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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nowadays, many businesses such as banks, insurance companies, and other service
providers realize the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and
its potential to help them acquire new customers retain existing ones and maximize
their lifetime value. At this point, close relationship with customers will require a
strong coordination between IT and marketing departments to provide a long-term
retention of selected customers.
Consumers largely selected their banks based on how convenient the location of
bank's branches was to their homes or offices. With the advent of new technologies in
the business of bank, such as Internet Banking and ATMs, now customers can freely
chose any bank for their transactions. The pressures of competitive and dynamic
markets have contributed to the growth of CRM in the Financial Services Sector.
10% Increase in customer retention can increase profitability by 35% in banking
business, 50% in insurance and brokerage, and 125% in the consumer credit card
market. Therefore, banks are now stressing on retaining customers and increasing
market share. Private Banks have traditionally viewed themselves as exceedingly
'Customer Centric' offering what they believe to be highly personalized services to the
High Net Worth Customers.
The wealthier the customers, the more demanding they are - and the clients expect
more and more from their banks, to understand what their wants and needs are, so that
the organization can be built around serving those needs. The structured approach to
CRM provides various benefits to the bank, viz., and a distinctive and consistent
customer experience, clear identification of the organizational, technological and
process-related capabilities and prioritization of these capabilities. The structure and
hierarchy of the customer experiences, needs an objective of CRM in banking sector,
emerging trends in banking sector, and need for better customer services are discussed
in this project.
INTRODUCTION
Traditionally, few people changed their banks unless serious problems occurred. In
the past there was, to certain extent, a committed, often inherited relationship between
a customer and his/her bank. The philosophy, culture and organization of financial
institutions were grounded in this assumption and reflected in their marketing
policies, which were product and transaction-oriented, reactionary, focused on
discrete rather than continuous activities.
Today, financial institutions can no longer rely on these committed relationships or
established marketing techniques to attract and retain customers. As markets break
down into heterogeneous segments, a more precisely targeted marketing technique is
required, which creates a dialogue with smaller groups of customers and identifies
individual needs.
Also, before the Internet revolution, consumers largely selected their banks based on
how convenient the location of bank's branches was to their homes or offices. With
the advent of new technologies in the business of bank, such as Entities situation
coupled with the pressures of competitive and dynamic markets has contributed to the
growth of CRM in the Financial Services Sector. Net banking and ATMs, now
customers can freely chose any bank for their transactions. Thus, the customer base of
banks has increased, and so has the choices of customers for selecting the banks.
To grow their business and solidify customer relationships, financial institutions must
understand customer needs and preferences and respond with the appropriate
products and services. Banks have to take a customer-centric approach that recognizes
customer segmentation and enables the bank to get to know its customers. This is vital
to providing the appropriate products and services and maintaining regulatory
compliance. The key to success is having integrated CRM capabilities that bring
information from disparate systems together and enable decisioning to support a
single, personalized relationship with each customer that works across all layers of
their operating models.
Figure 3.1:
The
relationship
between
operational
And
analytical
CRM
The
ultimate
goal of CRM
is to provide a
one-tone personalized service to each customer preened post-sale. If a firm can
identify its customers, it can gain data on them individually. Using the individual data
it can compare them with one another. These comparisons give an insight into each
customer. As a result, the firm becomes more aware of customer needs and can
change their marketing strategy moving away from mass marketing towards
database marketing. It is apparent that it would be easier to implement a CRM
strategy in an industry where the firms already have much information on their
customers such as banks and insurance companies. These have information on the
customers, their family and spending habits. Consider also online mail-order retailers
such as Amazon.com which require customers to register before they buy. The
CRM uses technology, strategic planning and personal marketing techniques to build
a relationship that increases profit margins and productivity. It uses a business strategy
that puts the customer at the core of a companies processes and practices. It requires
this customer focused business philosophy to support effective sales, marketing, and
customer service and order fulfillment.
Regardless of company size or industry, businesses have begun to recognize the value
and importance of customer retention and are embracing new technology for
automating customer service and support. For the new millennium, it seems that the
customer has finally become King!!!
4.1Why CRM
Keeping in mind the pace at which technology is changing today, any company which
is a step ahead of others because of some web product or service will not be able to
hold on to that advantage for long. Key to stability in today's dynamic marketplace is
forging long-term relationships with the customers.
Customers can be divided into three zones:
1.
Zone of defection where customers are extremely hostile and have the lowest
level of satisfaction.
2.
Zone of indifference where customers are not sure. They have a medium level
"Apostles". CRM focuses on bringing customers from level 1 to level 3 and retaining
apostle customers.
A customer demand for customization is increasing with every passing day. This has
made companies shift their focus from "mass production" to "mass customization".
The present scenario of companies using "poorly implemented" multi channel
strategies for living upto the expectations of customers is bringing both customer
satisfaction and customer loyalty down the ladder.
Today any company can copy products or services offered by other companies. If the
new entrant adds features like less order turn around time and direct communication
then established players are bound to have sleepless nights. Organizations that
implement CRM and turn their business into e-businesses will find their competitors'
customers ready to welcome them with a "smile".
Take the example of a small enterprise. Here hard work reaps high quality service and
over the years develops a database of loyal customers. In this enterprise
computers are optional. Then why is the CRM industry attracting
investments of millions and billions of dollars? The reason is simple. The
concept of "Seller's Customer" has just rotated 180 degrees to become
"Customer's Seller". This simply states that, now the customer is more
VIVA . COLLEGE ..TYBMS
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Throughout the 90s businesses were focused on improving internal operations. CEOs
tried to distinguish their company through operational excellence and product
innovation. Middle management focused on automating departmental functions such
as sales and help desk support. They believed that automation and better management
of their sales and customer service process would lead to increased revenue and
customer satisfaction. Vendors were all too happy to support this belief and raced to
the scene with independent solutions for sales force automation, help desk and
customer service functions. While many of these applications provided increased
productivity, the approach of using independent solutions to address departmental
needs served only to created islands of information and database duplication.
Furthermore, the lack of system integration and workflow between these departments
meant that vital customer information was unavailable to sales and support personnel
without jumping from system to system. This did little to support cross selling
opportunities or increase customer satisfaction.
By the time customers walk into your business - or log-on to your website or call your
sales center - most already know what they want and how much they're willing to pay.
With easy access to mountains of information, today's customers do their homework,
and they now have the upper hand in most purchase transactions.
In response, sellers are bending over backwards to improve offerings and services.
However, rather than adopt a streamlined "you-want-it-we've-got-it" approach,
sellers have created a marketplace where products and services are sold, serviced and
marketed in an increasingly fragmented and ultimately frustrating way.
Never before has so much "clutter" bombarded consumers from so many online and
offline sources. Trying to be all things to all buyers, sellers face a harsh reality that
brings an old adage to life: You can please some of the people most of the time and
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We're not saying that the last decade's investment in CRM has been wasted. Quite the
contrary: what began as a solution for providing more efficient customer transactions
evolved into a process by which companies could foster more meaningful customer
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To continuously attract and retain the most valuable customers, companies must act
aggressively to increase the economic value of both their brand and customer
relationships. In addition, they must sustain bottom-line performance in the face of
skyrocketing marketing costs. To realize these goals, companies must continue their
efforts to maximize their investments in the sales and service technologies that help
reach, understand and interact intelligently with customers. But they must also extend
this traditional scope of CRM to reach a higher standard of excellence in three distinct
disciplines: analytical, creative and operational marketing.
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Figure 7.1 the various factors (and their relative weight ages on a scale of 5)
The above chart clearly shows that it is the implementation time that has had affected
the way people in banks look at CRM the most. In order to further CRM in this
segment, it is of paramount importance to reduce the implementation time to
minimum possible. This factor makes CRM on Demand (web based CRM services
offered by service providers) a particularly attractive alternative. The second
important parameter that came out from the study was the cost. To sum up, Indian
retail banking players want less risk and faster returns at lesser costs.
Hence, from a CRM service providers' view, there is a need to find means to enhance
the appeal of CRM to these prospective firms. There can be many factors, which
when properly fine-tuned, can go a long way in convincing retail-banking institutions
to embrace CRM. But not all factors are similar: changes in cost incurred can't be
expected to have the same appeal to the customer as the changes in the
implementation time. And more often than not, these factors are mutually
contradictory. So, software service providers need to prioritize their specific offerings
depending upon the relative weight age accorded to these factors by the interested
firms. The retail industry, on an average, believes that the following are the
parameters changes in which will have most prominent bearing on the CRM adoption.
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Since, companies generally cant do with an investment that takes a long time to get
running, implementation time figures as the top-most criteria closely followed by
initial costs and training required. Training requirement factor figures prominently in
the case of mid-market banks due to the fact that these firms generally make do with
just the required amount of manpower and it is very difficult for them to spare them.
That will immediately start affecting their operations. Current customer attrition level
is surprisingly lowest in priority. This might be due to the fact that most of the banks
surveyed are undergoing tremendous expansion in terms of customer base and hence
are really not that concerned about customer attrition.
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The following chart gives an overview of the Two Pronged Approach to Bank
Marketing. Figure 8.1
Bank marketing
A two prolonged approach
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Collective approach
Selective approach
To devlop sustainable
relationship with selective high
value customer and making
efforts for their retention for
added value to the bank.
Objective
s
To introduce system of
objective assessment of the
Methodolog
standard of customer service to
y
To concentrate on selective
find out areas and causes of
valuable customer through CRM
deficiencies and take
to find out their latent and felt
appropriate corrective action.
needs
and to develop ways and
1. definition of target groups
of customer
means to satisfy them to ensure
and their needs
sustainable
relationship.
2. development of proper marketing
mix
in
terms of product, price, place and
promotion
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Finding out opinions of existing customers about the services provided by the
bank and their suggestions for improvement in present services and introduction
of new services.
Collecting such information from the persons who are not currently customers
of the bank.
All this can be done by conducting a survey of customers and non-customers of the
bank. Moreover, this process of seeking information about the market must form an
integral part of the system and must be done on a regular basis. The survey would
give valuable information about profiles and opinions of customers and noncustomers of the bank, and it can be analyzed to find out the target group of the
customers and their felt and latent needs.
The concept of data warehousing and data mining used in CRM helps in seeking
information about individual customers and their needs on a regular and systematic
basis. Data warehousing builds customer wise data by mapping it from various
services and products used by the customers such as deposits, credits, foreign
exchange, e-business, safe custody, lockers, bill collection, etc.
Data mining carries out various types of analysis on collected data to determine
customer behavior with respect to product, price and distribution channels, and offers
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Marketing Mix
The second element in formulation of marketing strategy is development of proper
marketing mix, so as to satisfy the needs of the target group of customers. This would
involve decisions regarding product, place, price and promotion. Decisions about
product would answer questions about the design of the services offered to suit
customer needs, the desirable hours for offering such services, the attractive names of
such services and so on. Various alternative ways to provide the basic services might
have to be worked out depending on the needs of the various target groups.
Decisions about place should answer questions about location of the prospective
customers and, therefore, location for offering such services.
Decisions about price should answer questions about right price for services offered,
worked out by taking into consideration the cost of such services, competitor's
charges and other factors.
Decision about promotion answers questions about communication with the customer.
After getting information on needs and location of the prospective customer and after
designing schemes to suit their needs, it is necessary to take decisions on making
schemes known to the prospective customers through proper communication media
and through proper words, so as to bring out the salient features of the scheme. Actual
delivery of the schemes at the counters and at the manager's desk also plays a vital
role in determining the success of the scheme. Expectations of the customers in post-
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To impart "Sales and Product Training" including tele-banking and netbanking concepts to employees of the bank. One of the ways of doing this
is to organise periodical in-branch departmental meetings of the employees
addressed by Branch Managers / Departmental Heads.
To make effective use of the large network of the retail outlets of the bank
visited by a large number of customers every day. A typical bank customer
visits his/her branch two or more times a month so one can imagine how
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The Data warehouse is the core of any decision support system and hence of the
CRM. In implementing Data Warehouse, Bank has selected an incremental approach;
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Technological Advancement
The advent of technology both in terms of computers and communications has
drastically altered the methodology of banking business. In the banking sector, the
technology has opened new vistas and in turn has brought new possibilities for doing
the same work differently and in a most cost-effective manner. Technology helps to
have 24 hours a day banking, all seven days in a week. Tele banking, Internet banking
and E-banking have opened new business potentials and opportunities which hither to
remained unexplored. All these technological advancement may pave the way for
home banking rather than branch banking.
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Innovation
Another important force of change in the Indian banking sector is innovation. Banks
are innovative, pro-active now-a-days and offer top class service to customers. They
play a dynamic role not only as a provider of finance but also as a departmental store
of finance. As a result of this, new products like merchant banking, mutual funds,
leasing, factoring, forfeiting, corporate advisory services and venture capital are
emerging. These innovative services may augment revenue with cost effective
measures.
When we are asked to define good customer service what are the first thoughts that
come to mind? The ability to supply your customers' wants and needs, whether they
are new or existing customers.
Providing exceptional customer service centers around ensuring our customers are
happy. Our overall objective is to ensure that they are coming back for more or
referring our services. By doing this we will be ensuring our continuing lively hood in
the business that we have chosen to create.
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Supply our finest service and ensure that it is provided on time. If we promise
a product at a certain time ensure that it is delivered then. If for any reason we
have to delay delivery, be honest with our client and inform them of the
situation. Compensate or alleviate the problem if it causes your client any
inconvenience.
Listen to what our client wants and needs. Work with your client to provide
them with the product that they need. Provide the advice that they need but
also listen to their suggestions. We never know when what they suggest can
help us improve our own business.
Don't forget our manners - Always say thank you! How good do you feel when
someone says thank you to you? Send out thank you cards to those who
request a quote and when a new client comes on board. To save costs, send ecards or emails of thanks.
So if we had to define good customer service it should be easy. Keep your clients
happy by adding value to your business and the services you provide. And if all else
fails think on how you would like to be treated if you went into their business.
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