Page 98 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 5: Customer Relationship Management in Services

sophisticated tools running against data stored on high-end systems, it is important that the Notes
end-results are user-friendly and accessible. If end-users have difficulty using a system, or
cannot pull up the data they need within a few seconds and navigate down through the
information toward a solution, they will abandon the application and its benefits will not be
realized. In fact, this historically has been the main reason for the failure of sales force automation
systems over the years – sales representatives, usually too focused on the business at hand,
refused to find the time to learn to use what they perceived as a difficult or cumbersome system.
The solution might be to have highly-skilled analysts who use complex statistical tools for their
analyses. The sales force will receive results of the analyses in a business-focused presentation
that addresses the implications for each action.

Many companies are removed from their end-users because they sell through third-party
distributors and retailers. For these companies, customer-relationship analysis can look at various
data feeds and provide a valuable picture of customer trends.

The Importance of Customer-Relationship Analytics

Customer-relationship analytics is part of a growing effort to apply measurable and actionable
analytics to key parts of the business. Business performance management applications now
cover a range of key performance indicators, including sales, marketing, finance and
manufacturing.
The ability to apply analytics to customer relationship management opens up opportunities to
dramatically improve these relationships. In today’s highly competitive environment, businesses
need to better understand their customers, which ones are the most profitable, and how to best
retain those customers. Though companies are investing millions of dollars in CRM systems,
they are only generating data and failing to tell the company what the data means.

Customer-relationship analytics helps companies make sense of customer needs, help companies
manage these relationships more intelligently and help predict the future. Such knowledge
provides a crucial competitive differentiation for companies seeking to gain market share and
reduce operational costs.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
13. Customer relationship analytics is sometimes also called

(a) Analytics CRM
(b) Analytical CRM
(c) CRM Analysis
(d) Advanced CRM

14. Which of these statements is not true about Customer Relationship Analytics?
(a) It helps distinguish whether customers are part of high-profit or high-maintenance
segments.

(b) It takes on the role of a highly sophisticated marketing department.
(c) It need not be shared at all levels of the organization.
(d) It can impact the company’s overall bottom line.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 93