Services Marketing and Customer Relationship Management - Case Study Example

Name: Institution Affiliation: Instructor: Date: CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Customer relationship management has become a major area of specialization by many organizations. This technique has enables organizations to manage their staff members, to manage information systems, to determine sales opportunities and to form more networks within the organization. It makes work easier by adopting various technological methods that may be relevant to the organization. However, customer relationship faces challenges. It is hard to find loyal consumers, it may be hard to set objectives to be achieved, It is difficult to appoint a dedicated team to which are competitive. Customer relationship management is essential practice that should be adopted by many organizations Contents CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION 4 FINDINGS 4 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGER 4 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPORTANCE 6 CHALLENGES FACING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP 9 RECOMMENDATIONS 10 CONCLUSION 11 12 REFERENCES 12 INTRODUCTION Modern business entities require interaction between each other. Organizations have to form a wide network strategy to increase their markets. It refers to a method of managing future and current customers within an organization. It uses technology to analyze the volumes of sales, level of marketing, customer care services and other support which are technical within the organization. Any successful company designs a successful marketing strategy to increase their sales. An interview was conducted in Australian Foundation of Investment Company. The major aim of the interview was to determine the importance, challenges and effects of customer relationship within this company. Australian foundation of investment is a company which was established early 60s. It is referred as a close end fund investment company. The company manages equities of Australian citizens. It aims at giving their shareholders attractive returns on their investment. They offer medium term growth capital to customers and pay higher dividends to shareholders. FINDINGS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGER Managing information “It is my work to manage information within the organization. “She said. Customer relationship managers formulate data that can be access easily by customers. They collect, summarize and produce analyzed data about Australian foundation and present them to their customers. According to Ms Hey, they identify major areas such as volume of sales, customer care services and any other technical support that may be required by the customers. They then formulate easier ways for them to access such services. According to a journal “customer management strategy” it argues that customer relationship management can ease their work by formulating effective software that matches different customer services. Installation of technological methods of solving information management is crucial. Information is drafted from data entered in a computer. Information to be presented to customers should be; Free from any grammatical errors- the information should be error free. It helps customers to understand the message easily. Information full of grammatical errors may distort the meaning of the message passed to customers. Effective- information should target the right audience and carry the right message. Ms Hey says that information should be able to meet the needs of all customers within Australian foundation of investment. Flexible- quality information formulated should be able to be changed with time. Changes are dynamic and inevitable. Information formulated should allow changes to be made. Consistency- Information should reflect activities undertaken by the organization. Ms Hey says that whenever her team formulates information, she checks to ensure that it is consistent with Australian foundation of investment. Training her staff Training refers to process of incorporating new knowledge, skills and techniques to staff members within the organization. Training has been adopted by various companies to introduce new skills to their organization. These skills may be leadership, product development, marketing strategies etc. Ms Hey describes staff training as a major practice that enhances production of effective staff in Australian foundation of investment. Effective staff produces quality products and services. According to Ms Hey, staff training brings new skills to existing employees within the organization; on the other hand it gives new recruits a chance to understand more about the company’s expectation. She beliefs that orientation is not enough to develop an employee, frequent employee training programs at all levels are crucial. (Davenport, T.H., Harris, 2001) To determine sales opportunity Customer relationship managers analyze information and present them to customers. Australian foundation of investment collects information from customers and analyzes them. They invest on equities with high returns and dividends to shareholders. However, they have to collect information about share prices, dividend payout ratio, share index and how customers and share holders react towards their activities. According to her, customers and share holders would want to access books of accounts to determine how their investment progresses. They want to understand how their dividends are affected, how retained earnings are distributed among various shareholders. All this needs a trained staff who will tackle such works. They determine new markets to invest in and explore them. Since their work is to invest in securities, they have to convince customers that their services are better than any other investments. (Forbes.com, 2013) Networking function Many investments require a wide network area to market its services. Customer relationship should come with effective marketing strategies that aim at expanding their market. Australian foundation of investment launches different campaign programs to expand their market. According to Ms Hey, campaign programs are aimed at attracting new customers by informing them about investing at Australian foundation of investment. They have to inform customers the benefits they will derive when they invest in their foundation. These benefits include high dividends payouts and high capital growth. (Forbes.com, 2013) CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPORTANCE It was found out that customer relationship is an important aspect in any business entity. Customer relationship enables organizations to manage their information. It enables them to collect data and analyze them effectively. Analyzed data makes it easier for customers and stakeholders to access information. Information is considered effective when it carries the right content. According to customer relationship manager Ms Hey, managing information system is the core practice at Australian foundation of management. Information is said to be perfect when it is free from grammatical errors. Errors within information distort the meaning of the content. Information should be effective; it should carry the right content to the right people with a purpose. Effective information enables produces efficient performance. Organizations should ensure that information is consistent, the information produce should correspond its department ors section extracted from. It should be flexible to allow any changes that can be made within the organization. Managing of information requires installation of software. Modern technology has enhanced installation of computer software that can be used to manage information’s in big organizations. This software reduce amount of time invested on manual methods, it reduce cost and makes work easier for employees within the company. Information management requires various techniques and tools to be adopted. Measuring techniques should be adopted to be used to analyze information collected. (Davenport, T.H., Harris, 2001) It was also found that it is essential to train staff members within an organization. Staff training should apply in all levels of management, directors, board of governance, lower management and employees. Staff training is an aspect which injects new skills, techniques and knowledge to the organization. It helps existing members to develop their skills in various fields of specialization. Staff training is a program that can be practiced frequently. It is more than orientation which introduces employees to organization only, training enhances product development. It implants skills of increasing the quality of products produced. It gives management new knowledge on how to expand their security and attract more customers. It gives new strategies of marketing that aims to expand the markets of the company. According to Ms Hey, staff training has expanded the marketability of Australian foundation of investment. Training programs benefit new employees in the following ways; It enables new recruits to know that the company is committed towards achieving their goals. It encourages employees to work extra hard in achieving organizational goals. Training programs helps employees to understand that the organization is concern about their needs. It brings a sense of belongings. Employees feel that the company is supportive. Training enhances better performance. Training injects new skills and techniques to offers services to customers. It increases the confidence that employees have in administering their tasks. It helps new employees to understand about the organization’s needs and goals. It makes new employ to appreciate their new work and to have positive attitude. (Forbes.com, 2013) Training enhances equality within the organization. Staff training aims at injecting new skills to all levels of management, board of directors, lower management and subordinate staff. It brings equity since all members within an organization are subjected to training. It ensures that management body makes firm decision. It is the role of management to formulate policies, come up with strategies and carry out management functions. All these stages needs decision making. Training helps managers to be equipped with management skills that they can employ to solve daily problems within the organization. It helps existing members to compete more in enhancing higher performance. It connects them with other expert who poses skills on their fields. (Jim Dickie, 2008) Customer relationship is a major tool in identifying sales opportunities. It identifies new markets that they can invest in. In an interview with Ms Hey, she says that their major aim is to invest in equities that give higher returns to shareholders. It identifies opportunities which they can invest, many business entities faces many risks. Customer relationship managers access new places to invest their securities in. Risk includes financial, pure, physical, objective, dynamic, static etc risks. High risks business entities have high returns than low risk entities. Managers should look for a technique to administer to attract new customers to the market. Australian foundation of investment launches many campaigns to make their investment known to customers. They teach customers on the benefits they reap when they invest in their securities. Marketing strategy is part of customer relationship management. They should determine the needs of customers; they should know the reactions of customers towards their prices of shares in security market. Effective marketing strategies enhance efficient customer relationship services. (Davenport, T.H., Harris, 2001) It was also established that customer management enhances networking. Networking involves finding other links outside the company, networking helps to expand the market. Effective customer relationship management attracts other external organizations. They formulate methods that can be adopted to increase many customers in their organization. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, human needs self esteem needs. The need to be respected and heard, during this stage, customers ought to be convince to invest in such securities. They need to be informed about the benefits that they can derive when they invest such securities. CHALLENGES FACING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP Though customer relationship management is an effective processes within the organization, it faces various challenges, these challenges include; It is hard to set objectives that need to be achieved. When setting objectives it should be clear. Objectives refer plan activities that are yet to be achieved. It may be hard to set customer relationship management aims. Organization’s objectives may differ with time, changes are there are inevitable. New technologies come with new skills and techniques which may change the status quo of the organization. Change in organization’s structure may force customer relationship management team to change their objective. It therefore becomes difficult to set standard objectives. Management should formulate clear objective that should be documented. Lack of effective customer relationship procedures makes it difficult to implement management practices. (Jim Dickie, 2008) It is difficult to appoint a core and dedicated team of management. Customer relationship management requires techniques and skills to maintain customers and to attract new customers. It requires not only knowledge but experience on how to manage customers. Customers prefer maximizing their utility levels. They should be informed about the products and services offered by management. Customer relationship management team manages information system. Modern techniques require people to posses’ high techniques to manage them. It requires high techniques to collect and analyze data. Information produced should be free from grammatical errors, cost effective, be effective and consistency. This requirement needs a technical team that can tackle this work effectively. It may be hard for an organization to find partners who are always loyal. Customer needs vary and changes with time. What customer need today may differ from what he needs tomorrow. According to Ms Hey, it has been difficult to retain their customers due to competition from other investment companies. “We have other investment companies which we compete for customers”, she said. Competition may be arising due to dividend payout ratios that other companies pay. It may also arise as a result of prices of shares at the security market. Many companies offer their shares at par prices; however other may offer them at a discount or premium. Discounts may attract more customers to buy more shares of the company. Companies should set prices with are consistent with the needs of their customers. According to a report produced by American research group, customer relationship has faced this problem for the past years. RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations were made by Australian foundation of investment customer relationship management; That effective method of managing information should be adopted. Information produced should be cost effective, flexible, and free from errors and consistency. To achieve this, suitable software that makes work easier. Training of staff is an essential activity that should be practice within the organization. Training should be carried in all stages of management, board of directors, lower management and employees. Training helps to inject new skills, techniques and knowledge to members of the organization. It helps new members to acknowledge the aims of the organizations. It raises confidence among new employees to work hard to achieve organizational goals. It is important to determine new opportunities for sales. It is essential to formulate new marketing strategies to come up with ways to attract customers. Sales are determined by marketing strategies. Conducting market research to determine the needs of consumers is essential. Networking is essential in any business entity. It creates a wide marketing network; it can be achieved by attracting external customers. CONCLUSION In summary, customer relationship management is essential practice that should be adopted by many organizations. Customer relationship is a field that has helps many corporations to manage their information. It makes collection and data analysis’s to be easier. It enables many organizations to adopt staff training programs that help to inject new skills, knowledge and techniques to the organization. It is essential to carry out networking within the organization to determine new links to invest in. Networking helps to expand the market. Customer relationship management requires that effective marketing strategies to be employed to find new markets. It is the work of customer relationship management to formulate effective marketing strategies which aims at improving their investment opportunities. Customer relationship faces few challenges; it is hard to find loyal partners, difficult to set objectives, hard to set procedures and that it is hard to find dedicated CRM team. REFERENCES Davenport, T.H., Harris, J.G., Kohli, A.K. (2001), "How do they know their customers so well?", MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 42 No.2, pp.63-73. Piskar F., Faganel A. (2009). A successful CRM Implementation Project in a Service Company: Case Study. Organizacija, Vol: 42, pp. 199-208 Jim Dickie, CSO Insights (2006) Demystifying CRM Adoption Rates Hasan, M. R., Rahman, M., And Khan, M. M. (2013). Rural Consumers’ Adoption of CRM in a Developing Country Context. International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI), 2(9), 121-131. [1] Nguyen, B. & Mutum, D. S. (2012). A review of customer relationship management: successes, advances, pitfalls and futures, Business Process Management Journal, 18 (3). 400-419 [2] Forbes.com (2013) 2013 CRM Market Share Update: 40% Of CRM Systems Sold Are SaaS-Based Read More