The CRM process aims to create a powerful tool for customer retention. It depends on factors like future revenue, customer value, retention, acquisition, and profitability. The goals are retaining loyal customers, acquiring new customers, increasing individual customer margins by offering the right products at the right time. An effective closed-loop CRM process involves gathering customer data, aggregating it, creating exploration warehouses for analysis, executing strategies through campaigns, and capturing customer responses to refine the process. Necessities for an effective process include creatively translating business priorities into CRM investment priorities and continually refining based on key areas like customers, competition, market, growth, and technology innovation.

1. CRM Process
CRM Process is defined as any group of action that is instrumental in the achievement of the
output of an operation system in accordance with a specified measure of effectiveness.
The final objective of the CRM Process is to originate a powerful new tool for customer
retention
The CRM implementation and success rate purely depend upon the process, which includes the
future, revenue, customer value, customer retention, customer acquisition and profitability.
Benefits of CRM Process
Ability to retain loyal and profitable customers and channels for rapid growth of the business
project.
Acquiring the right customers based on known characteristics which drives growth and increased
profit margins
Increasing individual customer margins, while offering right products at the right time
A Closed Loop CRM Process
Gathering information - About customers and data comes from both external and internal
sources
Perform Data aggregation - Here the data is merged and compressed into a complete view of
the customer. A large customer data depository is produced.
Create exploration warehouses - These are the extracts of customer data needed to support
specific analysis. Such as customer profitability and predictive modeling.
Execution of strategies - Execute these strategies by developing and launching marketing
campaigns across targeted segments of customers. Campaign execution inevitably results in an
interaction with customers.
Finally, once a customer interaction takes place and the customer responds, capture that response
and “recycle” it to use in the on-going learning, analysis, and refinement process

2. Necessities for an effective Process Planning
CRM Process is the systematic determination of the methods by which a project is to be
implemented, economically and competitively.
Process planning is the intermediate stage between project kick off and implementation.
Creatively translate business innovation, structural transformation and value measures into
CRM investment priorities
Continually refine iteration approach based on the following five major areas.
• Customer
• Competition
• Market
• Growth
• Technology innovation
Process Selection Procedure
• Major technological changes
• Minor technological changes
• Specific component choice
• Process flow choice
Major Technological Changes
Does technology exist or not ?
Are there competing technologies between which we should choose?
Should technology be developed in the country itself?
Should innovations be licensed from foreign countries?
Minor Technological Changes
Once the major technological choice is made there may be a number of minor technological
process available
Additional Modules – Customization of Software
Director should be involved in evaluating costs and for consistency of the desired product
Deciding the best combination of process in terms of costs and the operation process.
Specific Component Choice
What type of hardware is to be used?
How effectively the technology is to be used?
Process flow choice - The final process selection step determines how
the CRM product will move through the system

3. An Insight into E-CRM
E-CRM/On Line CRM
• Online CRM implies an additional means of communication and level of interaction with
the customer where there is a real difference in the technology and its architecture, which
allows for ease and self service to customers
Need to Adopt E-CRM
• Optimize the value of inter-active relationships.
• Enable business to extend its personalized messaging to the web and E-Mail.
• Coordinate Marketing initiatives across all customer channels.
• Leverage customer information for more effective e-marketing and e business
• Focus Business on improving customer relationships and earning a greater share of each
of customers business through consistent measurement, assessment and “actionable”
customer contact strategies.
Basic requirements of E-CRM
• Electronic channels-Web Personalized E-Messaging medium for fast interaction
• Enterprise-touch and shape a customers experience across the entire organization
• Empowerment-Customer Empowerment
• Economics-provides the greatest return customer communication initiatives.
• Assessment-Evaluation results
• Outside information-use of customer sanctioned external information.
Steps in building an E-CRM Solution
• Define business objectives
• Assess its current sophistication along the E-CRM continuum in terms of process and
technology.
• Define Business processes and changes needed to support its goals.
• Plan and timetable to implement processes.
• Erect the necessary data warehouse to attain a consolidated view of the customers
• Select implement and integrate the required E-CRM applications.
Three Dimensions of E-CRM
• Acquisition Getting
• Expansion
• Retention

4. Key E-CRM Features
• Focused on process-reduces the technology gap.
• Driven by a Data warehouse
• Focused on a multi-channel view of customer actions Across channels.
• Based on consistent metrics to asses customer actions across channels.
• Built to accommodate the new market dynamics that place the customer in control.
• Structured to identify a customers profitability or profit potential and determine effective
investment allocation decisions accordingly
• Scalable to meet growth and performance needs

5. Introduction to CRM
The approaches in marketing functions are constantly changing in tune with the
changing challenges that are faced at the market fronts. Today, marketers consider retaining of
customers as a much more challenging job than acquiring customers in the context of growing
competitive forces.
Thus, the traditional transactional approach of marketing became insufficient to
achieve the marketing goals and necessitated the emergence of a new approach namely
Relationship Marketing.
Traditional Transaction Approach:
The focus on this type of approach is on individual transaction and does not concern
continuous relationship with customers. It does not contain a strategic long term perspective. The
customers are viewed as outsiders to the business. Very little attention is paid to the customer
services and customer commitments.
Relationship Marketing:
This focuses on continuous multiple transactions rather than isolated individual
transactions. The customers are viewed as insiders to the business and aims to build a long -term
and never -ending relationship with them. It focuses on developing a hard core loyal customers
with the idea of retaining them forever.
The relationship Marketing approach has gradually taken the shape of Customer Relationship
Management.
Customer Relationship Management focuses more widely on customers and on the entire
functions connected.
Definition of Customer Relationship Management:
“a management process of acquiring customers by understanding their
requirements, retaining customers by fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations
and attracting new customers through customer specific strategic marketing approaches. The
process invites total commitment on the part of the entire org in evolving and implementing
relationship strategies that would be rewarding to all concerned”
Significance of CRM:
The following are some of the points that gives an overview about the importance of Customer
Relationship Management
• Reduction in customer recruitment cost.
• Generation of more and more loyal customers.
• Expansion of customer base.
• Reduction in advertisement and other sales promotion expenses.
• Increase in the number of profitable customers.
• Easy introduction of new products.
• Easy business expansion possibilities.

6. Emerging Concepts of CRM
1. Conceptual Framework of Customer Relationship Management
2. CRM: A Research Agenda
3. Implications of Globalization on Customer Relationship Management
4. Effective Customer Relation Management Through Customer Knowledge Management
5. A Generalized Model for the Structure of Business Relationships: A Meta-analysis of
Relationship Literature
6. Regain Management: Issues and Strategies
7. Winning Markets through Effective Customer Relationship Management
CRM Portal
NEED FOR CRM
 Reduction in customer recruitment cost
 Generation of more and more royal customer
 Expansion of customer base
 Reduction in advertisement & other sales promotion expenses
 Benefiting customer selectivity approach
 Increase in number of profitable customers
 Easy introduction of new products
 Easy business expansion possibilities
 Increase in customer partnering
CRM APPLICATIONS
The CRM applications are a convergence of
1. Functional Components
2. Channels
And the Functional components include:
 Sales Applications
 Marketing Applications
 Customer Service and Support Application
SALES APPLICATIONS
 Sales Forecasting
 Proposal Generation and Management
 Compensation
 Pricing
 Territory Assignment and Management
 Expense Reporting
MARKETING APPLICATIONS
 Marketing Campaign Planning, Execution and Analysis.
 Budgeting and Forecasting
 A Marketing Encyclopedia
 List Generation and Management

7. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT APPLICATIONS
 Customer care
 Field Service
 Problem and Solution Database
 Service agreements and Contracts