Customer Relationship Management and Technology Essay

Customer Relationship Management and Technology - Essay Example In the same manner, they were also able to develop good relationships with their customers through the establishment of friendships and interactions. As a result, the retail industry revolves around the customer more than any other industry. Due to this, it is not enough to simply interact with the customers. Rather, they are expected to know them better These all changed, however with the growing chains and building malls and the continuous promotion of self-service. With these changes, more and more retailers have lost their contact with their customers. As a result, they are also simply losing the loyalty that the customers once entrusted upon them. Hence, more and more retailers are now trying to regain the loyalty they lost as they begin to value of their customers through programs incorporated within the idea of customer relationship management. Customer Relationship Management: An Overview Customer relationship management (CRM) can be defined as â€Å"a set of practices that provide a consolidated, integrated view of customers across all business areas to ensure that each customer receives the highest level of service† (Aryan Hellas Ltd. 2005). ... According to them, CRM involves the integration of marketing, sales, customer service, and the supply-chain functions of the organization to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering customer value. These definitions emphasise that CRM is a comprehensive set of strategies for managing relationships with customers that relate to the overall process of marketing, sales, service, and support within the organisation. The following are the important players who are essential to customer relationship management within the organization: 1. Customer Facing Operations – The people and the technology support of processes that significantly affects the experiences of the customers and the organization. These may include different kinds of media such as phone, IM, chat, email, web and even face to face interactions. 2. Internal Collaborative Functional Operations – these are the people and technology support of the processes at the back office. Their activities u sually affect the activities of those at the Customer Facing Operations which influence the establishment and maintenance of customer relationships. This usually includes: IT, billing, invoicing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance, services planning and manufacturing. 3. External Collaboration Functions – These are the people and technology support of processes supporting a particular organization together with the enhancement of customer relationships which is then in turn, are affected by the organization’s relationship with their suppliers and/or vendors as well as other retailers outlets and/or distributors. This is considered the external network which supports the internal operations and customer facing operations. 4. Customer Advocates and