CRM Notes

Contents
• Lesson 1 Overview of Customer Service

• Lesson 2 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Models
 2.1 Introduction to CRM
 2.2 Overview of CRM
 2.3 CRM Models
• Lesson 3 Customer Culture
• Lesson 4 Customer Sourcing
• Lesson 5 CAT 1
• Lesson 6 Effective Customer Service
• Lesson 7 Ethics in Customer Service
• Lesson 8 Products/Services
• Lesson 9 Customer Satisfaction
• Lesson 10 Presentations (Individuals/ Groups)
• Lesson 11 Course Summary
• Lesson 12 CAT 2
EXAMS
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Page | 1 | 2MB Inc. Jkuat 202
2020
Lesson 1: Overview of Customer Service
Service
1.0: Essential Elements of Customer Service
1.1 Introduction (Overview)
1.1.1 Marketing definitions
There are many marketing definitions. The better definitions are focused
upon market orientation and the satisfaction of customer needs.
Marketing is the social process by which individuals and organizations

obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging value
with others (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). The definiton is based upon a
basic marketing exchange process, and recognises the importance of value
to the customer. The process by which companies create value for
customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture
value from customers in return. Kotler and Armstrong developed their
original definition to recognise the importance of the longer-term
relationship with the customer. This is achieved by relationship marketing
and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating and

satisfying customer requirements profitably (The Chartered Institute of
Marketing (CIM), 2012). The CIM definition looks not only at identifying
customer needs, but also satisfying them (short-term) and anticipating
them in the future (long-term retention). The definition also states the
importance of a process of marketing, with marketing objectives and
outcomes. CIM is recognised as being one of the most influential
marketing bodies in the world. It is the professional body for marketing in
the United Kingdom.
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating,

communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners, and society at large (American Marketing
Association Board of Directors, 2012). Again, in common with Kotler and
Armstrong above, the AMA focuses its definition on value creation and
delivery, and the longer-term retained customer.
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The enigma of marketing is that it is one of man’s oldest activities and yet
it is regarded as the most recent of business disciplines (Baker ,1976).
Baker introduces the elephant in the room. Marketing has always been
part of business, and it is a myth that it is purely a contemporary idea.
1.1.2 Customer
We often hear the term “customer,” but who truly is defined as a

customer? Simply put, everyone is. Whether we realize it or not, we all
have customers and we’re all somebody else’s customer. Customers can be
categorized as both internal and external, and as employees of an
organization we actually have both. Each one needs to be treated equally
and with the same amount of care and respect.
Types of Customers
So, what are the differences between internal and external customers?
Internal customers are our co-workers such as the person in the cubicle
next to you, your team manager, Human Resources, the sales
representatives who bring in new clients, or even the janitor who cleans
the building.
External customers
customers are our clients. These are the people, businesses and
organizations outside of the company who buy products from us, give us
their business or pay us for the services that we provide. The business of
securing external customers drives revenue and is essential to the success
and survival of an organization.
The natural tendency for any company is to pay more attention to and
focus on external customers, consequently placing less importance on
internal customers. As we know, it is very important to satisfy external
customers. Content external customers will remain loyal to the company
longer, make repeat purchases, and will refer the company to others.
Conversely, an external customer who suffers through a negative
experience with the company, such as being treated rudely by an
employee, can harm an organization by discouraging others from
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patronizing it. With the advent of social media, negative comments and
reviews can be devastating to an organization.
But what happens if part of a negative customer experience was the result
of poor internal customer service? What if one of our employees was, for
some reason unhappy on any given day and that unhappiness was
deflected onto the customer by way of poor service? In my opinion, there
is definitely a direct correlation between internal employee happiness and
a positive external customer experience. In order to produce happy
external customers (those who buy our products and services,) it is
important to build good customer satisfaction and rapport with our
internal customers. Everyone uses the analogy about how a chain is only
as strong as its’ weakest link. Well, the same applies here. Having weak
links only hurts the organization.
There is a domino effect between internal customer relations and external

customer satisfaction. In order to produce happy external customers
(those who buy our products and services), it is important to build
positive customer satisfaction with our internal customers. This can be
linked to a chain. Each link contributes to the overall strength of the chain
and, when there is a broken or weak link, the whole organization is
weakened. As they say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
By striving to improve internal customer relations, an organization can

build a healthier and more satisfying work environment and avoid
potentially negative experiences for our external customers. A good way
to improve internal relations and employee contentment is by getting
employees to think of themselves and their co-workers in the same
manner as they do their external customers — as very important. We all
need to provide our internal customers (employees and co-workers) with
the same high level of service that we give our clients, and make sure the
staff feels they are important and bring value. If employees feel good
about themselves and feel that they are important and add value to the
company, they will have better attitudes and performance will increase.
Henry Ford once said “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together
is progress, working together is success.”
It is important to build positive morale and a strong sense of employee

contentment within the team. There is need to continually strive to
provide them with an overall sense of empowerment and well-being as
this will circle back time and time again with the way they accommodate
and interact with external customers.
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Example – Starbucks Coffee
We are going to look at Starbucks coffee as an example of a company that has both
internal and external customers, and we should be able to apply some of the
terminology that we introduced above. The internal customers will be the people that
work within the business of Starbucks. The internal customers will be everyone from
the Board of Directors of the company, to the supervisors and team members that
serve coffee at the customer interface. So information and communication will flow
from the board of directors to the people on the ground, and data and feedback from
customers can flow from the people in the coffee shops back to the internal customers
in the marketing department. External customers and consumers will be the everyday
public that come in to the coffee shop and buy coffee for themselves and their friends.
Of course the user will be the consumer of the product, whether that is the purchaser
or not. The connected stakeholder would be the coffee suppliers from around the
world, and the pension schemes that own shares in the business. Other stakeholders
will include other businesses which are based around the Starbucks stores, as well as
those impacted by the environment around coffee plantations (which is something
that Starbucks is very keen to deal with since it has an ethical purchasing policy).
A business without customers is not a business. Even a business with

unhappy customers won't be a business for very long. Key to ensuring
that your customers are happy and that they keep coming back for more
is not only good products, but also great service.
Customer service is part and parcel of our everyday existence. In fact, it

should be the very reason for our existence and not a chore to be
endured. Good businesses ENJOY giving great service and they
subsequently enjoy success. When we have satisfied our customers, they
not only help us grow by continuing to do business with us, but
recommend us to friends and associates as well.
Don't Overlook the Obvious
Even in our online, interconnected world, it is easy to become

disconnected or disembodied from your market. After all, when you don't
often get to meet and greet live people, it is easy for your customers to
just become statistics. Once your business loses the human touch, it will
lose its soul and become a machine. Customers will flee from this like
lemmings over a cliff.
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Let's look at the essential elements involved in the definition of good
customer service and see how we can best activate these elements for the
benefit of our customers and ultimately ourselves.
1. Respect
Respect the fact that customers actually pay our salaries and make our
profits for us. Make them feel important and appreciated and treat them
as individuals, not ciphers. Remain polite, even if they are asking irritating
questions, and thank them every time you get the chance. When
something goes wrong, know how to apologize. It's easy, and customers
like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must
always win. Make it easy for customers to complain, and take their
complaints to heart. It's an opportunity to improve your service and
product.
2. Understanding
Understand, identify, and anticipate needs. Customers don't really buy

products or services; they buy solutions to problems. The better we solve
those problems, the more appreciative they are, and the better their
experiences in dealing with your business. The better you know your
customers, the better you can anticipate their needs. Communicate
regularly: Engage in conversations and exchange ideas and you will
become keenly aware of their wants and needs—and therefore better able
to satisfy them.
3. Listening
Keep your ears—and eyes—open. Hear what the market is saying, open
dialogues, and be a good listener. Identify customer needs by asking
questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying.
Effectively listening to the customer and giving him or her your undivided
attention, even in an online environment, are particularly important.
Encourage and welcome feedback and suggestions from your customers
about your service and your product. Provide methods that allow them
to offer constructive criticism, comments, and suggestions.
4. Responding
Now you have to respond positively. This is not to say that you have to
change your entire business model or product line to suit the demands of
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various customers. Seek ways to help your customers and give them what
they are looking for without compromising your company or products.
In most cases, requests will be fairly straightforward and achievable. Even

if they are unreasonable or appear impossible to fulfill, offer to look into
the matter and promise to come back with an answer within a specified
time period. Look for ways to make it easy to do business with you. And
always do what you promise.
5. Serving.
Essentially this means fulfilling your promises. Help customers understand

your systems. Your organization may have the world's best systems for
getting things done, but if customers don't understand them, they can get
confused, impatient, and angry. Take time to explain how your systems
work and how they simplify transactions.
Give more than expected. Since the future of all companies lies in keeping
customers happy, think of ways to elevate your company above the
competition. Consider how to give customers what they cannot get
elsewhere. Offer them something that is totally unexpected—give them
the "wow" factor. Thank people for giving your company their valuable
time, even when they don't buy.
Technology as a Service Tool
In today's electronic commercial world, technological innovations are

always there to help you achieve these lofty goals. Online services can
take customers by the hand and guide them through the myriad paths of
information right up to the check-out and beyond, into usage and then
after-sales service and support.
Such systems can offer customers self-service with smart knowledge base
features like instant search and topic suggestions, which can quickly find
relevant articles and reduce ticket submissions.
One of the major issues facing online commerce is congestion at the call
center, often caused by customers' lack of knowledge and understanding
of a product or its applications and operation. Calling the help desk with
fundamental questions is not only a waste of time for the service rep, but
also for the customer. The more congested the call center, the lower the
level of service, and so it goes down in a never-ending spiral. There are
many solutions out there that can enable self-service for customers.
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Is your company giving your customers everything they need to be as
happy as they can be? Perhaps, but the above can help you optimize what
you offer. If it's not, there's no time like the present to use these simple
service essentials to put your customer relationships back on track.
Other essential elements of customer service are;-
Great customer service isn’t all that hard to deliver, but it is probably
different from what you’re used to providing. Below are the top 10
elements of great customer service:
1. Well-
Well-Designed Website
First and foremost, your company needs to have a good website. Your
website is usually the first place customers look for information about a
shipment, your return policy, or even how to contact you, and a well-
thought-out FAQ section can save your employees the hassle of answering
routine questions all day. (For more information on how to design a
good business website, see this article.)
2. Accessibility
If your customers can’t contact you easily, then your customer service isn’t
as good as it should be. As was mentioned above, having a good website
is crucial. Your contact information should be clearly displayed on your
website, alongside your hours of operation. If a customer has to search for
too long for information on how to contact you, when they finally do get
you on the line, they’re already going to be disgruntled.
3. Quick Response Time
Customers hate waiting. Especially in today’s instant-gratification-oriented

society, if a customer has to wait for too long for a response, they’re
going to become unhappy. A quick response time to emails and phone
calls (and a sincere apology on the rare occasion when you’re unable to
be prompt) keeps customers satisfied.
4. Empowered Employees
This one’s huge. If your employees don’t have the ability or the
permission to solve a customer’s problem, you’re creating a recipe for
awful customer service. If you lock your employees into rigid rules and
scripts instead of letting them handle some issues at their discretion, you’re
going to produce a lot of unhappy customers. “I’ll have to check with my
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supervisor,” “I don’t have permission to do that,” “That’s not my
department,” and similar phrases are not going to solve your customers’
problems. In fact, in many cases, they’ll only serve to frustrate the
customer and make the problem worse.
So give your employees some freedom of judgment. Think of it this way:

If you don’t feel comfortable allowing your customer service
representatives to make small decisions without having to answer to a
supervisor for every choice they make, then you don’t trust them. And if
you don’t trust them, then they probably shouldn’t be employed by your
company.
5. Thick Skin
In order to deliver great customer service, you’re going to have to change

the way you look at mistakes and criticisms. Instead of getting offended or
defensive, try to view these inevitabilities as opportunities. Every mistake
or bad review is another opportunity to fix something that was previously
broken in your company. Take advantage of it.
6. Surprise
Surprising your customers is a great way to make a good impression.

There are many ways to surprise your customers with something
meaningful to them. For example, if you recently solved a complaint with
a customer, consider following up with a gift card or credit on their
account without giving them any notice beforehand. This is a small step,
but because it’s so unexpected, it will make a big impression and will
show the customer that you care about their needs.
7. Trust
To give great customer service, you’re going to have to put a little trust in
your customers. Too many companies in today’s business world operate
under immense paranoia. They assume that every customer is trying to
game the system and that if they let their guard down even momentarily,
they’ll find themselves out of business and out of money.
This simply isn’t true. Most customers who need your help have legitimate
complaints and just want their issues addressed with as little hassle as
possible. If you trust them, then you can give them what they want and
save both of you time and stress. If you assume they’re trying to cheat
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you, though, then your customer service is going to reflect that mindset.
(Read: It’ll be terrible.)
8. Responsibility
You can’t give great customer service if you constantly shirk responsibility.
Everyone knows that they need to stand behind their products and
services, but there are other aspects of your business that you probably
overlooked the need for which to take responsibility.
For example, understand that as far as your customer is concerned, every

customer service representative they speak to in your company might as
well be the same person. They don’t care that they’ve spoken to a Sally, a
George, a Ben, and a Mary; all they know is that they’ve spoken to
people at Company X. Because of this, they expect some continuity, and
failing to provide them with that continuity will make them dissatisfied. If
Mary told the customer that they could have a refund, then they expect
Ben the supervisor to say the same thing. If he shirks responsibility for his
employees, though, the customer is going to be unhappy.
In a similar vein, in the customer’s eyes, your company and your partner/
manufacturer/ distributor are one and the same. But customers gave you
their money, so they expect you to take responsibility for their service,
not place blame on some third party that they don’t know anything
about.
9. Recognition
One of the most important aspects of customer service is making sure that
your customers feel appreciated. And what better way to do this than to
simply tell them? No, this doesn’t mean holding a Customer Appreciation
Day Sale; rather, it means taking small steps that can make a big impact.
The key here is sincerity.
For example, let’s say a customer brings to your attention a flaw in your
website that could have cost you business. Or let’s say a customer makes a
suggestion that actually improves company operations. To thank them,
recognize their efforts in a sincere way. Post a message at the bottom of
your website for a day, send them a handwritten thank-you card, or send
them a small gift card – anything that will show them that you appreciate
their help.
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10. Patience
Finally, it’s important to recognize that you can’t win every battle. Some
customers, as much as you’ll hate to admit it, simply aren’t worth the
business they provide. It’s true: Some customers are bad people. Despite
your best efforts, they’ll whine, complain, curse, write bad reviews,
demand free products or services, make unreasonable requests, and
generally make your life a living nightmare. Recognizing this and learning
how to drop the lost causes while still putting forth full effort on those
customers who actually deserve your time will save you a lot of stress.
(Read more about dealing with bad customers here.)
Great customer service doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it’s usually the
smallest gestures that make the biggest and best impressions on your
customers and clients. So try the tips above, and see how much happier
people become with your company’s customer service.
The value of customer service
Customer service is the heartbeat of any healthy organization. It’s the

most visible point of the operation, and ultimately what consumers
remember when they choose whether to become a repeat customer or
move on to another company in the future.
Exercise: Do you give customer service the attention it deserves, or
does your firm you tend to neglect its value?
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Lesson 2: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
2.1 Introduction to CRM (customer relationship management)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to

practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and
analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle,
with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in
customer retention and driving sales growth (Tim, E., 2017).
CRM systems compile customer data across different channels -- or points

of contact between the customer and the company -- which could include
the company's website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing
materials and social media. CRM systems can also give customer-facing
staff detailed information on customers' personal information, purchase
history, buying preferences and concerns.
Components of CRM
At the most basic level, CRM software consolidates customer information

and documents into a single CRM database so business users can more
easily access and manage it.
Over time, many additional functions have been added to CRM systems
to make them more useful. Some of these functions include recording
various customer interactions over email, phone, social media or other
channels; depending on system capabilities, automating various workflow
automation processes, such as tasks, calendars and alerts; and giving
managers the ability to track performance and productivity based on
information logged within the system. CRM comprises of the following
components;-
• Marketing automation. CRM tools with marketing

automation capabilities can automate repetitive tasks to enhance
marketing efforts at different points in the lifecycle. For example, as
sales prospects come into the system, it might automatically send the
prospects marketing materials, typically via email or social media,
with the goal of turning a sales lead into a full-fledged customer.
• Sales force automation.
automation. Sales force automation tools track customer
interactions and automate certain business functions of the sales
cycle that are necessary to follow leads and attract and obtain new
customers.
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• Contact center automation. Designed to reduce tedious aspects of a
contact center agent's job, contact center automation might include
prerecorded audio that assists in customer problem-solving and
information dissemination. Various software tools that integrate
with the agent's desktop tools can handle customer requests in order
to cut down on the time of calls and to simplify customer service
processes.
• Geolocation technology, or location-
location-based services. Some CRM
systems include technology that can create geographic marketing
campaigns based on customers' physical locations, sometimes
integrating with popular location-based GPS apps. Geolocation
technology can also be used as a networking or contact
management tool in order to find sales prospects based on a
location.
CRM tools specifically for social media platforms help companies foster
customer relationships and monitor customer sentiments around their
brands.
• Workflow automation. CRM systems help businesses optimize

processes by streamlining mundane workloads, enabling employees
to focus on creative and more high-level tasks.
• Lead management. Sales leads can be tracked through CRM,
enabling sales teams to input, track and analyze data for leads in
one place.
• Human resource management. CRM systems help track employee
information, such as contact information, performance reviews and
benefits within a company. This enables the human resource
department to more effectively manage the internal workforce.
• Analytics. Analytics in CRM help create better customer satisfaction
rates by analyzing user data and helping create targeted marketing
campaigns.
• AI in CRM. Artificial intelligence technologies, such as Salesforce
Einstein, have been built into CRM platforms to automate repetitive
tasks, identify customer buying patterns to predict future customer
behaviors and more.
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Types of CRM technology
The four main vendors of CRM systems are Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and
Oracle. Other providers are popular among small- to midmarket
businesses, but these four tend to be the choice for large corporations. The
types of CRM technology offered are as follows:
• On-
On-premises CRM.
This system puts the onus of administration, control, security and

maintenance of the database and information on the company using
the CRM software. With this approach, the company purchases
licenses upfront instead of buying yearly subscriptions from a cloud
CRM provider. The software resides on the company's own servers
and the user assumes the cost of any upgrades. It also usually
requires a prolonged installation process to fully integrate a
company's data. Companies with complex CRM needs might benefit
from an on-premises deployment.
• Cloud-
Cloud-based CRM.
With cloud-based CRM -- also known as SaaS (software as a service)

or on-demand CRM -- data is stored on an external, remote
network that employees can access anytime, anywhere there is
an internet connection, sometimes with a third-party service
provider overseeing installation and maintenance. The cloud's quick,
relatively easy deployment capabilities appeal to companies with
limited technological expertise or resources.
Companies might consider cloud CRM as a more cost-effective

option. Vendors such as Salesforce charge by the user on a
subscription basis and offer the option of monthly or yearly
payments.
Data security is a primary concern for companies using cloud-based

systems, as the company doesn't physically control the storage and
maintenance of its data. If the cloud provider goes out of business
or is acquired by another company, an enterprise's data can be
compromised or lost. Compatibility issues can also arise when data
is initially migrated from a company's internal system to the cloud.
Finally, cost may be a concern, since paying subscription fees for

software can be more costly over time than on-premises models.
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Well said, Cloud based CRM's are on demand as they are fast,
reliable and easy deployment. The main vendors like Salesforce,
Microsoft are designed focusing on adoptability to support
multiplatform business, meanwhile there are other Cloud CRM
products with similar robustic features but focusing on targeted
business platforms, like Customer Value maximization(CVM)
product specialized in Financial business which makes them to stand
ahead of major vendors in their arena
• Open source CRM.
An Open source CRM system make source code available to the

public, enabling companies to make alterations at no cost to the
company employing the system. Open source CRM systems also
enable the addition and customization of data links on social media
channels, assisting companies looking to improve social
CRM practices.
Open Source CRM platforms such as OroCRM, SuiteCRM and

SugarCRM offer alternatives to the proprietary platforms from
Salesforce, Microsoft and other vendors.
Adoption of any of these CRM deployment methods depends on a

company's business needs, resources and goals, as each has different
costs associated with it.
CRM examples in practice
• Contact center.
Traditionally, data intake practices for CRM systems have been the
responsibility of sales and marketing departments, as well as contact
center agents. Sales and marketing teams procure leads and update
the system with information throughout the customer lifecycle, and
contact centers gather data and revise customer history records
through service calls and technical support interactions.
• Social CRM.
Social media in CRM involves businesses engaging customers directly

through social media platforms, such
as Facebook, Twitterand LinkedIn. Social media presents an open
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forum for customers to share experiences with a brand, whether
they're airing grievances or promoting products.
To add value to customer interactions on social media, businesses

use various social CRM tools that monitor social media
conversations -- from specific mentions of a brand to the frequency
of keywords used -- to determine their target audience and which
platforms they use. Other tools are designed to analyze social media
feedback and address customer queries and issues.
Companies are interested in capturing customer sentiments, such as

the likelihood they will recommend products and their overall
customer satisfaction, to develop marketing and service strategies.
Companies try to integrate social CRM data with other customer
data obtained from sales or marketing departments to get a single
view of the customer.
Another way in which social CRM adds value for companies and
customers is through customer communities, where customers post
reviews of products and can engage with other customers to
troubleshoot issues or research products in real time. Customer
communities can provide low-level customer service for certain
kinds of problems and reduce the number of contact center calls.
Customer communities can also provide new product ideas or
feedback that companies can use in lieu of feedback groups.
• Mobile CRM.
CRM applications built for smartphones and tablets have become a

must-have for sales representatives and marketing professionals who
want to access customer information and perform tasks when they
are not physically in their offices. Mobile CRM apps take advantage
of features that are unique to mobile devices, such as GPS and voice-
recognition capabilities, to give sales and marketing employees
access to customer information from anywhere.
• Business-
Business-to-
to-business (B2B) practices.
A CRM system in a B2B environment helps monitor sales as they

move through the sales funnel, enabling a business to address any
issues that might come up during the process. CRM systems in the
B2B market help create more visibility into leads and, therefore,
increase efficiency throughout the sales process.
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CRM challenges
For all of the advancements in CRM technology, without the proper

management, a CRM system can become little more than a glorified
database in which customer information is stored. Data sets need to be
connected, distributed and organized so that users can easily access the
information they need.
Mind Challenger
What are the three most important things to consider when choosing a
CRM system for your company?
Companies may struggle to achieve a single view of the

customer if their data sets aren't connected and organized
in a single dashboard or interface. Challenges also arise
when systems contain duplicate customer data or
outdated information. These problems can lead to a
decline in customer experience due to long wait times
during phone calls, improper handling of technical
support cases and other issues.
CRM systems work best when companies spend time
cleaning up their existing customer data to eliminate
duplicate and incomplete records before they supplement
CRM data with external sources of information.
Exercise;
Discuss the types of CRM technology in use in the world nowadays
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Lesson 2:
2 CRM continuation...
2.2 Overview of Customer Relationship Management
Customer Life Cycle
In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term

used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when
considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty to a product or
service. Marketing analysts Jim Sterne and Matt Cutler have developed a
matrix that breaks the customer life cycle into five distinct steps: reach,
acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty. In layman's terms, this
means getting a potential customer's attention, teaching them what you
have to offer, turning them into a paying customer, and then keeping
them as a loyal customer whose satisfaction with the product or service
urges other customers to join the cycle. The customer life cycle is often
depicted by an ellipse, representing the fact that customer retention truly
is a cycle and the goal of effective CRM is to get the customer to move
through the cycle again and again.
Five steps to understand the customer lifecycle while using CLM CRM
software.
CLM (customer lifecycle management) is a concept and a strategy that

brings more revenue and lower costs.
Step #1 - Reach
This is the phase in Customer Lifecycle Management when you make the
initial contact with the customer. It is like putting a roadside ad, or
delivering a social coupon through the mail or meeting a customer
because of some good words someone heard from his or her friend. CLM
CRM metrics are the key at this stage, which easily lets you perceive which
marketing drives the business or organization.
Step #2-
#2- Acquisitions
The acquisition is a phase, which comes after you have found your
potential customer’s attention. In fact, it is the primary contact with your
new customer. This is where your frontline tele-calling executives, service
employees, and salespeople earn their wages. Depending on the type of
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your business enterprise, this acquisition might happen in person, on the
phone, via email or solely through a Website’s landing page.
Caution: Abandonment can happen at this phase of the Customer

Lifecycle Management process when you are not enough interesting or
useful to hold a potential customer’s attention. Therefore, it is most
important that the primary contact with the probable customer should
generate enough value for that person which will make the potential
customer want to continue the conversation.
Step #3 - Conversion
In CLM conversion is synonymous with the word ‘Sales’. It is the stage in

the CLM process where you turn an interested fence-sitting prospect into
an actual customer. The best advice for this step in the CLM process is
to sell your relationship and not your product or services. It is your duty
as a sales representative for your organization to make the customer feel
welcomed. Because, if and only if the customer feels comfortable and
happy the purchase will naturally take care of itself.
Caution: Attrition in the steps happens when a ‘sale’ vanishes. Sometimes

it can be because of your team’s fault that can alienate the purchaser, even
though at times this can also happen for reasons out of your control. In
either situation, endure each lost sale as a learning experience that can
reduce your customer attrition ratio next time.
Step #4 – Retention
Now once you have made the sale (which is great), but to sell more to a
customer at this stage is 1/6th less expensive as starting over at the ‘Reach’
stage in the CLM process. This implies up-selling and cross-selling or doing
everything that you can to uphold and preserve a relationship with the
customer. You can nurture the relationship with your customer by making
contact from time to time, in value-rich ways through a CLM CRM that
makes sure that the customer will remember about you every time the
person needs your products or services.
Caution: Churn is a loss of an on-hand customer. Remember never to

follow in the footsteps of a “churn-and-burn” organization that solely
believes in making the first sale, and then subsequently move off to the
next prospect like a corporate pick-up artist.
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Step #5 – Loyalty
This is the desired end of any Customer Lifecycle, akin to the enjoyment
of an early retirement after a flourishing career. At this stage in the CLM
process, the customer becomes a friend and most often a brand advocate
who calls you by your first name and recommends your offerings to
everyone around. You cannot expect every customer nurtured through
the CLM CRM platform to reach this stage, but to evaluate where you
failed with other customers you need to look back through the early steps
to detect your lacunae.
Customer Life Cycle
Exercise: So how would you convey the CLM idea to your employees,
the users of your best small business CRM ?
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Lesson 2 ‘cntn....
CRM industry trends
Customer relationship management (CRM) continues to see wide-scale

changes because of customers' increasing use of mobile devices and their
inclination to share thoughts on social media. Rather than offering a
telephone number for customers to call, companies now have to
proactively listen and respond to customers who are empowered to share
their consumer experiences through mobile and social networks.
This drastic realignment of the customer-company relationship has also

fueled other CRM industry trends, including the growth of Customer
Experience Management. CEM encompasses the oversight of a company's
interactions with customers, an effort that includes the company
president, marketing and the receptionist so that a brand can be
reinforced at any time.
The use of mobile and social platforms has meant that the call center
agent sees a corresponding increase in duties because they're no longer
answering only telephone calls. An agent needs to know how to handle
several customer channels and use the consumer's information accordingly
to solve problems.
The importance
importance of integrating social CRM tools into a CRM strategy
NB: Customer engagement is no longer about simply handling a phone

call or letter. Organizations must also be at the ready to address issues on
social media.
Adding social CRM tools to traditional approaches increases the

complexity of how organizations and customers interact. But the
principles and management of customer interactions have not changed.
In its simplest form, CRM is the methodology organizations use to build
and enhance relationships with customers. The major goal of CRM is to
have an ongoing relevant conversation with customers, leading to higher
retention and spending.
Early on, CRM utilized the specific knowledge an organization collected

about individual customer spending patterns and behaviors, categorizing
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customers into predefined segments for targeted messaging. Organizations
would then converse with customers, utilizing the channels of
communication available to them at that time. Even though CRM has
become more complex with the addition of new channels of
communication, the same principles apply for successfully managing social
CRM.
The development and utilization of social channels, including Facebook,

Twitter and LinkedIn, increases the complexity of CRM. Previously, it was
a private, one-on-one conversation with customers; now, it's a highly
visible, one-to-many conversation with customers. In the past, if
customers had service issues, they would pick up the telephone and call
the organization to have the issue resolved. In the world of social CRM
tools, if customers have service issues, they may communicate via a social
channel the entire world can see.
In the early days of social media, marketing departments managed the

channel and focused on providing proactive communications to segments
of customers. When necessary, the department would protect the brand
when a customer service issue arose. Over time, organizations moved the
social channel into mainstream customer service and now handle inquiries
in these channels in the same manner as they do other communication
channels.
Adding social CRM tools to the mix
Organizations face many challenges when interacting with customers in

social channels -- many of which existed before the arrival of social media.
Some of these challenges include the following:
Identifying conversations that require a response. In old-style call centers,

agents answered all inbound phone calls, thereby responding to every
customer request. Even if the customer wanted to speak about the
weather, an agent was available. In the world of social media, it might
not be necessary or cost-effective to respond to every single customer
comment. It's critical to respond to queries by customers who
communicate some type of problem or seek guidance on the use of a
product or service. There are mixed views on whether other types of
customer queries, such as a general comment on a product, require some
type of response. It may not be realistic to respond to all customer
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comments, but the more an organization can engage customers, the better
the CRM outcome.
Ensuring agents have the appropriate skill sets. Past conversations used to
be most frequently conducted with customers on the phone. Agents
needed strong verbal communication skills. With the growth of additional
channels of communication, organizations must hire staff members with
broader sets of skills to work in omnichannel environments, including
strong writing, multitasking and problem-solving capabilities.
Tracking customer conversations. When a limited number of channels

existed in contact centers, the goal was to track as many interactions as
possible so that the organization had a detailed understanding of the full
relationship with the customer. That was a challenge, but many
organizations had desktop systems that allowed agents to enter all
interactions. With social CRM tools, the goal is the same, but advanced
analytics tools enable companies to capture all relevant customer
information and perform thorough analyses. The challenge lies in
identifying all of the points where the voice of the customer can be
captured and implementing effective listening posts to capture key
information, including self-service channels. It is also challenging to
identify specific customers as they cross a variety of communications
channels.
Pivoting across channels. Dial transfers in call centers are considered a

pivot between two telephone agents. With the growing number of
communication channels, the concept of pivots has expanded to include
customers moving across channels to continue a conversation. The
principles are the same for all types of pivots -- customers do not want to
repeat information and expect the agent to know the research they have
already performed. The increasing complexity of pivoting conversations
forces organizations to capture detailed information of the customer's
experience during each step of the communication process. If a customer
is researching products on the web, then it's imperative for the
organization to understand the research performed and present this
information to an agent when the customer pivots to a chat interaction.
Measuring effectiveness. In traditional contact centers, basic metrics were

gathered regarding how quickly a call was answered, the volume of
interactions, how long an interaction took and various quality
measurements. The same types of metrics are critical for measurement in
social channels and are a key reason for moving the management of the
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social channel from marketing to operations. What has changed as a result
are the specific goals of the various metrics, primarily quality and
customer effort. That's especially true as consumers are connected at all
times via their wireless devices.
More deeply integrating social CRM
The CRM world has changed, and the development of social media has
been one of the great drivers of that change. Customers have a stronger
voice and can be heard by the entire world via a simple keystroke.
Organizations must take advantage of the new opportunities presented by

this change and adapt their internal processes to include social CRM tools.
But service is still service, and the things that were important in the
simplistic world of the call center are the same in the brave new world of
the omnichannel contact center.
The benefits of CRM tools go beyond traditional customer engagement.

By implementing customer relationship management tools, organizations
have the potential to make significant improvements in marketing
efficiency, sales and customer service.
Customer relationship management has become part of the modern

enterprise foundation. It's evolving at a phenomenal rate, absorbing new
technology, such as mobile and the cloud, and exploiting new strategies
on social media. Whether or not an organization needs CRM to remain
competitive isn't just one question; it's one of a series of questions, each
potentially of critical importance. One way to determine the benefits of
CRM tools for your organization is to see how other organizations are
using them.
Improving customer experiences

experiences
Like all of its competitors, a major hotel is challenged to maintain

consistent levels of service to guests when the slow season transitions to
the busy season. Guests value continuity of service -- it's the backbone of
customer loyalty in the hotel industry. Negative experiences can easily
result in defections.
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The hotel implements a new practice: recording every negative guest
event and disseminating the information to all floor personnel and
relevant department heads. With this approach, the hotel puts employees
on alert to go the extra mile, while capturing the event for later analysis.
This could lead to process improvements and could draw more creative
input into the mix.
Tracking the changing customer
A major retailer compiles individual customer purchase histories to detect

buying patterns and anticipate repeat sales opportunities. Marketing
innovations enable the company to offer incentives at just the right
moment. This technique, however, seems to only work for a few years,
customer to customer.
Realizing that customers, like products, go through lifecycles, the retailer

mines the available purchase history data and notes trends in purchasing
patterns as customers age. This new customer development lifecycle
enables the retailer's marketing group to alter its strategy, changing its
messaging to target individual customers to improve sales long term.
Service through social media
A major U.S. bank has tens of millions of customers and wants to keep up
with their changing habits. Its leaders realize that many, if not most,
consumers use more than one bank these days -- and many of those banks
reside entirely on the web. That being the case, it's easier than ever before
for customers to transfer to another bank's services.
The bank's leaders realize its competitive edge depends on its ability to be
more responsive and available to customers than other banks. How can
this be achieved? By being where the customers are – online and on social
media platforms.
The bank employs a strategy of cultivating a strong social media presence,

utilizing social media monitoring to track customer sentiments about its
brand, and opening up convenient communication channels to the
customer.
Filling cracks everywhere
The above scenarios all outline specific use cases for different flavors of
CRM, which is both a technology and a methodology for finding and
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attracting customers, developing relationships with them and long-term
retention.
The first example, recording and studying customer events for future
improvement, is a standard practice. The second, studying long-term
customer behaviors to establish a customer lifecycle, is a clever
innovation. The third, opening up two-way communication with the
customer, is where customer relationship management technology is
today, and the direction in which it's moving in the future.
In deciding whether or not your organization should use customer

relationship management tools (or use them differently than you currently
do), there are many things to consider.
CRM plays an important role in three traditional branches of the

enterprise: marketing, sales and customer service. In each of these areas,
CRM tools offer the ability to use descriptive data to improve internal
performance and external value to customers.
Marketing teams tap into data stored on CRM platforms to plan well-
targeted campaigns, optimize their budgets and hand the best leads off to
sales. Armed with CRM information, sales personnel are better positioned
to close, and even expand, offerings of peripheral products and services.
Finally, customer service is better able to retain brand loyalty by making
its service individual and highly customer-centric, given the depth of
available data on individual customers.
The benefits of CRM for partner organizations
The benefits of CRM tools aren't limited to the enterprise. If your

company is part of a supply chain, whether it is a product maker, mover
or seller, CRM can improve operations and relationships between
partners. Useful across industries from financial to manufacturing to
healthcare to transportation, CRM offers supply chain and B2B partner
companies a common platform for shared analytics. Customer needs,
behaviors, demographics and social media habits can all affect not only
local operations, but also partner company operations.
Here's a powerful example. Technology breakthroughs can lead to

possible improvements in hybrid vehicles. Vehicle manufacturers may be
prompted by their retail partners to move quickly to develop a new
hybrid model based on the advanced technology because marketers see
great potential among their customer base. The manufacturer could float
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product ideas, plans and designs by customers tagged as brand evangelists
to gauge enthusiasm for the new features, and then use the customer
feedback to inform the actual design.
CRM sharpens your competitive edge
Beyond what CRM tools can do for you and your partners, there's also
the question of what it's already doing for your competitors, and the
degree of risk what they're doing carries for your organization.
The competitor's marketing and sales advantage. A competitor using CRM

as the backbone of its marketing and sales efforts has several strengths. Its
marketing teams generate leads that its sales teams are more likely to turn
into customers, making both operations more efficient.
Its customer profile data is more likely to be optimized for individual

customer loyalty retention through more successful customer service. And
CRM provides a consistent stream of insight for continuous process
improvement, meaning your competitor is getting better and better by
using it.
The competitor's customer perspective advantage. Good marketing and

sales people know their products -- that's an axiom of good business. But
the very best marketing and sales people know their customers even
better, and customer relationship management technology empowers
them more in this area than ever before. Moreover, this empowerment is
personalized by the individual level of customer profiling that's possible
today. It provides institutional knowledge that can't be diminished by
employee turnover in marketing and sales.
The CRM tools market is large, feature-laden and ever-changing.
The competitor's social communication advantage. Social CRM has

opened up new conversations between your competitors and their
customers. They're able to listen to online discussions, learn the pros and
cons of their brand, and discover what customers like and dislike about
their products and services. This results in continuous improvement.
Your competitors are able to engage customers in many new ways, and
offer marketing messages, opportunities and relationship building
information across many new channels, beyond traditional marketing and
service.
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A quick CRM survey
• The following questions might help you determine the usefulness of

CRM in your organization. Is there clear potential for significant
improvements in marketing efficiency, sales or customer service? If so,
then it's certainly worth weighing the benefits of CRM tools. These are
the areas in which CRM has the most history.
• Are you part of a supply chain? If so, CRM may offer an
opportunity for enhanced cooperation and service to your partner
companies, which may already be using it to a significant degree,
strengthening your B2B relationships.
• What is the competition doing? If your competitors are already
using customer relationship management tools in marketing, sales
and customer service, not to mention logistics and product
development, then they are probably performing better than you,
in addition to making process improvements on a regular basis that
may help them pull ahead.
• Would better customer profiling improve your company's
performance? The holistic perspective on customer behavior and
growth made possible by CRM not only leads to greater customer
retention, but it also improves your own perspective on what
motivates your customer and what aspects of your products and
services are truly distinct in the marketplace -- strong reasons to
consider CRM.
• Could social CRM work for you? Social CRM, the rapidly emerging
subset of CRM that builds customer relationships by making them
bidirectional, offers advantages that even traditional CRM can't:
multichannel customer feedback, tracking of brand sentiment,
tracking of competitor brand sentiment (the strategic value of which
can't be overstated), the ability to cultivate brand evangelists in the
customer community and even the ability to network brand loyalists
together for mutual support. Does any of that sound useful?
If your organization is seriously considering customer relationship

management tools, or possibly expanding its use of CRM, there are more
questions to be answered. The CRM tools market is large, feature-laden
and ever-changing. Sorting through the many options, understanding their
impact and making a decision about what to buy are your next steps.
Quick One
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The growth of the company depends on the customer satisfaction. CRM
enables the communication between the customer and the management.
The important thing that every company needs to know is how CRM
helps to overcome our competitor. Are there any statics for that?
Create a social media engagement strategy to drive connection
Intelligent use of social media enables companies

companies to engage customers and
build credibility online, which underscores the importance of a social
media engagement strategy.
Over the past decade, social networking has emerged as a way to connect
with constituencies. Ten years ago, the most popular social media
platforms were MySpace and Facebook. Now, credible options include
Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr among
others. This boom is partially because of a shift in users’ mentality. Ten
years ago, social networks were a novelty. Now, they are ubiquitous and
a key part of how we communicate.
Regardless of how large a business is, a social presence has become

virtually nonnegotiable. Companies want to be present on the channels
their customers use, so it makes sense to use these online communities to
interact with customers through advertising and personal messaging. This
helps to humanize large companies and build loyalty among their
followers.
But a basic presence on a social network is not enough for companies to

connect with existing customers and gain exposure to new ones. Social
media engagement comes only from an investment in creating a diverse
mix of content and employing the right strategies and best practices. Here
are some ways to get noticed on social media and bond with your
audience.
Hashtags as engagement opportunities
A key component of a social media engagement strategy is mastering the

use of hashtags. Successfully deploying and managing hashtags offers a
twofold benefit: Companies can engage customers in relevant social
conversations and easily measure the reach of posts that contain the
hashtag.
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Created by placing a “#” symbol before any word or group of words, a
hashtag labels a conversation. Marking something with a hashtag turns
any topic into a searchable keyword or link that enables people to quickly
seek out and join online discussions. Companies can also use certain
hashtags to learn about customer concerns or ideas from constituencies.
If a critical mass of people is talking about a hashtag, it’s a trending tag:

that is, a popular hashtag with more people taking part in the
conversation. Hashtags play a crucial role on Twitter but multiple social
media platforms employ them as conversation drivers, including Facebook
and Instagram.
Hashtags help companies foster engagement with their customers by

having them rally around a particular topic or conversation. Companies
can also create their own unique hashtags for specific campaigns or events,
or participate in organic, weekly hashtags to stay at the top of their
customers' minds. For example, the popular "#ThrowbackThursday" or
"#TBT" hashtag enables people to share old photos and recollect the past.
If a company creates and promotes a unique hashtag attached to a
particular event, for example, it makes tracking the social media campaign
much easier than just doing a word search.
How companies can benefit from social conversation
The goal of a social media engagement strategy employing hashtags is for

the hashtags to garner as much exposure as possible, which is why it pays
to research potential tags before you begin. Company-created hashtags
centered on a particular product, for example, might not invite
meaningful conversation. But companies can piggyback off existing
hashtags to foster engagement.
When customers use social media, they want to join conversations that
they care about. A hashtag concerning a company brand is a starting
point, but it's even better for companies to jump into conversations that
are already happening. These conversations reflect users’ concerns rather
than company-generated ones.
But not all social media engagement is the result of company-driven

conversation. On Twitter, companies have a few options to interact with
people: retweets, favorites and replies. A retweet will show up on the
account's feed and be seen by all of that account's followers. Favorites are
essentially used as digital bookmarks and mean that the favoriter wants to
keep a record of tweets he finds relevant (favorites are given their own
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tab in Twitter profiles). Replies are active, direct conversations with
people that give the interaction exposure, both on the company's feed
and the customer's.
A thriving social media engagement strategy sees every interaction as a

potential to improve their relationship with a person. When people tag
the company directly or use a campaign hashtag, consider one of the
aforementioned options for interaction. Writing a personalized response is
not necessary for each notification. Marking a positive mention as a
favorite is sufficient and retweeting is only appropriate if your followers
would find it beneficial or informative. By retweeting, you gain the
benefit of citing the source.
This ability is also why you should consider limiting a tweet to less than
100 characters instead of the platform-imposed 140. Writing short, concise
tweets will allow users to retweet your original message without cutting it
off. This is partially why word images have become more popular. You
can write an entire paragraph on an image, add the proper hashtags, and
get the benefit of larger screen space by posting media. This can help
convey complicated data while maintaining good social networking
practices.
Sharing content and attracting influencers
Another way to gain exposure and make customers or other figures feel
valued and recognized by your company is to share outside content. By
promoting other people's content on your company's social media
accounts, you can capitalize on other follower bases and maximize the
exposure your account gets.
Reviews are popular and credible ones can substantially mitigate or grow
your reputation among a hidden market on the cusp of purchasing.
Consider reaching out to the critics that have the following you’re looking
to include and collaborate. Offer to post their review on the company
website, send them your latest product to review, or offer to participate
in a podcast. Reviewers are constantly looking to increase their user base,
and offering to collaborate helps both parties
Further, if you can establish a mutual relationship with other influencers

that involves the reciprocal promoting of content, your company's
account can gain credibility and drive the growth of your fan base.
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Because companies should always look to use currently active hashtags to
increase their reach, consider services like Keyhole to research the activity
level of hashtags. The data is displayed showing the number of posts,
users and impressions. It also shows which social media network, and
what kind of posts, have the most activity. The users with the most active
posts are likely your influencers in that market.
The impact of mobile and social tools on customer engagement
The ubiquitous nature of social media and mobile devices has conditioned
consumers to expect on-demand customized service delivered quickly to
their platform of choice. But reaching customers on mobile and social
channels isn't always easy. Harnessing the data generated by these new
channels of engagement poses numerous data management and
integration challenges. Mobile and social CRM tools can speed customer
service, encourage mutually beneficial two-way communication and
enrich customer relationships.
According to Steve Signoff, mobile and social CRM tools symbiotically

working to connect with customers and prospects have become a
requirement for companies to compete successfully. He looks at a
"morphing, modernizing and shifting" CRM market and explains that
mobile and social CRM tools have to be "woven into the fabric" of any
viable customer engagement strategy. Companies need these tools to
track, analyze, communicate and manage relationships with customers
and prospects. Collaboration technologies that allow immediate customer
feedback are not only reshaping company operations in sales and
marketing, but also influencing product development and marketing
decisions.
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Lesson 2: cntn...
2.3 CRM Models

What Is a Customer Relationship Model?
Businesses, small and large depend on customers for survival. Customers

drive new trends and provide profits for current and future operations
and investments. The use of a customer relationship model can help small
businesses identify new opportunities and cater to the needs of their
customers and clients.
A customer relationship model, also commonly referred to as customer

relationship management, seeks to improve the relationship between a
business and the customer. When companies, including small businesses,
can better identify the needs and desires of their consumers they can
increase loyalty and grow the customer base. With this knowledge, small
businesses can better distribute products and services and take advantage
of new trends in the marketplace. Useful information and knowledge can
stem from identifying and analyzing purchasing trends in specific market
segments, such as those based on geographical location or customer
demographics, such as age, income and family size.
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Taking advantage of the benefits related to a customer relationship model
requires data collection and analysis. Data can come from a number of
sources. Customer relationship models can collect data from an analytical
or behavioral standpoint. Analytical models utilize data collected from
customers, such as location, amount of purchase and email addresses.
Behavioral data collection stems from focus groups and surveys and has
more to do with what drives consumer behavior.
Potential Benefits
Small businesses can put information gleaned from customer relationship
models to work. They can use the data to operate a loyalty rewards
program, customize sales and promotions to specific customer groups and
develop ongoing relationships with customers. Another benefit includes
the ability to cross-sell. Cross-selling involves suggesting a complimentary
item, such as a cushion for a patio chair, at the point-of-sale. This increases
profits, brand exposure and helps develop a personal relationship with
the customer.
Important Notes
Customer relationship models seek to acquire, develop and retain
customers. Small businesses must remain vigilant when it comes to
managing customer data and strike a balance between offering valuable
promotions and offers and inundating customers with unsolicited mail.
Businesses should obtain permission from customers before sending offers
via email or mail to help create an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Exercise: What Are the Top Three Most Important Things to

Accomplish in a Customer Relationship?
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Models of CRM
The Customer Relationship Management Frameworks/Models
A number of comprehensive Customer Relationship Management CRM

models have been developed. These are;-
i] The IDIC (Identify, Differentiate, Interact and Customize) model

The IDIC model was developed by Peppers and Rogers, the
consultancy firm, and has featured in a number of theirbooks. The
IDIC model suggests that companies should take four actions in
order to build closer one-to-onerelationships with customers:
Identify who your customers are and build a deep understanding
●Identify
of them
Differentiate your customers to identify which customers have
●Differentiate
most value now and which offer most for the future
Interact with customers to ensure that you understand customer
●Interact
expectations and their relationships with other suppliers or brands
Customize the offer and communications to ensure that the
●Customize
expectations of customers are met.
The IDIC is described as below (Figure 1)
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Figure 1: The IDIC Methodology (Peppers and Rogers, 2004)
The IDIC Model has been developed by Peppers and Rogers (2004)
According to IDIC model, companies should take four actions in order to
build closer one-to-one relationships with customers:
 Identifying who the companies’ customers are and building a deep

understanding of them.
 Differentiating their customers in order to identify which amongst
them have most value now and which offer most for the future.
Besides, the differentiation can allow the companies to devise and
implement customer specific strategies designed to satisfy individually
different customer need. The clients represent different levels of value
to the company and they their needs are radically not the same from
the enterprise. According to Peppers and Rogers (2004), the customer
differentiation task will involve an enterprise in categorizing its
customers by both their value to the firm and by what needs they
have.
 Interacting with them in order to ensure that companies understand
customer expectations and their relationships with other suppliers or
brands. Thus, companies must improve the effectiveness of their
interactions with clients. Each successive interaction with a customer
should take place in the context of all previous interactions with that
customer. A conversation with a customer should pick up where the
last one left off. Effective customer interactions provide better insight
into customer’s needs.
 Customizing the offer and communications to ensure that the
expectations of customers are met. Indeed, the company should
adapt some aspect of its behaviour toward a customer, based on that
individual’s needs and value. To involve a customer in a relationship,
a company needs to adapt its behaviour to satisfy the customer’s
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expressed needs. This might entail “mass-customization a product or
tailoring some aspect of its service” (Peppers, Rogers and Dorf, 1999).
ii] The Quality Competitiveness Index Model (QCI)
QCI are independent specialists who assist blue chip companies in

managing customers. They are both strategic theorist and foremost
practitioners (Hewson et al, 2002). The QCI model shown below is
described as below.
Figure 2: The QCI Customer Management Model (Hewson et all, 2002)
The above is described as a customer management model, omitting

thereby the word “relationship”. At the centre of the model, they
highlight a range of activities needed by companies to perform in
perspective to acquire and retain customers. This model also features
people performing processes and utilizing technology to assist in those
activities.
iii] The Customer Relationship Management CRM Value Chain Model
The CRM value chain (figure. 3) is a model which businesses can follow
when developing their CRM strategies (Buttle, 2004). This model had
been developed by a range of SMEs such as IT, software, telecoms,
financial services, retail, media, manufacturing, and construction. This
model is built from strong theoretical principles and the practical
requirements of business.
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Figure 3: The CRM Value Chain (Buttle, 2000)
The main purpose of this model is, according to Buttle (2004), to ensure
that the company builds long-term mutually-benefical relationships with
its strategically-significant customers. Thus, some customers are merely
expensive to acquire and service.
Buttle has identified four types of strategically significant customer (SSC)
such as the high life-time value customer that is a key SSC and the present
day of all margins that might be earned in a relationship. He stated that
tempting as it may be to believe, not all high volume customers have high
LTV. If they demand JIT, customised delivery, or are in other ways costly
to serve, their value may be significantly reduced. We know of one
company that applied activity-based costing disciplines in order to trace
process costs to its customer base […] as consequence the company re-
engineered its manufacturing and logistics processes, and salespeople
negotiated price increases
The second group of SSC is according to the above author “benchmarks”

that are customers that other ones copy. For instance, a manufacturer of
vending machine equipment is prepared to do business with any company
because “they can tell other customers that they are supplying to the
world’s biggest vending operation”(Buttle, 2000).
The third group of SSCs are customers ‘inspirations’. They are the ones
that find new applications, “come up with new product ideas, find ways
of improving quality or reducing cost. The may be the most demanding of
customers, or frequent complainers, and though their own LTV potential
low, they offer other significant sources of value”.
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The fourth one deal with what Buttle (2004) calls “cost magnets” relating
to those that absorb a disproportionately high volume of fixed cost, thus
enabling other, smaller customers to become profitable
John Stevenson (2007), asserts that the CVC includes four stages:
– The first stage deals with grouping customers in order to determine
which of customers are most profitable. The result the companies should
seek is their target customer base. They should rate and segment their
clients into groups that are most desirable to do business with they meet
their criteria for what a desirable customer is. This is called, according to
Stevenson (2007) the Customer Portfolio Analysis.
– The second stage deals with the customer intimacy. Having found the
segments the firms want to pursue, they need to get to know the ones in
that segment very well and better than their competition knows them.
Briefly, they want to appear that they know them intimately by, for
example, in knowing their birthday, the number of children they have
and their respective birthday.
– The third stage relates to Value Proposition Definition. Thus having

understood as much as they can about the customers they have chosen to
serve, companies are then in a position to create a specific and tailored
value proposition for them.
Buttle (2000) previously raised five steps to profitable relationships that

are, customer portfolio analysis (CPA), customer intimacy, network
development, value proposition development and managing the
relationship.
Very briefly, the CPA analyses, according to Buttle (2000), the customer
base to identify customers to target with different value propositions. The
customer intimacy involves the business in getting how to know the
selected customers as segments or individuals and building a customer
data-base which is accessible to all those whose decisions or activities
impact upon customer attitude and behaviour. Buttle involves the
network development as the third step wherein a strong network of
relationships is to be built with employees, suppliers, partners and
investors who understand the requirements of the chosen customers.
The fourth stage involves developing, with the network’s compliance,

propositions which make value jointly to the customer and the company.
At this stage so far, the network has to work together to create and
deliver the chosen value(s) to selected customers, Great value is “found
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more effective and more efficient solutions of customers
problems” (Buttle, 2000). The final step is to manage the customer
relationship.
However, the above activities or stages need to be managed. Companies
need to manage each customer through their lifecycle. To enable the
management of the customer lifecycle and the stages within of portfolio
analysis, intimacy, and value proposition development, automated data
systems are necessary.
iv] The Payne’s Five Forces Model
This is a comprehensive model developed by Adrian Payne’ The model

identifies five core processes in Customer Relationship Management CRM
such as the strategy development process, the value creation process, the
multichannel integration process, the performance assessment process and
the information management process. They can be grouped into strategic
CRM, operational Customer Relationship Management CRM and
analytical CRM.
Figure 4: The Strategic Model for CRM (Payne, 2006).

Payne (2006) also introduced a strategic framework/model (Figure 2.8)
for Customer Relationship Management CRM consisting of five generic
processes such as Strategic Development, Value Creation, Multichannel
Integration, Information Management, and Performance Assessment.
The Strategy Development process is concerned with integrating the

business strategy from the organization angle and the customer strategy as
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to how firm interact and choose their customers. The Value Creation
process with the main purpose of identifying the value the firm can create
for the customer and the value the organization can also benefit from.
The Multichannel integration consists of all the virtual and physical
channels with which the firm plans to interact with. But the main thing
here is that, regardless of the channel contact, the aim is to create an
experience that is uniform and also common.
The Information Management process consists of many different of data
repository IT systems, back and front office applications and analytical
tools. It is thus necessary to access the visibility of the system so the need
for performance assessment process set in and it is concerned at the
strategic mon itoring can be used to determine customer satisfaction and
standards,
. Various authors have proposed Customer Relationship Management
CRM strategy framework. Buttle (2001) provides a Customer Relationship
Management CRM value chain that identifies a series of ‘primary stages’
highlighted above. These are helpful as it considers implementation issues.
Sue and Morin (2001) develop a framework for CRM based on initiatives,
expected results and contribution. However, this framework is not
process-based and, as the authors acknowledge, many initiatives are not
explicitly identified in the framework. Winer (2001) outlines a model,
which contains: a database of customer activity; analyses of the database;
decisions about customers to target; tools for the customer targeting; how
to build relationships with the targeted customers; privacy issues’ and
metrics for measuring the success of the Customer Relationship
Management CRM program. All these frameworks provide some useful
insights; however, Payne and Frow (2005) argue that none appear to
adopt an explicit cross-functional process-based conceptualisation; they
used an expert panel of executives with the extensive experience within
the CRM and IT sectors to identify specific cross-functional processes. Thus
the both authors identify five CRM processes including: strategic
development; value creation; multi-channel integration; information
management; and performance assessment.
v] The Dasai et al /Conceptual Model
The conceptual framework was developed by Dasai et al (2007) in which

consideration is driven towards competitive CRM performance from both
internal and external perspectives. The dynamic capability for CRM is the
key source for competitive CRM performance considering the rapidly
changing nature of the business environment today which erodes the
values of existing competencies (figure.5 below)
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Figure 5: Conceptual Model (from Desai et al, 2007)
The figure 5 above comprises resources re-configurability, social
networking capability and market orientation as the drivers of dynamic
capability for CRM. While the IT variables which are the CRM technology
and knowledge management are the moderators linking the relationship
between dynamic capability for CRM and competitive CRM performance.
As such, the direct impact of IT competence variables should be tried and
seen on competitive CRM performance.
vi] The Forrester Model
The Forrester CRM model is grouped into four types such as: Strategy;
Process, Technology; and People. The model produced results in the
findings on over hundreds of companies using CRM as strategically,
thorough analysis of over number of vendors’ solutions providers and
also with discussion with about numerous consultants. For firms willing to
kick-start their CRM programs or for those that are finding it tough to get
best out of their CRM programs after it has been launched. Also, the
performance scorecard (figure 2.9) highlights the criteria used by
companies to measure the overall performance using CRM.
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Figure 6: Forrester CRM Model (from Forrester Research, 2008)
Figure. 6: CRM Performance Scorecard (Forrester Research, 2008)

The author notices that the above scorecard looks similar that produced
by Gartner Group (IDM, 2002). Yet, few criteria were used. Thus it
should be suitable to assert the Forrester’s CRM performance scorecard is
an improvement of Gartner’s one. Table 2.1 presents Gartner performance
scorecard.
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Table 1: Gartner’s CRM Performance Scorecard (IDM, 2002)
vii] The Maturity Model
Gartner’s CRM Maturity Model is a tool in which the group used in rating
enterprises in terms of their capabilities in effectively using CRM. To
determine the category in which an enterprise is placed on the model,
they are first evaluated in terms of Overall CRM vision and strategy,
consistent valued-customer experience, organizational collaboration,
processes, information, technology, metrics.
All these elements were what composed of the Garner’s performance

measurement scorecard which was discoursed earlier on but the difference
is that, haven scored your performance based on this elements, the
maturity model will then enable the firm to know where they are at the
present and where they want to be over a period of time, what the
requirement they will need to achieve that status. It is a very useful tool as
each enterprise, that aims to satisfying their customer and also to maintain
a lead in its industry, should make use of maybe at every set intervals.
Table 2.2 shows what the model is looks like.
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Table 2: Gartner’s CRM Maturity Model for Enterprise (Gartner Group, 2001)
From the frameworks analyzed above, it was observed by the researcher

that there are similarities which cut across them. Using Forrester Research
as a benchmark and placing frameworks by Dasai et al and Payne on both
sides of Forrester’s framework, each of the components in the framework
were linked together, making it clear that they all similarly have in them
all the four elements components of Forrester’s framework.
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Contents

• Lesson 1 Overview of Customer Service

1.1 Introduction (Overview)

1.1.1 Marketing definitions

Marketing is the social process by which individuals and organizations

Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating and

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating,

We often hear the term “customer,” but who truly is defined as a

There is a domino effect between internal customer relations and external

By striving to improve internal customer relations, an organization can

It is important to build positive morale and a strong sense of employee

A business without customers is not a business. Even a business with

Customer service is part and parcel of our everyday existence. In fact, it

Don't Overlook the Obvious

Even in our online, interconnected world, it is easy to become

Understand, identify, and anticipate needs. Customers don't really buy

In most cases, requests will be fairly straightforward and achievable. Even

Essentially this means fulfilling your promises. Help customers understand

Technology as a Service Tool

In today's electronic commercial world, technological innovations are

Other essential elements of customer service are;-

3. Quick Response Time

Customers hate waiting. Especially in today’s instant-gratification-oriented

So give your employees some freedom of judgment. Think of it this way:

In order to deliver great customer service, you’re going to have to change

Surprising your customers is a great way to make a good impression.

For example, understand that as far as your customer is concerned, every

The value of customer service

Customer service is the heartbeat of any healthy organization. It’s the

Exercise: Do you give customer service the attention it deserves, or

does your firm you tend to neglect its value?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to

CRM systems compile customer data across different channels -- or points

At the most basic level, CRM software consolidates customer information

• Marketing automation. CRM tools with marketing

• Workflow automation. CRM systems help businesses optimize

This system puts the onus of administration, control, security and

With cloud-based CRM -- also known as SaaS (software as a service)

Companies might consider cloud CRM as a more cost-effective

Data security is a primary concern for companies using cloud-based

Finally, cost may be a concern, since paying subscription fees for

• Open source CRM.

An Open source CRM system make source code available to the

Open Source CRM platforms such as OroCRM, SuiteCRM and

Adoption of any of these CRM deployment methods depends on a

CRM examples in practice

Social media in CRM involves businesses engaging customers directly

To add value to customer interactions on social media, businesses

Companies are interested in capturing customer sentiments, such as

CRM applications built for smartphones and tablets have become a

A CRM system in a B2B environment helps monitor sales as they

For all of the advancements in CRM technology, without the proper

Companies may struggle to achieve a single view of the

2.2 Overview of Customer Relationship Management

Customer Life Cycle

In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term

CLM (customer lifecycle management) is a concept and a strategy that

Caution: Abandonment can happen at this phase of the Customer

In CLM conversion is synonymous with the word ‘Sales’. It is the stage in

Caution: Attrition in the steps happens when a ‘sale’ vanishes. Sometimes

Caution: Churn is a loss of an on-hand customer. Remember never to

Customer Life Cycle

Customer relationship management (CRM) continues to see wide-scale