Brand Evaluation - Task #7

Today we discussed lead generation and CRM.  Does your brand appear to be doing anything to generate leads via the Internet?  Are they capturing data and using it for CRM?  If so, explain.  If not, what would you recommend they do if they wanted to use the Internet to generate sales leads?  How could they use and improve their existing tactics/channels to support a CRM strategy?

This task is worth 10 points.

CRM OPEN TOPIC 

              The full form of CRM is Customer Relationship Management. This business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty. CRM brings all the data together within an organization and give each customer information. This will allows only in field of sales, customer support and marketing, with these sales executive can make quick decision regarding cross selling and up-selling opportunities to target marketing strategies to competitive positioning tactics. 

               There are Three key elements to a successful CRM: 1-People 2- Process and 3- Technology. These three elements are most important elements in CRM, because every single business CEO  and employees depends on customer data and it should be easy to use for the employee.

                Here is the image which gives the knowledge about how CRM looks like. Every business designed their own CRM software.

                            

                             

There are different types of CRM like Sales force automation, Marketing, Customer service and support, Appointment, Analytics, Integrated/collaborative, Small business, Social media, Non-profit and membership-based. CRM is developed to learn more about customer's needs and also developed strong relationship with them.We can not consider CRM only technological way, CRM is process that will help bring together lots of information about customers, sales, marketing and also market trends.If customer relationships are the heart of the business success, CRM is the valve the pumps a company's life blood. Three elements people, process and technology gain insight in to behavior and value of the customers. This will allows for improves increased call center efficiency, cross and up-sell opportunity, improved customer profiling and targeting and customer service.

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management#Market_structures          

The Future of Customer Relationship Management

The Future of Customer Relationship Management

By: Tyler Meinzinger

What is CRM?

According to http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2650, customer relationship management is a strategy for understanding your customers and their needs in order to optimize your interactions with them. This philosophy leverages technology to create stronger relationships with former, current and prospective customers while maximizing your marketing and customer service capabilities.

CRM will allow you to effectively manage your customer relationships in a manner than is both strategic, and organized. This means developing and understanding your companies methods, operating internally, and using software to properly interact with your customers. Thus, leading to better relationships with your customers, resulting in a more profitable business.

With a CRM system, you can keep track of all the data you collect from your customers. Data such as contacts/accounts, purchases, preferences, communications, etc. Once you have this data in your system, you can then use it for purposes such as identifying your best customers, analyzing the data for marketing campaign purposes, creating and implementing personalized ways of communicating with your customers.

With all of this being said, it leads me to what the future of customer relationship management may hold. As you already know, social media networks are very popular today, and they are increasing drastically. Many businesses have evolved and started to utilize these sites for their CRM efforts. As you can see in the chart below, CRM has changed, and is continuously changing. Social media networks are a big reason for these changes. SCRM is much more effective than traditional CRM for many reasons. To name a few, the customer sets the hours rather than the business hours of 9-5. Transactions can happen due to interaction through social media. Assigned departments in a traditional CRM plan, now involves everyone with SCRM.

After researching the future of CRM, I found a page on Dell's website stating why they engage in social media CRM. http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/about-dell-social-media. As we learned in class, Dell uses social media networking to listen to customer opinions and insights, and improve their products to meet customer needs and wants more effectively.

As you can see after clicking the link, Dell believes that their customers have the best ideas and insights. Through social media, they engage in 25,000 conversations about Dell every day! Dell believes that social media is more than a tool, it's an extension of their brand. 

CUSTOMER RELATION MANAGEMENT (CRM) PROCESS: WHAT IT’S AND WHY?

 

CRM can simply be defined as a method by which business keeps track of and organizes contact (priority profile) of both its current and potential customers. By doing so, business aims at increasing the volume and level of services provided and at the same time developing and maintaining potential markets and customer engagement and hence increases profitability and sustainability.

HOW AN OPTIMAL CRM CAN BE DEVELOPED AND MAINTAINED?

Scholars and interest business groups have developed and introduced several methods by which businesses can implement desirable CRM levels. These methods can be organized into five major steps, also known as processes. These are:

1. Identification of targeted market and value proposition. This can be achieved by creating data base of priority customer profile in which individual customers are organized such that the most valuable ones are listed on the top of the hierarchal order, followed by the least valuable, and so on and so forth.
2. Defining CRM strategy: at this stage, businesses should choose the best customer relation and services type that suit them. This can be done through, for example, building a dedicated online social community of CRM.
3. Handling individual customers: this can be achieved in accordance to customer priority profile data base as well as the chosen strategy of the business.
4. Measurement of performance. This is often done by selected software such as SAAS (Software as a service delivered online). It is well documented that this software reduces cost to its minimum for most businesses.
5. Developing and maintaining re-engagement of customer: Keeping customers engaged is one of the most challenging tasks for most businesses. However, the most effective and recommended methods by sustainable customers engagement can be achieved are customer satisfaction surveys; email and; social media.

In age of virtual media where there are millions of businesses competing with one another I wonder how would this situation affect the way we visualize CRM and how we can overcome these new challenges?

http://www.goldmine.com/wp-content/uploads/10-Steps-to-CRM-Success.pdf

http://thinkaboutcrm.com/crm-process-step-by-step

 

Class update

Hey everyone,

I haven't been able to get anything to save into eLearn since Thursday including any updated marks, blog topics or the class lecture from Friday.  I will keep trying and hope it is back up and working properly by Monday.

Christina

Brand Evaluation - Task #6

This is the first task for Part B of your Brand Evaluation assignment.  As mentioned in class, make sure you comment on specific details about your brand so I can easily identify that you are evaluating your brand.

How is your brand doing with their search marketing?  What page are they on when you use common keywords?  How do they rank compared to their competition on the top 3 search engines?  What types of on-page and off-page tactics are they using?  Try using some of the tools discussed in class - tell me what they are doing well and how you think they could improve.

This task is worth 15 points. 

Strategic Customer Relationship Marketing

In the past, a customer was defined by a transaction, simply put, they were what they bought.  Once they handed over their money in exchange for a good or service, our relationship as a company with that customer ended.   This type of marketing is known as transactional marketing, where the business focuses on maximizing its sales efficiency through increasing the volume of individual sales. 

http://www.ravenwerks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/retail02.jpg

In the modern world, global competition has become much more intense and as a result of this increased competition, customers have gained significant buying power. Therefore, businesses have been forced to look for more sustainable sources of competitive advantage, better separating themselves from their competitors.  This has led to the introduction of relationship marketing. Relationship Marketing involves developing a deeper ongoing relationship with your customers post-transaction, where the business focuses on their customers’ loyalty.

There are various practices of relationship marketing that companies use in today’s society:   

• Loyalty Programs – Rewarding their consumers with points for every transaction that can be accumulated into cash value towards a purchase. i.e. Shoppers’ Optimal Points
•  Email Marketing – Sending out frequent emails notifying customers of promotions or store-offerings. i.e.  American Eagle’s All Access Membership
• Social Media Marketing – With the explosion of social media, it has made it easier for businesses to create a 2-way communication channel between its customers; i.e. blogs, Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps
• Information Technology/Databases – Although expensive and difficult to implement, companies can implement technology systems that track employees’ purchases; used to gain a better understanding of which operational components add value and which do not, making your company more efficient.

The objective of relationship marketing is to gain loyalty and trust from your current customers, the following video demonstrates the four behaviours of building brand loyalty.

There are various benefits associated with relationship marketing initiatives, both economical and reputational.  Companies can realize higher profit margins with long-term customers, in fact, according to surveys, the top 16% of the company’s customers account for 105% of its profits with the bottom 28% eroding profits by 22%[1].  Furthermore, these loyal customers provide stable cash flows and generate word-of-mouth referrals to other prospective customers.  For a more detailed explanation of the advantages that can come from implementing relationship marketing click here, this website provides statistical proof.

Hope this blog has provided you with a better understanding of Strategic Customer Relationship Marketing! 

Thanks for reading J

 Darcy Davis

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[1] www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDMQFjAC&url=http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9240&ei=StOVUOmeBOru2QXO_4DABA&usg=AFQjCNFWqknEM8ZDFqDNtPfm2dkL3aVIZg&sig2=YK3tj5_6C-C3Ir9_VzY6Gg