Social Media For Customer Relationship Management CRM

Introduction

Social media is a must for an organisation to stay competitive on the market in this age of fresh techniques. Social Media is an instrument for managing customer interactions and keeping them closer together. Social media promotes customer relationship management development. The important role of social media, the use and the increase of social networks are examined. In this essay I create a conceptual framework for client relationship leadership (CRM), which helps to broaden the knowledge of CRM and its role in improving client value and, as a consequence, shareholder value. In this essay I am exploring CRM definitional elements and identifying three alternative CRM views.

I emphasize the need for a process-oriented, cross-functional strategy that places CRM at a strategic stage. Five main cross-functional CRM procedures are identified: a process of strategy growth, a process of value creation, multi-channel integration, the process of information management and performance evaluation. I try to develop a new conceptual framework based on these processes and explore the role and function of each element in the framework. The synthesis of the diverse concepts within the literature on CRM and relationship marketing into a single, process-based framework should provide deeper insight into achieving success with CRM strategy and implementation. The purpose of this essay is to develop a process-oriented conceptual framework that positions CRM at a strategic level by identifying the key cross-functional processes involved in the development of CRM strategy. More specifically, the aims of this essay are

• Identifying alternative CRM views,
• To underline the significance of a strategic approach to CRM in a holistic organisational context.
• To propose five main generic cross-functional procedures that organisations can use to create and implement an efficient CRM strategy.
• To create a process-based conceptual framework for the creation of CRM policy and to review the function and elements of each process.

This essay is organized in three primary sections. First, I am exploring CRM’s function and identifying three alternative CRM perspectives. Second, I consider the need for a CRM strategy based on a cross-functional process. I create process selection criteria and define five main mechanisms of CRM. Third, we suggest a conceptual strategic structure that consists of these five procedures and examines each process ‘ elements.

Developing this structure is a reaction to a challenge faced by Reinartz, Krafft, and Hoyer (2004), who criticize the serious absence of wider, more strategic focused CRM studies. Management of customer relationships may fail when a restricted proportion of staff are dedicated to the initiative; employee engagement and change management are therefore vital problems in the execution of CRM. We emphasize such execution and problems of individuals as a priority region for further studies in our debate.

Prospect and definition of CRM

In the mid-1990s, the word ‘client relationship management’ arose in the supplier group of IT vendors and practitioners. It is often used to define client alternatives based on technology, such as automation of sales force (SFA). The terms ‘relational marketing’ and CRM are frequently used interchangeably in the scholarly community. CRM is more frequently used in technology solutions, however, and has been defined as ‘information-enabled marketing of relationships’. However, CRM is more commonly used in the context of technology solutions and has been described as ‘information-enabled relationship marketing’.

Zablah, Beuenger, and Johnston (2003, p. 116) suggest that CRM is ‘a philosophically-related offspring to relationship marketing which is for the most part neglected in the literature,’ and they conclude that We need not only further exploration of CRM and its associated phenomena, but also desperately. CRM is a strategic strategy that focuses on creating enhanced shareholder value by developing suitable relationships with important clients and customer sections. CRM combines the ability of marketing relationship strategies and IT to generate lucrative, long-term customer and other main stakeholder’s interactions. CRM offers improved possibilities for both understanding and co-creating value with clients to use data and information. This needs a cross-functional integration of procedures, individuals, activities and capabilities for marketing that is allowed through data, technology, and apps.

Processes: Strategic Outlook

Gartner (2001) calls for a new strategy to company cessation in CRM that includes both rethinking how these cessations seem more customer-centric to the client and reengineering them. Kale (2004) promotes this perspective and claims that identifying all strategic procedures that take place between a company and its clients is a critical element of CRM. To address this challenge of adopting a fresh approach to CRM processes, I aimed to identify the key generic processes relevant to CRM. As a starting point for identifying process selection requirements for CRM, I chose their job. The criteria these authors propose are as follows: First, the processes should comprise a small set that addresses tasks critical to the achievement of an organization’s goals. Second, each process should con-tribute to the value creation process. Third, each process should be at a strategic or macro level. Fourth, the processes need to manifest clear interrelationships.

I performed a workshop as part of our studies with a panel of 34 extremely qualified CRM professionals, all of whom had comprehensive CRM and IT experience. The panel was chosen by the director of a leading CRM and IT research and management institute. Participants were selected on the basis of the following attributes to ensure that they were knowledgeable about CRM, its implementation, and its operation: substantial management and industrial experience, maturity, international representation and international experience and academic qualification. The committee evaluated in the first portion of the workshop, involving tiny group meetings, and then unanimously decided that these four criteria were fully suitable for choosing CRM procedures. However, they also suggested two additional requirements: first, each method should be cross-functional in nature, and second, each process would be deemed both logical and useful by skilled professionals to understand and develop strategic CRM operations.

A Conceptual Framework for CRM

Grabner-Kraeuter and Moedritscher (2002) indicate that one reason for the disappointing outcomes of many CRM projects is the lack of a strategic framework for CRM from which to define achievement. The senior managers we interviewed during our studies and Gartner’s (2001) research endorsed this perspective. Our next challenge was to define and create important generic CRM procedures using the selection criteria outlined above into a conceptual structure for the creation of CRM strategies. Winer (2001, p. 91) creates a basic model comprising a set of 7 basic components: a customer activity database; database analyses, decisions about which customers to target; tools to target customers; how to generate targeted customer interactions; privacy problems; and metrics to assess the success of the CRM program.’ Again, this model, although helpful, is not a crowd. This literature gap shows a need for a process-based new systemic CRM policy framework.

Interaction Research

Conceptual frameworks and theory are typically based on the combination of earlier literature, common sense, and experimentation. I have incorporated a literature synthesis with learning from field-based relationships with managers in this study to create and refine the framework for the CRM approach. In this approach, I used terms ‘interaction research.’ This form of research originates from his view that ‘interaction and communication play a crucial role’ in the stages of research and that testing concepts, ideas, and results through interaction with different target groups is ‘an integral part of the whole research process.

Identification of Processes and the CRM Framework

I started by defining feasible generic CRM procedures from the CRM and associated company literature. I then interactively dis-cussed these tentative procedures with the executive organizations. The result of this job was a brief one List of 7 procedures. I then used the specialist panel of qualified CRM managers who helped in the process selection scheme’s level option to nominate the CRM procedures they deemed important and agree on the most appropriate and generic procedures. Each panel member separately finished a list after an original group workshop representing his or her perspective of the main generic procedures that met the six process requirements earlier agreed upon. The information were supplied back to this group, followed by a thorough debate to assist verify our process category sub-standing.

As a consequence of this interactive technique, five CRM procedures were recognized that met the selection requirements; in the first iteration, more than two-thirds of the group agreed on all five as significant generic processes. Subsequently, several of the other manager organizations obtained powerful confirmation of these as important generic CRM procedures.

The resulting five generic procedures were

1. The method of strategic growth,
2. The process of value creation
3. The process of multichannel inclusion
4. The process of information management
5. The process of performance evaluation

This conceptual framework shows the interactive collection of strategic procedures that begin with a thorough analysis of the strategy of an organization and end with an enhancement in company outcomes and enhanced share value. In the marketing literature, the idea that competitive advantage stems from value creation for the client and the company and related co-creation activities is well established. For large companies, CRM activity will involve collecting and intelligently using customer and other relevant data to build a consistently superior customer experience and enduring customer relationships.

Process for development of strategies

This method needs a dual focus on the company strategy of the organization and its client strategy. How well the two interrelationships essentially affect the achievement of their CRM approach.

Business strategy

In order to determine how the client strategy should be created and how it should develop over time, the business strategy must be regarded first. The business strategy method can begin by reviewing or articulating the vision of a company, particularly as it refers to CRM. Next, it is necessary to review the sector and the competitive environment. More modern methods should increase traditional sector assessment to include co-petition, networks and greater environmental analysis, and the effect of disruptive technologies.

Customer strategy

While business strategy is generally the responsibility of the chief executive, board, and strategy manager, client strategy is typically the marketing department’s responsibility. Although CRM needs a cross-functional strategy, functionally-based roles, including IT and marketing, are often involved. When different departments are involved in the two areas of strategy development, special emphasis should be placed on the alignment and integration of business strategy. Customer approach includes examining the current and potential client base and identifying the most suitable types of segmentation.

Value creation process

The method of value creation converts the outputs of the process of strategic growth into programs that extract and deliver value. The three main components of the value creation system are (1) the value that the business can provide to its clients; (2) the value that the business can receive from its clients; and (3) by effectively handling this value exchange involving a co-creation or co-production process, the desirable client sections maximize their lifetime value.

Integration of multi-channel processes

The multichannel integration method is probably one of CRM’s most significant procedures because it takes the outputs of company strategy and value creation procedures and translates them with clients into value-adding operations. However, the multichannel integration in CRM is only a tiny quantity of published job. The multichannel integration process focuses on decisions about what the most appropriate combinations of channels to use are; how to ensure that the customer experiences highly positive inter-actions within those channels; and when a customer interacts with h more than one channel, how to create and present a single unified view of the customer.

Information management process

The process of information management involves collecting, collecting and using customer data and information from all customer contact points in order to generate customer insight and appropriate marketing responses. The key components of the information management process are the data repository that provides a corporate customer memory; IT systems that include the organization’s computer hardware, software and middle ware; analytical tools; and front office and back office applications that support the many activities involved in direct customer interfacing and internal ope management.

Information Repository

The information repository offers clients with a strong corporate memory, an embedded enterprise broad data store capable of analysing appropriate information. It may include a data warehouse (Agosta 1999; Swift 2000) and associated data marts and databases in bigger organisations. There are two types of data storage, standard data storage and operational data storage. The latter only stores the data needed to provide all clients with a single identity. In order to minimize information duplication and fix any inconsistencies between databases, an enterprise data model is used to handle this data conversion process.

Information technology (IT) systems

The computer hardware and associated software and middleware used in the organisation are referred to by IT Systems Information technology systems. Technology integration is often needed before databases can be incorporated into a data warehouse and enterprise-wide customer access can be given. However, at the organisational stage, the historical separation between marketing and IT sometimes introduces inclusion problems (Glazer 1997)

Analytical tools

Analytical tools can be discovered in general data-mining packages and particular software application packages to allow efficient use of the data warehouse. Data mining makes it possible to analyze big amounts of information to find significant patterns and relationships (e.g., Groth 2000; Peacock 1998). The information management process offers a means of exchanging appropriate customers and other data across the company and ‘replicating the customer’s mind.’ To guarantee that technology solutions support CRM, it is essential to carry out IT planning from the point of view of offering a seamless customer service rather than planning for functional or product centred departments and activating it.

Conclusion

I am developing a cross-functional, process-based CRM strategy framework in this essay to help companies avoid potential issues related to a narrow technological definition of CRM and strategic advantages. Our research was based on large industrial enterprises because it is likely that the size and complexity of such enterprises will present the biggest CRM challenges. In this work, we did not examine issues related to SMEs and non-profit organizations.

This essay contributes in several ways to the marketing literature. First, my work extends a managerial perspective that stresses the importance of cross-functional processes in CRM strategy and contributes to the positioning of the poorly defined CRM concept within the marketing literature. Secondly, it provides a conceptual framework for strategic CRM based on processes and identifies key elements within each process. Third, it contributes to the limited interaction research literature. Finally, the research represents a grounded contribution that offers managers insight into the development and implementation of CRM strategies. To date, this framework has been used by companies to address several issues, including surfacing problematic CRM issues, planning the key components of a CRM strategy, identifying which process components of CRM should receive priority, creating a platform for change, and bench-marking other companies ‘ CRM activities.

In exploring the multifaceted nature of CRM, much research remains to be done. Sheth (1996) notes that an acceptable definition that encompasses all facets is important for an emerging management discipline to focus understanding and knowledge growth in the discipline. To achieve this, he proposes a multi-stage process that begins by defining the domain, agreeing on a definition, developing performance measures, and developing theory of explanation. The framework we propose in this article provides a potentially useful starting point for developing better insight into these CRM theory aspects.

References

1. Reinartz, Wemer, Manfred Krafft, and Wayne D. Hoyer (2004), ‘The Customer Relationship Management Process: Its Mea- surement and Impact on Performance,’ Journal of Marketing Research, 41 (August), 293-305.
2. Sheth, Jagdish N. (1996), ‘Relationship Marketing: Paradigm Shift or Shaft?’ paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Marketing Science, Miami (May)
3. Glazer, Rashi (1997), ‘Strategy and Structure in Information- Intensive Markets: The Relationship Between Marketing and IT,’ Journal of Market Focused Management, 2 (1), 65-8
4. Groth, Robert (2000), Data Mining: Building Competitive Advan- tage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
5. Agosta, Lou (1999), The Essential Guide to Data Warehousing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
6. Grabner-Kraeuter, Sonja and Gernot Moedritscher (2002), ‘Alter- native Approaches Toward Measuring CRM Performance,’ paper presented at the Sixth Research Conference on Relation- ship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management, Atlanta (June 9-12).
7. Winer, Russell S. (2001), ‘A Framework for Customer Relation- ship Management,’ California Management Review, 43 (Sum- mer), 89-105
8. Kale, Sudhir H. (2004), ‘CRM Failure and the Seven Deadly Sins,’ Marketing Management, 13 (September -October), 42-46.
9. Gartner Group (2001), ‘CRM Economics: Figuring Out the ROI on Customer Initiatives,’ white paper, Stamford, CT.
10. Zablah, Alex R., Danny N. Beuenger, and Wesley J. Johnston (2003), ‘Customer Relationship Management: An Explication of Its Domain and Avenues for Further Inquiry,’ in Relation- ship Marketing, Customer Relationship Management and Mar- keting Management: Co-Operation -Competition -Co- Evolution, Michael Kleinaltenkamp and Michael Ehret, eds. Berlin: Freie Universitat Berlin, 115-24.
11. A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management Author(s): Adrian Payne and Pennie Frow Source: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Oct., 2005), pp. 167-176 Published by: American Marketing Association Stable