Summary
Customer relationship management (CRM) means a combination of strategic practices and technologies that a firm applies to manage, analyze and control customer interactions and information through the business lifecycle. The main goal of CRM is to improve the relations between the business and the clients through value chain analysis in any given enterprise perspective. Customers form an important part of stakeholders in any business; therefore, they must be leveraged to ensure completeness in executing anything that brings revenue to the place of work (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). To improve the customer relationship processes, there must be involvement in teamwork through working together toward a common goal.
Key Aspects of Customer Relationship Management
Satisfaction
Under CRM, one of the key aspects evident in the business is satisfaction. In this case, satisfaction is on the customer’s side in that the delivery of services or products will determine how customers perceive the business. Customer satisfaction involves how buyers conceptualize the quality of a product, service, or the entire company. When the customer is not satisfied well, it means there will be drawbacks that shall come due to a poor reputation that may be brought along (Santouridis & Veraki, 2017). A company that does not leverage its customer satisfaction has the probability of getting into unnecessary liabilities, which may limit the revenue in the receivable accounts.
Satisfaction is brought along by various concepts such as net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score (CES), and customer churn rate (CCR). The reason why checking if a customer is satisfied is that it enables a customer to have predictability when it comes to business models that can develop further. Customer experience is a matter that complements various issues in the facets of satisfaction in that when there is the availability of products; the clients will have a wide array of items to consider buying (Smaliukiene et al., 2020). After-purchase steps that follow a customer are essential as they enable an enterprise to get feedback that helps institutionalize change in business.
Loyalty
Customer loyalty is part of CRM because it measures repeat sales and referrals. That is based on the consistency of clients returning to the company to buy products based on previous experience. Loyalty is a factor that is determined by whether or not the company’s productive units meet a customer’s needs. In this case, a client can recommend others to buy from the same organization (Nawaf Al-Nsour, 2020). For example, in online retailing, customer feedback is made public, one measure of satisfaction that grows loyalty. When individuals read online reviews, they can determine the business life between them and the organization.
Profitability
A company that engages in a wide array of enterprises should mind customer relations and the profits that are obtained from the same. Profits are derived from the revenue that comes from sales after costs are deducted. The main reason for having a CRM is to ensure increased returns on investment (ROI) from the profits (Santouridis & Veraki, 2017). When there are enough profits, a company will have operational sustainability as they have sufficient financial resources. Customers are integral parts that encourage a business to continue being relevant in the market. Any firm will topple business-wise if there are no profits; therefore, checking customer relations is important.
Benefits of Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management is beneficial to a company in many ways. First, it gives room for customer retention, which means forecasting future sales; hence, planning and executing issues that promote the company’s growth. When CRM is done properly, a business has a positive relationship with clients, which means high revenues are assured (Nawaf Al-Nsour, 2020). Additionally, CRM is a model that allows a company to easily flow information that may bring opportunities to the enterprise. An adverse customer experience would mean a loss to the company; therefore, leveraging CRM increases the chances of earning significant profits that can grow the given firm higher.
Furthermore, CRM is an aspect that identifies and addresses issues before they escalate further to problems. Thus, CRM is one way to improve client service and retain them. Buyers who keep on coming back mean a company has the potential to increase sales. The streamlined pipeline from CRM is a matter that paves the way for the maximization of sales volume (Kocev, 2021). When sales are high, there is an opportunity for the workers to be more productive than before hence, taking the company to advanced levels and boosting the competitive advantage in the market. Analytics is a pivotal aspect of understanding customer traits.
Plenty of customer data enables employees to actualize further and optimize business. All these metrics are obtained when there is a stable CRM through management. High productivity is achieved through CRM as a staff is given all the resources to work for profitability. It is important to mention that CRM is integral to cultivating new leads and hence, thriving relationships to nurture more talent in a company (Garepasha & Aali, 2020). New leads come with a communication model that allows a company to establish a journey of success through expansion from stakeholders and sponsors who form internal and external parts of any business.
Analysis of Impact of Quality Management Systems
In customer relationship management, quality management systems have a positive outcome. First, a quality management system (QMS) impacts CRM by having operational consistency, which is important for any business to thrive (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). When a business produces items consistently, customers find a reason to come back and thus, meaning there will be the delivery of reliable product quality. QMS impacts CRM by the aspect of continuous improvement in business that is brought along by minding customer satisfaction. Cultural change in an organization maintains the improvement of services, products, and general business metrics. An online business needs to employ extensive QMS that gives room for advancing the customer experience, which is part of the CRM phenomenon.
Another impact is felt when it comes to employee communications and onboarding. In this case, all elements of business link with innovation as internal communication cover any new idea that has a probability of adding value to the enterprise (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). Additionally, evidence-based decision-making ensues through a quality management system as the target goal is to deliver products and services that fulfill customer demands. Therefore, a customer-centric model in business is achievable through the positive impact of QMS.
Process Necessary for Achieving Effective CRM
To have an effective process of achieving effective CRM, there needs to have various concepts. First, a company should introduce clients to the business through building awareness, such as market campaigns. This step is started by segmenting the audience by various traits, including age, gender, hobbies, and salary. That factor leads to understanding customers’ specific needs based on their category. Second, an online business can achieve effective CRM by engaging customers through communication channels such as mail systems, social networking, and messaging (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). It is important to adopt a communication channel that can draw clients near the business. For example, when marketing new products, an online company must show a customer the difference between the current and introduced products.
Additionally, successful CRM can be achieved through conversation with clients targeting specific product or service that is profitable to the company. Conversing with people has the chance to convert customers into loyal clients, and therefore, the process ensures any company involved in business will have actual client management (Kocev, 2021). It is important to mention that doing extensive research is a requirement that offers future planning for the business. Other processes involve providing quality services and investing in product upgrading to create customer loyalty.
Role of Internal Staff in Achieving Effective CRM
Internal staff forms an integral part of any business since they develop insights that make a business successful. Internal staff is tasked with conducting the real management of customer experience by recording, analyzing, and forecasting any future aspect of a business. Internal staff also participate in decision-making, which is pivotal in change institutionalization, especially where there is a required shift focused on gaining more profits in a company (Kocev, 2021). Through the effort of the internal staff, customer feedback is communicated by passing messages from buyers of products and services. That means the employees communicate regarding the enterprise’s marketability and sustainability. Additionally, internal employees achieve CRM by aligning the recommended steps meant to benefit the company (Nawaf Al-Nsour, 2020). When staff is limited to work, there is a high risk that the business might collapse.
External Stakeholder’s Role in CRM
External stakeholders are as significantly valuable as the internal staff. For example, investors can ensure an effective shift to CRM by providing the resources necessary for offering a concrete business plan. In this case, they may give monetary value to push for the change and call the sponsors to reinforce the same hence, effective customer relationship management (Nawaf Al-Nsour, 2020). Competitors also form external stakeholders since they compare quality and quantity, enabling the company to focus on differentiation and change any standard of practice to meet customers’ demands. Additionally, the external stakeholders maneuver the way to implement matters related to customers by listening and planning an alternative in case of risks.
Use of Loyalty Schemes to Gain Information on Customers
Loyalty schemes are programs that can deliver effective customer information retrieval. Loyalty schemes ensure that a business does not only compete on price factor but also the connection with customer emotions towards a given product or service (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). For example, having a merchandising sale to reward customers ensures an appeal to clients’ emotional side. In that aspect, clients build a tangible bond with a business and bring their counterparts in developing the company to a stable level in business.
Getting information on customers leads to articulating the experience in need concerning business engagement. In that case, offering enhanced and personal experience expands the relationship between a customer and business (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). Loyalty programs allow a business to foreshadow its business move since there is a balancing of items for redeeming and customer satisfaction in the future. Customers who use loyalty programs give more details about what they want, giving a business a chance to grow its CRM by meeting consumer demands in any engagement.
How the Information Gained is Useful
Information collected from loyalty schemes is helpful regarding informed marketing and customer service policy. Customer data is applied during brand expansion and restructuring of business components to meet customer needs. For example, customers who provide data on the specific aspect of the product help a business to market the product by using its strong points, attracting more clients to buy its products (Garepasha & Aali, 2020). The customer service policy is leveraged by checking the recommendations from previous product or service delivery exposures.
Understanding what customers want is vital since it leads to creativity and innovation, further expanding the enterprise. A business decides how to express its customer service to the clients and prevent losing the client to other competitors in the market (Santouridis & Veraki, 2017). In these scenarios, a business will educate the staff on the adequate measure to treat the customer in the right way, bringing CRM into relevant grounds.
CRM at Walmart
Walmart is an online store where customers can shop for various commodities such as groceries. The company uses multichannel and omnichannel methods regarding CRM. Walmart has made people’s lives to be easy by making applications and websites to facilitate online trading (Gudat, 2022). Walmart’s website has been developed to capture the options customers need and consider their choices when doing business. The data collected from the consumers is used to make necessary changes concerning a specific brand. For example, the company shows products at discounted prices to introduce the items for market expansion. At Walmart, a cashback policy ensures the integration of complaints by refunding any claim that meets the criteria (Gudat, 2022). Other CRM measures include store-to-store purchasing and delivery of purchased products to satisfy customers further.
Proposal of Improvement
To improve Walmart’s CRM, the following strategies might be useful:
- Track customer traits through the sales cycle whereby gathering data about the prospect is done on social channels and identification of customer desires (Santouridis & Veraki, 2017).
- Keeping data up-to-date is an improvement as it ensures Walmart has consistent customer data that may determine customer service policy.
- The software at Walmart must be flexible for use by the internal staff and external stakeholders. This element leads adoption of interfaces that are friendly to the user, more so when it comes to delivery options found online (Gudat, 2022).
- The provision of CRM is important to employees so that they understand the focus of customer satisfaction and other business concepts regarding sales (Santouridis & Veraki, 2017).
- Mobilization of a cloud-based CRM is required at Walmart to ensure effective user capability and employee productivity in the company’s online business.
How to Improve the Role of Staff in Promoting CRM
Employees matter in the issue of CRM as they are the driving forces that come in the required time. Therefore, Walmart can improve its staff’s promotion to CRM through the following:
- Training of staff is mandatory for achieving effective CRM. Employees with the concept of positive customer relations will help plan for changes that suit the customer (Buttle & Maklan, 2019).
- Walmart should offer financial incentives for the staff who complete all the standards for improved CRM.
- The company must partner with digital service providers that can segregate data long-term (Buttle & Maklan, 2019). That enables learning of customer trends, delivering what the buyers want in terms of modernistic elements, and advanced provision of products and services (Gudat, 2022).
References
Buttle, F., & Maklan, S. (2019). Customer relationship management. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Garepasha, A., & Aali, S. (2020). Dynamics of online relationship marketing: Relationship quality and customer loyalty in Iranian banks. Review Of Business Management, 6(3), 140-162.
Gudat, S. (2022). How Walmart customer loyalty rose to the top — And stayed. Customer Communications Group. Web.
Kocev, D. (2021). Benefits of using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) by Accounting Services Providers. Journal Of Economics, 6(1), 33-44.
Nawaf Al-Nsour, S. (2020). The role of customer engagement and relationship quality toward e-customer loyalty in the Jordanian online environment. International Journal of Business and Management, 15(2), 149.
Santouridis, I., & Veraki, A. (2017). Customer relationship management and customer satisfaction: the mediating role of relationship quality. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(9-10), 1122-1133.
Smaliukiene, R., Bekesiene, S., & Lipciute, G. (2020). Integration of customer value and customer relationship in urban centers and peripheries. Management, 25(8), 43-61.