Complete Picture of True CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Shiv Shankar Datta, Head of Information& Communication Technology& Process, FCA India (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)

Shiv Shankar Datta, Head of Information& Communication Technology& Process, FCA India (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)

What we mean by CRM?

In raw sense, managing the interaction points with the customer is called the CRM. With technology disruptions both at the general consumer level & corporate level, these interaction points have changed in a big way. Also this is going to further change in next 6-8 years’ timeperiod. So the managing interaction points 10years back were different than today. This again is going to be different for tomorrow. But whatever changes, the basic nature & process of the concept remain same – so in CRM front.

Basic Categorization of CRM

In the very basic, the whole CRM can be broken down into two parts –

Prospect Management: Managing much bigger chunk who has not yet bet their money for the company product. There is very limited information available for each prospect in this chunk. They are not very reliable. The data bank will be almost 60 percent garbage. This is also perishable data which needs to be acted upon as soon as it got generated. This data will become waste with passing time.

Customer Management: This is the specific lot who has bet their money for the product. The company has more accurate information for each customer in this lot. If managed properly then the garbage data is almost zero. This contact becomes more important with the lifecycle of the product as there is more prospect of selling to this same customer when they’ll look for replacing the product.

Components of CRM:

As explained in the below image, the various componentscome within core CRM are:

For Prospect Management: Lead & Enquiry Management, Event Management, Campaign Management, and Feedback& Survey Management.

For Customer Management: Complain Management, Roadside or support Management, Knowledge Management, and Aftersales Campaign.

Components outside CRM

All the core functions within CRM, mentioned above make the true CRM application. But we also need to look at the various access points to this core group to bring the true value.

ERP &DMS: The CRM solution should interact with the Enterprise Application & the Dealer/Distributor Application to access the base master data on which the whole CRM machine will operate. This will again feed back to various transactional components to these base applications.

Outside Interaction Solutions: Social Media solutions, emails, SMS’s, Websites are some of the solution where the CRM will throw the information for the Prospect/Customer consumptions. These points may undergo change with time as the media changes.

Overall Picture Presentation: The “Helicopter View” of all the operation should be made available to the Analytics/Dashboard Application for the decision makers within the organization to enable them for the analysis, strategy & course correct – if needed.

Any organization planning for the CRM solution product should keep the above complete picture in mind as an isolated application piece cannot reap the complete benefit and soon the organization will face more handicap situation.