6 Components Of Customer Relationship Management: What Make CRM The Favourite

In my previous article, I looked at some of the drivers of customer relationship management. In this article, I want to look at some of the components of a customer relationship management strategy. Follow me as we look at that together in this article.

In defining Customer Relationship Management Strategy, we said that any organisation that desires to be customer-centred must have a laid down how they want to achieve their objectives. In this article, I will be talking about those elements that need to be present in any CRM strategy before we can say that it is worthwhile. Let’s look at this together.

Case Study

Mr Winfred is an entrepreneur. His products are well-known in his country and beyond. Until recent times, he held away as he controlled a large percentage of the market share in his own area of interest. There was also another entrepreneur. Mr Hanold is a businessman that has decided to do business from a customer perspective with technologies to back it up.

At the onset, Mr Hanold decided that profit will not be his priority. He decided to meet the needs of his customers first, by meeting every one of his prospects and customers at the right place, at the right time with the right products and services.

When Mr Winfred could not hold it any longer, he contacted a consultant to help him out of the situation. The consultant advised him to formulate policies that will allow them to meet the customers/prospects with the right product at the right place.

He also advised him to treat his loyal customers, especially in order to retain them for life. He told him that before he could formulate a good CRM strategy, there are some basic things that he has to do.

Now the components…

#1 Integration

A good CRM initiative should be integrated into business processes throughout the enterprise. What we are saying here is that there must be a conscious effort to change the orientation of the various departments of the organisation, most especially those that deal directly with the customers, that is, the marketing, sales and customer service departments of the organisation.

They must be taught how to deal with the customers and make them the centrepiece of the entire organisation.

#2 Accessibility

A good CRM initiative must be accessible to every person involved in the customer’s approach and enhance a customer’s experience. Much of the customer-centric ideology must revolve around customers.

The level of success that will be recorded has to do with the amount of information that the organisation have about their customers.

This information must be available to all departments in the organisation so that they can take the business decision without much delay.

Although there is a need for the organisation to protect customers’ information, this should not be done in a way that it will slow down business processes or it will be difficult for those that need it to access it.

#3 Measurability

The problem we have in most parts of the world, most especially in third world countries is that there is no maintenance culture. In formulating a customer-centric enterprise, there must be a way of analysing and measuring the results. When the process is being monitored, it will be very easy for the organisation to measure its progress and make necessary changes as the situation demands.

#4 Unified data

At times, in some banks in Nigeria, you would have observed that it’s always difficult for some calibres of staff to attend to you. This is because some of them do not have the required information about customers.

Each department in the organisation must have the same information as regards their customers. This information must be made available to every department in the organisation that might need it in order to make decisions or resolve issues.

#5 Coordination

A good CRM strategy must have a coordinated process and procedure. There must be a Project Manager who is well vast in customer relations to manage the project. As soon as the initiators have the support of top management, a team must be set up to manage the process in order to ensure that it is well coordinated.

#6 Web-based and real-time

A good CRM strategy must be Web-based and it must be available twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week There is a need for it to be Web-based because some of your customers also have their own business that they are doing, therefore they must be able to do business with your organisation from the convenience of their homes.

It must also have reporting metrics that notify you when things are going wrong. There are also applications that will suggest to you some important information about your customers. Just feed in your customer information, and the application will provide the results.

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Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

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