many financial institutions keep track of customers' life stages in order to market appropriate banking products like mortgages or IRAs to them at the right time to fit their needs.
Next, the organization must look into all of the different ways information about customers comes into a business, where and how this data is stored and how it is currently used. One company, for instance, may interact with customers in a myriad of different ways including mail campaigns, Web sites, brick-and-mortar stores, call centers, mobile sales force staff and marketing and advertising efforts. Solid CRM systems link up each of these points. This collected data flows between operational systems (like sales and inventory systems) and analytical systems that can help sort through these records for patterns. Company analysts can then comb through the data to obtain a holistic view of each customer and pinpoint areas where better services are needed. For example, if someone has a mortgage, a business loan, an IRA and a large commercial checking account with one bank, it behooves the bank to treat this person well each time it has any contact with him or her.

CRM-The Technology

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Technology is used to automate procedures, provide better information and to transform
entire business processes (Dedrick et al., 2003). These capabilities include not only
hardware and software, but also the technical and managerial expertise required to
provide reliable physical services and extensive electronic connectivity within and
outside a firm

Information on customers is critical to developing and maintaining customer
relationships. While small organizations with very few customers find it relatively easy to
collect and use relevant information in building customer relationships, larger
organizations find this practically impossible to do. Thus, information technology,
initially in the form of the database, was regarded as ‘an agent of surrogacy to be enlisted
to help marketers to re-create the operating styles of yesterday’s merchants’

CRM technology applications link front office (e.g. sales,marketing and customer service) and back office (e.g. finance, operations, logistics and
human resources) functions with the company’s customer “touch points” (Fickel, 1999).
A company’s touch points can include the Internet, e-mail, sales, direct mail,
telemarketing operations, call centres, advertising, fax, pagers, stores and kiosks. Often,
these touch points are controlled by separate information systems. CRM integrates touch
points around a common view of the customer (Eckerson and Watson, 2000).
CRM software and hardware applications drive three key processes:
(1) Automating business operations (sales automation, customer service, order
management etc.),

(2) Automating business performance processes ( data warehousing, data mining,
analytics etc.), and

(3) Automating communication and coordination processes (voice mail, e-mail, web
site etc.) (Crosby and Johnson 2001).

CRM is broadly implemented at two levels of an organization (Dyche, 2001), the
operational level and the strategic/analytical level. The operational level includes the
boundary spanning activities of the firm where direct customer contacts (touch points)
occur.
The other level of CRM implementation is called analytical CRM. Simply put, it involves
examining and comprehending customer interactions that occur at the touch points.
Analytical CRM entails the compilation of customer data into databases and its
subsequent analysis.

Creating, maintaining, and utilizing a data warehouse forms the coreof analytical CRM.
Data warehousing is the most important technology used in CRM. A
data warehouse can be defined as “a storage location for data that can support the
reporting and analytical needs of multiple departments across an organization. The data
may be time stamped to provide historical business information.” (patriot.net, nd)

Data warehousing technology makes CRM possible; data can be obtained and
manipulated easily. With this kind of technology analysing a customer’s data is easy. It is
possible to identify and report by product or service, geographic region, distribution
channel, customer group or individual customer (Story, 1998). An example of data
warehouse dimensions could be: customer, product, transaction, geography, time and
promotion.

Data mining is another important technology used in CRM systems and is defined
generally as “the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing
it into useful information - information that can be used to increase revenue, cut costs, or
both.” And it is defined technically as “the process of finding correlations or patterns
among dozens of fields in large relational databases” (Anderson, nd). Companies use data
mining to determine relationships between internal factors, such as price, and external
factors, such as competition.

Data mining makes it possible for companies to determine
the impact on customer satisfaction, sales and profit, which are essential to CRM.
Moreover, data mining is a way to drill down and view transactional data.
There are different types of patterns that can be found and analysed:
Classes: where you can locate data in predetermined groups. For example, a coffee shop
chain could mine customer purchase data to determine when they visit and what theybuy.

As a result, the coffee shop could have daily specials to increase the number of
customers on those certain days.

Clusters: where data items are grouped according to logical relationships or consumer
preferences.

Associations: where you can associate two or more data items. For example, when men
buy nappies they also buy beer. As a result, beers could be displayed near the nappies.
Sequential patterns: where you can determine a sequential pattern in purchasing two or
more items. For example, buying a camera and then buying a film every month
(anderson.ucla.edu, nd).

Data mining is used to predict the future of certain behaviour, and to identify the
existence of an item or an entry in the database. It is clear that data mining is essential to
CRM, since it is through analysing customer behaviour that an enterprise can determine
its marketing strategies, including advertising, design of catalogues and campaigns.
The essence of CRM is that a firm should integrate information with business action

Managerially it means that the data should be acted upon by managing
customer interactions at the touch points more effectively and efficiently.
Technologically, this calls for an integration of the “front end” and “back office”
systems. Some vendors like RightPoint, Manna and SAP provide the connection of the
front to the back end

CRM and TQM

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It is worth considering in this section another contemporary organizational management
discipline that has a strong connection with and is similar to CRM, that is, Total Quality
Management. TQM is a set of management techniques that became popular in the
1980’s The basic principles provide significant contribution to many CRM fundamental concepts.
The four essential dimensions that comprise the practices and techniques of TQM) are:

1. Establish a customer focus – customer satisfaction behaviours and attitudes must be
inculcated into all areas of the organization.

2. Implement continuous improvement practices – procedures and processes must be in
place to allow and encourage continuous self-assessment and adjustment.

3. Nurture employee fulfillment – there is well established proof that employee
performance is directly correlated to job satisfaction.
4. Treat the organization as a total system – focus on processes and relationships, not
functions, both internally and externally.
All of these TQM dimensions are also essential to CRM. Whilst both TQM and CRM are
management led, the ultimate success of each depends entirely on the involvement of
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people and, hence, can be identified as cultural issues. Each emphasizes the role of
continual improvement as a method and measure of progression. In the author’s opinion
CRM is not an alternative to TQM; customers are looking for cost reductions and
customer service, but also looking for quality, and so both approaches are necessary.
Both management concepts focus their efforts on recognizing customers and listening to
their needs. According to Copulsky and Wolf (1990), relationship marketing (which is
the same concept as CRM) is a broad approach to customer care. To gain a strategic
advantage, it emphasizes on building a long term, repeat-purchase relationship with
customers along a group of related products and services. To do this, a database of
current and potential customers, with all the data about each customer, has to be
provided. For this to happen there is a need for consistent quality, otherwise loyalty will
be weakened and buying behaviour will change (Clark et al., 1994). This strengthens the
author’s opinion about the strong relationship between TQM and CRM and that both
have the same goals; it is important to implement both at the same time for a business to
gain the benefits of the organizational change initiative. It does not matter whether one
calls it TQM or CRM; the most important of all is implementing the management rules
and principles in the correct manner to achieve the desired results.

CRM: The Philosophy

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Marketing practitioners and scholars have strongly recommended striving for close
relationships with customersOver the years many organizations have been compelled to accept this conclusion.
Most notable among these are the beliefs that existing customers are more profitable because
the acquiring and attracting of new customers is expensive, and that it is less costly to upsell
or cross-sell products or services to current customers . One of the most important studies conducted in this field is
by Reichheld and Sasser (1990), which showed the large impact on profitability of small
increases in customer retention rates, which made the marketing community more
conscious of the need to manage customer relationships in the long term as well as prior
to the first sale.

In addition, more studies have shown that the cost of retaining current
customers is lower than the cost of acquiring new ones (Blattberg and Deighton 1996,
Filiatrault and Lapierre 1997) and that economic benefits of high loyalty are important,
and in many industries it is this which determines the differences between companies
(Reichheld 1996).
The objective of customer relationship management is to unite and join information
technology and business processes in a fashion that enables the firm to acquire new
customers, retain existing customers, and maximize the lifetime value of its customers
(Peppard, 2000). Most importantly, CRM allows firms to differentiate customer
treatments based on specific customer needs and preferences. Additionally, financial
metrics that are centred on customers allow firms to segregate those customers that the
firm should be keeping from those it should be willing to lose (Dyche, 2001), enabling
micro-management of profitability.
The huge number of CRM initiatives carried out reflects both the complexity and
elusiveness of the CRM concept. While the number of CRM initiatives is growing fast,
scholarly published material on CRM principles is rather limited. Panda (2003) argues

that Berry (1983) formally introduced the term customer relationship management to
literature. Several ideas of relationship marketing had, however, emerged much earlier,
such as the one provided by John Arndt (1979), who noted the tendency of firms engaged
in business-to-business marketing to develop long-lasting relationships with their
important customers and their key suppliers rather than focus on discrete exchange and
named them “domesticated markets”.
In recent years, customer relationship management has been expanded to include an
integrated perspective on marketing, sales, customer service, channel management,
logistics and technology for engaging in customer satisfaction. Practitioners are calling it
customer relationship management (CRM) and are interested in all aspects of interactions
with customers to maintain a long-term profitable relationship with them.
After reviewing the literature, some of the definitions used to define CRM are as follows:
• Bob Thompson (2001, crmguru.com) defined CRM as follows: “Customer
relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy to select and manage the
most valuable customer relationships. CRM requires a customer-centric business
philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales and service
processes. CRM applications can enable effective customer relationship
management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy and
culture.”
• Chen et al. (2003, p.682 ) wrote that: “CRM is a cross-functional, customerdriven,
technology-integrated business process management strategy that
maximizes relationships and encompasses the entire organization”

• “CRM is a strategy to identify and attract profitable customers, tying them to the
company or product by efficient relationship marketing to guarantee profitable
growth. CRM offers a great platform for the acquisition of new customers in
addition to gaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, existing
customer relationships can be used to drive sales via up or cross-selling. The most
“valuable” customers especially need to be identified, attracted and retained”
(Kracklauer et al., 2001, p. 516).
In addition, Imhoff (2001, p 434) provided some variations on the meaning of CRM. A
representative set of these definitions is summarized in the following list:
• CRM is the set of systems, processes and organizations that profitably drive
customer loyalty.
• CRM is the strategic view that integrates how we want the business to relate to
the customers, specifically seen through technologies available to support that
view and make it come alive by integrating people, processes, culture and
attitude.
• CRM is the management of the relationship so that the partnership with the
customer grows, flourishes and remains healthy over time.
• CRM is building customer loyalty, not merely relationship management, using a
360-degree view of the customer.
• CRM is the set of business processes and practices that directly addresses the
relationships between key customers and the principal organization.

• CRM is the 360-degree view of the customers and their transactional activity with
the company.
An analysis of the above different definitions shows, they all have common concepts of:
customer focus (customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention), technology, knowledge
management, change management and leadership.

Organization of the Thesis

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The remainder of the thesis is organized as follows:
Chapter two reviews the literature on CRM and proposes the CRM conceptual model to
be used for the current study.

Chapter three details the research methodology used and the reasons for each decision
made by the researcher.

Chapter four reports the first stage of the analysis and includes a detailed write-up on the
central case study, Ford of Britain.

Chapter five reports the detailed write-ups on the three banks analyzed in the current
study

Chapter six reports the detailed write-ups on both Saudi airline and Standard life.

Chapter seven reports the detailed write-ups on the two small family businesses in the
current study: Bahrawi and Noortech.

Chapter eight reports the second stage of the analysis, the cross-case analysis and its
results.

Chapter nine discusses and interprets the research findings along with the conclusions
and some managerial implications.

Outline of Research Methodology and Data Analysis

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Qualitative research methods are designed to help researchers understand people and the
social contexts within which they live. Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) argue that the goal of
understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants is largely lost
when textual data is quantified. Since one of the major reasons for doing qualitative
research is to gain more experience with the phenomenon under study in order to

investigate complex and sensitive issues, the researcher adopted qualitative methods to
understand and explore CRM initiatives in their real-life context.

The approach in the case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2002) Since the case study is an
ideal methodology when a holistic, in-depth investigation is needed

and when a “how” or “why” question is being asked about a contemporary set of events,
over which the investigator has little or no control (Yin, 1984), this approach was the
most suitable for investigating CRM in the real-life context in different organizations.
Due to certain restrictions faced during data collection and limitations placed by some of
the organizations approached by the researcher for the purpose of her research, the results
therefore, differ in size but not in content. To live with and bypass such restrictions and
limitations, the researcher accessed differently structured and varying sized
organizations, which were as follows:

1. Ford of Britain Motor Company.
This was chosen as central study case. This large corporate entity not only
manufactures the products it sells, it also offers after sales services to its
customers in the UK, which run into millions.
2. The researcher’s next choice was banks; three major international, regional and
national banks:
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), UK

National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Arabia, and
Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia.
All of the above banks offer and manage the full gamut of banking services,
including but not limited to private banking and investment portfolio services.
Their customers run into millions, across continents. The difference between Ford
and these banks is that, whereas Ford sells its products along with after sales
services, the banks provide services to their customers for or based on the latter's
cash assets not the banks'.

3. Saudi Arabian Airline and Standard Life (SL), UK, (Insurance, Re- Insurance)
followed. Both are major corporate organizations in their own right with transcontinental
reach and coverage. However, they offer dissimilar customer services
simply because their customers differ drastically. Whereas Standard Life is a
leader in Europe’s assurance industry, Saudi Arabian Airline has been
traditionally dominating the domestic flight business in Saudi Arabia because of
its monopoly.
4. Finally, the researcher collected data from two small family businesses in
Saudi Arabia, where family businesses are still the rule, not the exception:
Al Bahrawi Trading Company and
Noortech, Technologies.
The Bahrawi Company is one of the oldest trading companies in Saudi Arabia.
Noortech are Systems Integrators based in Saudi Arabia and specialize in
providing intelligent solutions for buildings and facilities.

Although the sizes of the case studies differ, identical data collection methods were used
with all the companies. In-depth interviews using open-ended questions were the main
source of information obtained for use in this study. Any open-ended question is designed
to encourage meaningful answers from interviewees by allowing them to express their
own knowledge and/or feelings. The questions were formulated according to the CRM
conceptual model proposed by the researcher for this study. Interviews were not the only
source of data in this study. Since the interviews took place in the interviewees' places of
work, this provided the researcher the opportunity to directly observe their respective
CRM environments and gather relevant data from their published documents like their
annual reports, company brochures, marketing literature and annual performance reports.
The researcher was given the opportunity to participate in CRM team meetings in one of
the organizations studied, which proved to be extremely beneficial.
The analysis of the data gathered went through two main stages. The first stage was to
transcribe the data collected from all the organizations chosen and produce detailed writeups
for each case. In every case the write-ups were similarly structured to help the
researcher in the second stage, the cross-case analysis. The cross-case analysis was based
on the researcher’s proposed conceptual CRM model.
Unique patterns emerged during the analysis phase and common issues were raised.
When the research questions were answered, the results were consistent with the
available CRM literature. The CRM model proposed was then altered according to the
findings. One important alteration made to the model was to make the sequential phasing

commence with a CRM business plan before getting into the details of customer data
analysis. Another alteration made was the addition of an essential supporting condition,
inter-departmental collaboration.
With respect to

RQ1: What are the critical success factors of CRM initiatives?
The answers received resulted in the emergence of some critical success factors, such as:
1. Senior Management Support
2. Business Plan and Vision
3. Making the Change in Small Steps
4. Inter Departmental Collaboration
5. Clear Ownership of Data
6. Training for End-users
7. End Users' Acceptance of Change
8. Degree of Analysis and Customer Segmentation
9. Degree of Alignment
10. Language Considerations
11. Internet Presence
The first four factors were distinctly apparent in all the organizations studied and they
proved to be the most important critical success factors for CRM initiative success.

With respect to RQ2:
What are the common difficulties when adopting a CRM initiative?
The answers came up with the following common difficulties:
1. Resistance to Change
2. Human Errors in Feeding the System
3. Governmental Legislation
4. Cultural Barriers

With respect to RQ3:
What does CRM mean for different organizations?
The answers exposed a common interesting finding that different organizations
considered CRM to be different things. Some considered CRM to be branded CRM
software, others as call-centers, yet others as loyalty programs and/or simple tools to
manage and satisfy customers. This confirmed that CRM meant different things to
different organizations. CRM, as mentioned in the academic field, was observed as being
theoretically implemented only in the financial services industry at the three banks
studied. At the same time other organizations in the current study proved themselves to
be good at managing their customers with the use of simple tools and without the need of
sophisticated software.
With respect to RQ4:
Is CRM the right solution for every organization?
The answers proved that if branded software from recognized vendors only was to be

recognized as CRM, then this standard and rigid kind of CRM could not always be
implemented by all organizations. On the other hand, if the managerial concepts behind
CRM were to be taken into consideration, then CRM could indeed be implemented by
every organization.

Research Objectives and Questions

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The central research question for this study is:

Why and how do CRM initiatives succeed or fail?
The above question is pivotal because the results of research in this success/failure area
will contribute to the building of thriving customer relationships, thereby contributing
substantially to corporate survival.
In order to obtain topical and valid answers to the above question, the researcher decided
to divide it into four subsidiary questions, the sum of which would constitute the crux of
the question above. These are:
RQ1: What are the critical success factors of CRM initiatives?
RQ2: What are the common difficulties when adopting a CRM initiative?
RQ3: What does CRM mean for different organizations?
RQ4: Is CRM the right solution for every organization?

The aim is to explore multiple comparative case studies in both Saudi Arabia and the UK.
The scope of this research was affected by the differing levels of cooperation received
from the organizations which participated in the case studies, thereby resulting in
differing sizes of the said case studies. The decision to conduct the study in Saudi Arabia
and the UK proved to be beneficial for the purpose of the study. The study led to some
interesting results on the cultural differences identified and their impact on respective
CRM maturities.

The research context for this study focuses on organizations in the Financial, Automotive
and Airline industries, based in the UK and Saudi Arabia. The defining of CRM
technology is a complex task which could involve, in principle, study of different types
of information technologies (ranging from spreadsheets used for data mining to branded
CRM application software). Therefore, for the purpose of this study, CRM technology
was defined as a multiple range of information technologies which enables customer
relationship management (not only the expensive branded software used). This approach
helped minimize errors of exclusion, such as the ignoring of organizations using different
levels of information technologies along with the application of CRM concepts. It was
important in this study to minimize the error of exclusion because the key construct
concern was adoption rather than assimilation. Since the key question was to find out
how and why CRM initiatives succeed or fail in different organizations, this approach to
sample construction proved effective.
After a thorough literature review of the available CRM management models, the
researcher proposed a conceptual CRM model adopted from Buttle’s value chain model
(2004). This model provides a holistic view of the CRM landscape and represents two
main sequential phases of CRM strategy: analysis and implementation. In the model there
also are five supporting conditions that are essential for a successful CRM initiative:
• Service Quality
• Senior management support and leadership
• Technology7
• People
• Knowledge management.
The adopted CRM conceptual model was used to evaluate the level of CRM maturity in
the organizations studied. After completion of this process, the researcher saw the need to
alter the CRM model based on the findings. This model is believed to be a significant
contribution to the theory and field of CRM. This model could be used by organizations
to evaluate their CRM initiatives and assess their CRM readiness and status. The
proposed CRM model specifies the basic parameters of the CRM sequential stages and
their essential supporting conditions. It can assist researchers in concentrating their
efforts on a specific research area whilst simultaneously having a global view of the
development process. Additionally, CRM can assist organizations in detecting
problematic areas in their current customer-based strategy and motivate them to improve
it. Another important contribution of the study is that it identifies and highlights the
potential effects of the cultural disparities existing between Saudi Arabia and the UK on
CRM initiatives yet to be undertaken in both countries.

What kinds of companies use CRM software?

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If you probe and would like to understand what kinds of companies use CRM, you are unlikely to get any specific names. This is so, because customers are the kings in any business. Whether you are part of a bank, an insurance company, a retail outlet or a manufacturing entity, you need to understand that customers define your business. Using a CRM software will mean that you care for them and are ready to go the extra mile to offer them things, even before they ask for it.

Companies need to realize that CRM software helps in bridging three of the main elements in any business – people, process and technology. There needs to be a process in order to ensure that things take care of themselves. Any business is built around people. Lastly, technology helps you to get things closer.

Small companies use CRM software to help them manage things efficiently. Research tells us that only about 3% of sales happen in your first ever meeting. The % is slightly increased when you meet your customers 2 or 3 times. Eventually, it could take anywhere between 5 and 10 meetings to get a customer. However, this is a time taking process and you need to measure how long it will take for you to go through the entire process from solicitation to sales closure. Unless you have CRM software in place to give you the metrics, things could become rather difficult. Most number of start-up companies use CRM software applications too.

Lastly, big companies and conglomerates find varied uses for CRM applications. These include relationship building with customers, tracking sales processes, analyzing their High Net worth individual customers. Finally, whether you are a small size firm or a huge corporation, it all boils down to adding value!

What is the price range for CRM software?

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There are many companies waiting to grab a fair share of the CRM software space. Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are some of the big names that most of us are aware of. In a bid to woo customers, they seem to be offering software applications at great prices. Depending on the kind and size of the company, you may manage to have something installed for as low as USD 5000. However, if you are looking at seasoned players, you may end up shelling amounts as high as USD 500,000.

Apart from this, there are some players who are willing to offer this on a subscription basis, just like how you would rent a library book. You just need to become a member to utilize the services. You do not need to worry too much about maintenance and service related issues. The vendor would be more than glad to take care of these issues on your behalf. Subscriptions as low as USD 130 – USD 150 are possible.

Most vendors focus on making you become first time users. This, they realize, would be possible only if they offer you a significantly low price. Moreover, every company would have different requirements from a CRM tool. While someone would want to manage accounts, someone else might just be interested in customer features. Another company might just place emphasis on the sales process. As a result of increased competition and diverse requirements by different companies, most vendors offer trial packages that may be used for a month or so for as low as USD 35. Once you are satisfied, you may choose to buy the packages.

Lastly, there are companies that use an incremental method of pricing. You may get a basic package for USD 40 or so, some extra applications for an extra 10 dollars or a complete range for USD 70 or so per month per user.

Why should a company use CRM?

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CRM – The key to managing your business better!

The customer is the most important visitor in your office. Most companies do realize this fact and know for a fact that their customers have to be kept happy at all times, to ensure that they don’t stay in business, but keep growing every year.

Investing in a tool that could help a company manage its customers is something that requires no second thoughts about. A CRM application has been designed exclusively for this purpose. CRM – customer retention management is something that every company needs to keep in mind. Managing customers is absolutely vital, since it would cost you at least 7 times more to have a new customer! In addition to this, a satisfied customer is the best salesman that a company could ever dream of. Companies are also aware of the factor that good news spreads really fast. Hence, taking steps to keep your customers would mean increased business at the end of the day – through them and through their contacts as well.

There are different contact management software applications that have been developed. These ensure that the net profitability of the company goes up, unnecessary overheads are nipped right at bud, relationships with customers are enhanced and results are quantified.

Most of the time, the sales team puts in loads of efforts. However, having an effective CRM application would help the management understand where they are scoring and where they are missing out. Apart from this, it would give the management a clear example of what needs to be to ensure that the customers graduate from being happy customers to delighted customers.

A CRM application could be installed in office or be web-based. Sales people keep traveling most of the time. Hence, a web-based application would allow them to plan their day more effectively, manage sales leads better, pull out sales data even if they are at home or on a holiday and to follow up with customers at the right time.

Most CRM tools allow you to have a tracking or a queuing system that lets you make phone calls based on priority. Moreover, you can record the status, record and analyze your calls, automatically set reminders etc. Whether you are prospecting, generating leads, forecasting or qualifying your leads, nothing could be more effective than a CRM tool. Several vendors like SAP, Microsoft and Oracle have come out with CRM applications to help you manage your business better. Install them and see your business grow at a rate you never imagined!

CRM – Manage Your Business Better

2011-01-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

How would you feel if you had a system that tells you how to manage your customers, clients and your sales deals? Great, isn’t it? Well, there are plenty of software applications available in the marketplace. These have been launched, since businesses have started understanding that managing customers and taking active steps to retaining them is the key to running a successful business?

So, what exactly is CRM and how does it benefit a company? CRM – Customer retention management is a process that helps corporations manage their customers more effectively by having certain processes in place. Most of the time, the sales team has data. The data is quite varied, since the sales team has to follow too many steps, right from the time of making the first contact to closing the deal.

A CRM tool allows the sales team to manage data, to have a look at their customer lists, understand how many clients need to be managed etc. In short, the application allows the sales team to access any data pertaining to their customers. Apart from managing individual customers, businesses will be able to manage groups of customers with ease using a software application.

Most managers believe that almost 80% of the data that is available is never used by their managers. If something like CRM software is in place, chances of the date being used would significantly go up. Sales people need not waste time remembering when they made their first call, when to keep in contact with their client next, how often to follow-up etc.

These CRM tools serve not just the sales associates, but the sales managers too. It allows managers to streamline the available data, allocate territories, in order to ensure that one member gets credit for something that isn’t actually due or someone does not barge into someone else’s territory etc. It also allows sales managers to make sales plans more effectively, since they would be able to understand the ‘sales cycle’ completely. By sales cycle, it refers to the total time it takes to make someone a customer, the number of phone calls made, personal visits, samples handed out etc.

There are different kinds of CRM software packages available in the marketplace. However, what price you pay for the same depends on what package you opt for and who you choose to buy it from. Ideally, it would make business sense to choose a basic package and keep adding to it, as you feel the need to graduate to advanced levels.