Customer Relationship Management Unit-5 IMBA Osmania University

CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
Unit - 5
PRESENTED BY
K.BALASRI PRASAD
B.Sc(KU), M.B.A(OU), NET(UGC), (Ph.D)(MGU)

Unit – V: CRM Planning
and Implementation:
Issues and Problems in implementing
CRM
 Information Technology tools in CRM
Challenges of CRM Implementation
CRM Implementation Roadmap
Road Map (RM) Performance: Measuring
CRM performance
CRM Metrics

Issues and Problems in implementing
CRM
The most common CRM issues that the research
found can be grouped into four main areas:
1.Employees don’t use it
2.The technology is failing employees
3.Changes in management
4.The CRM system does not deliver all of the
functions the business require

1. Employees Don’t Use It
If, most employees are rejecting the CRM
system, then the business needs to understand
what the problem is and reasons are.
In most cases this can be traced to a lack of
management buy-in for the CRM system.
If employees feel they are wasting time updating
a system is not used then they will stop using it.
However nowadays, examples of managers
refusing to use the CRM system, requesting
reports in Word or Excel format and enjoying a
successful CRM implementation are becoming
non-existent.

2. The Technology Is Failing Employees
CRM software developers do not set out
to create software that doesn’t work.
The most common reasons for technology
failing are tied to speed or ease of access.
If your employees cannot access the CRM
system whenever or wherever they want
then they will drift away.

3. Changes In Management
 All too often changes in management, there will be changes in
the CRM system.
 For instance, users who were previously happily using the CRM
system, struggle to adopt changes and users who were
struggling with the system, validate their behaviour with
reference to changes that may, or may not be coming.
4. The CRM System Does Not Deliver All of the
Functions the Business Requires
 This might be the result of changes in the business, or changes
in the management or reporting requirements.
 Typically this is first visible as a potential Business Intelligence
(BI) requirement.
 The need is to integrate all of the systems that surround the
CRM system.
 Requirements, not anticipated in the initial CRM project, create

Challenges of CRM implementation
1. Cost
 One of the greatest challenges businesses face when
implementing a CRM solution is cost.
 It might turn out as a costly affair if done in quickness and
without a robust planning.
 It is advisable to decide as why your business needs a
CRM.
 This should give out a clear picture about the type of CRM
system and implementation techniques required eventually
helping to set a budget for the same.
 So simply diving in imitating your competitor’s CRM
strategies is a lot like shooting in the dark that might lead to
total disaster.
 So it is always a sound thing to discuss the total cost of

2. Set Clear Objectives
Defining clear objectives that a business intends to
achieve with the system is one of the secrets for a
smooth and successful CRM implementation.
It is advisable to work towards making these objectives
as measurable metrics.
Failing to do so might make it difficult to evaluate the
ROI or core benefits of the system.
Next, it’s time to reckon on the functionalities you
expect from the system. For this, ask yourself: do you
intend to have it for sales, marketing, customer service
or all of them? What problems you aim to address with
the system?
Having a clear idea about the objectives and key

3. Deployment Type
This is all about on-premise vs. cloud! A perfect
escape plan here is to compare the set budget vs. the
total cost of ownership that should include cost for all
the resources required, maintenance, upgrades,
infrastructure, etc. before making up your mind of
whether to go for on-premise or cloud.
This further narrows down to business preferences,
type of industry the business operates in, etc.
Form a dedicated CRM team within the organization
including people from top management, IT department,
senior executives, customer support and end-users to
discuss about their daily struggles, reasons leading to
inefficiencies in their work, suggestions to boost
productivity, etc.

4. Training
Another widely encountered challenge during
CRM implementation is the company-wide
training it summons up.
This calls for involving all the potential users
right from the early stages itself.
In fact, if possible it is good to involve all the
would-be users of the system right from the
decision-making process.
Pick key personnel from each department, who
can be trained extensively.

5. Plan out Integration Needs in
Advance
Integrating CRM system with other
business management solutions such as
ERP, payroll, etc. tops the ‘wish list’ for
most of the businesses opting for CRM
solution.
It is advisable to plan integration needs if
any well beforehand to avoid CRM
implementation overload and information
overload to your employees.

6. Hire the Right CRM Solution Provider
Roping in the right CRM solution provider or partner is
the core for successful implementation.
Preferably, go with a partner that helps in both
implementation as well as pre-implementation strategy.
Moreover, it is crucial that your partner puts down all
the implementation risks on the table well before you
sign on the dotted line

Information Technology tools in
CRM
Implementing a CRM tool that fits perfectly
in your business framework is challenging.
CRM software helps you manage
customer interactions and becomes a
central node for other departments to
collaborate with sales.
Therefore, it’s vital to ensure that
the CRM tool of your choice satisfies all
these criteria.

1. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot’s free CRM is a top-notch system
for startups or anyone looking to get acquainted
with CRM tools.
HubSpot CRM helps you manage your sales
pipeline, create automated email sequences for
your leads, communicate with your prospects
via live chat or emails, and track customer
interactions across email, social media, or calls.
HubSpot CRM is free for contacts up to
1,000,000.
As your company grows, you can upgrade to
other marketing, sales, and customer service

2. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is one of the products
from Zoho’s exhaustive business suite.
Zoho CRM offers features that are suitable for
both SMBs and large-scale organizations.
The CRM application comes with sales automation,
pipeline management, marketing automation, and
process management features.
You can connect with your leads across different
platforms through a single interface.
Zia – Zoho’s AI bot helps businesses with identifying
trends, predicting sales, and data enrichment activities.
Companies can get started with Zoho CRM for as low
as $18/month and upgrade as they move along.

3. Freshsales
Freshsales is a sales CRM by Freshdesk.
Features such as event tracking, phone,
emails, workflows, etc. enable you to track
your leads and deals across their
purchase journey.
Freshsales offers mobile CRM and a
range of products for business, making it
easy to build a
comprehensive MarTech stack.

4. Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM tool
offered by Salesforce.
The CRM tool covers the entire purchase
journey and includes features such as
account and contact management,
opportunity management, lead
management, intuitive workflows, file
sharing, and sales forecasting.
Business owners and salespeople can
manage their sales activities on the go
through mobile CRM.

5. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is primarily a MAP that also
offers specific CRM capabilities.
Mailchimp is perfect for
freelancers, startups, and SMBs as it
provides the ideal blend of features that
are useful for both sales and marketing
departments.

CRM Implementation Roadmap
A CRM Roadmap is a strategic plan that
identifies how an organization can meet and
exceed its customers' needs. This includes, but
is not limited to, assessing how the sales,
marketing and service entities work together to:
Gain insight from their customers
(e.g. purchase history, desired products/services)
Produce valuable offerings/products
(e.g. personalized product)
Provide the ultimate customer experience
(e.g. multiple touch points, 360 degree view of
the customer)

Steps to a CRM Roadmap
 How do organizations know which CRM capabilities they have,
and which they need to realize their strategic goal? Below are
the primary steps to follow when developing a CRM Roadmap.
Step 1: Gain Senior Level Sponsorship
 The sponsor for a CRM Roadmap effort must have a vested
interest in the project and ideally has P&L responsibility for the
group to be impacted.
 This helps develop buy-in from the senior management team
and the operations staff.
 A Roadmap effort without senior level sponsorship and with little
cross-unit influence can diminish the returns of such an effort.
 As with any project an organization undertakes that involves
significant change to business processes, organizational
structures, or roles and responsibilities, the lack of key,
influential sponsorship reduces the effectiveness of the project,

Step 2: Gather Information
 It is critical to gain insights of various key stakeholders and
decision-makers within the organization.
 These insights can be acquired most effectively by holding one-
on-one meetings.
Step 3: Assess Current state and Define Future state
Gaps
 Through these meetings, we gain an understanding of the
client's current CRM capabilities and significant opportunities to
improve their customer relationships, and map out our findings.
 Uses the results to determine how close these organizations are
to meeting and exceeding their customers' expectations, and
present the gaps between their current state of CRM and their
desired state.
 Compare the current state of CRM against best practices within
the clients' respective industry and across industries that reveal

Step 4: Identify Value Opportunities
 Value opportunities represent the potential benefits delivered by being
more customer-centric.
 Identify and categorize value opportunities along the lines of people,
process and technology by analyzing the gaps between the
organization's current state and its desired future state.
 Once value opportunities are identified, meetings should be held with the
executive team to prioritize them.
Step 5: Link Value Opportunities to strategic CRM
Capabilities
 Once it is determine where the value opportunities lie, we map each to
the 21 world-class CRM capabilities detailed in the study mentioned
above.
 Identifying which strategic CRM capabilities are needed enables
organizations to more effectively direct their CRM efforts and ensure they
derive the projected value of any CRM projects.
 Example: Value Opportunity: Improve customer understanding
Strategic CRM Capability: Possess good knowledge of the

Step 6: Define CRM Projects and
Requirements
Once value opportunities are prioritized, specific CRM
projects need to be developed. Defining and executing
CRM projects will ensure the company masters the
relevant strategic CRM capabilities.
An effective way to define relevant projects is through
brainstorming sessions with the client.
Step 7: Develop Business Case
Once the projects and requirements are defined, it is
necessary to develop the business case to support or
refute the criticality of a specific project.
The business case seeks to justify the dollar
investment needed and the ROI (return on investment)

Step 8: Develop a Roll-out strategy
Developing a roll-out strategy enables
organizations to focus their resources, money
and time on the most important projects that
help them become customer driven.
Prioritization and phasing of projects is
conducted with the executive team, a process in
which they evaluate the results of the business
cases, and consider for each project's financial
results, duration, level of effort required, and
technical impact.

Critical Success Factors of CRM Roadmap
 It is vital to have buy-in from top management.
 A strong sponsor is required (skilled, knowledgeable and politically
savvy).
 It is essential to have buy-in and involvement from all process
owners.
 It is critical to have a strong leader who can hold constructive,
productive brainstorming sessions, and is good at maximizing
participation from the client team.
 Also, it is helpful to hold brainstorming sessions during numerous
steps within the development of the roadmap.
 Feedback from all affected internal and external parties (customer
groups, other inter-dependent internal departments) must be
obtained and considered.
 Do not lose sight of your customer's needs.
 Installing technology without revisions in supporting processes and
people/organizational elements will not result in a comprehensive

Measuring CRM performance
How do you know if your new CRM system is working?
If it isn’t…
Sales doesn’t have the information or tools they need to
convert marketing leads.
Leads stall at certain parts of the sales cycle, fall through
the cracks, or take way too long to close.
Customers don’t stick around.
Marketing, sales, and customer support don’t share
information or insights with each other.
Your customer support team works overtime, but can’t
get through all of the tickets.
But without waiting to see if any or all of that happens,
how can you tell? By tracking CRM metrics.

Metrics are numbers that tell you whether
something’s working the way it should. Your
CRM affects teams and goals across your
business — so you need to know it’s working!
Set measurable CRM goals
To measure CRM success, you need to
set SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timely

Setting measurable goals upfront makes it
easier to measure the effectiveness of your
CRM later on.
To make goals measurable, you need to assign
key performance indicators (KPIs) to each.
A key performance indicator is a quantifiable
measure a company uses to determine how well
it’s meeting its goals. KPIs tell you:
If your CRM strategy works
If you’re on track to meet your CRM goals
If your goal is to increase customer retention,
you wouldn’t measure the number of open sales
opportunities. If your goal is to shorten your sales

Metrics for Measuring Customer Service
Performance
1. Average Resolution Time
To find your average resolution time, find the sum of all
case resolution durations, then divide this by the total
number of customer cases.
2. Customer Service Abandonment Rates
To calculate it, divide the number of abandoned
customer service inquiries by the total number
of inquiries.
3. Customer Effort Score (CES)
CES is one of the newer customer service
measurement metrics to monitor. It essentially

4. Customer Retention Rate
To calculate retention rate, first subtract the
number of new customers from the total at the
end of a specific period of time. Then, divide the
number of customers you retained by the total
number of customers you had at the start of that
period. A figure close to 1 indicates high
retention.
5. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT measures your customers’ feelings immediately
following an interaction with a customer service agent.
As with CES, you can send out a Likert scale survey
question to capture your customer’s satisfaction level
on a scale from one to five.

6. First Response Time
Customers expect immediate assistance, and
you can find out how quickly they’re getting
support by calculating the first response time.
7. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is a popular metric for how to measure
customer service effectiveness and gauge
customer satisfaction.
As with CSAT and CES, you can gather
customer feedback with this type of survey
question: “How likely are you to recommend our
brand to a friend?”
High responses indicate higher levels of

8. Resolution Rate
To calculate the overall resolution rate, subtract the
number of unresolved cases from the number of
customer inquiries, then divide this by the total
number of inquiries. The fewer left unresolved, the
more successful your customer service has been.
9. Sentiment Analysis
Also known as opinion mining, sentiment analysis
involves scanning the language a customer uses to
see if it skews positive, negative or neutral.
Conducted through natural language processing
technology, this is a great way for agents to get an
immediate read on customers’ emotions and adjust
their approach accordingly.

What CRM metrics should you track?
 Close rate
 Upsell rate
 Net-new revenue
 Length of each sales pipeline stage
 Length of sales cycle
 Customer lifetime value (CLV)
 Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
 Revenue generated by campaign
 Email list growth rate
 Net promoter score (NPS)
 Churn rate
 Average time to resolution
 Average number of follow-ups per ticket

CRM Metrics
1. Close rate
Close rate is the number of deals closed compared to the number
of leads in the pipeline. If you have 100 leads in your pipeline and
only 10 close, your close rate is 10%.
Compare your close rate for the six months leading up to the
implementation of a new CRM system with the six months after.
If CRM’s doing its job, your close rate should increase.
2. Upsell rate
Upselling: Convincing the customer to spend more than they
originally planned. Upsell rate is how many customers buy things
that they weren’t originally planning to buy.
A CRM can help increase your upsell rate by helping you predict
which leads are most likely to upgrade or buy other products.

3. Net-new revenue
 New revenue means spend from new customers.
 How long a customer stays “new” depends on your business
model.
 If you sell yearly subscriptions, new revenue is the revenue
generated by customers within their first year.
 If you sell one-time products, new revenue is the revenue
generated by customers’ first purchases.
4. Length of each sales pipeline stage
 How long does the average lead stay in each stage of your
pipeline?
 Stages are the steps of your pipeline (or sales process).
 Tracking stages helps you find bottlenecks in your sales process
(like if deals tend to get stuck in a certain pipeline stage).
 The more effective CRM system, the faster deals move through
each stage of your pipeline.

5. Length of sales cycle
 Also called lead velocity, which sounds more fun (and science-
y). Lead velocity measures how long the average deal takes to
close.
 If a lead’s first conversation with your sales team is in early
January, and they make a purchase or sign a contract in early
July, your sales cycle is about six months long.
 These two factors play a big role in length of sales cycle:
1. Number of decision makers involved
2. Cost of product or service
 The more people involved in the decision to purchase, the
longer it will take to close.
 Same goes for price: the more expensive the product or service,
the longer the sales cycle.

6. Customer lifetime value (CLTV)
 This metric predicts how much revenue you can expect from a single
customer account.
To calculate CLTV, you need 4 types of information:
1.Average purchase value: Your company’s total revenue over the course of
a year divided by the number of purchases that year.
2.Average purchase frequency rate: The number of purchases over the
course of a year divided by the number of unique customers who made
purchases that year. This tells you how many times per year the average
customer buys from you.
3.Average customer value: The average purchase value multiplied by the
average purchase frequency rate. This estimates how much money the
average customer spends with you per year.
4.Average customer lifespan: How long the average customer continues to
purchase from your business.
 The right CRM helps you:
 Increase the average customer lifespan by improving retention and satisfaction
 Target more high-value leads through your marketing

7. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
 CAC is the total sales and marketing spend required to close a
customer.
 Effective CRM helps you lower your CAC by:
 Targeting more qualified leads
Automating sales and marketing tasks
 When you target more qualified leads, you close more deals.
Automation makes your marketing team more efficient, which
saves time and money.
8. Revenue generated by campaign
 This metric answers just that. If you run an ecommerce
business, this metric is especially important. The goal for
(almost) all email campaigns: to convince people to buy from
you.
 CRM gives you insight into customer behavior and preferences.
Knowing what your customers want helps you send the right
messages to the right people.

9. Email list growth rate
 This metric measures how much your email list grows over a
certain time period.
 To calculate email growth rate:
1.Subtract the number of unsubscribes from the number of new
subscribers
2.Divide by the total number of contacts on your list
3.Multiply by 100
 CRM helps your marketing team increase this metric with:
 More opportunities for opt-in forms (pop-ups, gated content, etc.)
More targeted emails → fewer unsubscribes

10. Net promoter score (NPS)
 How likely are customers to recommend your business to
someone else? NPS answers that question on a scale from 1 to
10.
 To measure NPS, you need to send customers a survey with
some variation of these questions:
1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our
company to a friend or colleague?
2. What made you choose that score?
 Respondents are broken into three categories:
1. Promoters (9-10): People who are really pumped about what
your business has done for them (and want to shout it from
the rooftops!)
2. Passives (7-8): People who get what they want from your
business, but aren’t particularly excited about it
3. Detractors (0-6): People who had a less-than-great

 What does NPS have to do with CRM?
 CRM helps personalize the customer experience, which makes
people happier (and more likely to give you a higher score!)
CRM keeps all customer info in one place, letting you see a
customer’s NPS and how it changes over time at a glance.
CRM lets you automate sending out NPS surveys and
reporting on the findings.
11. Churn rate
 This metric tells you how frequently customers leave. It’s the opposite of your
retention rate.
 To calculate churn rate, divide the number of churned customers by your total
number of customers.
 CRM makes it easier to prove that you do. Track customer interests, activity,
and interactions, then use that information to:
 Send personalized emails based on previous purchases
 Ask for customer feedback
 Reward customers for hitting certain milestones

12. Average time to resolution
The right CRM system should lighten the team’s
workload and help them serve customers more
efficiently.
Average time to resolution: How long does it
take your customer service team to resolve the
average support ticket after it’s been opened?

Important Questions
1. Discuss the issues and problems in
implementing CRM?
2. Explain the Challenges of CRM
Implementation?
3. Discuss how CRM performance is measured
and elaborate on CRM metrics?

Customer Relationship Management Unit-5 IMBA Osmania University

Customer Relationship Management Unit-5 IMBA Osmania University

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