Innfobase has gained world-class CRM implementation expertise by partnering with global clients in diverse industries — including high-tech and manufacturing, consumer goods, telecommunications, insurance and financial services — to execute CRM initiatives. As a result, we give our CRM clients the advantages of:
domain experience
strong relationships with leading CRM solution vendors, including Siebel Systems, Oracle and SAP
proven deployment and change management methodologies
- suite of in-house tools.
Our CRM implementation expertise spans the many functions
critical to the success of CRM initiatives
Sales planning and monitoring, lead management, revenue and product forecasting
Product configuration and pricing, order entry and fulfillment
Retail and trade marketing & distribution
Field personnel deployment, service inventory optimization, repair and returns integration
Agent and dealer management
Marketing campaigns and telesales, customer response management
Customer care and provisioning ennoblement
Complex order management
Billing front-end
Fraud management front-end.
Customer relationship management (CRM) encompasses the capabilities, methodologies, and technologies that support an enterprise in managing customer relationships. The general purpose of CRM is to enable organizations to better manage their customers through the introduction of reliable systems, processes and procedures.
Customer relationship management is a corporate level strategy which focuses on creating and maintaining lasting relationships with its customers. Although there are several commercial CRM software packages on the market which support CRM strategy, it is not a technology itself.
A successful CRM strategy cannot be implemented by simply installing and integrating a software package and will not happen over night. Changes must occur at all levels including policies and processes, front of house customer service, employee training, marketing, systems and information management;
Identify customer success factors
Create a customer-based culture
Adopt customer-based measures
Develop an end-to-end process to serve customers
Recommend what questions to ask to help a customer solve a problem
When setting up a CRM segment for a company it might first want to identify what profile aspects it feels are relevant to its business, such as what information it needs to serve its customers, the customer's past financial history, the effects of the CRM segment and what information is not useful.
Operational - automation to the basic business processes (marketing, sales, service)
Analytical - support to analyze customer behavior, implements business intelligence alike technology
Collaborative - ensures the contact with customers (phone,email, fax, web, sms, post, in person)
Operational CRM means supporting the "front office" business processes, which include customer contact (sales, marketing and service).
Delivers personalized and efficient marketing, sales, and service through multi- channel collaboration
Enables a 360-degree view of your customer while you are interacting with them
Sales people and service engineers can access complete history of all customer interaction with your company, reg1ardless of the touch point According to Gartner Group, the operational part of CRM typically involves three general areas of business:
SFA automates some of the company's critical sales and sales force management functions, for example, lead/account management, contact management, quote management, forecasting, sales administration, keeping track of customer preferences, buying habits, and demographics, as well as performance management.
CSS automates some service requests, complaints, product returns, and information requests. Traditional internal help desk and traditional inbound call-center support for customer inquiries are now evolved into the "customer interaction center" (CIC), using multiple channels (Web, phone/fax, face-to-face, kiosk, etc).
EMA provides information about the business environment, including competitors, industry trends, and macro environmental variables. It is the execution side of campaign and lead management.
CRM solutions can also be used to allow customers to perform their own service via a variety of communication channels. For example, you might be able to check your bank balance via your WAP phone without ever having to talk to a person, saving money for the company, and saving your time.
In analytical CRM, data gathered within operational CRM and/or other sources are analyzed to segment customers or to identify potential to enhance client relationship. Customer analysis typically can lead to targeted campaigns to increase share of customer's wallet. Examples of Campaigns directed towards customers are:
Acquisition: Cross-sell, up-sell
Retention: Retaining customers who leave due to maturity or attrition.
Information: Providing timely and regular information to customers.
Analysis of Customer data may relate to one or more of the following analyses
Campaign management and analysis
Sales Coverage Optimization
Fraud Detection and analysis
Product Development
Risk Assessment and Management
Business Intelligence is a related discipline offering some more functionality as separate application software.
Collaborative CRM facilitates interactions with customers through all channels (personal, letter, fax, phone, web, e-mail) and supports co-ordination of employee teams and channels. It is a solution that brings people, processes and data together so companies can better serve and retain their customers. The data/activities can be structured, unstructured,conversational, and/or transactional in nature.
Enables efficient productive customer interactions across all communications channels
Integrates call centers enabling multi-channel personal customer interaction
Integrates view of the customer while interaction at the transaction level
New management concepts such as Collaborative Forecasting and Replenishment, CRM, Category Management, and Mass Customization are integrated into one holistic approach with a view to jointly develop customer bonding and loyalty.
CRM, in its broadest sense, means managing all interactions and business with customers. This includes, but is not limited to, improving customer service. A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating communication in several ways :
Provide product information, product use information, and technical assistance on web sites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Identify how each individual customer defines quality, and then design a service strategy for each customer based on these individual requirements and expectations.
Help to identify potential problems quickly, before they occur.
Provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints (complaints that are not registered with the company cannot be resolved, and are a major source of customer dissatisfaction).
- Improving customer relationships
CRM programs also are able to improve customer relationships. Proponents say this is so because
CRM technology can track customer interests, needs, and buying habits as they progress through their life cycles, and tailor the marketing effort accordingly. This way customers get exactly what they want as they change.
The technology can track customer product use as the product progresses through its life cycle, and tailor the service strategy accordingly. This way customers get what they need as the product ages.
In industrial markets, the technology can be used to micro-segment the buying center and help coordinate the conflicting and changing purchase criteria of its members.
scalability - the ability to be used on a large scale, and to be reliably expanded to whatever scale is necessary.
multiple communication channels - the ability to interface with users via many different devices (phone, WAP, internet, etc)
assignment - the ability to assign requests (Service Requests, Sales Opportunities) to a person or group.
database - the centralized storage (in a data warehouse) of all information relevant to customer interaction
CRM programs are not however considered universally good - some feel it invades customer privacy and enable coercive sales techniques due to the information companies now have on customers - see persuasion technology. However, CRM does not necessarily imply gathering new data, it can be used merely to make "better use" of data the corporation already has. But in most cases they are used to collect new data.
Some argue that the most basic privacy concern is the centralized database itself, and that CRM's built this way are inherently privacy-invasive. See the commercial version of the debate over the carceral state, e.g. Total Information Awareness program of the United States federal government.
The use of internet sites and specifically e-mail, in particular, are often touted as less expensive communication methods in comparison to traditional ones such as telephone calls. These types of technologies service can be very helpful, but it is completely useless to a business that cannot reach its customers.
It is possible for CRM software to run an entire business. From prospect and client contact tools to billing history and bulk email management. The CRM system allows a business to maintain all customer records in one centralized location that is accessible to an entire organization through password administration
