Elective – customer relationship management

Explain the modalities of marketing and customer relations if you are to succeed

as a marketing manager in a firm

Effective Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) Implementations

CRM IS A WAY OF RUNNING THE BUSINESS

While the path described below is the perfect theoretical approach (avoiding the mistakes, of

course), and one that we like to see clients follow, real-life experience tells us the world doesn’t

always work that way. The most typical approach to CRM has companies developing point

solutions, something that solves one particular problem, out of acute necessity. However,

whether you use a consulting firm to help you implement the point solution or you go it alone,

you should be sure that the key questions around direction, integration, processes and people are

being asked. Generally speaking, the questions are a lot more easily asked than answered, which

leads most companies back to the need for an overarching strategy and the realization that CRM

really is a way of running the business, not just the program du jour. Additionally, CRM is a way

to increase revenues and/or reduce costs. Not understanding the fact that this is a bottom line

strategy could lead you to make the wrong decisions in establishing your strategy.
THE RIGHT APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE CRM

Everyone wants to be a CRM Hero — the desired outcome. No one wants to be a CRM Zero —

the career-limiting option. Allow us to offer five words of advice: don’t start by picking

software. In addition, it would be prudent to watch for these classic mistakes:

Classic Mistake #1: Thinking that CRM is, at its heart, technology-based. The best example of

this is the client who told us, “We need to get a CRM.” That makes no sense, for it is not the

technology that makes you a hero, it is the recognition and belief by your organization that CRM

is a way to operate the company. To accomplish this, the CRM Hero must demonstrate the

leadership necessary to develop a CRM strategy and get the rest of the company to come along

for the ride. At the risk of stating the obvious, too many companies we’ve seen have adroitly

demonstrated that they have no clue where their CRM program is going – but, wow, look at all

that data! Never mind that they will soon be another case study in failed expectations. However,

with a well-conceived strategy that highlights all aspects of the customer relationship, they

would be able to clearly articulate the specific changes, tools and techniques that must be

employed over time within their organization to deliver measurable results.

Classic Mistake #2: So I’ve made a strategy, let’s go get the software. Not so fast. With clear

articulation comes the second step: communicating the strategy to the rest of the company and

your guests. Not much new technology is needed for this step, either. However, you are

guaranteed to fall short of your CRM goals without effective communication throughout the

company. Meanwhile, the CRM Hero grows ever more frustrated that people don’t “get it.”

Yet, people are the most vital, and the most frequently overlooked, part of the equation. As
service providers, we all know that our frontline people have the power to make or break the

relationships we enjoy with our guests, but it is stunning to note that occasionally this basic truth

gets forgotten. If our people don’t understand the importance we are suddenly placing on

effective relations with our guests, those relations will be anything but effective.

Which leads us to….

Classic Mistake #3: OK, we’ve got everybody jazzed about this CRM thing; let’s get some

technology in here to help them. Sounds great, but help them do what? The same things they

did before you got them the technology? While those things worked really well for you under

your old way of managing the business, remember that this is a new way of thinking you’re

trying to impart. With new thinking must come new ways of working, which means you will

need to lead the way in helping your company look at things the same way your guests look at

things. These guest-centric business processes are simple in concept, but much more difficult to

get your people to design. Some companies have taken the radical step of inviting customers

into their process design meetings to be sure they’re taking a customer-centric approach.

Classic Mistake #4: We know what we’re trying to do, everybody’s on board and our processes

are aligned with the desired guest experience – now all I need is a new POS system, a data

warehouse, a campaign management tool, new call center software for my reservations agents, a

good PMS built on the latest platform and a new yield management tool. It’s finally time for

technology, but if you follow this approach your systems integrators will be happy, though your

IT shop won’t be when they have to keep all of these balls in the air. Integration is the key –

single points of data collection, techniques for data cleansing and easy ways of getting the right
information to the right people in a way that allows for seamless, consistent, personalized

service.

KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATIONS

1. The Keep It Simple, Stupid (K.I.S.S.) Principle. There are a few home truths

about successful CRM implementations. The K.I.S.S. principle is highly applicable.

Over-complicating the process does one thing – it succeeds in extending the duration,

potentially causing budgetary overruns. In the words of Dr. Chekitan Dev, associate

professor of strategic marketing at Cornell University’s School of Hotel

Administration, “Do not draw up a long-winded program. It is important to have quick

hits that show short-term benefits – this will help to get people on board, since they

want to see results. Maintain the built-in potential to upgrade… a simple process that

grows organically will be the most successful, and yield the best results.” If you must

plan a gargantuan CRM program, “break it down into shorter-term, focused projects

with clearly defined business benefits and success metrics”1 . This brings us to the

second key to success.

2. Actionable Measurements and Performance Metrics. It is important to ensure

that adequate emphasis is placed on establishing timely and actionable measurements.

It is crucial to be able to identify the bottom line impact on an ongoing basis of the

program that has been established.

3. Stakeholder Ownership. If you want to ensure a successful implementation, it is

important to ensure that all stakeholders are on board. It is not merely sufficient if key
players buy into the process. They must take ownership of, and be actively engaged in

the process. For a successful project it is important to have internal champions.

4. GIGO. Better known as “Garbage In – Garbage Out,” this is the test of stakeholder

ownership. Realize that none of the exciting new capabilities are worth anything

without good data. In our experience, legacy systems generally have errors in roughly

half of their customer records. These could be as simple as an address that reads

“road” instead of “street,” or as complicated as multiple customer records for the same

customer, each with slight differences. Yet you have countless opportunities to capture

good data in the course of a guest experience. Part of your business process work has

to be to ensure effective capture and cleansing of customer data. Effective capture

implies not sticking all of the good stuff in the comments field, where it likely resides

today, completely unread in the hustle and bustle of the typical front desk.

5. Consider the Value of the Customer. Successful CRM is not about providing the

best service on the block; rather, the key to effective relations with your customers is in

providing appropriate service. We all know that customers are not equal. That’s why

loyalty programs were invented. Yet far too frequently we see clients that developed

sophisticated segmentation capabilities and tiered loyalty programs who have no

means of differentiating the service they provide to these segments of guests. One

resort client was excited about his newfound ability to execute real-time marketing

campaigns to fill short-term availabilities at the hugely popular property. Yet he had

not considered the value associated with different customer segments and was
 disappointed when the realization from these last-minute guests was not up to the usual

standards of the resort. Simply put, this client was ignoring all of its segmentation data

and mass-marketing its limited capacity. Thus, it is important to provide appropriate

service at every interaction based upon intelligent segmentation.

6. Help Your Employees Help Your Guests. All employees, at all properties, should

have the training and up-to-date information that allows them to provide seamless,

consistent, personalized service to the customer. According to Jens Thraenhart, director

Internet strategy, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, “A successful CRM and customer

retention strategy in the hotel industry is dependent on the implementation at the

property level. It is important to train front line employees to capture information from

many offline touch points, in combination with online data capture. Training is vital to

ensure consistency and cleanliness of guest information.” This information should be

immediately available to front desk receptionists, call center agents, pit bosses,

concierge and housekeeping staff, and so on, and should be served up at the right time.

This is where the true test of CRM solutions takes place. There is nothing worse for your

relationships than raising expectations and then failing to meet them.

• Does the call center know about the e-mail campaign that marketing just sent out?

• Does the front desk recognize that the repeat guest standing before them remembers the

way to the elevator and doesn’t need a 60-second refresher course complete with maps?

• Does the reservations agent realize that the potential guest on the telephone has used the

onsite spa the past three times she has been at the property, and might just want to get
 services booked in advance? And doesn’t want to be transferred to the spa to start over

with names, dates and addresses?

Truly successful CRM implementations anticipate these kinds of issues and build the requisite

business processes, employee training and integrated systems necessary to meet or even exceed

growing expectations.

Continue the Relationship. Interaction with the customer does not begin when they arrive at the

front desk and end when they depart for the airport – it begins before their first visit and lasts a

lifetime. Remember, a 2 percent increase in customer retention is equivalent to a 10 percent

reduction in costs (Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 1994).

It’s All about Technology – Not! Technology certainly plays an important role in the

implementation of a successful CRM project. However, it is not a silver bullet that will solve all

problems or open all doors. It is important to remember that all technology decisions are only

relevant in a business context. All the technology in the world is cool, but if your business

processes aren’t set up to effectively utilize these resources, your company will be added to the

statistics of failed CRM implementations.

Conclusion

Implementing an effective CRM solution is not complex. Adequate planning, effective

communication, stakeholder involvement and mistake avoidance will ensure that your initiative
gets off the ground easily, and places you squarely in the exalted ranks of successful CRM

implementers.

The most important and valuable asset of an organization is manpower or human

resource. Development of human resource is needed by any organization if it wants to succeed

in the fast growing and fast changing business environment. An organizations performs and

resulting productively and directly proportional to the quality and quantity of the human

resource.

The process of human resource planning is one of the most crucial, complex and containing

managerial functions. Organizations can proper and progress only through the creative efforts

and competencies of their human resources.

So I have to plan a multi step process including various issues, such as.

1. Deciding objectives and goals

2. Estimating future organizational structure and manpower requirements.

3. Auditing human resources.

4. Planning job requirements and job descriptions.

5. Developing a human resource plan.

Human resources are utilized the optimum possible extent in order to achieve individual and

organizational goals. Human Resource Management is based on the personal administration,

Employee welfare and Functional areas.

These main areas can be broadly classified into following categories.

Personal Administration.

a. Recruitment Selection

b. Induction

c. Compensation

d. Discipline

e. Transfer and promotion

f. Merit rating and evaluation of employees

g. Administration

h. Personnel Training and Development Training

i. Personnel records and statistics.

j. Retirement

k. Statutory compliance

B. Employee welfare

a. Conditions of work environment

b. Employee’s health service

C. Functional Areas of Human Resource Management.

a. Organizational Planning and Development

b. Staffing and employment

c. Trading and Development

d. Wage and Salary Administration

e. Motivation and incentives.

f. Employee Service and benefits

g. Employee records

h. Labor and industrial Relations.

i. Personnel Research and Personnel Audit.

To formulate the effective HR Planning, It is important to have mixture and perfective use of the

human resource functions. Manpower planning involves identifying staffing needs, analyzing

the available personnel and determining what additions and / or replacements are required to

maintain a staff of the desired size and quality. It can be defined as “a strategy for the

acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of an organization’s human resources”.

HRP is a process of identifying human resource requirements in terms of quality and quantity.

Today the organizations are more dependent upon people. They are increasingly involved in

more complex technologies and are functioning in more complex economic, social and political

environments. As a result, the organizations face shortage of the right kind of human resources.

HRP enables to get the right type of personnel in the organization.

Human resources are utilized to the optimum possible extent in order to achieve individual and

organizational goals. The objective of human resource planning is to maintain and improve the

organizations ability to achieve its goal by developing strategies that will result in optimum

contribution of human resources.

I have to give importance to the following areas while preparing or formulating an effective HRP

Process.

1. PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS:

HRP involves forecasting of personnel requirements in organizations. After deciding the

objectives and goals the management must estimate the structure of the organization at a given

point in time. Several points are to be taken into mind that; while estimating it. The

eventualities, and contingencies of general economic business cycles; expansion following

enlargement and growth in business, changes in management philosophies and leadership

styles, the use of new mechanical technology etc. are such areas. To carry on its work, each

organization needs personnel with the necessary qualifications, skills, knowledge, work

experience and aptitude for work. These are provided through effective manpower planning.

HRP helps management to anticipate personnel shortages and surpluses and develop ways to

avoid or correct problems before they become serious.

2. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

A proper forecasting of personnel requirements enables the organization to determine proper

sources of recruitment. The required personnel can be selected either from internal or external

sources.

The organization can also adopt a proper selection procedure depending upon the needs of the

jobs. Proper tests can be designed to select the right candidate for the right job.

3. PLACEMENT OF PERSONNEL:
HRP facilitates proper placement of the employees in the organization. Placement refers to

fitting the right person at the right place of work. Proper placement brings job satisfaction to the

employees and enhances employees’ efficiency. The selected personnel are placed at the right

place of work. Persons are placed in those departments or in those areas where there is shortage

of personnel. If there is a surplus, then that personnel can be shifted to some other areas or

departments as the case may be.

4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL:
HRP assists in performance appraisal of the employees in the organization. It refers to find out

the quality of performance of different employees in relation to the requirements of each job.

When related to the employees if there are weaknesses then additional training or some other

measures can be undertaken.

5. PROMOTIONS:
HRP ensures right promotion of the employees in the organization. Promotion involves higher

position, higher powers and higher pay. The organization would be in a position to promote the

right person depending upon the performance appraisal reports.

6. TRAINING:
It involves imparting knowledge and skills, developing attitudes, skills and social behavior of the

employee.

HRP identifies the training needs of personnel Training & Development trainings includes the

training for

1. Apprentices

2. Workers

3. Foreman and supervisors

4. Junior Executives and

5. Management Staff.

7.TRANSFER:
HRP facilitates proper transfer of the employees in the organization. HRP has its own way to

transfer i.e. side-ways movement of the employees in the organization. There may be a situation

where there is surplus personnel in one department and shortage in another department. This

situation can be corrected by effecting transfers at the right time.

8.CAREER DEVELOPMENT:
Career development refers to developing careers of the employees in the organization. HRP is

conducted taking into consideration the long range plans of the organization. The plans are

made known to members of the organization. The employees can plan for their careers with in

the organization once they come to know the qualification and qualities that would be required

to implement the long range plans.

9. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
It takes place when there are better results in the form of higher productivity or efficiency. It

also ensures the development of the organization. It avoids surplus or shortage of personnel in

the organization. The organization with qualified and able personnel can easily solve the

problems of low productivity absenteeism, inter departmental conflicts, resistance to change etc.

10. MOTIVATION OF PERSONNEL:

HRP is concerned not only with the identification of the personnel in terms of quality and

quantity but it is also concerned with the improvement and motivation of the human resources.

The organization would make every possible effort to have dedicated and committed personnel

at all levels in the organization.

PROCESS OF HRP

The process of HRP begins with a review of organizational strategies and objectives. Such review

enables an organization to forecast personnel requirements and the internal supply of

personnel. It can be formulate with the following steps.

HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING PROCESS

COMPANY OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC PLANS (Market, forecast, production

objectives/process, capital/Fin plants)

Personnel requirements Make Personnel Supply

Forecast comparison Forecast

Estimating HR requirements Based on objectives and top Management Approval

Personnel Surplus Personnel shortage

Take action take action

a) Lay off a) Recruitment

b) Terminate b) Productivity

c) Voluntary Retirement etc c) Retraining

The long range could be 5 years, while 10 to 15 years span could be used for a perspective plan.

Long-range plans must be made on the basis of various trends in the economy and in the labor

market, and on long-term trends in the production. Long-range plans are general rather than

specific, flexible rather than rigid.

Nevertheless, a plan can be extremely useful in identifying factors and trends that need to be

reckoned with the early warning on possible problems. While formulating the HRP process its

important to know the period for which the plan will apply, then the specific corporate

objectives and strategies should be clear.

1. Review of Organizational Objectives:

The first step in HRP is to review the objectives of the organization. Proper review of the

objectives will enable the organization to make a proper list of the various activities that would

be required to achieve the objectives. To undertake the activities, the organization can be

determining the required work force in terms of quality and quantity. A proper job analysis

needed to be conducted at this stage.

2. Personnel requirements forecast:

Their needs to fine out the requirements of human resources undertake the various activities.

The human requirements forecast must be both in terms of quality ands quantity.

3. Personnel supply forecast:

It is important to forecast availability of manpower. The required manpower may be available

with in the company, or they may be required from the labor market.

4.Make comparison:
Its necessary to make a comparison between personnel requirement and personnel supply to

find out whether the required personnel is available or not.

5. Personnel shortage/surplus

The comparison between personnel requirement and supply would indicate whether there are

any differences. It human resource requirements are equal to human resource supply, then

there are no differences and no action need to be taken.

If a shortage is there efforts are made to meet it either by new recruitment or promotion from

within, or by developing the existing staff. If there is a surplus it is to be decided how it will be

dealt with. Management can be ensuring control of labor costs by avoiding both shortage and

surpluses of manpower through proper manpower planning.

The comparison may reveal differences between the human resource requirements and supply.

The action will be taken as

1. If personnel Surplus:

1. Lay off

2. Voluntary requirements

3. Termination etc

2. If personnel shortage:
1. Hire

2. Promotion

3. Overtime

4. Training to improve quality

6. Motivating the man power:

Every organization should motivate their employees in such manner, which will be help in the

increase in productivity and quality of the organization. An important aspect of human resource

planning is to motivate the personnel by providing monetary and non-monetary incentives.

7Monitoring Personnel Requirements

The organization needs to monitor the requirements of personnel. This is because there is

constant need for additional personnel, as some of the existing personnel do leave the

organization due to registration, retirement and so on.

After the review of organizational strategies and objectives in the above manner based on the

problems and need I'll easily formulate effective HRP process