PROJECT REPORT

ON
Study of CRM Products an - overview

SUBMITTED BY:

SPECIALIZATION:

Welingkar Institute of Management

Development & Research
Batch 2016-18
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that this project report titled,
“Study of CRM Products an overview” submitted by me to the department of Master Business
Administration, Welingkar Institute of Management is a bonafide work undertaken by me it is not
submitted to any other University or Institution for the award of any degree diploma / certificate
or published any time before.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In this project, I have made an honest and dedicated attempt to make the Project Report so easy
to understand for a person who is willing to get knowledge about the “Study of CRM Product
an overview” I am deeply indebted to my lecturers & my faculties who gave me opportunity of
making project report. I am also thankful to my Project supervisor Mr..................for their kind
support & suggestion for making project report.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER-1
Introduction to the study

CHAPTER-2
Background study

CHAPTER-3
Research methodology

CHAPTER-4
Conclusions & Recommendations

CHAPTER-5
Limitations

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 ABSTRACT

This research study will deeply look at the planning and implementation of CRM (customer

relationship management) in Tata Consultancy Services. The study seeks to identify the impact

that implementation of CRM has had on this company. It is from the research that we will make

it possible to identify if the implementation of CRM at Tata Consultancy Services has added

value to the company or not.

The specific study objectives are to conduct an analysis on the causes of CRM inadequacies

within the firm, to explore the management role in implementing CRM strategies, to assess the

CRM implementation approaches, to investigate the various effects that inadequate CRM has

caused to the success of Tata Consultancy Services and to analyze the importance of CRM for

the company.

Chapter one sets the framework of this research. It presents the study background, problem

statement, study objectives, research questions, scope of the study, and significance of the study.

Chapter two of these paper reviews literature as an account of the knowledge and ideas that have

been established by accredited scholars and experts in the field of study. It is guided by the study

objectives identified in the first chapter.

Chapter three presents methodology to be used to select the sample, from which research will be

carried out and methods of selection of respondents. It also explains the methods that will be

used to collect, process and analyze data.

The identified methods to be used for data collection include questionnaires and telephone

interviews. The paper also presents anticipated challenges during the actual research study.
These include, time and financial constraints as well as difficulty in acquiring information from

the respondents.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The importance of revolution in information technology and especially the World Wide

Web is a chance to build good relationship with the customer that previously has been made

possible within the world offline. By merging abilities of direct customer request and to provide

a highly interactive, customized experience to the customer, today companies have a huge ability

to establish, and maintain relationship with the customer which is long term as compared to

before. Huge profitability as a result of repeated purchase rates and minimizing costs as a result

of customer acquisition is the ultimate goal. For more than a decade customer relationship

management [CRM] has been part of marketing literature. Surprisingly, many more discussions

about what exactly makes CRM are still evident

The old viewpoint in industry is not the same as the new viewpoint, the old viewpoint was, this is

what can be made, who needs to purchase our product but the new viewpoint relates to, what is

exactly needed by the customers and what can we do to be able to effectively produce and

efficiently deliver the various wants and even needs to all customers. This can be seen as a very
important paradigm change as well as a quantum jump in regards to how business activities are

figured.

Parvatiyar and Sheth (2001) say that, a number of the various themes are a representation

of a thin perspective of functional marketing and others give a perspective which is paradigmatic

and wide in terms of orientation and approach. To view customer relationship management as

marketing database is an example of narrow perspective and so is insisting promotional

marketing aspects by customer data base leveraging. Electronic marketing is another example of

narrow approach (Blattberg and Deighton ,2001) also after marketing (Vavra, 2002) .Electronic

marketing makes up all efforts of marketing given

support by information technology but after marketing effort aims at bonding of the customers

after making the sale . On a wider level, customer relationship management means. CRM being

an important tool and way to add companies’ services and products, an apt CRM has been

considered an imperative strategic way to add companies’ products and services hence becoming

important for companies in every sector. Companies are moving closer to their customers and

looking for new ways in creating value for customers, transforming relationships and finding

solutions by partnering through the implementation of CRM.

There are set of conditions that both the organization have to put into consideration when

forming the relationship which includes wants and need of the clients and the organizations

itself. Organizations must be profitable for survival and growth and that customers want services

which are good, products which are of high quality and acceptable price. Both sets of conditions

can be highly influenced by good CRM.

 Clearly customers need the most cost effective products and services that have benefit to

them. Most apparently, this makes hat is seen as the level of perception of a high number of

suppliers. Benefits in this case refer to role of services and products play for clients. The most

important thing to note is that any distinct service or product can bring various benefits to

various clients. It is significant observe things and situations from the view of the clients even

within this stage. The most important thing to note is that customer clearly wants their various

needs met and satisfied, customer’s needs are clearly dissimilar to and much wider than a given

service or product as well as the benefits and features which are included. Generally customer

needs extend far much above the proposition of suppliers. The main focus of CRM is to ensure

that the desires and needs of the customers are not just met but that they are exceptionally met.

To come up with a list that is comprehensive and that includes all customer relationship

management functions. It is important to point out the major constructs that make up

customer relationship management. In this way Sin et al (2005) suggested that CRM make up the

below four constructs; customer relationship management organisation, technology based CRM,

key customer focus, knowledge management. Each is described as below.

1.2.1 Key customer focus

This includes building a customer focus which is strong (Vanderrmerwe, 2004; Sheth et al ,2000

and Das, 2004) as well as constantly giving advanced worth to every key client who is selected

(Parvatiyar and sheth, 2001) by the giving of offerings which are customized or personalized.
1.2.2 Customer relationship management organization

It depicts organising the whole organisation around customer relationship management, which

will result to consideration for example like, organisational structure, Human Resources

Management and resource commitment.

1.2.3Technology- based customer relationship management

Technology has a big role in enabling deployment of customer relationship management (Das,

2004). It also allows for companies to achieve bigger customization and much greater and more

quality services at a cost that is lower practitioners and academic literature review was performed

to create a detailed list of customer relationship management practices. About the customer

loyalty, Wong and Sohal (2003), explained it as deep willingness to re purchase or even

repatronizes a desired commodity or service no matter the

situation influence and marketing effort which can have ability to cause change in behaviour.

Loyalty has two dimensions, behavioural and attitudinal (Day, 2001; Dick and Basu, 2004).

Examples of behavioural loyalty comprises of examples like repeated buying or inviting

other people to make purchases among others while examples of attitudinal loyalty include

emotional attachment or trust (Baumann et al., 2005). Additionally, behavioural loyalty is not an

outright indication of attitudinal loyalty, this is as a result of other existing factors that prevent

defection by the customers (Aldlaigan and Buttle, 2005; Reinartz and Kumar, 2002). There has

been additional relationship between customer loyalty and profit levels (Reinchheld and kumar,
2002) besides, one of the key objective of customer relationship management is customer-

loyalty (Lindgreen, 2004; Das, 2004; Sin et al, 2005; Parvatiyar and Sheth, 2001).

Gaining better understanding of customer behaviour and the need to concentrate on

consumers who can provide profits that are long term have changed

the way marketers perceive the world. Conventionally, training has been given to marketers on

how to get clients, either by acquiring new customers who have never purchased the particular

product prior to or the customers who are at that time rivals. This requires extensive mass

advertisement and promotions which are oriented to the price to channel members and customers

.Now days the conversation is not about how to acquire a customer but how to retain the already

existing customers.

This calls for a mindset which is different and a 3 new and different tool set. An experiment that

is well thought for a given audience and which is executive entails finding out their spending

power or asking them about how much is spent in relation to targets on retention

versus acquisition actions. Whereas there are difficulties in distinguishing acquisition and

retention, acquisition tends to dominate retention. The drive for this attention in customer

relationship management originated from Reichheld who indicated the dramatic rise in the level

of profits obtained from slight increases in the rates of customer retention. His studies

for example indicated that a percentage as low as a rise of 5 percent in terms of retention made a

rather high impact of 95 percent on the acquired net –present- value from consumers

(advertisement agencies ) indicating a 35 percent (computer software). Consultants like

McKinsey have done studies indicating that customers who make repeated purchasing produce

more than double the gross income level than that of new clients. The extensive
technological advancement modernization of customer relation management associated products

has resulted to greater profitability due to reduced customer mix.

For organizations to attain effective CRM, the adoption of a new working strategy or

perspective is important. The organizations must know that conventional customer service relates

to the company’s action towards the customer while modern CRM is attained through working

with the customer. This description provides an understanding of the differences that exists

between conventional service provision to customers and the modern CRM approach. A

company’s relationship with its customers must always be continuous, long term and

cooperative.

For companies that have numerous temporary relationships with their consumers, huge costs are

incurred as they have to obtain new clients. The cost a company is likely to incur in maintaining

existing customers is extremely lower than that of obtaining new ones.

1.2.4 The principle of Pareto

This is alternatively referred to as the rule of 80:20 whereby any given company has 20 percent

of their clients accounting for a turnover of 80 percent, 20 percent of the clients

accounting for a profit of 80 percent and the same 20 percent of clients accounting for 80 percent

supply and service problems. This therefore makes it important for the company to clearly

identify which clients match a given category as a way of ensuring that they are effectively able

to manage them.
When clients are satisfied and highly value the services and products a company is providing,

they become great company advocates. These customers therefore need to be nurtured and given

all the special treatment possible. When clients are dissatisfied and have a low opinion of the

company and the provided services and products, they become potential saboteurs. As the

customers have very little or no loyalty at all for the company, they are likely to act

against the company hence companies should ensure that they work towards rebuilding trust and

relationships or to ensure that the separation is managed with the highest levels of integrity,

professionalism and dignity.

The main focus of any given company should always be to create core levels of competencies as

well as a basic strategy through which they build customer relationship. Through this, the efforts

of the company are likely to be in alignment with clients and a working culture of always being

able to be above the expectations of the clients, managing and understanding of the impact of

people on the organization’s culture, recognizing and treating clients as partners, valuing

relationship building seeing service as an activity that adds value, rewarding and recognizing on

the basis of customer focus and showing evidence of existing corporate support in relation to

service quality.
 CHAPTER TWO
BACKGROUND

Background of the Study

Customer Relationship Management is an important section of current business

management. It deals with the existing association between the customer and organization.

Customers are seen as being the means of support of any organization even if it’s a global

corporation with hundreds of thousands of workers and even multi-billion-revenue, or a single

trader with just a few regular customers. CRM is similar in terms of principle related to the two

given examples that include the range of customer relation management which can differ

drastically.

Customer Relationship Management can also be viewed as a tool in marketing during the

modern day business marketing approaches. The globalization and liberalization effects have

caused competition levels to soar to very high levels. With the increased number of businesses

having varied products and services to offer to the large number of customers globally in

addition to presence of differentiated products, understanding of customer

behaviours is very critical. A number of those who have successfully incorporated its use in their

operations have reaped huge profits. Therefore, the integration of CRM applications into the

business processes and operations is very critical.

Success in the modern business is build on the marketing propositions hinged on customer

service leverage, with companies having customer need requirements analysis mechanisms, as

well as having comparative advantage. The ability to retain existing clients and wooing in

potential ones is largely dependent on appreciating customer behaviours, quality of customer

relations as well as service provision (Thompson et al, 2006). However, the implementation of

CRM has been facing various challenges leading to failures or unpleasant outcomes as cited by

various literal reviews. Undesirable results that are manifested by inadequacies of CRM in a

company, originate from realignment problems. This is because; successful implementation

requires the integration of a company’s operations into the CRM framework (Goodhue et al,

2002). Additionally, the absence of senior management involvement, as well as failure to

incorporate the needs and customer preferences in addition to the company‘s desirable outcomes

in line with CRM requirements, has a negative effect on the success of CRM (Nguyen et al,

(2007).

Organizations which are successful have been found to use the following three main

levels of developing customer relationships. These include coming up with mutually fulfilling

goals between both the clients and the organization, creating and maintaining customer bond and

to come up with positive feelings in organization

In order to develop and improve focus on customer relationship management companies are

establishing or considering dividing the job of the marketing manager into two sections with the
first section being on acquisition while the second is on being able to retain. The skill type

mainly required for the success of the two tasks is rather different. In the case of acquisition

people skilled in this area are experienced in usual strategic ways of marketing which entails

sales, advertising among others. However, in the case of retention skills are quite dissimilar

because the job needs a better understanding of the underpinnings of fulfilment of a certain

product category. Time is a critical rare resource and it makes it extremely hard to do a brilliant

job on both acquisition and retention this resulted to companies employing a chief customer

officer [CCO] his or her main job being only to focus on customer interactions.

Problem Statement

Customer Relationship Management is currently an important part for any IT

organization, Effective implementation of CRM in the organization and effective Customer

service by the organization could bring about competitive advantage for the organization. The

current business landscape is faced with many challenges due to liberalization and globalization

effects. There has been a shift in the focus on how businesses should be run in order to contain

existing customers and woo in new ones. CRM thus becomes very critical role in achieving

successful business operations.

The business world is concentrating on issues concerning electronic commerce with the

progression of the new millennium (Teo et al., 2003). Electronic commerce covers a lot of

activities done using computer internet and networks which includes intra organizational

transactions, inter organizational commerce and dealings which involves individual clients. The
net is responsible for making a huge important impact on business-to-business (B2B)

transactions. There has been prediction from recent studies that revenue which results from

the internet Business- 2- Business electronic commerce will reach $6.8 trillion in 2004. This kind

of predictions shows the significance of the Internet as a means of showing support to the

business activities.

Currently, it seems that the Internet gives almost unrestricted possibilities. In fact, many

firms already have experienced sizeable benefits. Among the resultant of the Internet

development has been coming up of the World Wide Web which is a net service which arranges

information in terms of hyperlink and hypermedia paradigms. Some of the firms have made

investments in this particular Web mainly with the need to use it for reducing

resources. Nowadays, World Wide Web possesses huge capabilities as a means of performing

management and business activities.

CRM is a top modern way of approaching businesses and which has been recognized in literature

already. In fact, customer relation management refers to all activities which concerns business

focused towards the initiation, establishment also maintenance and development of successful

lasting relational exchanges. Customer loyalty promotion is one of the out come of customer

relation management which is seen as a relational fact .There are huge benefits of customer

loyalty to a service or product giver and therefore, organizations are keen to attain a vital

customer loyal base as is found possible. Current emergence of Internet technology has provided

the Internet with a new duty that includes making possible the connection between customer

loyalty and CRM. Nearly everything that is presently known concerning the effects of Internet
usage on the management of businesses is actually based on evidence, anecdotes, ad hoc –

descriptive research studies on experiments. There is a very small obtainable research that tested

the outcomes of internet on customer relation management that eventually leads to customer

loyalty, nevertheless, have opportunities and also threats.

The extent of usage of internet used by the organization and the significant commendation it is

given might be as a result of its improved interactive and informational capabilities in

communication. Through this, it is used like a channel of business and hence results to

emergence of a more efficient customer relation management and also the development of latest

network–cooperative-opportunities. Nevertheless, the assumption that the Web presents

customer relation management opportunities rarely has been empirically tested.

The attentiveness of building useful interactions with the customer is a rather old advancement in

the business sector .The rising competition and falling consumer loyalty have

formed the need to develop new tools of aiding companies in wining consumer loyalty and

beating competition by coming up with more personalized services and company products

.Speedy advancement in the application of systems of information that have allowed business to

clients relations , customers have acquired knowledge about the changing nature of the products

and service demand through the internet technology thus providing the companies with ability to

deal with the increased knowledge obtained by the customer. Many of the business firms

struggle to implement systems of customer relationship management; they encounter the

disappointing truth of the critical failure level within their customer relationship management

projects establishment.

As Gartner group indicated, approximately 50 percent of all customer relationship management

projects were unsuccessful in attaining their goals (Knox et al, 2003). As a result of high failure

percentage of customer relationship management projects a large number of researchers have

come up with a variety of framework for customer relationship management Implementing the

Customer relationship which involves the use of information technology and the internet in an

effective way in all the operations of the organization is important part of the Management.

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents a discussion of the methodology used in this research, which

attempts to evaluate and explain the effects of inadequate customer relationship management in

Tata Consultancy Services. This methodological chapter includes the following elements:,

selection of Tata Consultancy Services as the study area and population, hypotheses, research

design, sample and population, instrumentation, data collection procedures, statistical analysis,

ethical considerations and limitation of the study.

 According to Febelmar, (2009), the techniques that may be utilized in conducting a

research project in a given subject, differ, depending on the approach taken; qualitative approach

or quantitative. The duration of research is also important in determining what tools of research

can be utilized, in order to get the appropriate outcomes that meet the intended objectives. This

can either be short term or long run.

3.2 Research Design

The study is descriptive in nature seeking to investigate the effects of inadequate

Customer Relationship Management at Tata Consultancy Services. The study will employ both

qualitative and quantitative designs. The combination of the techniques will assist in getting an

in depth understanding the various underlying conditions which have contributed to the

implementation shortcomings. Face to face interviews will be used. Numbers and percentages of

the responses from the respondents will be calculated and presented in tables for easy

comparison. Qualitatively an interview guide will be constructed for the key informant.

Questionnaires will also be provided to five customers of the company.

3.3 Sample Framework

3.3.1 Sample size and technique.

A total of six respondents will be used for the study. The research seeks to investigate the

effects of inadequate Customer Relationship Management at Tata Consultancy Services with

focus being on the role the management has played in the implementation process. In identifying
the success of a completed CRM project, assessing on the customer’s satisfaction level is very

important,. Customers form a very important part of the CRM system hence the sample selected

must therefore be representative of them. The sample will include five customers of Tata

Consultancy Services who have been continuously transacting with the company for the past five

years and one manager of the company. Random sampling will be used to randomly select the

respondents.

3.3.2 Sample procedure

Qualitative technique will be used to get views from the respondents and also to gather

information on effects of inadequate Customer Relationship Management at Tata Consultancy

Services. Quantitative sampling will be used to come up with the number of respondents who

participated in the study.

3.4 Data Collection

The selections of study participants will logically lead to gathering of data pertinent to the

study subject. The researcher will employ the use of face to face interviews to obtain the various

views. The use of face to face interviews will be efficient in getting to seek clarification of any

unclear information that the respondent may have given. It also ensures that all needed

information is acquired as the interviewer is in control and has the ability to ask the questions in

a way that he or she believes will get response. Questionnaires will also be provided to the five

selected customers of Tata Consultancy Services. The questionnaires will be self administered as

the respondents are considered literate and thus able to fill. The
questionnaires are well prepared, simple to hear, and easy to understand. Secondly,

questionnaires do not use leading or value-laden works to avoid internal bias. The interview

will be carried out in such a way that a high level of professionalism is maintained and with no

partiality whatsoever.

3.4.1 Sources of Data

This study used both primary and secondary data.

Primary data will be collected using face to face interviews and questionnaires.

Secondary data will be collected through document analysis in the form of Reports, books,

manuals, news papers, and journals and the internet which will be read and the required data

collected from them.

These will be effective in ensuring that data errors are reduced.

3.4.2 Primary and secondary researches

Primary researches involve collection of information from the scratch and it entails a lot

of work in billing the information. It is the first hand research which provides the researcher

with the first hand information which is more realistic. Primary researches employ methods such

as focus groups, personal interviews, questionnaires, observations and surveys. Nonetheless, a lot

of effort is needed for successful results.

Secondary researches on the other hand are based on already collected materials or

information. This can be found in books, journals, archived as well as internet sources and

periodicals. The already available sources of information cut down on time and cost related
challenges. However, for best outcomes, reliability and authenticity of the sources must be

established.

3.5 Data recording

The collected information shall be recorded audio tapes, information sheets and write ups

for further referencing in the subsequent stages of the project.

3.6 Target group

These are participants or recipients that aid in data collection process. To get the

information concerning Tata Consultancy Services, the research will engage the customer

relations manager and five randomly Selected clients.

3.7 Research analysis

The analysis of the findings will be done by using tools such as graphs, bars, pie charts

for quantitative data. The qualitative data will be analyzed through comparative analysis of the

actual data information collected with standard results of the CRM applications or anticipated

outcomes that were set before the roll out of the research.

3.7.1 Resources used for the research analysis

Research analysis involving a large amount data will require utilization of computer

aided tools such as excel spread sheets, inferences and measures of central tendency such as

mean, median.
3.8 Ethical Considerations

Ethical consideration is a very important domain that has to be kept into mind especially

when carrying out a research. To start with, it is important for one to get approval letters that will

enable him or her to carry out the research. It is for this reason that I therefore first of all got a

letter of clearance from the university so that I can have a go ahead in carrying out my research.

In addition, I also had to acquire a gate pass letter from the

administrators within the area under study. In this case, I obtained a letter from the relevant

authorities permitting me to carry out my research.

Before collecting information using the questionnaire, I ensured that I obtained the

informed consent of the respondents. In this case, I explicitly introduced myself by saying who I

was and giving details of the purpose of my research. I also explained to the respondents on why

I needed information from him. I then requested the respondents to allow me to proceed by

asking them a few questions. I also informed the respondents of his right to withdraw from the

research if he or she felt the need to do so.

Privacy and confidentiality of all information collected from the respondents is important.

It is also necessary that the respondents remain anonymous during the entire research process.

This research was conducted in such a way that it ensured that all information remained private

and confidential. I also ensured that the information given is solely for research and will not be

provided to any other person.

I also explained the essence of privacy and confidentiality as a value of research. After the entire

research process is complete and validated, the questionnaires will be burned since they will

have ceased to function. An agreement in writing between the respondents and I was prepared to

confirm this.

REVIEW

This includes a review of existing literature as an account of the knowledge and ideas that have

been established by accredited scholars and experts in the field of study. It is guided by the

objectives of the study outlined in chapter one. These include analyzing the causes o f CRM

inadequacies in Tata Consultancy Services, exploring the role of the management in the

implementation of CRM strategies, assessing the CRM implementation approaches, investigating

the impact inadequate CRM has on the success of Tata Consultancy Services and analyzing the

importance of CRM.

3.2.1 Literature Search Strategy

The literature search strategy entailed the use of browse method of accessing library

literature. The search was done from the college library and the internet. This aimed at finding

good and relevant literature for the topic as well as looking at the selected vocabulary to be bale

to remove or deduce any other limited vocabulary likely to be made use of within the subject

parameter. Through the use of the browse mode or subject search and putting in the controlled –
vocabulary within the database print version, relevant articles and information was obtained as

well as others that were not relevant. Relevance of the material was identified by quickly looking

through the information given and identifying if it will be useful for the research. The reviewed

literature included text books and peer reviewed journals dated from the year 2000 to 2016.

Multiple searches on the database were done to discover recent publications. The search terms

used were only limited to the publications ranging between the identified years of 2000 to 2016.

All the identified publications were then examined and the relevant ones retrieved to be used for

the literature review. The reference lists for all the retrieved documents or publications were

manual or hand searched so as to identify any additional publications.

The specifications for the search engine that was used included Google search conducted

through the internet and also the use of search terms and the specific dates for the search. The

search terms or key words used for identifying the relevant information for the study topic

included CRM, customer loyalty, client satisfaction, client lifetime value, CRM strategy and

CRM in Tata Consultancy Services.

3.2.2 Structure of literature review

The literature review of this study focuses on the following subjects and issues:

Part I. Customer Relationship Management: its definition and a brief description.

Part II. Major CRM elements

Part III. Implementation of the right Customer Relationship Management solutions

Part IV. Types of Customer Relationship Management solutions: a) Off the shelf solutions b)

Outsourced solutions c) Managed solutions d) Bespoke software

Part V. Components of Customer Relationship Management: a) Technology b) People c)

Business process

Part VI. Failures in the implementation of CRM

Part VII. CRM strategy and level of response

Part VIII. Behaviours and needs related to CRM

Part IX. Benefits of Customer Relationship Management: a) Distributed or shared data b) Cost

reduction c) Quality and improved Customer service d) Enhanced

customer satisfaction e) Better retention of customers f) Increased new business g) Increased

repeat business h. Reduced costs i) Increased profits

Part X. Assessment of CRM benefits

Part XI. The Management role in implementing CRM Strategies

Part XII. Impact of Inadequacy of CRM on Success of Companies: a) Effects on customer,

loyalty and retention b) Effects on the management c) Effects on marketing.

Part XIII. Customer Relationship Management at Tata Consultancy Services a) Customer

Experience Enhancement Engine

3.2.2.3 Theoretical frame of reference

The list below represents the various reviewed literatures that have been critically

analyzed to develop the chapter on critical literature review and that have been used to obtain

information on Customer Relationship Management: its various elements, benefits, components

and solutions, the roles played by the management in its implementation as well as the impacts
its inadequacy will have on the success of companies. In the literature review there are about

thirty five references. Out of that main concept which the researcher used here is mentioned

below with the author’s name and year.

Author Year Concept

Adelaar, T. (2000) CRM technology

Aldlaigan and Buttle, F. (2005) customer satisfaction

Ali, A. and Alshawi, S. (2003) CRM implementation

Alt, R. and Puschmann, T. (2004) Benefits of CRM

Arussy, L. (2005) Inadequate CRM implementation

Blumberg, D. (2002) CRM implementation

Bohling, T., Bowman, D., LaValle, S., Ramani, G. et al. (2005) Inadequate CRM

implementation.

Chalmeta, R. (2006) CRM benefits

Darrellm and Ledingham (2004) CRM benefits

Dick, A., and Basu, K. (2004) CRM benefits: Customer loyalty

Dwyer, et al. (2007) Benefits of CRM: customer retention

Evans,R. and Laskin, L. (2001) CRM benefits

Gefen, D. (2002) CRM benefits: Customer loyalty

Goodhue, et al. 2002 CRM benefits

Kale, H. (2004) CRM implementation failure

King, F. & Burgees, F. (2007) CRM implementation failure

Kristin, A. and Kerr, C. (2002) overview of Customer Relationship Management

MacFarlane, M. (2011) CRM customer satisfaction and loyalty

McCalla, et al. ( 2003) causes of CRM failure

Nevin, J. (2005) CRM overview

Nguyen T et al. (2007) Behaviours and needs related to CRM

Payne, A. and Frow, P. (2004) CRM implementation failures and benefits

Payne, M and Ballantyne, D. (2002) CRM benefits

Peppers, D, Rogers, M & Dorf, B. (2000) Efective CRM implemntation

Rigby, D. and Ledingham, D. (2004) Inadequate CRM implementation: impacts

Rigby, et al. (2002) Inadequate CRM implementation: impacts

Rowley, J. and Dawes, J. (2000) "Disloyalty: a closer look at non-loyals", Journal of

Consumer Marketing, 17 (6):538 – 547

Tata Consultancy Services (2011) CRM implementation at Tata Consultancy Services

Thirkell, C. and Huff, L. (2007) CRM solutions

Thompson S., Devadoss, P. and Pan, L. (2006) CRM components

Treacy, M. and Wiersema, F. (2005) Role of the management in implementing CRM

Peel, J. (2002) CRM overview

Varadarajan.R. (2006) CRM benefits

Verhoef, C. and Langerak, C. (2002) CRM failure

Zeithaml, et al. (2002) successful CRM implementation

A brief overview of how each of the above references has been used in the paper is as illustrated

below.
Adelaar, T. (2000) Looks at the use of technology in CRM with focus being on Electronic

commerce and its effects on market structure. Aldlaigan and Buttle, F. (2005) explores on the

level of customer satisfaction that customers acquire from the services rendered by retail banks.

Ali and Alshawi (2003) assess the impact that cross culture may have on the implementation of

CRM. This reference has been useful in finding information on the various elements and

components that make up CRM.

Alt and Puschmann (2004) look at the successful CRM practices and have been effective in

providing information on the benefits of CRM on companies. Arussy, L. (2005) points out on

the various mistakes made when implementing CRM and the need to understand them. The book

has been useful in identifying how best CRM can be successfully implemented to achieve set

goals.

Blumberg, D. (2002) has been used to explain e commerce and how effective it can be during

CRM implementation. Bohling, Bowman, LaValle and Ramani, et al. (2005) have helped in

Identifying the various reasons for CRM failure. Chalmeta, R. (2006) brings out important

concepts about CRM implementation and has been useful in identifying CRM benefits and the

role of computerization.

Darrellm and Ledingham (2004) have also been useful in analysing CRM benefits in this study.

Dick, A., and Basu, K. (2004) bring out the concept of customer loyalty as a product of CRM.

The journal has not only been useful in the literature review but also in the defining customer

loyalty.
According to Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (2007) it is important to fully involve customers and staff

members in the implementation of CRM. I have also used the references in discussing customer

retention as a basic aim of implementing CRM.

Evans and Laskin (2001) focus on relationship marketing through CRM. Through the book, I

have been able to identify CRM as being a strategy that allows for business processes to be

customer focused. E-commerce is an important part of CRM and that is a great contributor of

customer loyalty as brought out by Gefen, (2002).

The journal marketing management by Goodhue, Wixom and Watson (2002) has been useful

through in both chapter one and two of these paper. The journal has especially been useful in

identifying CRM benefits. Kale, (2004) talks of CRM failure. It is from the author’s journal that

information on the main causes of CRM failure as well as on the importance of effective decision

making processes in ensuring success in CRM implementation. The works of King & Burgees

(2007) clearly brings out the dos and don’ts in the implementation of CRM and have been

helpful in identifying causes of CRM failure and factors necessary for successful

implementation.

Kristin and Kerr (2002) broadly discuss the concept of CRM and have therefore been useful in

the entire chapters one and two of the study. Through his soft ware guide, MacFarlane,

(2011) bring out the importance of CRM in developing systems of tracking clients and analysing

their various needs, undertakings that are effective in ensuring that service delivery is improved

and that have been emphasised in the paper as contributors of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
McCalla, et al. (2003) has been useful in identifying the cause of failure in CRM implantation

and what needs to be done to ensure success. Using the work by Nevin (2005) in this section of

the research study has been to create a clearer understanding of the concept of CRM inclusive of

the definition.

Nguyen, Sherif and Newby (2007) in their article “Strategies for successful CRM

implementation” have given me detailed information to discuss on the failures during CRM

implementation, benefits of CRM and Behaviours and needs related to CRM.

Payne and Frow (2004) provides information that I have used in discussing CRM

implementation failures and the benefits resulting from CRM. Payne and Ballantyne (2002)

on the other hand identify the benefits that CRM implementation by a company may have on the

marketing and marketing strategies.

Peppers,Rogers & Dorf (2000) and Peppers and Rogers (2003) in their various works focus on

one- to- one marketing. A review of the book and articles presented by the authors respectively

gave some insight on effective CRM implementation through focus on individual clients.

Works by Rigby and Ledingham (2004) and Rigby Reichheld and Schefter (2002) have been

relevant in providing information on CRM failures and the impact of inadequate CRM

implementation.

Rowley and Dawes (2000) also look at customer loyalty in marketing and therefore help in

understanding the concept.

Information of the implementation of CRM at Tata Consultancy Services has been obtained from

their website and cited as Tata Consultancy Services (2011). This gives more information on

CE3: Customer Experience Enhancement Engine as the technological solution used.

By identifying the strategic value that CRM has Thirkell and Huff (2007) view CRM as a

strategy. Their article has been useful on understanding the concept as a strategy and in

providing information related the various CRM solutions with emphasis being on off the shelf

solution. Thompson, Devadoss and Pan (2006) explores on the various components of CRM. In

this paper the journal article has been used to obtain information on technology as one of the

components and the various benefits of implementing CRM.

Treacy and Wiersema (2005) have been effective in identifying the roles that managers play

during CRM implementation. Peel, J. (2002) also helps in providing an overview on the modern

concept of CRM.

A statement by Varadarajan (2006) as illustrated in the reviewed literature section below

indicates the importance of CRM in increasing company revenue, productivity and profitability.

Verhoef and Langerak (2002) through their work “Eleven misconceptions about customer

relationship management” provide information on failures in CRM implementation

and identify the assumption that CRM equates customer acquisition and that customer

satisfaction equates customer loyalty as being one reason for CRM failure.

Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Leonard (2002) discusses on the importance of integrating different

processes to ensure successful CRM implementation. According to these authors synchronizing

the various processes prepares the business for a rise in the level of output. The authors describe

the implementation of CRM as that which entails three key business processes which are sales,

services and marketing.

Each of the above references was effective in providing information related to the various areas

of the topic of Customer Relationship Management. All the information collected from the

literatures was relevant and sufficient enough. The reviewed literature will be useful handling the

rest of the chapters of this dissertation in such a way that they provide a basis through which the

primary data is to be collected. The findings from the primary research can later be compared to

those obtained by the various other researches done by the various authors, within the literature

review, and the comparison results later be used to come up with suitable conclusions. The

reviewed literature will also be effective in developing recommendations at the end of this

dissertation.

3.2 Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management, abbreviated as CRM, is defined as the tools and

methodologies through which businesses are able to manage relationships with their customers in

a manner that is organized. This management process is according to Thirkell and Huff (2007) a

strategy that has been adopted by many companies all over the globe as a way of effectively

managing their various interactions with their clines, consumers as well as sales prospects. It

entails the process of organizing, automating and synchronizing business processes through the

adoption and use of technology. This according to Nevin (2005) does not only apply to company

sales but also to other activities within the business such as technical support, marketing,

customer care and service. CRM can therefore be said to aim at

identifying, attracting and bringing in new customers into the business, nurturing and retaining

the already existing ones, bringing back former clients and reducing the marketing costs and
customer service. Customer relationship management in this case incorporates strategies to allow

for effective business functioning within the departments of customer interface and also within

other departments

Customer Relationship Management in small businesses entails a number of processes.

One such process is that which helps in identifying and targeting a company’s best clients,

promoting quality and leading sales, planning and implementing marketing campaigns that are

marked with clear and precise objectives and goals. Every set objective must always be SMART

meaning that it should be specific, possible to measure, achievable, very realistic and also time

bound. CRM as a process also allows for the formation of individualized interactions with

clients, which in turn promotes customer satisfaction, and for the provision of the highest quality

of client service to customers seen as having the highest profit gains. As another process, CRM

provides staff members with all the necessary to information through which they will be capable

of correctly identifying the various wants and the needs of their customers as well as build strong

relationships between the consumers and the company (Arussy, 2005).

Communication has always been regarded as being the key for any relationship to be

successful. In the case of CRM, the existing relationship should be of high quality as well as

consistent. It also needs to be focused, relevant, reliable, on time and coherent. The main thing

when it comes to communication is the message that has been sent and the meaning that has been

obtained on the other end. This falls irrespective of the communicator’s thoughts on what they

may have said. Communication should be judged according to the reaction given by the receiver

such that when the given observed reaction is bad, then the communication can be termed as

poor.
All information within the system of CRM ensures that communication is correctly directed to

the audience. The system also needs to ensure that it facilitates and encourages actionable and

honest feedback. The information that contained within the system of CRM system makes it

possible for communication directing to the right audience and in the right way. The system of

communication should allow for encouragement and facilitation of actionable feedback and

honesty (Kristin and Kerr, 2002).

The main tools used in customer relationship management include browser and software

based applications whose function entails collecting and organizing important information about

a company’s clients. As an effective strategy for example, a company may use an existing

database containing information about their customer during he construction of a client

satisfaction survey or during decision making on which of their new products are the clients most

interested in (Kale, 2004).

3.3 Major CRM elements

As a strategy, CRM aims at accomplishing three key requirements. One such requirement

is to ensure that it provides as an enterprise or existing business the ability to fully view and

understand every client to allow for unified and consistent contact between the client and any of

the employees within the enterprise.

The knowledge of this helps in increasing the sales opportunities as well as customer service

effectiveness (Kristin and Kerr, 2002).

 The second requirement that needs to be fulfilled by CRM is to enable clients to

consistently and fully view and understand the enterprise without considering the customer’s

mode of contact. This is an effective way through which customer satisfaction and retention can

be improved.

The third requirement is that enabling the staff at the front office to conduct marketing,

service and sales tasks in an efficient manner ensuring teamwork as a means of increasing

expertise and making a reduction in costs.

Through CRM business owners are more able to manage and even report client and contact

interactions with other business contacts inclusive of both outside and inside sales, shipping,

billing, customer service as well as support (Ali and Alshawi, 2003).

3.4 Implementing the right Customer Relationship Management solutions

Implementation of CRM as a business strategy is an undertaking that is capable of having

huge impacts on a business enterprise. This implementation is however one that requires for an

effective decision making process to be done. Making the right decision therefore requires a

number of factors to be considered. According to Thirkell and Huff (2007) one key factor is the

need to identify the goals that CRM intends to achieve. Some of these goals may entail

improving customer service to attract and maintain clients, improving product development

through increased collection of customer data or integrating customer data collected from various

sources. Goal identification allows for the relevant and most effective strategies to b put in place.
 ICT and software are very important in enhancing the achievement of effective customer

relationship management capability and mainly in large firms. There are different kinds of

systems available in the market today hence there is need to ensure that one has a clear

understanding of the various requirements necessary during the process of selecting soft ware

solutions. This process in most cases will require that the company also chooses a preferable

provide of ICT as the implementation of any given soft ware solutions and mainly in large

companies calls for support in the processes of providing specifications, implementing, training

as well as maintaining. Just like in any other project related to ICT, it is necessary to ensure that

the selected advisors are not only knowledgeable but also reliable and that they have access to

solutions that have been proven to be cost effective. The advisors

should also be those that are capable of building and implementing effective ICT capability and

CRM soft ware.

Conducting a market research is also a crucial factor necessary for the right implementation of

the various CRM solutions. This process entails identifying the leading sellers and the existing

price range, identifying the various technologies being used by the competitors and interacting

with the trade associations related to the business.

Another important factor is the need to always focus on the kind of CRM required. The

CRM could in this case be networked, generic, web hosted, standalone, real time access, special

customization or industry specific. By identifying the kind of CRM required then one is able to

able to effectively select the correct tools, requirements and procedures needed for the

implementation process.
 Identification of interface requirements is another important factor which entails

identifying other Customer Relationship management systems like for example those that are

used by a business’s partners within the supply chain, legacy systems, product- data management

systems and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

Making the right decisions during CRM implementation also requires that a business

quantifies the expected benefits. This entails identifying the probable effects the implementation

will have on the level of profitability, revenues and cost of customer service. A cost benefit

analysis is in this case used to identify the various costs like for example the cost per every user

or license, the number of licenses required, rent or buying cost and ISDN or broadband costs if

large files are to be transferred.

The implementation should also be done in such a way that if the CRM implementation is

being done for a specific function within the business, then every new solution should be in such

a way that it can be integrated with the already existing ones. If a new working technique is

introduced, it is bound to affect other business areas. If the

customer increases for example, then this is likely to cause an impact on stock management,

sales and purchasing. Synchronizing the various processes prepares the business for a rise in

the level of output (Zeithaml, et al. 2002).

Another important factor is one related to sufficient and efficient process of collecting data. This

call s for the need to always ensure that all data collected is put into consideration when making

decisions. It is through efficient data collection for example that a business can be able to
identify if they have sufficient resources to cater for an increase in customer response and in turn

develop alternative solutions or relevant control measures if the resources are not enough.

Security and protection of data is another important factor that influences decision

making during CRM implementation. It is important to always ensure that the system created

provides complete protection to the privacy of the clients. This therefore calls for the business

implementing the system to register under the Act of data protection. One should ensure that all

information included in the system is created in such a way that only the relevant parties within

the company are able to access it.

Customer relationship Management involves collaboration as well as sharing of

information within and outside a business firm. This therefore means that there are several

decisions that require to be made before the system is implemented into a given company or

business. These decisions include; identifying if the various solutions match the partners within

the supply chain, identifying if the company is ready to make any necessary changes in the

culture and if the systems are secure. Planning for partnerships or collaboration requires the

company to plan on any additional training that the employees will require to effectively and

efficiently handle the system. Companies should also ensure that they liaise with their key

customers and suppliers on issues such as the kind of software’s they are using, available

hardware platforms as well as their policies of collaboration. The project should be broken down

into manageable parts and a pilot-study set up. The set up plans should be inclusive of a

measurable architecture.
According to Peel (2002) a correct implementation process also requires that the company gets

to try out the systems before that actual purchase and installation of the system. Installation of

demonstration versions is an effective way of identifying the viability of the

system, if the actual installation is necessary, any evident challenges and benefits. It can as well

be utilized for comparing the features of the various systems and in turn enables one to make the

best decision on which one should be purchased (Kristin and Kerr, 2002).

Planning for the roll out stage or phase ensures that critical decisions relating to the

system are made like for example if the CRM system is to be integrated into the business in

stages, the duration of time required for the project to be complete, employees that will required

to be trained and their cost for training and the need to know if external expertise are required to

give advice on the process of implementation (Kale, 2004).

3.5 Types of CRM solutions

CRM is an important undertaking in promoting business success. The better the existing

relationship between the business and its clients and other partners, the easier it becomes to do

business and create revenue in return (Varadarajan, 2006). The use of technology to make

improvements on CRM can therefore be said to be a wise move. CRM solution can be grouped

into four main categories as discussed below.

3.5.1 Off the shelf solutions

A number of software companies provide Customer Relationship management

applications that are incorporated into the already existing packages. Smaller businesses require

cut down versions of these soft wares this approach can be regarded as being the cheapest
selection as the company invests in software components that are up to standard. The software

may however not always function as is expected thus the company sometimes has to trade

functionality for price and convenience. Flexibility is therefore necessary to allow for success in

business (Thirkell and Huff, 2007).

3.5.2 Outsourced solutions

These include web based solutions that are provided by application service providers. The

solutions are mainly useful if a company needs to implement a given solution quickly and lacks

the in house skills required to handle the job from start to finish. For companies that are geared

to e- marketing already, this is also an appropriate solution (Gefen, 2002).

3.5.3 Bespoke software

Developing an ultimate mark in modified CRM solutions calls for software engineers and

consultants to customize a system that can be incorporated into already existing software within

the company. This is not only an expensive undertaking but one that also takes a lot of time.

Selecting this process will require a company to ensure that they effectively specify their exact

requirements. The cost of the soft wares is dependent on the software- designer quotes. In most

cases, this solution is seen as being the most expansive as compared to all other solutions

(Blumberg, 2002).

3.5.4 Managed solutions

This solution falls between outsourced and bespoke solutions and involves leasing a CRM

application suite that is customized as a bespoke solution or package. In this case, the solution is
cost effective though the company will need to compromise when it comes to functionality (Peel,

2002).

3.6 Components of Customer Relationship Management

Researchers have brought out different definitions for Customer relationship

Management. These definitions however though different are related in one way or another. In

categorizing the various components that make up CRM, researchers seem to agree on five main

ones which include technology, business culture, process, relationships and people (Ali

and Alshawi, 2003). The implementation level determines the contribution to every of these

components.

3.6.1 Technology

Technology is defined as the computing ability of a business to effectively and efficiently

collect, manage, save and utilize customer data (Adelaar 2000). It allows Customer relationship

Management systems to attain their various set objectives related to

the collection, classification and saving of valuable customer data (Payne and Frow, 2004).

Integration technology enables creates an opportunity for businesses to build up better and

stronger relationships with their clients through the provision of a wider customer behavioural

perception (Thompson et al., 2006). This therefore means that companies essentially need to

incorporate the use of Information Technology as a way of ensuring that they are effectively able

to understand the behaviour of their clients, come up with predictive models, establish effective

modes of communication with the clients and give response to the clients using accurate and real

time information. The integration of IT into a company requires that concepts like software
customization, data warehouse, call centres and help desks, internet influence and process

automation be addressed (Blumberg, 2002).

3.6.2 People

Dwyer et al. (2007) believe that for any CRM project to be successful staff members and

customers play a major role. CRM deals with managing a company’s relationship with its

various clients through the acquisition of information related to various aspects of

consumers.CRM mainly aims at translating customer data into customized services and products

needed to meet the ever changing need of consumers as a means of obtaining loyalty from

clients. It is essential for the staff members and the management team to ensure that they fully

committed to the task in order for the process of CRM implementation to be successful in

providing quality service to consumers and in meeting their various needs.

2.6.3 Business process

According to Evans and Laskin (2001) CRM as a business strategy is based on

relationship marketing. Successful implementation of CRM is best achieved when companies

change their business processes to those that are customer focused. This therefore means that all

companies whose processes of business involve indirect and direct interaction with clients be

assessed and analysed. The priority for the business processes related to CRM should be

given to enhancing direct interactions with consumers. The implementation of CRM entails three

key business processes which are sales, services and marketing (Zeithaml, et al. 2002).
3.7 Failures in the implementation of CRM

A number of researches have previously been undertaken to investigate on the various

causes of the successful implementation of CRM in many companies (Rigby and Ledingham.

2004; Wisktron, 2004). Different reasons have been identified as being causes of CRM failing to

meet the set objectives. Though some of these reasons are unavoidable most of them can be

controlled and prevented from occurring. In most cases, CRM failure results from organizational

and technical issues related to the implementation of CRM. Studies conducted to identify these

failures have brought out many different causes and in turn identified the basis for the occurrence

of various problems that hinder many implementations from successfully meeting their

objectives. (Goodhue et al. 2002). Nguyen et al, (2007) identifies factors like for example

support from the top management, alignment of the various internal processes, bringing together

the CRM project and the high level strategies set up by organizations, focusing on Return on

Investment (ROI) as well as attaining success during the early stages of the project.

The main causes of failure in CRM implementation include, identifying CRM as purely

being technology oriented, lack of an effective management support, failure to have an

organizational culture that is customer focused, failure to develop a readiness process, data

being of poor quality, failure to have change management, lack of strategy and vision as well as

failure to involve the end user in the identification of CRM solutions (Chalmeta, 2006). These

factors have further been supported by Kale (2004) who identifies causes of CRM failure which

include identification of CRM as being technology, lack of a culture that is customer focused,
failure to fully appreciate the life time value of the customer, lack of support from top

management, failure to recognize the need to ensure change management,

failures related to re engineering processes of doing business and under estimating the various

hindrances or complexity related to data integration and mining.

Other research studies have identified general causes of CRM failure. One such study for

example analyses CRM in 650 companies and identifies the causes of the failure as that which

results from organizational change, lack of sufficient skills in CRM, poor company policies and

failure to comprehensively understand CRM. Rigby et al. (2002) describes failure to develop

effective CRM strategies as being the major cause of CRM failure. The researcher based on his

findings then describes four risks that need to be controlled for a successful CRM

implementation process. this include the implementation of CRM before laying out a customer

strategy, implementing CRM before an organizational change is done to suit the implementation,

making the assumption that more success will be obtained from more CRM technology and

stalking rather than wooing clients. Factors like for example failure to focus on social or human

factors, customers and staff, have however been recognized as being the main causes of

implementation process of CRM failure (Bohling et al, 2006; King and Burgess, 2007and

McCalla et al, 2003). In addition to this, the assumption that CRM equates customer acquisition

and that customer satisfaction equates customer loyalty could be another reason for the process

of CRM implementation to fail (Verhoef and Langerak, 2002).

Poor planning is also another identified factor that results into implementation failures of CRM.

Initiatives are more likely to fail when the put in efforts are only limited software

selection and deployment without any other accompanying support, rationale and context for the

employees. In other situations, companies just automate those client oriented processes they

regard as flawed rather than redesigning them to those that promote best practices. Poor

integration could also be another implementation issue whose end result is failure in the

successful CRM execution (Payne and Frow, 2004). Integrations for many companies are key

initiatives towards the provision of solutions to identified problems as well as meeting the

various needs that mainly include improving a given customer oriented process or even

automating a particular channel of client support or favoured sales. Such solutions offer

insignificant alignment or integration with the overall business strategy. They fail to provide a

complete view of the customer and as result lead to customer dissatisfaction (Aldlaigan and

Buttle, 2005).

In a bid to find a solution to the failure of CRM implementation process, it is important

that companies avoid soloed thinking and decision making. Recommendations from the various

researches done emphasise on the need for organizations to integrate their customer oriented

operations (Treacy and Wiersema, 2005). This means that views that are department and

internally focused be dealt away with and replaced with processes geared towards information

sharing across sales, service and marketing. Sales representatives should for example be aware of

the pertinent marketing promotions and current issues before cross selling to a particular

customer. The marketing staffs on the other hand needs to ensure that they leverage customer

information from service and sales to improved and better target offers and campaigns. Support
agents need to have fast and completer access to the service and sales history of customers

(Thompson et al., 2006).

3.8 CRM strategy and level of response

Through customer relationship management enterprises are able to have a clear

understanding of their customers and in turn group them into various categories. They are also

able to identify potential target client base. This according to Verhoef and Langerak,

(2002) enables swift responses to be made to the various questions thus allowing for continuous,

instantaneous and frequent to be given on the frequently changing perspectives and desires of

customers.CRM is beneficial to a business if it is viewed as a tool set that allows a company to

continuously work for as well as acquire from the customers (Kale, 2004).

Practicing Customer Relationship Management calls for a business system that is not only

efficient but also internally integrated. A high number of enterprises from the imposed

organizational discipline from the implementation of CRM and also from the specific technology

itself. Through CRM technology, companies are effectively able to gather and manage mass

customer data while at the same time undertaking various strategies in relation to the

information. CRM initiatives make it possible for companies to provide specific solutions to

specific client oriented problems all through the client relationship cycle (McCalla et al, 2003)

3.9 Behaviours and needs related to CRM

According to Chalmeta (2006), computerization has brought about a huge change in the

way companies are responding to the CRM strategies they are using to deal with the change in
the behaviour pattern of the consumers. Through the increased use self service channels such as

mobile phones and the internet customers are directly served without having to physically get to

the company. As a way of gaining competitive advantage, companies are searching for

innovative ways through which they can personalize as well as enhance online

experiences (mass customization) through the use of various tools that include web development

applications, help desk software and email organizers. Operational CRM

supports front office business processes that are inclusive of service, marketing and sales. Every

interaction made with customers is recorded as client’s contact history. Staff members can in this

case easily retrieve any necessary information from the database. This therefore makes contact

history beneficial in such a way that customers can communicate with more

than one staff member and at different times without necessarily having to narrate their

interaction history every now and then. Basically call centres support their agents through the use

of CRM software (Goodhue et al, 2002).

CRM initiatives also provides companies with new and up to date insights into the

behaviors and needs of customers and in turn enables them to effectively work towards

providing customized products that meet the specific needs of the various targeted consumer

groups. As a result, apart from being targeted at marketing initiatives, CRM initiatives can be

said to play a very key role in other business functions such as research and development, supply

chain management, development of new products and improvement of business processes.

Outstanding customer service comes from knowing the specific needs of customers and being

able to effectively attend to them. CRM helps organizations to understand, predict and also
respond to the various needs of their consumers in a manner that is consistent (Nguyen et al,

2007).

3.10 Benefits of CRM

CRM is seen as a new idea to most of the organizations. The organizations have however

began to understand its importance a reason why most successful organizations dedicate a more

energy and also resources to the build and manage customer Relationship Management

capability. The main aim that CRM seeks to achieve, like any other organizational plan, is to

raise the profits of the organization. Concerning customer relationship management, this is

attained mainly by giving good customer service than that given by competitors. The main aim

of customer relationship management is not only to

improve the customer service through a good customer relationship management capability but

also to reduce costs, wastage, and complaints.

Previously undertaken researches have indicated a number of benefits for companies that

have implemented Customer Relationship management Systems. These researches have

identified almost similar findings and therefore given common benefits that most companies

in different parts of the world have identified (Kristin and Kerr, 2002). A successful

implementation of customer relationships management can be defined as being a key to the

success of every business. If CRM is well implemented within a company, then that company is

promised of better service to their customers and an increase in the level of profitability

(Thompson et al., 2006). CRM benefits are many and diverse and can be compared to the
number of businesses making the implementations. Implementing Customer Relationship

Management has been found to be a very smart solution towards gaining competitive advantage.

Customer Relationship Management can have huge impacts on a company through the

reformation of the offer given to the client requirements and not what the company can make,

changing the center of attention from product to customer and concentrating on the competences

needed for an effective customer relation management. A CRM system that is well implemented

will be capable of increasing clientele satisfaction and even increase the business’s profit level.

In the real sense, actual CRM benefits are endless and diverse just like various companies

adopting processes and software (Blumberg, 2002). CRM implementation within a business is an

investment that is worthwhile and creates a smart business solution that allows the business to

remain competitive (Goodhue et al, 2002). With CRM, companies are more able to comprehend

the various needs and requirements of their clients, effectively meet the identified needs, make

predictions on the market trends as well as enhance their bottom line. The companies are

basically able to attain a number of benefits. Chalmeta (2006) identifies these benefits as

discussed below: Customer relationship management which is

effective also reduces staff stress, because wearing out of the staff which is a chief source of

stress decreases as the relationships and services improve.

Distributed or shared data

As more and more companies continue to notice that customer relationships are taking

place not just through web presence or customer service but through many other levels, they
have now began to understand that the importance and need for data sharing all through the

organization. Customer relationships Management systems allows for informed decision making

processes in companies as well as follow up at the various levels (Nguyen et al, 2007).

Cost reduction

CRM plays a key role in making customers business partners rather than being just

subjects. Through CRM customers are able to make informed decisions, make their own order-

entries and carry out other procedures without necessarily having to seek support from the staff.

In this case, less staff members are required thus reducing company costs that might have been

spent on hiring more staff members (Treacy and Wiersema, 2005).

Quality and improved Customer service

Every kind of data related to customer interaction is centralized and in turn provides the

department of customer service with all the necessary information in such a way that it is readily

available. This therefore means that the customer will not be asked to provide an interaction

history every time he or she is making a transaction with the company. Through push

technology, customer service representatives can direct clients towards any kind of information

that they require (Payne and Ballantyne,2002).The customer can easily work through the system

and access any of the required information on their own without necessarily seeking assistance

from the support team (Dywer et al, 2002). Through eCRM,

web based CRM, a web access to customer data and database is created. When consumers and

potential clients or willing buyers interact with a company through email, chat, CRM solutions
allow for the facilitation of efficient management of, convenient and helpful responses to the

various enquiries from the customers. Through this therefore, customer experience is highly

enhanced (Blumberg, 2002).

Enhanced customer satisfaction

Through CRM consumers feel that they are part of the company and not just subjects for

marketing and sales. The system allows for the needs of the consumer to be anticipated and

therefore effectively addressed and also ensures that the service presented to them is of

extremely high quality (Thompson et al., 2006). As a unified marketing- message to clients,

CRM responds to various issues related to sharing of customer data as well as the provision

of a seamless mode of contact and fulfillment experiences for the customers. Additionally, CRM

promotes the creation of a systematic and organized system of selling, marketing and servicing

customers for a given company. Each interaction with the customer is conducted in a manner that

is effective and consistent. This in turn results in an increased consumer satisfaction (Peel, 2002).

Better retention of customers

High levels of customer satisfaction is likely to result into customer loyalty meaning that

companies that have successfully implemented CRM are more likely to retain their customers as

the customers are ever willing to always come back to the company for more products or

services (Dick and Basu, 2004).

Increased new business

 When the already existing customers for a given company are offered quality services

and products and when they are completely satisfied with the rendered services, they are

more likely to pass the word over to their friends and other interested parties. As more and more

of these customers continue to inform others of the company and invite them to purchase from

the said company, the company in turn gains in new clients who can then inform or invite others

and so on.This creates an increased in new business (Peel, 2002).

Increased repeat business

With a continuous provision of quality customer service, consumers who at some point may have

been planning to change into another company or who were not consistent with that particular

company and therefore would purchase from different other companies are converted into loyal

customers who can only purchase from that particular company that has implemented CRM.

Reduced costs

By using CRM, activities and overall work within a company becomes coordinated and

systematic. This in turn reduces the wastage of funds an aspect that reduces the costs of labour

and promotes more efficient and effective business operations. The front end applications of

CRM also play a great role in the reduction of costs through their integration with back- end

systems that may include manufacturing and accounting.

Increased profits
 With an increase in the level of customer retention, attraction of new clients into the

business and an increase in business at reduced costs, the level of profitability for the business is

bound to increase. Another way through which Customer Relationship Management increases

profits is due to its ability to create sales cycles that are shorter as a result of the efficient process

of managing orders and accounts. This in turn results into long term level of profitability and

business growth as the number of business opportunities continue to get maximised.

Other benefits that are brought about by the use of CRM in companies include the development

of better channels of communication, effectiveness in the collection and storage of vital data and

information, creation of detailed profiles like for example those of customer preferences,

promotion of instant delivery of requested information by customers and effective identification

of new opportunities for selling (Darrellm and Ledingham, 2004).

3.0.1 Assessment of CRM benefits

It is possible to measure and quantify the benefits that are brought about by the

implementation of CRM within a given company. This can effectively be done using the various

dependent factors. through the use of the application for example, the company revenue is bound

to increase as a result of reduced costs of operations which can be easily quantified, an increased

level of cross selling resulting from the provision of a single contact

point with the company, increased success in bringing in new clients and fast closure of deals

through faster and more effective and efficient responses to client leads and information (Peel,

2002) , simplified sales and marketing processes by clearly understanding the needs of the clients
as well as provision of better client service by improving understanding and responsiveness that

in turn reduces customer churn and creates customer loyalty (Bohling et al, 2006).

The companies which have had a successful implementation of CRM applications in their

marketing approaches have realized various benefits. A number of them have been able to

synchronize their customer service in line with customer needs. The CRM has enabled

companies develop customer tracking and need analysis systems, which led to improvement of

service provision (MacFarlane, 2006). Moreover, the tool has created an interface that enables

customers share their views on how they can be served in the best way because of the enhanced

communication channels. The business operational costs such as advertising and selling costs

are reduced, leading to increase in revenues.

CRM also allows customer profiling thus enabling the company to customize its service

provision and come up with products that meet preference and taste thresholds of customers.

The company is also able to establish new avenues of increasing revenues through cross selling

(Alt and Puschmann, 2004).

Basically, instant market research are enabled by the customer relationship management as well

as opening the communications lines through which the customers provide a company with

direct -constant market response to its performance, services, and the various products

are far much better compared to any survey market. Good Customer relationship management

effective and necessary for the growth of business: the company stays longer with its customers,

churn rates of the customers decrease, referrals to latest customers rise from growing numbers of
contented clients, demand goes down on trouble shooting and fire fighting staff and in general

the firm's services flows as teams continue to work more professionally and more cheerfully.

3.1 The Management role in Implementing Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

Strategies

The CRM as a whole is a bit complex venture but when worked out well brings a new

revolution to the company or organization. To ensure its successful implementation, the

management within the implementing company plays a very important role in developing

effective communication plans and strategies, knowing the main business needs for the company,

identifying the right soft ware. If done efficiently and in the right way CRM brings good returns

to the company (Peel, 2002).

In the current environment, creating a link with the market is vital and has revolutionized

completely the strategies of firms marketing to more other relational approaches. The enabling of

CRM management by Information Technology has brought efficiency in business strategy

involving establishment and coming up with relationship with clients who are valuable, with the

intention of maintaining loyalty of clientele.

A good manager is the one who ensures that the implemented system of Customer Relationship

Management is reliable, accessible, responsive, safe, courteous, and communicative, puts all

necessary factors into consideration, competent and recognizes the customer.

The management in any given company plays a major role in digging out on the CRM

subject and to ensure that it plays the role of retaining customers who already exist by

developing relationships which are long lasting and that are key in meeting the customers’
needs and satisfaction to the fullest. Additionally, the management needs to find new ways of

attracting new customers and to ensure that long term relationships are developed maintained. It

is important that the knowhow of the management and CRM system up grading to not only be

the ability of the organization to interact but to also attract and construct one on one link with

customers. This could also be done by organizing on how they can familiarize themselves with

the customers as a company or organization (Peel, 2002).

Another important role of the management is to provide a conducive environment for the

organization to get knowledge and innovation which is mostly vital in high velocity

surrounding with high competition. It must ensure skills management so that the organization’s

dreams and goals are achieved by the motivation driven by strategy, and facilitation of skills to

workers, to enhance use of their capability and development to interpret data and information

using information sources available, skills, personality, experience, feelings and culture by the

process of giving information and data.

The analysis and creation of frame work of the events and knowledge moving within the

organization depends with a manager’s ability and creativity. The manager has to know how to

manage the customer’s skills and serve them much better, because he has to realize that they are

what make the multinational companies get to their status. This therefore means that the buyer is

the back bone of the business.

In ensuring that the implementation of CRM creates a competitive advantage, managers need to

ensure that it the implementation process sets out to achieve the set out objectives and that it is
effectively planned for and implemented. The staff members should be equipped with all

necessary skills to ensure that they can effectively understand the CRM system and to understand

their various roles and responsibilities in promoting implementation success.

It is also important that strategies in collecting information from the customers in the context

of relationships and giving the customers a sterling value of their money as per the

quality of the end product or services be put in place. The collected information in this case is

not just first hand but also correct and accurate (Treacy and Wiersema, 1995).

Identification of hitches in customer link cycle and are likely to cause a blow to the

loyalty of the brand and that have a negative impact on customer satisfaction is also another

important role of managers during CRM implementation. Such hitches and negative impact are

likely to gag the lay down plan of efficient communication strategy. The communication strategy

is important in gaining competitive advantage as it helps in meeting the customer’s

apprehensions, queries and satisfaction levels. As a key point the manager has to ensure is done

in a professional way.

It is important that the management of any given company implementing CRM ensure that

they shun their organization from being product focused to being customer focuses. This will

help in ensuring that they prioritize on quality service delivery to he customers and on promoting

customer satisfaction and retention.

Another role of the of the manager is coming up with strategies in communication plan that are

in line with organization keeping in mind the customer -centric structure rather than the product

centric one (Blumberg, 2002).

Choosing the right technology platform and looking at the cost of implementing it which

include procuring of software setting and trainings activities is another key role of the
management. This will help in ensuring that the best choices and decisions are made and that the

selected technology platform is feasible for the company. To allow for effectiveness in

such decision making processes, the management should have sufficient knowledge and relevant

skills about the various CRM technologies. Assessing the ROI (Return on Investing) and

checking CRM implementation and the investment is another key role that managers need to

execute.

The manager must also ensure that employees are involved in the entire implementation

process and that they are allowed to actively participate in all the processes involved. This will

be important in making sure that they fully familiar with the system help

them understand more about it and also reduce resistance toward the system. The manager has to

inform people in the organization about CRM initiatives through policies, directives or even

training. This will make the team he is working with be aware of what the executive level

expects hence promoting a good understanding and customer response. Employee participation

during implementation is a key to attaining success in the process. Other than this, the manager

needs to involve other key people in the project to avoid CRM project failure as they are the

ones to engrain CRM usage in the organizational culture. The key

sponsors should be allowed and offered a conducive environment, to make time and financial

commitments to ensure success involving potential users and even customers, to verify what they

expect (Blumberg, 2002).

Assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the CRM implementation process and outcome

make another important role of the management. It is important that managers measure and keep

watch of how the CRM initiatives are felt and of the activeness of vital personnel in initiation of
the CRM. They also need to keep track of the level of customer satisfaction, profitability

improvement and customer retention levels with the CRM initiative.

To ensure complete success, the management should overcome organizational,

administrative and political hindrances; this in most cases will affect the out put of the company

and ultimate sales service and support as a result of destabilization.

3.2 Impact of in Adequacy of CRM on Success of Companies

CRM being an application of one to one relationship-marketing, reacting to a customer

in the point of whatever the buyer him or herself says, allows for a greater understanding of the

customers’ needs and ensures customer satisfaction (Peppers, Rogers, and Dorf 2000).It Provides

a bridge which links Information technology and strategies in marketing which aim at building

long term relationship and profitability. When the CRM and its process of implementation are

inadequate, then the set objectives for the company are not going to be achieved and a number of

failures can be identified in various areas within the

company. This part of this paper discusses the various impacts that inadequacy in

implementation of CRM will have on any given company.

3.2.1 Effects on customers

Loyalty

Loyalty of customers to a company is a fundamental factor because it allows the

company put more of its energy on things to do with business matters (Gefen, 2002, Rowley
&Dawes, 2000). Without customer loyalty then success in the company’s undertaking sales and

profitability is likely not to be achieved. Disloyalty among customers can be demonstrated by

customers’ reduction in purchase, reduced frequency of making purchases or complete

withdrawal of the customers from the business.

Loyalty in this paper is a vital element of effective CRM hence if the implemented CRM is

inadequate, then loyalty is reduced, an aspect that has serious repercussions of the profitability of

the business and that will hinder the business from attaining its set targets. This can be in terms

of loyalty to a brand, store loyalty, sales person loyalty, and product or service loyalty.

Blumberg (2002) notes that strengthening Web site Characteristics to the existing CRM

increases business, by organizing ways of organizations knowledge and understanding

customers’ expectations partnering or building relationships with customers ,empowering them

and interacting with them. The key role of CRM entails to uphold loyalty

among customers (Evans&Laskin, 2001), when this is not looked at most definitely the customer

will be discouraged and quit leading to huge losses on the company. This therefore means that

CRM must stay focused on enhancing this factor by being adequate.

b. Retention

Customer retention is a powerful weapon in CRM. It’s important for companies to retain

already existing customers because it will cost the company a lot of money to acquire new

customers as compared with the cost of maintaining the already existing customers

(Dwyer, et al. 2007). When the implementation of CRM is inadequate then companies will not

be able to retain their already existing customers.

 For many firms, the cost of loosing the most profitable customers has been strewed in

such away that it has a serious effect on customer’s profitability. For instance in banks the top 30

percent customers ranked by profitability are likely to make 1-50 percent of entire total profit of

the customer’s profitability. Retention of customers will allow the company to collect customers

data and this will be used in to understanding the market, communicate with customers as well as

to organize future interaction with customers.

Retention is an expensive but crucial and profitable venture and so CRM has to do

everything possible to ensure that this as one of its main targets is achieved. This as an important

tool in a company has the power to change short and long term strategies and goals. Customer

retention is important for the company’s future. Inadequacy of CRM in relation to this factor will

seriously hinder the success of the company. Without tailored products with the consumer in

mind the costumers will start moving away to look for companies which have their welfare at

heart (Dwyer, et al. 2007).

3.2.2 Effects on the Management

The management has a huge role to play in identifying and understanding the need and

importance of customers and making them feel comfortable and appreciated. To effectively

conduct these roles, the management should have knowledge theories pertaining

to the customer relationship. There should also be a long plan, appropriate commitment and

organizational investment. Poor CRM management and inadequacy go hand in hand hence if this

occurs, then the needs of the customers will not be identified and met as required. Inadequacy in

CRM hinders the creation of a good business to business marketing structure (with buying
influences which varies) with which the management has a big duty to undertake in making

possible. With inadequacy comes bad management and vice versa. The

management is responsible for ensuring that a company establishes a company and customer

relationship that is based on mutual benefits.

When CRM is inadequate, it becomes difficult for the management to measure that

customer’s level of satisfaction as the correct measurements cannot be identified.

Poor management and inadequacy in CRM will cause lapses to this hence leading to loss of

customers. Inadequate CRM also means that the management will not be able to pin point

customer service requirements and hence will not be able to meet them accordingly further

leading to loss (Zeithaml, 2002).

3.3.3 Effects on Marketing

Customer Relationship Management is a major marketing strategy for many companies.

One key role that CRM must play is make sure there is a relationship between marketers and

customers and which is based on the loyalty programs which can be formulated. In doing this,

there should be willingness of the marketer to invest on infrastructures which could include web

based soft or hardware that harness effectively the advantages of CRM and that bring the need

for customers to continue having a relationship with the company. When the outcome or end

product gives satisfaction to the customer, then the customers loyalty last longer, they buy more,

talk favourably about the company and becomes sensitive with the price (Payne and Ballantyne,

2002).

When the implementation of CRM is inadequate, then it will not be able to effectively

play its role in marketing. Inadequacy therefore means that the company will run at a loss
because the advertisement and new customer’s having knowledge of the company will not be

there, the already existing customers will talk ill about the company and in turn the company will

be on its way to collapsing. Further, without proper CRM the companies leverage marketing

knowledge will not be under stood hence the company will start experiencing losses (Treacy and

Wiersema, 2005).

Other effects that inadequate CRM will have on companies according to Kristin and Kerr (2002)

are as listed below:

There will be lack of realignment in bringing together or removing of weak sales distribution

routes.

A general reduction in the level of profits for the company

Loss of intelligence data over consistent integration separating organizations and customers

needs and requirements.

CRM will not able to speedily find out and adjust to the latest customer service requirements

and needs.

There will be no mediation between marketing orientation effects and CRM performance

Without laid down CRM strategies the running of the company or organization will be without

focus and goal.

A failure in CRM will lead to no utilization of technology as a tool to get, review and

disseminate current customer prospects, develop deeper data and focused relationships and to

identify and meet customer’s needs.

There will be no organized market orientation where generation wide orientation is disseminated

to the market and characterized by information sharing across departments.

There will be no early detection and reinstating a problem experienced in the market in time.

3.4 Customer Relationship Management at Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services has been a company whose growth has been impeccable and

that has been highly been promoted by their delivery of quality services and goods to their

clients. As a company willing to exceptionally succeed in the current competitive business

world, Tata Consultancy Services has developed a number of strategies through which they

intend to gain competitive advantage and to always maintain a top position. As a service provider

the company is highly concerned the various ways through which they can combat their

competitors’ enticing propositions and pricing which in turn entice away the

clients. Other than this, they recognize the need to take control of the reduction in the level of

service and network as well as customer dissatisfaction or negative experiences as away of

preventing customer loss as the acquisition of new clientele is highly expensive as compared to

maintaining the already existing ones.

Tata Consultancy Services strongly believes that operational and marketing functions of

service providers are strongly influenced various factors such as loyalty programs, churn

management and the prevention of bill shocks. This has in turn resulted into the development of

strategies to allow for the promotion of quality service delivery and interaction with customers.
This has promoted the implementation of techniques of ensuring effective management of the

company’s relationships with its customers. One such technique is

Customer Experience Enhancement Engine (CE3). This is easy to implement in addition to the

available Information Technology group of service- providers (Tata Consultancy Services,

2011).

3.4.1 Customer Experience Enhancement Engine

Through the planning and effective implementation of this strategy, Tata Consultancy

Services has been able to come up with solutions related to the planning and implementation of

campaigns based on the various inputs from customer segmentation and churn management. The

strategy acts as a solution as an effective approach through which service

providers are able to not only maintain their existing clients but also ensure that there is growth

in the lifetime value of these clients. This serves as a foundation to their strategy of doing

business. It allows for the service providers to always lead before their competitors and to rapidly

come up with new and quality services as well as programs to promote effective retention

management through a number of features. These features can also be regarded as being essential

in the promotion of customer satisfaction which is a major element during the attainment of a

competitive advantage, increasing company sales and in turn increasing profitability and level of

productivity for the company. One such feature is improved client

experience and retention. Through CE3 a spontaneous loyalty experience has been created among

the end users through the provision of direct- rewards or by creating a chance where en users get
to collect and accumulate points which can then be redeemed to acquire other valuable services

of their will and which match up the accumulated points.

Another essential feature is the bill shock- prevention whereby the engine performs real

time data accumulation in various dimensions in relation to measurement units, cost, count and

real time rating, data services and mobile voice policy and charging management inclusive of on

demand provisions like mobile television and mobile broadband.CE3 promotes the immediate

and auto alerts delivery through emails and Short Message Service (SMS) when the limits put

across by the subscriber or regulation body are attained. Any other network traffic is blocked at

this point.

Micro segmentation on the basis of profile history or usage is another essential feature of

CE3 whereby the flexible and versatile segmentation engine of the subscriber makes it possible

for users to collect client profiling data which is to be used for targeted campaigns in future.

Another feature is the quadruple- play loyalty which is mainly centralized such that the

presented business data structures, which are independent, are capable of connecting to

any amount of service- platforms with an aim of designing consolidated post paid, prepaid, triple

as well as quadruple scenarios of play loyalty throughout the chain of value.

CE3 also presents another feature described as a fast and flexible loyalty campaigns roll

out. According to this feature the engine launch aimed at creating new marketing campaigns to

be effective within just a few numbers of hours and in turn reducing the total amount of time
taken to market. Through this, users are effectively able to launch promotional tests, assess the

results as well as manage the various stages of promotions in progress.

The seamless integration of the Customer Experience Enhancement Engine with the already

existing Business Support Systems (BSS) and Operations System Support (OSS) is another of its

essential feature whereby platforms with high performance levels are created to handle millions

and millions of different network transactions within a telecom environment that is readily and

highly available. It allows for the seamless integration with the current internal network, billing

as well as Customer Relationship Management platforms without necessarily having to alter or

out phase any given systems.

Customer Experience Enhancement Engine as solution has been created and implemented

in accordance with the Bill Shock Prevention Regulation number 544/2009. This can be changed

to allow for the creation of new regulations to conform to the newly set regulatory guidelines.

The solution by Tata Consultancy Services aims at empowering Telecom Operators Tata

Consultancy Services’s Campaign Management solution empowers Telecom Operators to micro

segment the market to subscriber groups or individual

subscribers, promote the retention of subscribers with the operator and raise the use of the

network, develop new ways of increasing operator revenue as well as promoting customer

loyalty to help in gaining competitive advantage. The system also assists business users through

the provision of promotion- prediction analysis, an all round view of the subscribers, dynamic

promotion in terms of campaigns and how the subscribers react to the campaigns,
assessment of customer experience points, commission or bonus calculations as well as real-time

collection in dimensions such as recharge, usage or adjustment in terms of cost, counts and

measurement units

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

3.3.1. Introduction

This chapter contains the presentation and discussion of research findings/results and data

analysis. It presents data that was collected using questionnaires and interviews. In the same

chapter, data is interpreted, discussed and analyzed along the themes namely; analyzing the

causes of CRM inadequacies in the company, exploring the management role in implementing

CRM strategies, assessing the CRM implementation approaches, investigating the effect that

inadequate CRM has caused to the success of Tata Consultancy Services and analyzing the

effectiveness of CRM.

3.3.2 Socio-demographics

One respondent was the manager at the customer relations department at Tata

Consultancy Services while the other three were the company’s customers.

Table 4.1 Duration that the respondents have had association with the company (Tech

Mahindra) the organization

Duration Respondents Frequency

0 0%
0 -1 year

2 33%
2 -3 years
 4 67%
Over 3 years

6 100%
Total

Source: primary data

Majority of the respondents (67%) have had association with the company for over 3 years. This

is inclusive of the manager. Two respondents (33%) have been in association with the

company for period of between 2 to 3 years. This means that the respondents had all the

appropriate information needed.

3.3.3 Causes of CRM inadequacies at Tata Consultancy Services

According to the information obtained from the respondents, a number of reasons can be

termed to as being the cause of the various inadequacies in CRM at Tata Consultancy Services.

These include:

Lack of cooperation from the senior managers during the implementation process. This

mainly resulted into delays in decision making processes which further caused delays in the

implementation. At times the required resources such as funds and required soft wares could not

be approved and delivered on time.

Another major cause as identified by the respondents was lack of effective strategies of

implementation. This was mainly due to lack of sufficient knowledge and skills on the

implementation process.

Poor identification of the various loopholes during implementation was another reason

for the inadequacy. In this case, not being able to correctly identify the existing challenges meant
that correct solutions and control measures could no be put in place meaning that the problems or

challenges would not be addressed hence CRM failure.

Poor planning was another identified cause of CRM inadequacy. An evident area where

poor planning was evident was in the area of funds whereby, the management over budgeted for

the project, purchased very expensive software that would have otherwise be complimented

using cheaper alternatives and took so much time to complete the process. This therefore led to

wastage of funds.

As identified by the respondents, not all stakeholders were allowed to take part into the

implementation of CRM within the company a reason for the various inadequacies. Participation

from all involved stakeholders is an important way of putting resources

together, ensuring that everyone fully understands the entire process and that he or she gets o

make contributions into the process of implementation in terms of ideas, opinions, resources,

skills and knowledge. Active participation also creates a feeling of belonging for the stakeholders

who feel that they are part and parcel of the entire project process.

3.3.4 Management role in implementing CRM strategies

The management was identified as those who play key roles in the implementation of

CRM strategies and especially in the area of decision making. It is through proper management

that all requirements necessary for the complete CRM implementation are put together.

Another role of the management as identified by the respondents is monitoring and

evaluation which is important in identifying if the implementation process is progressing as

planned, identifying the various gaps in the process and putting up control measures to fill this

gaps and to solve identified problems. This ensures that the system meets the objectives it was

set to achieve. Evaluation helps in identifying the impacts that the system has on the company

and if it met the set goals and objectives.

It is also the responsibility of the management to ensure that staff members acquire all the

necessary skills and knowledge required to effectively understand and work with the CRM

system. This can be done by organizing training sessions for the staff members as well as

involving them in the entire process of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating

CRM.

3.3.5 CRM implementation approaches

According to the manager, the approach taken by the company in implementing

Customer Relationship Management is one that which aimed at ensuring that all the set out goals

and objectives for the implementation were achieved and that all staff members were well

familiar with eth system. It is therefore through that every member of staff was involved

in the entire planning and implementation process and was also given adequate training on the

use of the system to enhance its effectiveness.

3.3.6 Impact of inadequate Customer Relationship Management has caused to the success

of Tata Consultancy Services

From the responses given by the respondents, the implementation of CRM at Tata Consultancy

Services only recorded a few inadequacies or failures. These inadequacies have however
impacted on the company in a number of ways. One such way is as a result of the high costs of

implementation that mainly resulted from poor planning. High costs meant that the company had

to use a huge Amount of its money, meant to run other processes for the implementation. The

company is at the moment still trying to recover from the huge deficit of funds with strategies

being put in place to find money to deal with the various projects that are yet to be completed as

the money meant to complete them was diverted into the CRM project.

Inadequacy of CRM has also resulted into lowered levels of profitability for the company

as the levels of production has reduced due to insufficient funds to cater for a production equal to

that produced before the implementation. Cutting down its production has meant reducing their

level of supplies and in turn reduced the output levels for the company thus low profit levels.

3.3.7 Analyzing the importance of CRM.

From the collected findings, the implementation of CRM has had a lot of benefits not just

on the customers but on the staff members as well. One major benefit recorded by the staff

members is the reduction in workload as everything is automated and information can be

retrieved with ease. The enhanced link between the business and the customers is one that has

brought in major benefits for both the company and the clients. Through CRM, the company has

been able to improve its quality of service delivery as brought out by the customer

respondents. According to the customer respondents the quality of service delivery before CRM

implementation at Tata Consultancy Services was average. While 40% of the customers feel that

the quality of services is now (after CRM implementation) excellent, 60%

felt that it is good meaning that the quality has improved. This is as indicated in the table below:
Table 4.7 a: Response on the quality of services and product delivery at Tata

Consultancy Services before they implemented CRM

Response(Rate of Respondents Frequency

Quality)

Low 1 20%

Average 3 60%

Good 1 20%

Excellent 0 0%

Total 5 100%

Source: primary data

Figure 4.7 a: Chart to show the response on the quality of services and product

delivery at Tata Consultancy Services before they implemented CRM

 Respondents

Low
Average
Good
Excellent
Total

Table 4.7 b: Response on the quality of services and product delivery at Tata

Consultancy Services after they implemented CRM

Response(Rate of Respondents Frequency

Quality)

Low 0 0%

Average 0 0%

Good 2 40%

Excellent 3 60%

Total 5 100%
Source: primary data

This has been presented in the graph below:

Figure 4.7 b. Graph to show response on the quality of services and product

delivery at Tata Consultancy Services after they implemented CRM

5
4
3
2
Respondents
1
Frequency
0 Frequency
Respondents

All the respondents indicated to have positively been affected by the implementation in

one way or another. The benefits were however mostly felt in the quality of service delivery and

in the ability to effectively communicate with the company.

Table 4.7c: Response on whether CRM implementation had any positive effects

on the customers
Response Respondents Frequency

Yes 5 100%

No 0 0%

Total 5 100%

Source: primary data

Through CRM the company can now be able to effectively identify and understand all the

different needs of the customers and in turn respond to them. This means that the company is

now in a position of producing products that best meet the tastes and preferences of their

different clients.

Other impacts of CRM at Tata Consultancy Services as brought out by the findings include

increased customer satisfaction, increased customer loyalty and retention. The respondents also

indicated that they had introduced some of their friends into the company hence bringing in new

customers and broadening the customer base.

 CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Causes of CRM inadequacies at Tata Consultancy Services

From the obtained findings, CRM inadequacies at Tata Consultancy Services were due to

poor coordination between the senior management and their juniors such that the senior

managers were said to be uncooperative, poor planning and implementation strategies due to lack

of sufficient knowledge and skills, poor identification of gaps or problems in the implementation

process and failure to involve all major stakeholders of the company.

According to the findings, if these causes had not been present during the entire planning

and implementation of CRM, then the process would have been a complete success meaning that

it would have achieved all the set goals and objectives that it was meant to attain.

4.2 Management role in implementing CRM strategies

The above findings indicate a number of roles that the management should play in the

complete implementation of Customer Relationship Management. The identified roles include

mainly those related to decision making, procurement of all resources necessary for the full

implementation process.
Other identified roles include: monitoring and evaluation to assess the progress and outcome of

the project as well as ensuring that members of staff are well trained and have all the necessary

knowledge and skills to effectively deal with the implemented system.

4.3 CRM implementation approaches

The used approach as indicated by the customer relations manager for the implementation

of CRM entailed the involvement of all members of staff into the entire process of planning for

and implementation CRM into the company. This was to ensure that they effectively understood

the system as well as to reduce resistance. The approach was also to create a sense of belonging

for the employees.

4.4 Impact inadequate Customer Relationship Management has caused to the success of Tata

Consultancy Services

The main inadequacy of CRM implementation at Tata Consultancy Services as recorded

above is as a result of poor planning and budgeting that resulted into the company overspending

on the process. It as a result of the high implementation costs for example that the company

suffered huge deficits in funds which it is still trying to recover. These deficits have led to a

decline in the production levels, delay in the completion of other projects that were ongoing,

reduced supplies to the increasing customers and hence reduced profit levels.

4.5 Analyzing the importance of CRM.

The findings above indicate benefits to the Tata Consultancy Services Company

generally, staff member and also to the customers. The benefits indicate the importance that

CRM has had on the company, its staff members and clients. Generally, CRM has strengthened

the association between the clients and the business. To the staff members CRM has eased the
work load, made it easy and effective for them to access any necessary information about the

clients. The company has also been able to easily identify and to

understand the very needs of the clients and hence are able to produce products that match their

specific preferences.

Customers indicated to have reaped benefits through improved service and products

delivery and also effective and direct communication channels that allow them to raise their

views and ideas directly to the company and from any region.

Conclusion

From the obtained findings, the implementation of CRM at Tata Consultancy Services

can be seen as a wise move that will result into enormous benefits for the company. Despite the

few inadequacies, CRM will be important in promoting closer and stronger relationship between

the company and its clients.CRM at the company will not only be important for the company but

even to the clients and other stakeholders too. The different views raised by this study indicate

the benefits of CRM to be more than the negative effects.

Findings above indicate that the management has a huge role to play in ensuring that the CRM

implementation in any company is important and essential especially when it comes to making

good decisions. Lack of cooperation from the management especially those at the senior level

results into failure of the projects. This is especially due to bureaucracy and delays in making

decisions, approving various ideas, resources and funds.

6.4 Recommendations
 From the findings, it is evident that inadequacies in CRM can be prevented from

occurring. The successful implementation and sustenance of CRM is attainable but if a number

of issues are ensured. One such issue is the need for the senior management to be actively and

willingly involved in the process of planning and implementation such that they effectively know

and understand the importance of the project, the various requirements needed and the benefits

that its implementation will have on the company. Though their

Cooperation, decisions will be made very fast, resources required for the implementation

approved and procured and any other raising issues addressed as soon as they occur.

It is also important that the management identifies the important roles they play in

promoting success in the implementation and effective functioning of CRM. By identifying what

they need to do, then the managers will be well prepared for the task ahead by acquiring all the

required knowledge and skills, ensuring that the staff members are well trained on the system as

well as on making sure that they effectively monitor and evaluate the project as it progresses and

after completion. This will be important in identifying any rising problems or gaps during

implementation and in turn coming up with corrective measures to deal with the problems.

It is also important for all stakeholders to be involved in the planning and implementation

process of CRM. This will help in putting resources together, ensuring that everyone fully

understands the entire process and that he or she gets to make contributions into the process of

implementation in terms of ideas, opinions, resources, skills and knowledge. Active participation

also creates a feeling of belonging for the stakeholders who feel that they are part and parcel of

the entire project process.

 For the effective functioning of the implemented CRM at Tata Consultancy Services to

be effective, it is important that the various gaps and problems in the project be identified and

corrective measures be put in place. The company should also develop strategies through which

they become capable of successfully dealing with the impacts of the CRM inadequacies. In

dealing with the deficits in funds for example, the company could rather than reducing the levels

of production, the company can for example reduce the incomes for the workers for a short

duration until the deficit is recovered. This will however require that they discuss this with the

staff members and make them understand the need to do so. The company could promise an

increase in pay after the deficit is recovered. The amount

promised can be higher than the initial one as the profit levels will have highly increased from

the CRM. The management at each level must be actively and fully take part in the

identification, planning and implementation of these strategies.

 CHAPTER FIVE
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

 What entails CRM applications implementation process?

 Why has CRM incorporation in company business operations become elusive for many

businesses?

 What role does the management have on the successful implementation of CRM?

 How can the challenges facing CRM assimilation in business enterprises’ operations

tackled?

 References
 Adelaar, T. (2000). Electronic commerce and the implications for market structure: The

example of the art and antiques trade. Journal of Computer-Mediated

 Aldlaigan, A., and Buttle, F. (2005). "Beyond satisfaction: customer attachment to retail

banks". International Journal of Bank Marketing, 23 (4): 349-359.

 Ali, A. and Alshawi, S. (2003). "Investigating the Impact of Cross-culture on CRM

Implementation: A Comparative Study"

 Alt, R. and Puschmann, T. (2004). Successful Practices in Customer Relationship

Management. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on

System Science
 Arussy, L. (2005). Understanding the Fatal Mistakes: Passionate and Profitable. John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 Baumann, C., Burton, S., and Elliot, G. (2005). “Determinants of customer loyalty and

share of wallet in retail banking”, Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 9 (3):

231-248.

 Blattberg, R. and Deighton, J. (2001). “Interactive marketing: exploring the age of

addressability”. Sloan Management Review, 33 (1): 5-14.

 Blumberg, D. (2002). The Crm/E-Business Paradigm. NJ: Blumberg Associates, Inc.

Bohling, T., Bowman, D., LaValle, S., Ramani, G. et al. (2005). “A Customer

Relationship Management Roadmap: What Is Known, Potential Pitfalls, and

Where to Go”. Journal of Marketing, 69: 155-166.

 Chalmeta, R. (2006). “Methodology for customer relationship management”. The

Journal of Systems and Software, 79: 1015-1024

 Chen, J. and Popovich, K. (2003). “Understanding customer relationship management

(CRM) People, process and technology”. Business Process Management

Journal, 9(5): 672-688

 Darrellm, K. and Ledingham, D. (2004) CRM Done Right. London: Harvard Business

Review.

 Das, K. (2004). h-CRM: The key to lifelong business relationships. New Delhi: Viva

Books.

 Day, G. (2001). "A two-dimensional concept of brand loyalty". Journal of Advertising

Research, 9 (3): 29-35.

 RESEARCH PLAN

Activity W1 W2 W
W4 W5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1st 3

May

2017

Preparing & deciding research topic and X

plan

Submission of Research Proposal

Writing Critical literature Review

Collection of data through various pre-

decided methods

Analysis and interpretation of collected

data

Final writing of research with proper

sequencing

Review and rectifications

Submission
 APPENDIX E

 Definitions

 Strategy: The scope and direction of firm over a long-term which achieves a benefit for

the firm through its resource configuration within an environment where meeting the

market needs and fulfilling the expectations of stakeholders is challenging.

 Management: The process of bringing people together with an aim of meeting al the set

objectives and goals through the effective and efficient utilization of the resources that

are available (Hummel et al. 2010).

 Customer Satisfaction: This entails a measure of the way services and specific products

that a company supplies surpasses or meets the expectations of clients, the client number,

total customer percentage of those who have had experience with the organization, or if

its various services or product ratings surpasses the specified satisfaction.

 Customer Retention: Customer retention refers to keeping a clients business rather than

have the client use competitor’s services or products (Nevin, 2005).

 Customer Relationship Management: A strategy that has been widely implemented to

manage company interaction with customers, client and sales prospect; it gives a

description of the set business strategy within a given company and within the various

departments (Nevin, 2005).

 Customer Oriented: Customer oriented means completely focusing on customers wants

and needs only, it is not about making the sale, and it is not about how much the

commission you make, your focus is solely on the customer

 Capability: This entails a company’s ability to attain its set objectives and goals through

a planned implementation (Hummel et al. 2010).

 Customer Loyalty: This relates to the attraction of the right clients, making them

purchase, purchase more often, purchase in greater quantities and even bring in new

clients

 Customer Service: This is the process of providing services to clients before, through and

after buying. It entails a line up of the various activities created to allow for increased

client satisfaction level and to ensure that the service or product provided matches the

expectations of the clients.

 Purchase: To obtain ownership of security or other assets in exchange for money or

value also called buy.

 Marketing: This involves an organisational set purpose or function to allow for the

creation, communication and delivery of value to clients and the management of

customer relationships through ways that are beneficial to the company and to its

different stakeholders.

 After Marketing: After marketing is a term that denotes the activities that a firm

undertakes after the sale is made, after sales activities are broadly understood as after

sales services but is more than the service support that is given after-sales.

 Sales: This involves the process of selling different services or products in exchange for

money a well as any other form of compensation. It involves completing a particular

commercial activity

 Implementation: Process of executing a plan, method or particular design for a given

undertaking.
 Customer Relationship Strategy: CRM strategy refers to that through which companies

manage their relationships with sales prospects and consumers. It entails the use of

technology for organizing, automating and synchronizing business processes and mainly

sales (Nevin, 2005).

 Customer Needs: Problems that customers intend to solve with the purchase of goods or

services.

 Competitive Advantage: This occurs when a company is capable of delivering benefits

similar to those of its rivals but at a cost that is lower, cost advantage, or provides better

benefits than their rivals (Hummel et al. 2010).

 Business Strategy: This is a document that gives an articulation of the next step for a

given business in pursuit of attaining its various goals (Hummel et al. 2010).