CRM Implementation in SME Sector: Case Study of Mobile Use

CRM Implementation in SME Sector: Case Study of Mobile Usage in INDIA

Prof. (Dr.) Subhash Desai

A B S T R A C T

Through 2004/05, enterprise CRM has re-emerged as a non-discretionary initiative, focused on business transformation and revenue attainment. CRM business processes and the CRM technology are to achieve value-based customer life-cycle patterns. The efforts needed for a successful CRM are iterative in nature.

This approach requires iterative planning, design, and implementation cycles. The adoption of a repeatable process with defined deliverables and outcomes will help minimize ambiguity that business decision maker’s partner with the IT organization to meet the vision of the firm. This process forms the basis of a CRM model.

Medium to Large organization felt the need of CRM in their business and have implemented it. However, it appears that small and medium sector are not able to take advantage of CRM.

Index Terms : BUSINESS STRATEGY, CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT, ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING, MARKETING, SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

India is culturally rich with varied language, religion, caste and regionalism. While doing business in India, every organization has to consider all these factors and take necessary actions accordingly. The Indian Business Culture is an extension of the common culture of the society. It is unique in its own way. However, the behavior, etiquette and approach of organizations will now change from place to place.

India is a multilingual country with each of the states having different official languages. However, Hindi is the only officially recognized language in the country. While talking on India business culture, English is the most preferred language in every industry.

In India business culture, business development largely depends upon relationship building. Indian tend to give favorable deal to those whom they know and trust. Family business is still dominant in major part of India.

What is a Successful CRM Initiative?

A CRM model sets the foundation for embarking on a CRM program. Broadly speaking, it outlines concrete goals, responsibilities, and deadlines to guide the organization on its CRM journey. The model embodies the organization’s customer philosophy and associated strategies as well as the expected results. It documents an organization’s CRM vision. In fact, the lack of a CRM model is an early warning sign of a CRM program at risk of failure. CRM failures are not actually CRM model or technology failures per se; rather, they are typically failures to meet expectations and deliver value most often because business expectations and anticipated value were never defined and documented in a business case.

What should be the Pointers for a Good CRM Model?

The Model should be developed iteratively to avoid a protracted planning activity. If the initial cut at the CRM model planning takes longer than six weeks, then the organization is doing something wrong (e.g., collecting too much detail, analysis parameter). To stay within the time-boxed period, the length of the Model must be limited to 25 pages or less for the first iteration, then built out over subsequent iterations. The CRM Model should be practical. There should be regular reviews and course corrections of the Model.

Describe the projections and the scenarios for achieving success. For instance, what is the opportunity and why do we think the CRM program will be successful in the long term? Is this backed up by market research? Are there any partners who are fundamental to the success of this program? Are we comfortable with their financial stability, business ethics, brand, etc.?

Competition is a way of life. It is important to know the competitors. Outline what competitors are doing with respect to CRM and in general. Identify who the leader is in the industry. Identify organizations that are “doing” CRM well which are not in the industry. Determine the goals and objectives of the CRM program and identify the process and organizational requirements to meet those goals and objectives. Define customer processes and develop customer patterns.

Performing CRM in the Mobile Telephony in India

The provision of world-class telecommunication infrastructure and information is the key to rapid economic and social development of the country. It is critical not only for the development of the information technology industry but also has widespread ramifications on the entire economy of the country.

The contribution of wireless to telecom is growing significantly. On the other hand, the total cellular subscriber base of private GSM operators has also doubled.

Churn in the Telecom Market

1. What are the churn rates in Asia?

Churn rates in Asia are one of the highest in the world in the mobile telephony business. Some of the highest churn rates are found in Hong Kong and India.

2. What is the industry performance?

3. Why is churn happening?

To address the above questions, we need to study

a. Demographic profiles

b. Consumer profiles

c. Mobile usage

d. Purchase criteria

e. Reasons for churn/switch

Demographic Profiles

The Indian mobile user is increasingly becoming younger. 42% of the users are in the age group 19-24 years and this majority constitutes the student population. Mobile usage is also found to be higher among men.

Consumer Profiles

Mobile is no longer only for the employed member of the family. Usage of mobile has extended from just a working tool. There is a large young crowd below 24 years, which is serviced by many focused mobile service providers. With respect to the Tamil Nadu market, specifically focusing on Chennai, this group is serviced by Hutch and Aircel. People between 25-30 years are mobile with Airtel and Aircel. Users above the age of 30 years are connected to Reliance and Aircel services.

Mobile Usage

One of the critical elements of success and failure of a mobile service provider is the fall in ARPU (average revenue per user). This ARPU gets impacted on the type of usage. Among the pre-paid, nearly half of the users use Rs.300 cards. Most of the cards are picked up from any retail outlet. In the post paid segment, maximum bills are in the range Rs1000-2000. Here, VAS (value added services) was subscribed by Airtel users the most.

Purchase Criteria

The purchase criteria in most of these mobile telephony products follow some of these key drivers: Performance, Tariffs, Service, VAS and Roaming.

Reasons for Churn/Switch

The churn seems to be higher among CDMA. It is observed that more than a third have switched over more than once. Main reasons for switching are: Network inefficiency, Service and Tariff rates.

Customization is the norm and segmentation is the name of the game. development of a very basic plan for SME (small and medium enterprises) and lower income groups. Customer delight is passé and wowing the customer is the flavor of the day. Companies should constantly benchmark areas of improvement. There should be a high priority given to customer support. There should be an element of tariff transparency. Companies should show billing integrity. There should also be network efficiency.

In Japan, ‘the customer is god’ is the sentiment which underlines the best companies’ customer care strategies. The adoption of Kaizen throughout a company can fulfill this customer desire. In a Kaizen company excellent customer care is a natural outcome of daily and long term practices, not a bolted-on extra. Kaizen can minimize causes of customer dissatisfaction, lead to positive ‘delight’ and, ultimately, to greater customer loyalty.

Satisfaction Elements and Standards of Excellence:

Product: Product itself is one of the ‘key’ elements of customer satisfaction. Quality of the product must be at least at the acceptable level of the customers, having life time ‘no defects’. It is now considered as a ‘must’ to offer quality products. The customers feel that whatever the seller offers has to have quality & that is inevitable for him now. It is no more a ‘also, but it is now ‘anticipated. The other influencing factors to have standards of excellence associated with the product & are inherent with it, are Availability, Presentation, Image and Value for money resulting into fulfillment of expectations of the customers.

Sales: It is the basic and essential activity of business. Influencing factors for achieving Sales are Marketing & Merchandising, Communication (an integrated approach to promote) & Operations

covering areas like Purchase, Manufacturing and Human Resource etc.

After Sales: Once sales are done, After Sales Service becomes important. Factors covered under this are Handling Complaints effectively & efficiently and normal routine Maintenance. In the present situation many a times after sales service plays more important role compared to other functions like sales as it helps retaining the customer for a longer time period & increasing the business. This is also thought to be necessary in order to improve upon ‘customer life time value’. However this requires courteous, honest, well informed & empowered staff.

Location: For certain businesses like hotels, organized retail, location becomes an important factor. In this access, security and convenient location are the important areas.

Time: In the current situation, time is an important factor for all of us especially in situations where distances covered are more & life style has undergone a change. In such a situation business hours and applicability i.e. providing a choice of continuously improved products that are relevant to current availability of needs & purchase patterns, becomes vital to take care of time.

Culture: The last and the most important element of satisfaction is Culture. This includes areas like ethics, internal & external relationship factors. The culture element is perhaps the most formative in motivating offering as it determines corporate mission, values, ethics and standards. Quality of Creating a feeling that is wholly consistent with customers’ rights to receive total purchase experience care and satisfaction, and by each ‘moment of service truth’* is an absolute confirmation of the primacy of customers in corporate culture, values and policy.

A company’s culture will be assessed by customers asking of it such questions as:

• Does the company trade legally and ethically?
• Can I trust the company and its people?
• Does the company demonstrate financial probity and prudence?
• Does the company treat all its employees equally, fairly and as people?
• Is the company environmentally responsible?
• Will I be treated as a real person or as an administrative ‘cipher’?
• Does it trade equitably with its suppliers?
• Are its standards convergent with mine and societies?

While concluding it is important to note that no single element or set of factors will deliver customer satisfaction and all these and related elements must be practiced in totality so as to achieve excellence in customer satisfaction.

CONCLUSION: (HOW TO GO ABOUT? POSSIBLE APPROACH)

Now a day PC (Personal Computer) is an essential commodity in every office for performing activities. Knowledge of using computer is must for every working people in the organization. Hence, it is advisable to train one or two person in implementing CRM.

The cost of PC has been the predominant factor to bring PC within the reach of all sizes of offices. Not only the cost has come down but the power of PC has been rising due to new chips. PCs today are a compulsory feature of most offices.

With the availability of PCs, some people are over confident about implementing applications without even understanding the capabilities and volume of data handling. Systematic approach for developing applications saves lot of frustration. One of the most critical decision is to choose the right application.

The sellers now must aim at to conclude, it is well observed through delivering and data collection & analysis that customers “delight” not mere satisfaction. Customers may consider now that they have become very well informed right and are fully aware of it. Thanks to the marketing efforts put in by sellers of tangible as well as intangible products. There are several questions you have to ask yourself before you try to implement CRM on your PC.

1] Do you use/plan to use the database approach?

2] What is volume of data to be processed and its effect on desired speed or response?

3] What is the complexity of the application?

4] What is the risk of failure, measured in terms of wasted effort, time and resources?

Lastly, it is very fact that PC systems are easy to learn and use. It is true that they are also easy to misuse or even abuse. It is therefore, very essential to built in adequate security features before making it operational at user level.

References

[1] Newspapers: Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Express

[2] Magazines: Voice & Data, Marketing Express (ICFAI publication), Network Computing

[3] Service Providers official website

www.airtelworld.com

www.hutch.co.in

www.bsnl.co.in

www.aircel.com

www.reliancemobile.com

www.tataindicom.com

Telecom Authority of India – trai.com

Economic times and Hindu website

[4] Blackwell, Miniard Engel, Consumer Behavior-Building Marketing Strategy, Thomson Publication, 10th edition.

[5] Hawkins, Best & Coney, Consumer Behavior, Tata McGraw Hill, 9th edition.

[6] Henry Assael, Consumer Behavior & Marketing Action, Thomson Learning, 6th edition.

[7] Leon G. Schiffman & Leslie Lazar Kanuk, Consumer Behavior, Pearson Education, 9th edition.

[8] Michael R. Soloman, Consumer Behavior, Pearson Education, 6th edition.

[9] Satish K. Batra & SHH Kazmi, Consumer Behavior, Excell Books.

[10] Suja R. Nair, Consumer Behavior Indian Perspective,

[11] S.S. Sumathi & P. Soravanavel, Marketing Research & Consumer behavior, Vikas Publication.

[12] Patricia Wellington, KAIZEN Strategies for Customer Care, Pitman Publishing

AUTHORS PROFILE

Dr. Subhaschandra G Desai received his Ph. D degree from Veer Narmad South Gujarat

University, Surat, India in year 2012. This author was associated with Sino-India Computer

Institute affiliated to Shandong Wei-fang Science and Technology University in CHINA as

Educational Project Coordinator during year 2005-06.

Some of the Achievements are

• Member of Editorial Board for International Institute of Science, Engineering & Management from 25-APRIL-2014.
• Member of Scientific and Technical committees of Conferences / Journals of International Institute of Engineers with effect from 12-MAY-2014.
• Recognition as Supervisor for Ph. D at RAI UNIVERSITY, Ahmedabad.
• Recognition as Supervising Teacher (Guide) for Ph. D Degree at UKA TARSADIA UNIVERSITY from 01/12/2012.
• There are 22 papers published / presented in Journals / Conferences / Seminars. 7 papers are at International level and 15 papers are at National level.
• Resource Person as Session Chair in International conference on “Global Economic Crisis and Strategic Advantage” held at SIOM, Pune during February 24-26, 2012.
• Resource Person as Invited Speaker in National Seminar on “Dynamics of Distribution and Supply Chain Management” held at SIOM, Pune during February 8-10, 2011.
• Member of Editorial Board for International Journal of Engineering and Technology – IJET since September 2010.
• Member of Editorial Board for International Journals IJ-ETA-ETS and IJ-CA-ETS ISSN: 0974-3588 and 0974-3596 respectively since December 2008.
• Senior Member of IACSIT (International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology) appointed by Managing Director, IACSIT-Singapore since November 2008. Membership ID is 80331500.
• Awarded “Best Performance Award – year 2005” at Sino-India Computer Institute by President of Shandong Wei-fang Science and Technology College in CHINA in my tenure of 9 months.
• Visited Rochester University at Rochester, USA and Toronto, CANADA to attend IFIP – International Federation of Information Processing Congress 77.

LIST OF Ph. D STUDENTS GUIDED: