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Unit 13: Emerging Trends in CRM

Customer relationship management is an integral part of the overall business strategy. Customer Notes
relationship management is a complex process because it raises the host of challenging business
issues that lie at the interface of all over the business. Thus, in this era of increased competition,
in order to proper, it has now become imperative for the industry to focus on developing long-
term relationships with their customers. CRM impacts that business path is a continuing source
of debate in the world of corporate management.

13.1 Emerging Trends in CRM

It is not suddenly that the business managers have realized that the customer is supreme or the
need to render personalized service. However, it was not possible to address the preferences of
a massive group of widely dispersed individuals. Neither the tools nor the technology were
available. The smart business managers did the next best thing, which was to conduct a market
research and classify the market into broad segments with different preferences. The product
managers would (and still do) then position their products catering broadly to these segments.
The information systems have evolved tremendously over the last three decades and so have
the communication systems. While ERP, the management mantra of the nineties, offered the
means to optimize resource planning at the enterprise level encompassing every area of the
enterprise on a real time basis, there was still no means of connecting to the customer. The
customer had just too many locations.
The commercial penetration of Internet into the homes changed everything. It provided the
means to take the integrated enterprise information system to the customer’s living room. He
could buy, sell or bank sitting there, while uniquely identifying himself.
This has led to the evolution of CRM, which uses the Net to integrate the customer contact points
directly with the enterprise. It provides the means to interact with every customer individually
(thereby interacting with million or even billions of customers). The interactions over a period
of time create a history that is available to the field sales/support personnel at the touch of a
button.

13.1.1 Doing Business in the CRM Era

CRM has revolutionized the way the business is transacted. Customization and personalization
have been radically redefined. There was a time when companies could do business by making
a range of products, and the customers could choose from the available product range. Now the
customer demands ‘Merawala ………’. And the companies have to gear themselves to deliver
the ‘Merawala’ products to the customers.

CRM is the great enabler that makes it possible to achieve this level of customization in a cost
effective manner. Right from highly focused marketing to the transaction and after sales support,
CRM provides a cost effective, easily accessible and cost effective interface.
By enabling direct customer interaction, CRM has changed every sphere of activity. Products
must have modular designs that can be easily customized. Even warehouses are changing from
being just storehouses to those having the facility for ‘Assemble to Order’. Customization
increases the product variety multifold since it may not be either economical or feasible to store
a huge variety. Intelligent warehouses, as they are popularly known stock the knocked down
modules and assemble them on the receipt of order.

Example: If fuel efficiency was the selling proposition for automobiles in the seventies,
sportiness in the eighties and safety in the nineties, customization is the selling proposition of
the new millennium. The e-sales concept is increasingly becoming significant in volumes for

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