CRM MARKETING AUTOMATION

CRM MARKETING AUTOMATION

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CRM MARKETING AUTOMATION

Abstract Customer relationship marketing automation involves the use of information technology to perform marketing functionality and customer interactions. The use of the automated process relies much in the organizations marketing strategy just as it relies on the technology used to implement it. Organizations must adjust their culture and attitude in order to embrace customer relationship marketing automation especially if it is being implemented for the first time. Organizations have realized tremendous gains from the marketing automation although there have been many failures of the strategy mostly due to poor or no strategy before implementation.

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Introduction According to Coravue (2010) the term customer relationship management (CRM) originated from the need for organizations to manage and improve the relationship with their customers. Customer relationship management involves using tools that unify and maximize the performance of sales and marketing functions in an organization. By tracking interactions that lead to sales, it is easier to manage, maintain and nurture customer relationship. Customer relationship management can therefore be defined as a technique which is aimed at providing information to customers and prospective customers and collecting information from the customers and the prospective customers to allow the organization assist them in evaluating and purchasing products that would deliver the best value. The main intention of using a customer management approach is generally to make the customer do business with the organization in an easier way. Customer relationship management software automates the processes of marketing including execution of the campaign, web advertising, brand management collateral management, and leads in the qualification distribution. The customer relationship management software addresses various needs in the organization including distribution, sales, customer service, support and marketing. Customer relationship management marketing software therefore automates various individual and collaborative activities, personalization, marketing resources, primary research and surveying and provides customers with self-service support. The software also tracks web activities for designing cross-sell or up-sell programs (Wood, 2010). Customer relationship management software generally uses a central database to bring sales and marketing activities together in an approach that is unified in order to serve customers efficiently (Coravue 2010).

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CRM marketing automation In Customer relationship management marketing automation, technologies involving both sales and marketing are integrated. The departments of sales and marketing in an organization therefore will have a level of granularity that is deeper on campaign and prospects performance. The integration enables an approach to sales and marketing that manages properly and maximizes on the use of information and communication technology (Aberdeen group, 2007). With customer relationship management automated marketing, marketing processes are optimized from data management and creative development to production and distribution. There are therefore numerous benefits that accrue from the automation process. A successful case in file for automation of CRM marketing is the Royal bank of Canada whose automated CRM marketing system has been operational since 1997. The bank had to consider its corporate culture, adjust the sales and customer service culture and commit to continuous training of staff in order to attain the intended benefits with the adopted CRM strategy. The bank had started a strategic marketing and analytics department in 1995 whose staffing has continued to grow with the success of the CRM system that has greatly contributed to the overall performance of the bank. Even with the success, the bank is cautiously optimistic and acknowledges that there is still a lot to be done concerning its business and people issues in order to reap even higher benefits from the system (Khirallah, 2001). The major benefit of the automation is that it enables the sales and marketing teams of an organization to work as a team. Teamwork ensures the customer being served is satisfied as much as possible. Using the centralized database, the team is able to guide the customer through the early stages of awareness and interest building, evaluation of the purchase options and the

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actual purchase. This guided experience enables the customer to have the best purchase that satisfies the intended need. Another benefit from the automation of the customer relationship management marketing is that the sales and marketing teams are able to track the customer life cycle. From this tracking the team is able to know many things about the customer including what attracts them to advertisements, the benefits they seek to obtain from the products, the features of the product that inspire their confidence, the most efficient market activities that attract enquiries, the performance of various sales persons and the cost of the marketing tools employed. This information is very invaluable in formulating future marketing strategies (Coravue 2010). The other benefit of automating the customer relationship management marketing is that it saves on the costs incurred by the organization in the marketing process. This is due to increased revenue as a result of better customer satisfaction. There is also reduction of the cost of sales and distribution due to the management of customer relationships instead of managing the product and the minimizing the costs of customer support since information about the customers history and preferences is available to the customer service representatives. The automation also involves call center management which is able to capture customer feedback information that can be used in measurement of performance, quality control and development of the product (Gray & Byun, 2009). According to Phillip & Sedon (2006), the benefits of automated customer relationship management automation marketing include centralized customer and sales data which enables quick access to marketing information both for analysis and reference. The organization is also able to track customer responses and referrals. The automated system also enables the organization to perform forecasting of the future sales trends which is an important tool in

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making management decisions. The management can also use the system to analyze historical trends of the sales teams and therefore make decisions concerning sales territory realignment and redistribution of the sales representatives. The other benefit of the automated customer relationship management marketing automation is its scalable nature. If it is implemented for a small or medium organization, the system hold the capability to grow with the organization and therefore the organization may not need to acquire a new system when it grows big enough but will instead upgrade the current system. Automated customer relationship management marketing systems also have the capability for customization and reconfiguration. This enables the organization that is using the system to customize and reconfigure it in case of any changes in the sales and marketing structures that may need the change. The system can also be integrated with other systems such as the accounting and other management systems enabling other people in the company access to customer information which may be necessary for making critical management decisions. Lastly the automated systems are more flexible and secure and can therefore allow relevant personnel to view any relevant information while at the same time locking out any other personnel that should not be allowed to view the information which may be detrimental to the organization (Phillip & Sedon 2006). The automated customer relationship management marketing has disadvantages as well. The greatest disadvantage being that it is expensive to implement the system especially in an organization which had not automated its operations before. The costs involve the cost of acquiring the automated system, the cost of training the sales and marketing staff and the costs due to slow performance during the early stages before the staff get used to the system. Some of the sales and marketing staff may find the system difficult to work with in the beginning while

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other critics have argued that automating the process dehumanizes a process that should be done personal with people interaction. There is also the need to continuously update and maintain the system as well as upgrading the system at the time when it can no longer work well in the organization due to change of structures or expansion. Even though the automated system includes security features, it is still susceptible to attacks by hackers, viruses and worms which can cripple the operations of the organization and affect its productivity negatively (Ghavami & Olyaei, 2006). According to Dascalos (2009) when implementing an automated customer relationship management system for marketing, the strategy may involve seven critical steps. The first step is to device a clear business strategy with clear goals and well defined objectives. The objectives will provide the organization with a chance to visualize the benefits of the new automated system that it intends to adopt. After devising a clear strategy the next step to undertake is to evaluate the system by having all the groups that intend to use the system provide an outline of the current business and sales processes in order to ensure that the practices are incorporated in the new system. It is also important to consider the existing data sources which will be needed in determining how to capture data in the automated system. The next step in the strategy is to view the new system from a critical perspective and determine the process enhancements. Process enhancements help establish the relationships between various components in the customer relationship management system strategy. The system will therefore be able to realize all the possible enhancements and therefore support greater capability more efficiently. The next step is then to document the customer relationship management system requirement and to select an appropriate vendor to supply the system according to the business requirements in the specifications. By ensuring the automation potential is carefully

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established and the strategy is well specified it will be possible to choose the best vendor tom supply the system (Dascalos, 2009). After the vendor has been selected, the next step involves determining the infrastructure requirements for the new system. The requirements determine if the organization will depend on a service provider or will venture into building an in-house system. Depending on the organizations readiness in terms of the infrastructure and personnel, it may opt to acquire a system to be used in-house or rely on service provider to provide the services. After the decision is made, the organization can then implement the new system. The implementation stage should involve personnel from both sides to ensure that strategy that was established earlier on during the planning stage is implemented appropriately. The new system will then be implemented and configured and customized to meet the needs of the organization. Immediately after the system is well configured, it is important that customized training is provided to the staff that is going to be using the system. The training should be clearly used to show how the new system will be used to enhance critical sales and business processes (Bishop, 2011). From the system, the sales representatives must know how to get information and use the system to identify and reach potential clients. Customer service representative should learn how to locate information from the database and the management should learn how to analyze data and use it in decision making. The information technology staff should learn how to provide support to the other staff as well as how to enhance the system as changes occur in the organization (Berndt, Herbst & Roux, 2009). Just like many other automation ventures, customer relationship marketing automation incurs several costs which are later paid off by the benefits the system has over the manual approach to

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the marketing issue. According to Epicor (2007) the first cost incurred is the cost of acquiring the new automated system. The acquisition costs include the cost of collecting system requirements up to the implementation time as well as the cost of training the staff on using the system. With the system in place there is also the need to educate the customer on the new way of doing things including the benefits that are expected from the system. Moreover there are the costs of maintaining the system including redesigning and upgrading the system to meet changing organizational and customer needs. There are also the costs incurred on enforcing security measures to guarantee integrity of marketing information and incase the security measures are breached, there is even a greater cost of losing important information or competitors having access to sensitive information that may negatively affect business. Ueno (2009) explains why the implementation of customer relationship management marketing automation fails. Among the reasons that lead to the failure is automating the system before having a clear customer strategy. Management may mistake the implementation of the automated system for a marketing strategy. It is important to note that the software is just an enabler to implement an already formulated marketing strategy. The second reason why the automation may fail is when an organization rolls out the system before adjusting the culture of the organization to match with the new way of doing things. With the strategy already established, it is important for the organization to adjust its business processes accordingly in terms of both internal operations such as performance measures and job descriptions; and external operations which involve customer service. The third reason that may lead to failure is the assumption that using an intensive technology with much new functionality is better. Success with automated customer relationship management marketing may depend on motivating employees to be more aware of the customer needs and not necessarily on huge investments in technology.

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The system of using customer relationship automation marketing may also fail if it ends up stalking the customers instead of wooing them to the products offered by the organization. Despite having access to an enormous volume of customer information, the organization should concentrate on contacting customers who are genuinely interested in the companys products and not just anyone since the company may be viewed as stalking the customers instead of marketing (Ueno 2009). Conclusion Customer relationship management automation marketing involves business processes, culture, strategy and technology. The positive imp acts of implementing customer relationship management marketing are much more than the negative impacts. It is appropriate for an organization to adopt a system that is appropriate to its strategy and business goals. Schloo (2009) suggests that the system should have three important features: operational excellence to provide the customers with reliable services and products and delivered with little inconvenience and at competitive prices, product leadership meaning the products should continue redefining state-of-the-art and customer intimacy meaning the delivery should be according to specific customer needs and not according to the general market needs.

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References Aberdeen group, (2007). The convergence of sales and marketing technologies. Boston: Aberdeen group. Berndt, Herbst & Roux, (2009). Implementing a customer relationship management program in an emerging market. Journal of Global Business and Technology, Volume 1, Number 2

Bishop, M. S. (2011). The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Cambridge: Forrester Research, Inc

Coravue, (2010), CRM: Taking one-to-one marketing to the next level. An executive white paper. Los Angeles: Coravue Inc. Dascalos, P. M. (2009). Seven critical steps to a successful CRM solution. SEI information technology, Los Angeles. Epicor, (2007). Strategies for a Successful CRM Implementation: A Guide for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Irvine: Epicor Software Corporation.

Ghavami, A. and Olyaei, A. (2006). The impact of CRM on customer retention. Lulea University of Technology, Sweden. Gray, P. and Byun, J. (2009), Customer Relationship Management, University of California Khirallah, K. (2001). CRM Case Study: The Analytics That Power CRM at Royal Bank [of Canada]. TowerGroup, Needham, MA USA Phillip, P. B. and Sedon, F. (2006). Benefits from CRM-based work systems. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

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Schloo, J. (2009). CRM planning guide: Your roadmap to success. New York: QIEM softwares Wood, L. (2010). Research and Markets: Global Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Marketing Automation. New York: Business wire Ueno, S. (2009). The impact of customer relationship management. Program on U.S.-Japan
Relations, Harvard University.

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Appendix The Royal Bank of Canada adopted an automated customer relationship management system with the intention of improving the quality in the interactions with its customers while delivering the solution in a professional and consistent manner. The bank acknowledges that mining and gathering customer data in order to understand and serve the customer appropriately is critical. The Royal Bank succeeded with the Customer Relationship Management because it had adopted the client information file earlier on. It also used its customer data intensively in gaining understanding to its customer needs and used the information thereof to create the customer strategy that was used in developing the customer relationship management system. The bank admits that there is still more progress that is yet to be made in the personnel and business issues. As the bank implemented the customer relationship management strategy into its network, the bank viewed the strategy form two perspectives: as an integral component in the marketing of the banks services and products and as a way that would enable the management of customer interactions. The system enabled the bank to customize its interactions with the clients according to their needs and the potential they hold as future clients. The bank used the system to ensure the Canadian culture of equality for all is upheld by the bank through training, creating a strong sales and service culture and through aligning its business processes accordingly. The bank however faces various challenges. Despite the earlier efforts that focused on the products, the view has significantly widened with time to include optimization of customers experience. The emphasis currently is to ensure every customer has a personal relationship with the bank. The bank therefore seeks to retain current clients, improve and strengthen its relationship with the customers, optimize on costs and be in control of the customers credit

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risks. The customer relationship management system at the royal bank therefore reflects a balance between people, technology and business processes.