8.3 COMPONENTS OF CRM
Pleasing the customers has been the priority of most organizations. CRM is that face of business
process that aims to establish enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with the customers in order
to derive customer retention, value and profitability. CRM entails acquiring and developing knowledge
of one's customers and using this information across various touch points to balance revenue and profit
with maximum customer satisfaction. CRM aims at capturing pertinent data about the current and
prospective customers.
The objective of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the optimization of profitability.
It focuses the issue that not all the customers are equal and need priority while providing services to the
deserving customers. The company grows only if it has reliable customers and it is in the hands of the
company to catch and retain valuable customers. This can be done once the company identifies the
needs of the customers, their desire and the area where the company has to improve to fulfill the needs.
Executing this process is not such an easy task and those who have done that lead the market in the
industry. CRM provides a solution to address these points through the following components:
(a) Operational CRM
(b) Analytical CRM
(c) Collaborative CRM
The operational CRM looks at the business processes of an organization. It considers the automation
of various business processes and providing a smoother interface among these processes. This will
involve integration of the front-office and the back-office of an organization. The analytical CRM will
analyze the data and provide effective reports for decision making. This is the component of CRM
which will help the organization to improve its system and provide better services to the customers.
Techniques like data mining and data warehousing are used to aid the CRM to analyze the collected
data and generate reports to the top management. The combination of CRM with ERP is also important.
Resource allocation for everything like maintaining sufficient product stock, satisfying customer demand
and sufficient inventory for marketing direct mail promotions will eventually be important constraints
to incorporate into any CRM system that is trying to optimize customer profitability. This will also
help the organization to change its marketing strategy to improve the business. Collaborative CRM
deals with applications of collaborative services including email, chat, websites, e-communities, internet,
intranet, e-commerce, e-business and similar other vehicles driving the organization. These threecomponents of CRM not only help to retain the existing customers and add new customers; it aids the
organization to define its marketing strategy, pricing, introducing new products, identifying the
competitors, locating valuable customers and above all keeping a database of customer information
which is an asset to any organization.