1、 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT As. univ. drd. Mihaela Cornelia PrejmereanLect. univ. dr. Alina Mihaela DimaAcademy of Economic Studies, BucharestAbstract: After 17 years of economical and market development, Romanian companies face a new challenge: the tough competition from the European Union an
2、d the battle for the customers. The Romanian enterprises will have to learn not only how to attract customers, but also how to keep them. Marketing programs include now aspects regarding customer orientation, relationship management, loyalty and quality. In this paper, we will follow the main aspect
3、s, characteristics, dimensions and processes of Customer Relationship Management, and we will analyze the challenges that the local companies will have to face. Examples from the financial service sector will round the actual situation of the implementation of the CRM rules and principles in Romania
4、. Keywords: marketing information system; customer relationship management; business asset, customer acquisition; customer retention. 1. Introduction In the last decade, the majority of the companies were preoccupied with production, recession, mergers, new technologies and business regulation. Roma
5、nias accession in the European Union will bring many advantages for further development, together with membership in a Common Market with common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement for all the four factors of production (goods, services, capital and labor). This means that Romani
6、an companies will compete with other companies from the EU directly in their home market. European companies are more flexible and mobile and will put a high pressure on the local companies in order to produce better products, launch better offers and services and orientate more towards their custom
7、ers. High revenue equals important customer is a classic rule when the company organises its customer policy. “An important customer brings a gross amount of money for our enterprise” has become a reflex for many companies abroad and perhaps in Romania, too. But is this always true, or do we need mo
8、re information than a simple figure reported at the end of the year? 2. Marketing information system A winning company is more productive in acquiring and retaining customers, to expand its clientele (Kotler, 2003). This company improves the value of the customers by reducing the rate of defection,
9、increasing the longevity of customer Management & marketing relationship, making low-profit customers more profitable or terminating them etc. Gathering information on the actual or potential marketplace not only allows the organisation to monitor trends and issues concerning its current customers,
10、but also helps it identify and profile potential customers and new markets, to keep track of its competition, their strategies, tactics and future plans (Brassington and Pettitt,2003). In order to collect and organize a high quantity of diverse information, the enterprises started to build marketing
11、 information systems. There are, mainly, a set of procedures and methods by which pertinent, timely and accurate information is continually gathered, sorted, analysed, evaluated, stored and distributed for the use of marketing decision makers (Zikmund and DAmico,1993). The marketing information syst
12、em includes data from external and internal sources (sales records, customer records, marketing communications, and sales force information). The focus on the customer and the integration of the marketing function helps the company to create customer databases with comprehensive information about in
13、dividual customers or prospects. 3. Customer relationship management Customer Relationship Management has been around for the last 30 years, but it became very important when companies changed their attitude towards marketing function. Nowadays, the cross-functional approach to marketing requires an
14、 organizational culture and climate that encourages collaboration and cooperation between departments. People within the business must understand their role in serving customers, internal or external one. CRM builds on the principles of relationship marketing and recognizes that customers are a busi
15、ness asset and not simply a commercial audience, implies the structuring of the company from functions to processes, information are used proactively rather than reactively and develops the ne-to-one marketing approaches (Payne, 2006). When defining CRM, we must first explain the difference between
16、customer acquisition and customer retention. The two concepts have different drivers. Attracting customers has become very difficult these days, when people are harder to please. They are smarter, price conscious and sensitive, more demanding, less forgiving, and they are approached by many more com
17、petitors with equally good or better offers (Kotler,2003). Companies focus more on sales analysis, customer segmentation, advertising, merchandising and campaign management. The more difficult part is keeping the customers. According to Bruhn, a customer is satisfied when the comparison between offe
18、r and consumption fulfils his/her expectations, after he/she accepts the company, trusts it and exhibits a positive attitude towards it, becomes loyal to that company. In this situation, the customer talks favourably about the company and about its products, pays less attention to competing brands a
19、nd is less sensitive to price, which turns transactions into routine (Bruhn, 1999). With customer retention, the company must pay attention to service satisfaction and trust in Customer relationship management the organization and its staff. Some companies believe that if a customer complaints the p
20、roblem will be solved, but 96% of unsatisfied customers dont complain and go to another company. Therefore, Customer Relationship Management is the mechanism for retaining customers (Russell-Jones, 2003). Mainly CRM allows the company to understand who their customer is, isolate the best customer (t
21、hose with whom you desire to have long-standing relationships), create relationships stretching over time and involving multi-interactions, manage the relationship to mutual advantage, seek to acquire more of those “best” customers. Inputs like marketing strategy, customer base, products, and regula
22、tion, competitors and staff skills are synthesized in a CRM programme which creates outputs as customer service, customer retention, higher share of wallet, customer referral, more predictable revenues streams, improved profitability, lower costs and better compliance (Russell-Jones, 2003). 4. Devel
23、oping a strategy in customer relationship management Because CRM is a cross-functional activity and large companies have thousands and millions of customers, the need for a strategic framework is very high. The dimensions of a CRM strategy are mainly focused on defining the following topics:- object
24、 of the customer relationship management the company has three options: focusing on the company itself, on a brand or on the distributor; - target segment the company usually sets priorities between different customer segments, it defines strategic customers based on the portfolio analyses, factors
25、as revenue, length of the relationship, income, collaboration with the customer. These are its analysis criteria; - ways of retaining the customers customers satisfaction is in the centre of all the decisions, but customers retention can also become a central issue through contractual clauses, such
26、as service, leasing and warranty; - choosing the instruments of CRM the company combines the instruments of the 4Ps with focus on the customer; - intensity and timing of the CRM decisions show when and how should the company introduce different instruments; programmes can last from one day to one we
27、ek, or from three month to two years; - cooperation within the CRM programme sometimes the company must cooperate with other partners from the distribution channel, mainly between producer and wholesaler and retail. 5. Instruments of customer relationship management The communication policy plays an
28、 important role in the instruments mix. It follows two objectives: first, to build a permanent dialogue with the customer in order to stabilize or change its expectations, and second, to counteract influences after consumption. The main CRM instruments within the communication policy are: Direct-Mai
29、l is material distributed through the postal service to the recipients home or business address to promote a product or service. In CRM the mailed issue can vary from a simple letter to a catalogue, and its sending will always occur at a particular moment in customers life (birthday, invitation for
30、an event). It must incorporate sticky gadgets to increase their chances of being opened and read; Newsletters are distributed to customers for free and contain information about new products, offers for special events and others; Fidelity cards (store cards) are an important tool in gathering inform
31、ation about customer behaviour. By accumulating points of fidelity, the customer can benefit from different special offers; Clients club designates a concept which has grown in parallel with the fidelity cards. Its main forms are VIP-Club, Fan-Club, Product-Interest-Club, and Lifestyle-Club. The clu
32、b represents an opportunity for the company to make offers in accordance with the social status, acceptance, prestige and expectations of its customers; Telemarketing allows companies to undertake marketing research and is highly measurable and accountable; the number of positive and negative responses are easily recorded and monitored. It provides for interaction, is flexible and permits immediate feed-back. Online-marketing includes many forms such as on-line advertising, on-line sales promotions, on-line direct marketing, on-line public relation
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