subject: Customer Relationship Management [print this page] In the middle of distractions, so many uncertainties and complexities, it is very important to remain customer-centric for long term sustainability. A company needs to stay innovative and stay focused on their customers with their effective marketing and customer services. In today's world a company needs customer service transformation which can be achieved by improving customer satisfaction at relationship level, by developing cost-efficient services which is beneficial at customer end as well as at enterprise's end and by providing right answers to the right customers.
A business process faces the challenge of optimizing the customer satisfaction level. Customer Relation Management needs a constant updation of customer information to be very effective, therefore all the companies are entering into a phase where customer relationships can be improved. An organization needs to build a complete strategy for effective CRM. It needs to understand the mission and vision of the organization. They need to define customer service directions. They have to make sure that customer service is the key responsibility in a business. A CRM is very important to firms as they find ways to improve their profits through long term relationship.
Even though organizations have the right kind of people, there still can be a need to orient those people into customer relationship culture. Companies often rely only on technical or functional skills and totally neglect interpersonal skills. Therefore, to build customer relationship culture following things needs to be done:
Training in areas which are required to deliver personal services
Fortify these skills by proper training and feedback process
Measuring the performance level
Rewards for good performance in monetary form or non-monetary form
Actively seek customer feedback as well as complaints
The problems should be solved completely
One should work on proactive as well as reactive problem solving
CRM suffers when it is poorly understood, not applied properly, and incorrectly managed. A combination of human commitments, business and technological capabilities can create a superior CRM capability. The exact amount of capability can be measured by putting emphasis on customer intimacy and operational excellence. Top performing organizations have realize that they have to build their business around customers to ensure the long term success of their business. They should know who are their valuable customers and what are their needs as well as buying habits. Therefore, CRM is all about customer-centric business and not just technology based business.
