An administrator of any service company that is considering the use of CRM to improve the company must be aware that the logical sequence of implementation of enterprise systems is primarily an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and then a CRM with ERP to extract the information needed to keep both balanced.
It should be clear that an ERP system will not be replaced by the CRM as they are different and complement each other. CRM growth will more easily in the companies they have an ERP or business system already established and known by the human capital.
Mora (2007) states that a CRM is an example of Relationship Marketing that seeks to retain existing customers, build lasting relationships with these and maximize their value to the company. Some of the benefits of having a CRM are:
• Improved design marketing programs.
• Control the problems caused by the uncertainty of demand.
• Make marketing decisions more quickly and effectively such as pricing and channel strategy.
CAPACITANCE
Since the implementation of CRM is not only the basic installation of software is necessary to involve the most important areas of the company. Human capital is also one of the most valuable resources with which we have is the key to successful implementation, therefore, should give priority to work together during the implementation of CRM through training.
For the training of personnel will be involved with CRM requires a solid support, understanding between employees and managers and staff with experience. These requirements allow the leader assigned to take charge of the selection and implementation of the new system as well as human capital to achieve awareness of the importance that all departments are integrated.
Staff training will take different levels of importance depending on the service company which is carrying out the implementation. A common factor among all businesses is to be given notice of the changes that will occur and the specific aims of these changes to all staff who will be involved in the process.
There should be coherence and consistency among all members of the organization to be possible to achieve the objectives of the CRM implementation through effective group dynamics.
IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
Before entering the subject of CRM implementation is necessary to bear in mind that CRM does not solve the problems the company has about mismanagement of resources and business processes wrong.
1. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
The first step should be to implement a CRM is the analysis that includes a study of the current situation of the customer relationship, competition, industry status and relationship with suppliers.
The use of technological resources like ERP and CRM not only applies to large companies that have the resources to invest in expensive systems. There SMEs in their quest to be competitive determine a budget to systems development or acquisition of inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable transactions, production, supplier relations and customer relations. (Kai Wehmeyer, 2005)
In either case, investment in systems implementation should be done in areas that directly impact revenues, profits or in strengthening the position of the company. For this reason it is important to conduct a cost-benefit study before making a decision on implementation. An example of this is: After an economic analysis found that improving the customer relationship may strengthen the position, which would be reflected in increased sales, in this case the CRM help reduce the complexity of channels of communication between customer and company, therefore it is assumed that there would be a favorable currency impact should be assessed.
Leslie Kemp (2007) emphasizes that the economic analysis of cost-benefit is made shall include the costs of CRM include: software, installation, integration, training, upgrades, support and maintenance.
2. SET GOALS
Any marketing strategy that a company decides to implement should be designed to meet two main objectives, acquire new customers and strengthen existing customer loyalty.
By combining technology and business processes, the CRM aims to understand consumer needs and identify opportunities that might benefit the company to increase its profits. It also provides important information from customers and prospects through the answers to questions like Who are they?, What do they do? and What do they like? This is why it is of utmost importance to define the scope of the system and to take immediate action.
3. Align processes
CRM must be aligned with the strategy of marketing the company and by analysis of relevant events such as that season is used more services, which profile is the customer who uses this service, that way they behave sales changes in prices or promotions to detect the information needed to make well-defined courses of action.
Thus, as Kai says Wehmer (2005) to align technology solutions with marketing relationships to create a strategic bridge that can lead the company to create long term relationships with its customers, which is reflected in its value long-term.
Due to its orientation completely customer focused and to fully exploit the potential of achieving system is needed that is also aligned with the technology, Data Warehouse and Data Mining as suggested by Mora (2007).
§ Technology: Fax, e-mail, sales force, Internet and telephone.
§ Data Warehouse: Data base of customers.
§ Data Mining: Modeling the Data Warehouse data for patterns of behavior among certain concepts of customer information, such as forecast demand, analyze the product portfolio, making a price simulation, simulation campaigns or research and segment markets .
With the alignment of the different areas of the company, it is possible to make CRM implementation more effective and above all more productive.
4. DEFINE EXTENT
CRM is a great help to control the functions of marketing, but the system does not solve the problems with lack of proper processes of the company as noted above, between the scope of marketing for service businesses include: reducing waiting times and resolution, reduce customer service costs, increase customer retention, increase productivity, increase sales per customer, increase sales by salesperson, shorten the sales cycle, reduce the cost per generation of loyalty reduce the cost of customer acquisition and increase the response radio advertising campaigns.
5. DESIGN AND CHOICE OF CRM
Once an economic study, were aligned marketing purposes, defined the scope of the CRM and found that implementation of the system is a feasible technological application, you must select the type of CRM responds optimally to the needs of the particular company.
CRM software helps companies manage customer relationships in various ways, but only 16% of companies that implement this tool has increased in value as discussed in AMR Research (2005), one of the reasons which this happens is that you do not select the correct option.
CRM for a service can be purchased in three ways: internal development, external development and purchase of package. The internal development of a CRM is up to the area of enterprise systems, external development is when the company develops custom software with external programs and the purchase of packet must be evaluated with respect to the intrinsic needs of the company, some of packages that are available are developed by companies like Oracle and SAP.
CONCLUSIONS
The process of implementing a CRM to be followed by a service company is basically the same, but the results vary according to effectiveness.
The results obtained using a CRM vary depending on the variables of the particular company both internally and externally. There is another company as well as an individual there is the same as another, but the consistent basis of all strategy should be based on obtaining new customers and building loyalty with existing customers.
It should be noted that to be a social science, marketing, predicts outcomes that may be very close to reality, not in all cases reflect the reality itself, which is why the human factor is an essential point to consider. On this basis, the CRM should be used only as an effective tool to support the science itself and you should be aware that the results are not always an accurate description of reality.
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