U24035 Customer Relationship Management Assignment Sample

Assessment Aim

The role of assignment submission is to engage students for browsing the extant and modern literature readings, which revolves around subject developments in the recent era. It also refines students’ ability to understand the key issues related to subject; demonstrate the understanding of high-level of appropriate concepts, and comprehensive and critical analysis of central issues in the current age. 
What is expected in the Assessment?

Answer the following questions:

1. What are the key differences between strategic, operational, and analytical CRM? Moreover, what makes social CRM different from traditional CRM?

2. A leading British mobile phone company publicly announced a few years ago that it was no longer offering new customers more attractive offers than its current customers.

Promotion offers to encourage switching were endemic in the market. How might this new policy affect customer acquisition? Do you think it a wise move?

3. Conduct an interview with sales and/or marketing managers in a business-to-business or business-to-customer organization with a view to identifying that organization’s or those individuals’ understanding of what counts as a strategically significant customer.

How does that construal differ from the classification presented in the book (Buttle and Maklan (2019). Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies)?

4. After the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, firms/organisations opted to interact with the customer virtually in every industry. How, in your opinion, should the CRM process be changed/improved to address any such environmental disruption/hostility in the future?
Please address each step of CRM processes and support your answer with an example.

Word Limit: 1200 words, excluding footnotes and reference lists. 

Please use Arial 12 font size and use justify option from the paragraphs section in the HOME Tab of MS Word. Moreover, please insert a table of contents, list of figures (if any) and list of tables (if any) at the start of the report, furthermore, please also insert a title page with your name and student number.
Referencing: Students must reference sources using APA 7th. Guidance on this method of referencing can be found at www.referencing.port.ac.uk. Reference should be made to the primary source, except when the primary source can no longer be obtained. Poor citation of sources will result in a loss of marks.

Solution 

Introduction

As the name defines customer relationship management is nothing but the technology by which a company manages its relationship with existing or potential customers. I think the goal of CRM is comparatively simple, to keep your customers happy and increase profitability. CRM helps an organization maintain relationships with not just customers but also suppliers, colleagues, and service users (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). With the help of CRM, the organization can track and follow a company's journey and experience. It compiles the data of the customer made available to them across various channels and points of contact like the company's website, live chat, direct mail, and social media. 

Discussion

Question 1 

According to Buttle and Maklan (2019), There are different types of CRM strategic, operational, and analytical. Strategic CRM aims at maintaining long-term relationships with customers. It does this by concentrating on and enhancing the firm's knowledge of the customer and using this knowledge to maintain a long-term customer relationship (Almohaimmeed, 2021). An operational CRM is concerned with the processes by which an organization can ensure the satisfaction of its customers. According to me one of the main objectives of an operational CRM  structure is to reduce costs while increasing revenue. Analytical CRM, on the other hand, is a behind-the-scenes process, it collects data about its customer's interactions with the company and uses the data to retain its customers (A Al-Homery, Asharai& Ahmad,2019). The major differences between strategic, operational, and analytical : 
 

Figure 1: CRM Software
(Source: An Al-Homery, Asharai,& Ahmad, 2019)

Strategic CRM     Operational CRM    Analytical CRM

Strategic CRM answers the questions like “ what business are we in ? “and  “ what kind of customers do we serve  ? and how to deliver value to them and keep them satisfied ?”

Strategic CRM strategies for the development and creation processes.     Operational CRM  consists of the business process and technology that focuses on improving the day-to-day functions of customer-facing operations. These operations include sales and marketing. Analytical CRM collects the data about the customer made available to the firm through the company's website, social media, direct mail, and live chat and uses the data to improve the decisions made by the firm to increase customer satisfaction and revenue of the firm.

Strategic CRM also known as collaborative CRM helps to create better communication between various kinds of customer services.     This type of CRM  mainly focuses on the automation of processes. This kind of CRM is better for companies that have shorter sales cycles and higher repeat sales.     This CRM works behind the scenes and is not responsible for the handling of front-line and first-hand operations. This CRM is good for people working in customer support, order fulfillment, etc. 

As the name suggests social CRM means managing customer relationships through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Traditional CRM  manages one channel or a platform that a company uses to store data of the customers and to communicate with them.  Social CRM provides different benefits to a firm than traditional CRM. Social CRM helps the organization communicate with its customers on more than one platform and also helps them create a more personalized marketing strategy. It also helps them to provide better customer service. Social CRM adds a personal element as instead of dealing with just data and information the firm now manages relationships. In my opinion traditional CRM is more focused on collecting and storing the data of its existing customers whereas social CRM does not just aim to retain current customers but also tries to acquire new ones. Social CRM  also focuses on customer engagement. In traditional CRM the data collected is collected and then tasks are assigned to a specific person or employee whereas in social CRM each employee uses the data for the engagement of the targeted audience (Ayyagari, 2019). 

Question 2 

Retaining old customers is far more profitable than acquiring new ones. I think a company should not only focus on acquiring new customers but also make sure that its existing customers are satisfied.  The promotion offers to new customers often aren't fair to existing customers. It helps in the acquisition of customers but that does not necessarily mean that they also remain loyal to the company. In my opinionthe new policy of the British Company might affect its short-term customer acquisition but in the long term it will turn out to be profitable. As retaining old customers is more profitable than spending more on acquiring new customers. Retention is mostly cheaper but a company needs to acquire new customers at some point to be able to retain them in the future. So according to me  a company needs to do both. In the short term, the company might lose out on probable customers. 

Figure 2: Customer retention strategy
(Source: Almohaimmeed, 2021).

Question 3 

Interview 

1) How do you differentiate between a high-value customer and a low-value customer?  

According to most sales and marketing managers, a significant customer brings value and is loyal to the business. A significant customer creates more revenue but it also takes more time to build to create such a customer base. Customers are often distinguished based on the price they pay and the cost the company endures to acquire and retain them. Customers bringing in more revenue and costing less are often the more important customers. Some customers also open more opportunities for the business in a new market. There are also benchmark customers who set the trend. These customers are often followed by other customers and firms and they too create a lot of revenue not just by themselves but also by bringing in more customers. 

2) How to choose the right customers for your firm? 

Choosing a primary customer is a very important step that a lot of new organizations try to side step. For some organizations, consumers are primary customers, and some consider sellers as their primary customers. This is a very important step.  Customers who purchase more than one product are considered to be significant as well as the cost of acquiring them gets distributed over the cost of the products purchased. 

3) How are you sure you are making the right decision? 

The perspective of the customer and businesses must be aligned. The customer should properly reflect the company. 
As stated in the book, significant customers are loyal and profitable. The significant customers are mostly repeated customers. They are not only loyal but also bring in more profit MBA assignment expert 

Question 4 

The environment is a growing concern for everybody. In a situation like that I truly believe that each organization should take the required steps in the direction towards a healthy change that not just helps them but also the community and environment. Firms should start using a sustainability-oriented CRM system. Digitalization, sustainability, and demographic changes also affect the mentality of recent consumers. Changing CRM processes to become more sustainable helps not just the business but also the economic, social, and environmental sustainability issues. Companies should try to serve new customers who care about the environment and try to live sustainable lives, customers who do not mind paying more for ecologically safe products. Companies should also try to educate customers about how to attain a better future. They should include sustainability in the core areas of CRM like sales and marketing (Nicuta, Luca &Apetrei, 2018). 

Figure 3: CRM Benefits
(Source:Gil-Gomez, Guerola-Navarro, Oltra-Badenes, & Lozano-Quilis, 2020)

Conclusion

I believe CRM is an important aspect of today’s business. Identifying which CRM is beneficial is important for the growth of an organization. In my opinion with growing ecological concerns companies should implement sustainability in the CRM processes. 

References 

Almohaimmeed, B. (2021). The impact of analytical CRM on strategic CRM, operational CRM and customer satisfaction: Empirical study on commercial banks. Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 9(3), 711-718.http://growingscience.com/uscm/Vol9/uscm_2021_33.pdf

An Al-Homery, H., Asharai, H., & Ahmad, A. (2019). The core components and types of CRM. Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), 121-145.https://www.internationalrasd.org/journals/index.php/pjhss/article/download/26/75

Ayyagari, M. R. (2019). A framework for analytical CRM assessments, challenges, and recommendations. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 10(5),5-13.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maruthi-Rohit-Ayyagari/publication/334950131_A_Framework_for_Analytical_CRM_Assessments_Challenges_and_Recommendations/links/5d4de628299bf1995b73630c/A-Framework-for-Analytical-CRM-Assessments-Challenges-and-Recommendations.pdf

Buttle, F., & Maklan, S. (2019, April 24). Customer Relationship Management. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351016551 

Gil-Gomez, H., Guerola-Navarro, V., Oltra-Badenes, R., & Lozano-Quilis, J. A. (2020). Customer relationship management: digital transformation and sustainable business model innovation. Economic research-Ekonomskaistraživanja, 33(1), 2733-2750.https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/370046

Nicuta, A. M., Luca, F. A., &Apetrei, A. (2018). Innovation And Trends InCrm-Customer Relationship Management. Network Intelligence Studies, 6(11), 21-25.https://down.documentine.com/2cc34d0d1dbb92a10f02c5493e372319.pdf