Customers' Attitude Towards Mobile Messaging Technology in Promoting CRM: A Study

INTRODUCTION:
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a system for managing a companys
interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize,
automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.
TYPES
Marketing and Customer Service
CRM systems track and measure marketing campaigns over multiple networks. These systems
can track customer analysis by customer clicks and sales. Places where CRM is used include call
centers, heavily utilized in social media, direct mail, data storage files, banks, and customer data
queries.
CRM in customer contact centers
CRM systems are Customer Relationship Management platforms. It is a platform for progressing
the payments and other related query management. Their goal is to track, record, store in
databases, and then data mine the information in a way that increases customer relations
(predominantly increased ARPU, and decreased churn). The CRM codifies the interactions
between you and your customers, so you can maximize sales and profits using analytics, KPIs, to
give the users as much information on where to focus your marketing, customer service to
maximize revenue, and decrease idle and unproductive contact with your customers. The contact
channels (now aiming to be Omni-Channel from Multi-Channel) use such operational methods
as contact centers. The CRM software is installed in the contact centers, and help direct
customers to the right agent or self-empowered knowledge.[2] CRM software can also be used to
identify and reward loyal customers over a period of time.
Appointments
CRM software programs can automatically synchronize suitable appointment dates, times, and
methods for customer contact. Once appointments are saved in a systems calendar the systems
calendar will remember. Then, later retrieve the appointment and send a represented message for
action.[citation needed]
CRM in B2B market
The modern environment requires one business to interact with another via the web. According
to a Sweeney Group definition, CRM is all the tools, technologies and procedures to manage,
improve, or facilitate sales, support and related interactions with customers, prospects, and
business partners throughout the enterprise.[3] It assumes that CRM is involved in every B2B
transaction.[4]

Despite the general notion that CRM systems were created for the customer-centric businesses,
they can also be applied to B2B environments to streamline and improve customer management
conditions. B2C and B2B CRM systems are not created equally and different CRM software
applies to B2B and B2C conditions. B2B relationships usually have longer maturity times than
B2C relationships. For the best level of CRM operation in a B2B environment, the software must
be personalized and delivered at individual levels.
Characteristics of CRM
Well-designed CRM includes the following characteristics:
1. Relationship management is a customer-oriented feature with service response based on
customer input, one-to-one solutions to customers requirements, direct online
communications with customer and customer service centers that help customers solve
their questions.
2. Salesforce automation. This function can implement sales promotion analysis, automate
tracking of a clients account history for repeated sales or future sales, and also
oordinate sales, marketing, call centers, and retail outlets in order to realize the
salesforce automation.
3. Use of technology. This feature is about following the technology trend and skills of
value delivering using technology to make up-to-the-second customer data available. It
applies data warehouse technology in order to aggregate transaction information, to
merge the information with CRM solutions, and to provide KPI (key performance
indicators).
4. Opportunity management. This feature helps the company to manage unpredictable
growth and demand and implement a good forecasting model to integrate sales history
with sales projections.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mobile messaging is an integral part of value added services offered by the mobile industry.
Mobile messaging does not simply mean sending text messages, its scope extends to Instant
Messaging (IM), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Mobile Messaging (MM), Short
Messaging Service (SMS), Unified Messaging (UM), Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), Email, etc. Short Messaging Service (SMS) is a very popular wireless communication protocol. As
a CRM medium, mobile provides an extraordinary force of intimacy that no other medium is
competent to do. Brand owners are quickly realizing the dominance of this screen as a valuable
CRM medium. It can be used as an integrated marketing effort to strengthen the brand and
promote customer acquisition and loyalty.
In the background of these developments, the present research has been conducted. The output of
this study is likely to provide a valuable input to corporate sector. It might also help marketing
persons to sponsor and create better customer relations by accurately distinguishing the
preferences of customers.

Objectives and Hypothesis of the Study:

The study has been conducted to achieve the following objectives:

To study the socioeconomic, demographic status and usage pattern of mobile messaging
of the selected respondents.
To analyze the attitude of respondents towards promotional mobile messages.
To analyze and identify the preferable sectors in which the respondents would like to
avail interactive mobile messaging.
To analyze the respondents' opinion on mobile messaging as a tool for promoting CRM.

The study has formulated and tested the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1
H0: The respondents' opinion regarding preferred services for receiving mobile messages are
uniformly distributed.
H1: The respondents' opinion regarding preferred services for receiving mobile messages are not
uniformly distributed.

Hypothesis 2
H0: There is no association between mobile messaging and customer relationship management.
H1: There is association between mobile messaging and customer relationship management.
Research Methodology
The present investigation has been designed to study the customer's perception on mobile
messages received by them and its relevance to CRM. In order to fulfill the research objectives,
research methodology consists of the following sections:
Sample Size
In the present study a sample of 180 respondents has been taken. The respondents have been
selected from Coimbatore district. The samples have been selected using non-probability
method, i.e., convenience sampling method. The sample consists of both sexes, i.e., male and

female, respondents of different age groups, having different educational qualifications and
belonging to different areas.

Sample Profile:
Table 1 shows the profile of the respondents with respect to gender, residential status, age,
education level, occupation and their income.

S.N
o
1

Table 1:Sample profile

Profile
GenderMA

Residential Status

Age

Education Level

Occupation

Income

Male
Female
Urban
Rural
>30
31-40
41-50
<50
Graduate
Post Graduate
Professional
Service
Businesss
Professional
Retired
>2 lakh
2-4 lakh
4-6 lakh
6 lakh<

Percentage
75%
25%
80%
20%
80%
10%
10%
80%
10%
10%
15%
70%
15%
20%
60%
15%
5%

Analysis of sample profile in Table 1 reveals that the study is based on the responses from male
as well as female respondents. Out of a total of 180 respondents, the percentage of male and
female respondents is 75% and 25% respectively. The respondents are almost in unequal
proportion from rural and urban area, i.e., 80% and 20%. On the basis of responses, the
respondents have been classified into four age-categories. The highest percentage of respondents
(80%) belong to the age group of >30 and the lowest percentage of responses (10%) to the age
group of 31-40,41-50. It is clear from the table that more than three-fourth percentages, i.e., 10%
are post graduates. On the basis of occupation, the maximum responses, i.e., 70% from Business
sector, followed by PG and Professional (10%).It has been observed that more than 20% of the
respondents have annual income of above Rs. 2 lakh, and the highest percentage of respondents
(60%) belong to the income category between Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh.

Collection of Data :
Collection of data means assembling the data for the point of a particular investigation. One may
use one or more of the tools for gathering facts according to the nature and purpose of the study,
but questionnaire method is the most suitable and appropriate one for the current study.
Therefore, the questionnaire method has been used to collect the required information.

Results and Discussion :

As per the objectives of the study, the responses obtained through questionnaires have been
analyzed by using appropriate techniques such as percentage method and chi-square method
using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22 AMOS evaluation version. The
findings of the study are represented in Table 2.

Table 2:Usage Pattern of Mobile Messaging

Type of Messaging
Percentage
Sending text messages
75
Sending picture messages/MMS
0
Browsing news
5
Browsing companys information
0
SMS & win
0
Mobile e-mail
10
Voting (on/off line)
0
Downloading mobile contents
10

The study depicted that majority of respondents (75%) use mobile for sending text
messages only. It is followed by mobile e-mail & downloading mobile contents (10%).
The discussion with the respondents revealed that downloading mobile contents is costly.
Hence, mobile messaging feature is most frequently used to send text-messages.
It is observed that majority of respondents, i.e., 96% have received some kind of
promotional messages from service/product providing companies (Table 3).
Table 3:Promotional messages/SMS received by respondents
Messages Received
Percentage
Yes
95
No
5
Total
100

 The study found that majority of the respondents ignore and delete the messages after
reading. It is observed that 90% of the respondents ignore unsolicited promotional
messages, i.e., they don't bother to complain to customer care to block such messages
(Table 4).
Table 4:Respondents Attitude Towards Unsolicited Messages
Attitude
Percentage
Ignore
90
Complain to customer care to block such messages
10
Total
100
The study shows that majority of the respondents, i.e., 85% state that they would like to
receive such messages, but with their prior consent (Table 5).
Table 5: Respondents opinion on Sending messages with prior permission
Response
Percentage
Yes
85
No
15
Total
100
The study evaluated the preferences of customers to diverse sectors for receiving mobile
messages. The top five sectors emerged from the study for receiving mobile messaging
are banking, insurance, brokerage/financial, retail store and telecom (Table 6). To test the
significance of difference between respondents' views with regard to preferred services
for receiving mobile messages, the following null and alternative hypothesis have been
tested:

Table 6:Respondents opinion regarding preference of selected services/sectors for receiving mobile
messaging sevices

Services
Percentages
Chi-square statistics
p-value
Banking
96
81.00
0.000*
Insurance
92
73.96
0.000*
Telecom
61
6.76
0.009*
Travel & loading
52
0.16
0.689
Healthcare
32
0.64
0.424
Media & entertainment
26
5.76
0.076
Brokerage/financial
72
27.04
0.000*
Retail store
70
26.98
0.000*
H0: The respondents' opinions regarding preferred services for receiving mobile messages are
uniformly distributed.
H1: The respondents' opinions regarding preferred services for receiving mobile messages are not
uniformly distributed.
Chi-square test statistics have been used to test the hypothesis. Table 6 shows the observed
values, values of chi-square and corresponding p-values.
Analysis of chi-square statistics shows that the p-value is more than 0.05 for messages in relation
to travel and lodging, healthcare, and media and entertainment. Hence, it has been decided to
accept null hypothesis in this regard. The acceptance of null hypothesis means that the
respondents' views on mobile messaging are equally distributed with respect to travel and
lodging, healthcare and messages relating to media and entertainment. Further, it has been
observed that p-values for banking, insurance, telecom, brokerage/financial services and retail
store are less than 0.01. Therefore, null hypothesis is rejected with respect to these selected
services, and alternative hypothesis is being accepted. So, it can be stated that the respondents'
views with regard to these services are not evenly distributed. Hence, respondents would like to
receive messages in these services.
The respondents' views on various statements on mobile messaging help in effective
customer relationship and building customer loyalty and have been presented in Table 7.

Table 7:Respondents opinions on statements on mobile messaging helps in effective CRM

Statements
Strongly
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Disagree
0
10
30
46
94
Customers are valuable
Enhances customer experience
0
9
19
43
109

Total
180
180

Brand Promotion

10

24

47

99

180

Retain existing customer

15

20

65

85

180

Attract new customers

10

18

32

60

60

180

Develops customers intimacy

18

44

30

80

180

Fosters product adoption

12

20

40

58

50

180

Promotes customers satisfaction

19

25

52

78

180

16

30

49

77

180

Promotes customers loyalty

The study reveals that 94 strongly agree and 46 respondents agree with the statement that
customers are valuable for the business enterprise.
The study shows that almost 109 of customers strongly agree that mobile messaging
enhances customer's experience.
The respondents' opinion on mobile messaging helping brand promotion shows that 47
respondents agree and 99 respondents strongly agree with the statement.
The study shows that 60 agreed and 60 strongly agreed with the statement that messaging
helps attract new customers. Hence, majority of respondents are of the view that
messaging helps in attracting new customers.
The study reveals that 30 respondents agree and 80 respondents strongly agree to the
statement that messaging helps developing customer intimacy.
The study reveals that more than 58 of the respondents agree that mobile messaging
fosters product adoption as well as customers satisfaction.
The analysis revealed that almost 77 customers have favorable views on messaging
which promotes customers loyalty.
The investigation of responses to whether mobile messaging helps developing better
customer relations management depicted that almost 78 of respondents state that
messaging helps developing better CRM.

 To test whether significance of difference in respondents views on the statements on

mobile messaging helps build effective CRM and promotes customer loyalty, the
following hypothesis has been tested:
H0: There is no association between mobile messaging and customer relationship
management.
H1: There is association between mobile messaging and customer relationship
management.
The hypothesis has been tested by using chi-square test. Table 8 depicts the values of chisquare statistics and p-values.

Table 7:Results of Chi-square test on association Between statements on mobile messaging

and CRM
Statements
Chi-square value
p-value
21.980
0.000*
Customers are valuable
Enhances customer experience
71.120
0.000*
Brand Promotion

44.240

0.000*

Retain existing customer

52..400

0.000*

Attract new customers

86.300

0.000*

Develops customers intimacy

157.300

0.000*

Fosters product adoption

53.840

0.000*

Promotes customers satisfaction

54.560

0.000*

52.400

0.000*

Promotes customers loyalty

Conclusion:
On the basis of findings of the study it is safe to conclude that respondents are of the view that
mobile messaging technology enhances customer experience, helps brand promotion, attracts
new customers, promotes customer satisfaction as well as customer loyalty and builds better
CRM. The top five sectors which emerged from the study for receiving mobile messaging are
banking, insurance, brokerage/financial, retail store and telecom. The discussion with the
customers depicts that there are security concerns, technological and registration issues revealed
by the customers creating obstacle to the popularity of the concept. Hence it is suggested that
customer awareness campaigns should be launched by the companies to resolve the problem.
The study revealed that greater numbers of customers intend to receive messages with their
consent only. Hence, it is recommended that customers consent prior to sending message may
help not only in building effective CRM but also in promoting customer loyalty.