Customer-Relationship-Management

Customer Relationship Management, CRM for short (Eng. customer relationship management ) or customer care, called the consistent orientation of a company to its customers and the systematic design of the customer relationship processes. The related documentation and management of customer relationships is an important component and allows a deeper relationship marketing. In many industries (eg telecommunications, mail order, service companies ) are long-term relationships between companies and customers. Using this CRM customer relationships are maintained, which should have a significant impact on the company's success.

  • 4.1 processes
  • 5.1 Stored Data
  • 5.2 benefits
  • 6.1 Analytical CRM
  • 6.2 Operational CRM
  • 6.3 Communicative CRM
  • 6.4 Collaborative CRM
  • 7.1 Retention Marketing
  • 7.2 Social CRM
  • Mobile CRM 7.3
  • 7.4 xRM
  • 8.1 Typical requirements of a CRM application

Background

Sales pitches and customer relationships are becoming ever more important as the acquisition of new customers up to five times can be more expensive than customer retention. Therefore, all data of customers and all settled transactions with them are stored in databases in many companies. These data can be integrated and prepared to stand in the company at any point in the appropriate compilation available. The data and transactions are always seen in the context of processes of a company.

CRM supports communication in the customer process with reliable figures, data and facts in order to focus attention on relationships with a high customer value (see: Key Account Management) to identify and weaknesses in the dialogue with the customer. How are CRM software, for example, a structure before, to ensure a standardized work process. Nevertheless, not the process of the software, but the software is based should be based on the processes.

In contrast to the CRM, the stakeholder relationship management (SRM ) deals with all business partners of a company.

CRM is a holistic approach to business management. It integrates and optimizes across departments all customer-related processes in marketing, sales, customer service and research and development. This is done on the basis of a database with a corresponding software for market development and on the basis of a pre- defined sales process. The objective of CRM is the creation of added value to customers and suppliers in the context of business.

Objectives

Since the CRM in the strong interaction operates with the marketing, you should be derived from the specific marketing goals his goals. In general it is about

  • To increase by analysis of purchasing patterns and appropriate use of the instruments of the marketing mix, customer satisfaction, and purchase frequency,
  • To obtain the binding of existing customers with tailor-made actions and to make prospective customers,
  • Better exploit the potential customers by up-and cross -selling and
  • To reduce by central data collection costs,
  • To increase the response and delivery speed,
  • To improve the customer orientation in order to offer customers individualized, appropriate to his needs services can,
  • To receive important signals for early detection of risks and opportunities. Due to the easy readability of databases within the CRMs can speak for changing needs or new competitors, for example, changes in customer behavior in a big way.

Goal of a customer relationship management system is documented information that is unique to a customer to visually represent through reunification, generalization, combination and abstraction, in order to provide meaningful answers to a maximum achievable number of possible issues of marketing can.

Tasks

Acquisition or acquisition ( customer acquisition )

The role of CRM in customer acquisition is by means of direct marketing or personal selling continues to address prospective stored in the database and so on as customers.

By continuing dialogue ( direct contacts, invitations, competitions, surveys, etc.) is first formed thereby an ever clearer picture of the potential customers and their needs. From this, the general potential of the customer, his exact product requirements and (very important in many markets ) will be closed for the next scheduled product purchase date.

The individual is then tailored offer at least in theory, in every respect.

With CRM can also and especially in high-volume markets with 100,000 customers and more p. achieved a significant success in the acquisition.

Customer loyalty ( existing customers )

An entity includes periodically contact with its customers (eg, by telephone, personal appointment ). The staff inquire whether the company can do in any form something for its customers. In this case, the company offers a possibly new value - and gives the customers the feeling that you care about them.

Areas of action

  • Advice and help
  • Granting special conditions
  • Ongoing information on goods and services (new ) with the help of customer magazines, electronic newsletters, cover letters, personal sales and closed deals on the Internet
  • Offensive public relations and media relations, so that the customer sees that the company has an important role
  • Perks and other benefits, such as bonuses, loyalty cards and exclusive offers
  • Follow- on offers set out, particularly in the business-to -business sector.

Components

  • Board of management
  • After-sales management
  • Customer surveys

Basics

Processes

Starting from the assumption that CRM is a means of communication in the customer process, three areas can be highlighted, particularly relevant for the CRM: marketing, sales and service.

These three business processes at the same time lay down the company's internal and external organizational units (eg, employees, customers, business partners, business units ) that are affected by the CRM. The division also serves as the structuring of functional problems, such as when it comes to what features should be available, particularly in operational and analytical CRM.

Examples: The marketing department (Marketing) selects the customer data for targeted customer approach in the context of campaigns. The sales (Sales ), and the service technician (Service ) use a central database to allow all stakeholders in the company a unified view of the customer and its history.

Tools

A specially tailored to the customer relationship management software called CRM system. This is a database application that enables a structured and optionally automated recording of all customer contacts and data. These data support through its permanent and comprehensive availability, the work of sales representatives in many respects.

In larger companies, the data of the CRM system are often provided in a data warehouse for further manual or automatic analysis using data mining or OLAP available.

In the past, especially proprietary software solutions arrived at the customer care in question. Large increase in numbers recorded on-demand, SaaS and open source solutions. On- demand solutions are available immediately. Users pay in most cases only for the use and save yourself a sometimes complex technical infrastructure. Open source solutions are largely freely available and thus inexpensive to purchase.

The main part of the cost of customer relationship management, however, does not arise in the procurement of software, but in the maintenance of the data as well as the planning and execution of actions. This should be considered when selecting the software solution. However, the adaptation of the software to the specific task in the company and the existing software environment result in costs that should be pre- calculated.

CRM systems are mainly based on standard software products. Such programs are available for typical requirements in great variety and in all price ranges on the market. CRM solutions for special requirements are, however, usually created as an individual solution. There are a variety of offerings in the commercial sector, not only for large companies, but also for the SME sector.

Ideal is the integration of CRM software into the company's ERP program in order to avoid redundancies in the data management. Also, the data quality is better through such integration, since the CRM relies on the " real data ": customer master data, transaction data from the quotations and order processing etc.

A problem of CRM is the huge amount of data that is created. The quality of the data is poor. Way out is a dirty CRM approach, in which the quality of the data has not first priority, for example, if only mail addresses are known without further information and the client relationship is created until later. Many systems fail here because mandatory information or analytical tasks are not feasible.

An important element of CRM is web metrics, ie, the process of analysis, optimization and control of processes concerning all Internet activities of a company.

Stored data

What data is stored is, inter alia, depending on the specific objectives of the CRM and the industry of the company.

  • Address and other contact options
  • Complete customer history ( calls, meetings, letter contacts, e- mails)
  • Deals with evaluation of the chances of implementation
  • Lost orders ( lost jobs to the competition with details of the loss reasons )
  • Current and completed jobs
  • Private customer (hobbies, family, politics, military, Stammtisch, Fraternity, possibly susceptibilities, clubs, eating and drinking habits, "weak points " )
  • Customer financial ( income, assets, liabilities, payment behavior, credit, insurance, inheritances )
  • Customer tax and legal
  • Customer health ( doctor, hospital visits, Pharmacies, medications, treatments)
  • Customer education ( schools, training, certificates, financial statements )
  • For information on other databases ( credit information, personal information, previous convictions, recoveries ).

This is partly very personal information. The preservation of data protection is therefore to be considered in the storage and processing of the data and in the granting of access rights essential. This fully applies when collected within the scope of a data protection law data are processed outside the scope of this data protection law. If in the relationship between customers and employees a performance and conduct supervision of employees is also possible labor regulations are taken into account. In view of the legal position is often a waiver of the storage and processing of sensitive data (eg personal data) the most practical way of respecting the rights of the people to whom these data are associated.

Benefit

Modern CRM systems support staff in daily dialogue with customers. For incoming calls (CTI ) or e- mails, etc. can be opened on the basis of sender identifier directly to the right customer. A clear contact history shows all points of interaction with the customer, including notes. E -mails and other files linked directly. An integrated workflow engine with ticketing system gives direct access to sales opportunities or service tickets.

In summary:

  • High clarity of the customer information for all employees
  • Analyzes are easily possible
  • What are the characteristics of the individual customer?
  • How much revenue and costs generated by the customer?
  • How loyal is the customer?
  • What is the purchasing behavior of customers?
  • How is the payment behavior of the customer?
  • What preferences does the customer want?
  • How much personalization is possible (via the address beyond )?
  • What information is relevant for decisions on actions?

Components of CRM systems

Customer relationship management is usually divided into the analytical, operational, communicative and collaborative CRM.

Analytical CRM

The analytical CRM performs analysis on the merged in the data warehouse system customer and transaction data by means of multivariate methods and methods of business intelligence such as data mining. In analytical CRM, it is important, as much as possible and everything to gain important knowledge from information contained in the customer data. This allows migration trends and situations of fraud, but also read new target group characteristics from the data. Through the analytical CRM can recognize and assess characteristics, behavior and value creation potential of customers better.

The interface between the analytical and operational CRM is formed by the campaign management.

Operational CRM

In the operational CRM are supplied by the analytical CRM information obtained using a. This can be, for example:

  • Customer ratings, such as ABC analysis
  • Market segmentation
  • Cross-selling, that is, increase revenue per customer by selling additional products
  • Follow-up in sales
  • Development of customer self- service systems.

Most of the data for analysis in analytical CRM Conversely gained in operational CRM. The procedure is as follows:

  • Obtaining first data in operational CRM ( chicken and egg problem)
  • Further processing and analysis of the ( operational ) data in analytical CRM
  • Impetus further operational campaigns
  • Gaining additional operational data and the end of the cycle / loop.

Communicative CRM

The communicative CRM addresses the direct interface with the customer, such as customer contact points. Through communicative CRM the various communication channels for customer contact are provided. This is called now also of multi-channel management. This is to ensure the management of communication channels and their efficient utilization.

Very meaningful channels of communication are:

  • The phone: Call Centre (inbound ( inbound) / outgoing ( outbound) ), IVR, VRU, Voice-over- IP
  • Web: E-Business such as e- commerce, social networking
  • Messaging: E -mail, voice mail, SMS
  • Classic: ( letter ) mail / letter, fax, face-to -face communication

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM Collaborative or refers to the fact that CRM is implemented not only within an organizational unit or an enterprise, but across organizational and enterprise boundaries. In practice, this may mean, for example, that CRM is implemented not only in the field sales organization, but in the entire distribution. Here integrative concepts must then be found for pricing, discounts and target group focus, to join forces and to address the targeted customers and with common objectives and clearly defined responsibilities. This includes, for example, the distinction between new business and service business especially in capital goods.

Collaborative CRM can also go beyond the corporate boundaries and, for example, external suppliers, channel partners, external service providers, third party logistics companies involve in a unified CRM concept. Through the optimization along the entire value chain process costs, the use of media as well as the processing speed can be more far-reaching optimized. In Collaborative CRM - from authors at the Harvard Business School ( Kracklauer / Mills / Seifert ) - also seen a possible evolution for the category management ( category management ). So the Collaborative CRM opened to operate new routes for trade and industry, together along the value chain customer acquisition, customer retention and customer development to the pure category management also.

Related concepts, forms and new developments

Retention Marketing

Under retention marketing refers to an approach of strategic marketing with the aim to deepen already existing customer relationships or general customer retention, ie the so-called customer retention increase. Background is the fact that the acquisition of new customers is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive.

When retention marketing important customer groups are identified to these targeted measures of customer loyalty ( examples include customer or loyalty cards ) to promote loyalty to the company. Prerequisite for this is a systematic scale market research for the recovery of customer data. These are then recorded in databases and the basis for a database marketing. According Nieschlag, Dichtl and Hörschgen to customer loyalty can be defined as " efforts of a company, with economic, social, technical or legal means to tie customers in itself"; According to Peter, the term refers to " the building and maintaining a business relationship as a non- random sequence of market transactions between supplier and customer ," while the "Customer loyalty as a realization or scheduling recurring transactions between a supplier and a customer within a function of type of transaction specified period "is interpreted.

Social CRM

Social CRM ( SCRM ) is seen as a new trend for the CRM. It is a business strategy that integrates existing and potential customers on the Internet, especially through social media platforms and other digital channels, in a community dialogue. While the traditional CRM is based more on an operational approach, which is to effectively manage customer relationships, Social CRM aims to satisfy customer requirements and simultaneously achieve corporate goals. This Social CRM can be seen as an extension of traditional CRM.

Mobile CRM

The concept of Mobile Customer Relationship Management ( MCRM ) describe all the measures of customer relationship management (CRM ) with the help of technologies of the mobile Internet.

However, the communicative, operational and analytical activities of the different business functions to achieve the corporate goals must be adapted to the mobile Internet. Due to the technical design and steady spread of the mobile Internet, companies particularly in the implementation of CRM goals integration and customization of new challenges. Mobile CRM is especially for on-site appointments use - allows field workers to access from anywhere in the customer data. Mobile CRM is viewed critically due not to render guarantee data security and not guaranteed availability.

XRM

XRM stands for any relationship management and highlights the ability of a CRM system to be able to not only manage customer relationships, but all kinds of relationships between different entities. The x in xRM can in this case but also more abstract are representative of customers, employees, suppliers, partners, competitors for machines, regions or services. A xRM system manages this is usually not just one entity but several entities simultaneously.

Typical specifications of a CRM application

When selecting a CRM system, several factors should be considered:

Typical requirements of a CRM application

  • Detailed address information
  • Complete customer history
  • Specific marketing actions
  • Individual reporting
  • Simple customer statistics
  • Fast order info
  • If necessary, integration of an existing document management system
  • Time management
  • Multi Channel Management
  • Integration of Office products
  • Integrated e -mail client
  • Task Management
  • Data import and export, support for data migration
  • Intuitive operation

Success factors and bottlenecks / problem areas

Success factors of CRM implementation:

  • Clear objectives, strategies and concepts
  • Customer relations: differentiated customer service, that is, focus on " valuable " customers
  • Focus on customer processes (focus on problem solving and environment of the system )
  • Building a learning customer relationship
  • Integration of customers ( customers friendly )
  • Individualization of the services offered by the system
  • Offer electronic transaction and relationship services

Potential bottlenecks and problem areas in a CRM implementation:

  • Lack of consent of the person concerned at risk projects
  • Enterprise-wide (possibly global ) availability should be ensured
  • CRM must not be a data graveyard and not an end in itself
  • Privacy consider.

Criticism

Is criticized, inter alia, to CRM the discrepancy between desire and reality. To schedule depending on the source between 70 and 80 percent of the company's introduction of a CRM; have implemented this until now but not even 20 percent. (see customer orientation )

Since CRM defined primarily from the company's perspective on dealing with customer data such as age, location or preference, also a discrepancy between the vision of the company on suspected customers' expectations and their actual ideas is criticized. In comparison, the so-called customer expectation management ( Customer Experience Management, CEM) has the ambition to build an emotional bond between user and product or provider by creating positive customer experiences. The primary goal of CEM is to turn satisfied customers from loyal customers and loyal customers, " enthusiastic ambassadors" of the brand or product ( "satisfied - loyal - advocate" ).

Some privacy experts see the interest of the clients that their data will be treated confidentially, injured as endangered or even to.

Vendor Marketing#Customer orientation Survey methodology Data-Warehouse Data-Mining Software as a Service Electronic business Row (database)
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