What is meant by customer acquisition?

Customer acquisition management is a term used to describe the methodologies and

systems to manage customer prospects and inquiries, generally generated by a variety
of marketing techniques. It can be considered the connectivity between advertising
and customer relationship management. This critical connectivity facilitates the acquisition
of targeted customers in an effective fashion.

Write a note on customer defection?

Customers often take their business to competitors when they feel that their needs or
wants are not met or if they encounter breakdown in customer service or poor quality
products.

What is meant by CRM formulation process?

The formation process of CRM refers to the decisions regarding initiation of relational
activities for a firm with respect to a specific group of customers or to an individual customer
with whom the company wishes to engage in a cooperative or collaborative relationship.
Hence, it is important that a company be able to identify and differentiate individual
customers

Write a note on Customer Retention?

Customer retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to
reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an
organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire life ability to attract and
retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the
way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across
the marketplace.

What is customer defection rate?

Customer defection is the rate at which customers defect or stop the usage of products
of a company. Business with high defection rate would be losing their existing customers. In
order to overcome this they use another term of customer retention, in simple words it’s to
retain or prevent the existing customers to defect the product.

CRM IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP

A CRM Roadmap is a strategic plan that identifies how a company can meet and
exceed its customers ‘needs. This includes, but is not limited to, assessing how the sales,
marketing,
And service entities work together to:
1) Gain insight from their customers
2) Produce valuable offerings/products (for example, personalized product); and
3) Provide the ultimate customer experience.
Developing a CRM Roadmap involves aligning an organization‘s business strategy
with its prioritized CRM capabilities. For example, if a company‘s business strategy is to
develop products faster to gain unique market positioning, the capabilities that the company
needs to master should be aligned with that strategy, and might include:
• Leveraging customer information from the service process (for example, integrating
customer feedback during service calls with the marketing department).
• Effectively managing product mix (measure success by campaign).
• Effectively managing sales channel strategy (eliminate conflict between distribution
channels).
So how do companies know which CRM capabilities they have, and which they‘ll need to
realize their strategic goal? Below are the eight primary steps (which have been used across
industries, including financial services, electronics and high-tech, consumer products,
manufacturing, etc.)
CRM PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
A customer relations management (CRM) strategy is a business's plan to grow sales and
improve customer service. Its goal is to convert prospective leads into customers and retain
existing customers with engaging content that is customized to their interests.

STRATEGIC CRM PLANNING PROCESS:

• Defining the business objectives.
• Understanding CRM Three dimensions (people, process, IT)
• Using a structured approach to manage CRM
• Identifying both corporate and customer needs
• Using customer needs to re-engineer business processes
• Selecting technology based on business needs and functionality
• Ensuring systems development is business led
• Ensuring actionable measures of customer performance
• Actively managing culture and change, win buy in
• Using a phased implementation strategy

CRM IMPLEMENTATION
• Develop the CRM Strategy
• Build CRM Project foundations
• Need specifications and partner selection
• Project implementation
• Performance evaluation

1. Develop the CRM Strategy

• Situational analysis
• Customer or segments
• Market offering
• Channels of distribution
• Commencing the CRM education
• Developing CRM vision
• Setting priorities
• Goals and objectives
• Identifying the people, process, and technology requirement
• Develop a business case

2. Build CRM Project foundations

• Identify stakeholders
• Establishing the governance structure
• Identify the change management needs
• Identify the project management needs
• Identifying the criteria success factors
• Developing a risk management plan

3. Need specifications and partner selection

• Process mapping and refinement
• Data reviewing and gap analysis
• Calling for proposals
• Invite potential partners
• Revised technology need identification
• Asset the proposals and select one or more partners

4. Project Implementation
• Refining project plan
• Identifying the technology customization needs

5. Performance Evaluation
• Project outcomes
• Business outcomes
• Implementation issues
• Poor planning
• Poor Integration
• Towards a solution

CRM TOOLS
 STRATEGIC CRM
 TECHNOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION
 MOBLIE BUSINESS FOR THE ENTERPRISE
 SALES AND MARKETING
 BUSINESS INTELIGENCE
 CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTER

1. STRATEGIC CRM
 Business Case
 Customer Knowledge
 Customer Loyalty
 Customer Retention
 Customer Satisfaction
 Direction
 Leadership
 Master Plan
 Metrices Or Measurement
 People &Process
 Strategy & Success
 Technology
 Top Management
 Trends
 Vision

2. TECHNOLOGY & IMPLEMENTATION

 Enterprise Architecture And Application
 Crm –Induced Culture Change
 Knowledge Based Utilization
 Planning And Investigating
 Implementation
 Change Management
 Maintaining And Upgrading

3. MOBILE BUSINESS FOR THE ENTERPRISE

 Delivery Technology
 Display Technology
 Mobile Commerce
 Mobile Enterprise
 Mobile Operating System
4. SALES AND MARKETING

 E-Sales
 Lead Qualification
 Partner Relationship Management
 Repeat Business
 Sales Force Automation
 Analytical Crm
 Customer Profiling And Segmentation
 E-Marketing Automation

5. BUSINESS INTELIGENCE

 Customer Intelligence System

 Customer Scoring
 Data Cleaning
 Data Mining
 Data Warehouse
 Filtering
 Information Database

6. CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTER

 Call Centre And Help Desk

 Customer Interactive Centre
 Customer Retention
 Customer Support
 On-Line Support and Service

ANALYTICAL CRM

 Analytical CRM may be defined as a decision support system that is targeted to

helping senior executives, marketing, sales and customer support personnel to better
understand and capitalize upon their customer needs, the c customer buying cycle.
 Analytical CRM consist of applications that enable business to analyze relevant data
in order to achieve a more meaningful and profitable interaction with the customer.
 It uses customer data for analysis, modelling and evaluation to create a mutual
relationship between company and its customers.
 It helps to better understanding of customer behaviour.

The analytical CRM solution enable the effective management of a customer

relationship. Analysis of customer data can a company begin to understand
behaviours, identify buying patterns and trends and discover causal relationship.
Key features of Analytical CRM

• It integrates and inheriting all this data into a central repository knowledge base with an
overall organization view.
• It combines and interacts the value of customers with strategic business management of
organization and value of stakeholders.
• It determines, develops and analyze inclusive set of rules and analytical methods to
scale and optimize relationship with customers by analyzing and resolving of all
questions.
PURPOSE OF ANALYTICAL CRM
 • Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimize marketing
effectiveness.
• Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquition,
cross selling, up- selling, retention.
• Analysis of customer behaviour to aid product and service decision making.
• Management decisions
• Prediction of the probability of customer defection
• Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining.
• Importance of analytical CRM
• Make more profitable customer by providing high value services.
• Retaining profitable customer through sophisticated analysis.
• Addressing individual customer needs and efficiently improving the relationship with new
and existing customer.
• Improves customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Find and explore useful knowledge in large customer database.
• It helps in classifying customers, predicting customer behaviour.

STEPS IN ANALYTICAL CRM PROCESS

Step: 1 Problem formulation
• Segmentation of clients
• Acquisition analysis
• Relation analysis

• Channel or approach analysis.

Step: 2 preparation

Step: 3 Definitive analysis

• Statistical techniques
• Data mining
• Machine learning techniques

Step: 4 Visualizing

OPERATIONAL CRM

• OPERATIONAL CRM involves the areas where direct customer contact occurs. These
interactions are referred to as customer touch points.
• Company maximize the process of gathering and understanding customer information
from all touch points (ex: call centres, point of sales, web etc.)
• Touch point classification:

1. Face to Face touch points: sales/service/channel/events/stores/promotions

2. Database-Driven Touch-points: telephone/e-mail/mail/SMS/Fax/loyal

3. Mass Media: Advertising /public relations/Website.

APPLICATION OF OPERATIONAL CRM

1. MARKETING AUTOMATION:
It is automatically focused on automating marketing processes. In marketing campaign
management involves marketers to use customer specific information to determine, evaluate
and develop communication that are targeted to customers in individual as well as multi-level
or multi-channel environment.
Campaigns developed to communicate customers individually are easy and involves
unique and direct communication.

2. SALES FORCE AUTOMATION:

The main part of CRM is not only deal with existing customer. It also try to acquire new
customers also. The process starts with identification of customers, maintaining all
correspondence details into the CRM system.
This process includes generation of lead and qualifying those leads into prospects.
Business people following up the customer continuously and convert them into a winning
deal. Automation of selling process is effectively handle by Salesforce automation, which
automates all the methodologies or sales cycle.

3. SERVICE AUTOMATION-
It deals with managing organizations service. The actual interaction with the customers such
as contact, direct sales, direct mail, call centre, web sites and blogs etc..
Each interactions with the customer can be collected to the client database generally
known as customer’s history.
This helps to assess a clear view of customer needs such as products owned, prior
support calls etc.
Basis of the information, if e customer required the customer can easily be contacted at the
right time at the right place.

CALL CENTER:
A call centre is one of the best asserts a customer driven organization can have
because maintaining a high level of customer support is critical to obtaining and retaining
customers.
Contact centres also track customer call history along with problem resolution.
• WEB BASED SELF SERVICE –This service allow customers to use the web to find
answers to their questions or solutions to their problems. Example, FedEx courier service,
Gas Booking System, E-Ticketing.
• CALL SCRIPTING –This system helps to assess organizational databases that track
similar issues or questions and automatically generate a details to the CSR (Customer Service
Representatives) who can then relay them to the customer. Example, Frequently Asked
Questions.

CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT

A call centre is a place that encourages customers to make calls in order to facilitate
their easy usage of the product/service offered by the organization. All calls from customers
regarding their queries, problems, suggestions are entertained.
It consists of a group of personnel that are specifically trained in handling inbound
and outbound customer calls thus catering to customer service needs.
A centre is a place where a number of people handle the incoming as well as outgoing
telephone conversations of a varied nature with their customers.
 Call centres are undergoing major development. Companies are becoming customer
oriented instead of product oriented and are investing in CRM. CRM (Customer Relationship
Management ) being the customer centred strategy of the decade and finding its roots in
customer satisfaction and customer focus, has started to play a very prominent role in the call
centre sector. How has it achieved this? Call centres are finding that implementing this
strategy brings them vast benefits. For example the high potential that call centre CRM
software has in collecting vital customer data and storing it. This data is entirely essential to
the call centre and is utilized in its day to day activities. It helps them possess a clearer view
of the customer being handled and enables them to give the right answers to customer
queries, problems etc. Knowing the customer, his preferences, his purchase history etc. all
contribute significantly to the better handling of the customer.

• Call centre service depends on three factors like- speed, quality and efficiency. The
main objectives are

1. Customer satisfaction

2. Business process analysis

3. Employee development and welfare

4. Increase in revenue

5. Analyzing future trends

CLASSIFICATION OF CALL CENTERS

1. Inbound / Outbound
2. International / Domestic
3. In-house / Out-Sourced

CALL CENTER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

1. Select a Location for the call centre where there is an educated work force.
2. Select the underlying technology component.
3. Decide which channels to support on the call centre.
(Mail, Chat, Web Forms, Text Chat, VOIP)
4. Select the software solution that meet requirements and will integrate with existing
systems.
5. Integrate system when feasible.
6. Determine service level agreement and business processes.
7. High and retain staff.
8. Finalize the budget
9. Establish measurement and performance processes.
10. Establish on –going policies for training and updating CSR.

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES
1. Trained man power
2. Government regulations
3. Commitment to quality

ROLE OF CRM MANAGERS

 Role of CRM manager in planning and implementation

1 Developing CRM Programs

2 Direction
3 Listening
4 Conflict resolution
5 Positive image
6 Follow through
7 Administrative duties
8 Coaching sessions
9 Customer interaction
10 Communication
11 Reporting to senior management

Responsibilities:
1. Measurable increase in customer satisfaction measures
- Maintain or increase recurring revenue from their customers
- Develop/maintain reference able customers
- Decrease in Executive level escalations from assigned customers.

2. Acts as Customer Advocate within the organization

- Develops in-depth knowledge of the customer's goals and strategy as it relates to the
product/service being used, assists the customer in reaching those goals, and communicates
those goals internally to help drive product/service decisions.
- A single contact/escalation point for cross product/cross functional issues
- Holds customer accountable for maintaining contracted levels of training/staffing/etc.

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING
Customer-centric marketing is an approach to marketing that prioritizes customers'
needs and interests in all decisions related to advertising, selling, and promoting products and
services. Successful customer-centric marketing requires a deep understanding of why your
customers need what your company provides.

A) Define
1) Define the process (6-10 manageable steps)
 2) Establish metrics (from the customer's perspective)
B) Measure
3) Determine performance (how you are doing)
4) Analyze process stability (predictable performance)
C) Improve
5) Set goals (where you are going and why)
6) Analyze and plan improvements (how and why you will get there)
7) Implement improvement (get there!)

What is customer retention?

Customer retention is a variety of activities aimed at keeping customers for the long
term and turning them into loyal buyers. The end goal is transforming first-time customers
into repeat customers and maximizing their lifetime value (LTV).

CUSTOMER RETENTION PLANS:

1. Build customer trust and long-term relationships:

Fostering customer trust requires a strategic focus on every aspect of the customer
experience. To build lasting relationships, deliver relevance and value at every stage of the
customer journey.
Educate your customers on the most effective use of your product or service, both
before and after purchase.
Provide outstanding customer service with multiple service channels and fast,
accurate responses that solve customer issues.

2. Measure customer lifetime value:

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is an estimate of the net profit attributed to your
brand’s future interactions with a customer. Understanding CLV can enable you to shift from
a short-term business strategy focused on the next quarter’s profits to a long-term one that
values ongoing customer relationships.

3. Personalize your offers and communications:

Beyond simply putting the customer's name in an email subject line, use the customer
data you’ve collected to make your marketing offers and messages more personally relevant
to your customers.

4. Collect feedback with customer surveys:

The best way to find out what customers think about your business is to ask them.
Using customer surveys to collect feedback and diagnose potential dissatisfaction is a great
starting point to understand what needs to be fixed in your overall online experience.

5. Capture your product’s momentum

When exciting improvements are being made to your product, everyone in the
company feels the momentum.
Create excitement with current customers by showing them what your latest features
will help them accomplish.

6. Don’t just sell — educate

The last thing you want to do is leave customers to fend for themselves after they’ve
signed up. It’s crucial to offer resources that make it easy for new customers to learn how to
use your product.
7. Communicate with your customers
Constant communication with customers via their preferred channel is the key to
online customer retention.

8. Offer fast delivery and easy returns

When it comes to ecommerce, delivery and returns are two of the biggest consumer
concerns. The way you manage last mile delivery can help you stand out from the competition
and retain customers.

9. Turn negative into positive

Being persistent pays off. Don’t give up on customers who leave your website before
making a purchase or subscribing. When using an abandoned cart email, always have in mind
that the end goal is to recover the customer, not the sale.

What is Collaborative CRM?

Collaborative CRM allows you to create communication between different organizations
related to customer service. Collaborative types of CRM can include various company
divisions, such as marketing, sales, customer service, technical support, external customers,
vendors, and distributors.

BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE CRM

Improves customer service

Some consumers prefer email contact, others like social media, over-the-phone, or face-
to-face contact. It may be hard to keep track of who likes what. One of the key benefits of
collaborative CRM is that you can reach out automatically through the right, most powerful
communication channel.
Customer data available for multi-channel interactions
Your customers connect with you in several ways, through different platforms.
Collaborative CRM enables you to integrate data from all your communication channels and
link your call center activities to your other operations, providing interactions that exceed any
single department or team role.
Retain existing clients
Collaborative CRM lets you build a detailed profile of the consumer and their
expectations for best practice. You’ll be able to meet them via the platform they want, armed
with up-to-date information — a quite certain-fire way to drive customer engagement and
minimize churn.
Makes better work process
Getting customer interaction data in one location would make the company smarter.
Team members will be able to view individual case files in real-time. The need for face-to-face
meetings has gone down, and defects and redundancies are avoided; thus, service costs are
reduced.

WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATION?

Customer orientation is a business approach that puts the needs of the customer
over the needs of the business. Customer-oriented companies understand that the business
won't thrive unless it consistently improves customer focus. It's a way of thinking that aligns
your business goals with your customers' goals.