Page 193 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Customer Relationship Management

Notes intelligence tools with CRM, can throw light on many hitherto unknown aspects of a company’s
business processes.
The insight offered by CRM into customer behaviour and demand patterns can be made use of
to streamline manufacturing and distribution of products as managed by the supply chain
function. An important feature to understand when deploying CRM is that it can only provide
information that has to be used both at the front end and back end to improve processes.
Customer segmentation information can be used to structure the purchase of raw materials,
scheduling manufacturing, managing inventory, and overall running the supply chain. A business
can obtain major cost savings by acting upon information from CRM systems.

A streamlined supply chain is key to reaching out to the right consumer at the right time and
CRM offers inputs on providing the customers with the right product mix and targeting them
with appropriate marketing. A backward integration of processes taking into account the
information obtained from CRM can help a business better allocate its resources be they in
manufacturing, processing, marketing, or sales. Apportioning of raw materials to machines and
machines to a given product can be done more accurately if market demands are known; it also
leads to a reduction of inventory stocks, JIT production, and a lean supply chain that responds to
demands quickly. All this not only helps cut costs but also acquire a competitive advantage for
a business that can take the lead in offering a better buying experience and service level that
competitors may not be able to offer.
An efficient and responsive supply chain can have a huge positive impact on store product
segmentation and effective customer targeting. Integration between CRM and SCM improves
communication between the store and the manufacturing. For retail businesses such integration
can imply a lot of benefits such as better distribution to retail outlets over various geographic
locations; feedback to suppliers, distributors, transporters, etc. The use of BI for predicting
performance at individual stores that can be aggregated to obtain a holistic picture of the supply
chain is relevant to the entire exercise. Businesses can ensure the availability of quick-moving
items and reduce the likelihood of losing customers.
A wider view of the happenings at the retail level can also help to take ad hoc decisions when
pressed for time. Marketing and sales can coordinate more fruitfully with the supply chain to
move or divert goods to given locations during peak seasons or for promotional purposes.
Viewing data pulled from marketing, sales, supply chain, finance etc on a single dashboard can
enable management as well as store managers to take profitable decisions on cross-selling and
up-selling across different channels.

Task Explain the purpose of effective e-CRM in any business.
Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
4. e-CRM is integration between the traditional CRM and …………………….
5. …………………… used to establish identity is based upon an object called digital certificate.
6. A company should evaluate …………………… along with various customer touch-point-
channels and compare …………………… against actual returns, through customer analytical
reporting.

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