Crm implementation in service companies

The implementation of CRM is the logical process to follow after the implementation of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to take this step, it is extremely important to consider the training of the personnel directly involved with the system since the focus philosophy must be maintained. total to the satisfaction of the client's needs.

The implementation of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in a service company is a process that requires commitment from the organization, as well as the follow-up of a five-step guide: 1. Carry out an economic analysis, 2. Define objectives, 3.Align processes, 4.Define scope and 5. Design and choice of CRM.

Introduction

Service companies today require tools that support their competitiveness, that serve as support in the search for market needs and trends and that reinforce the relationship that exists with their current clients in order to generate value for the company.

For managers who know that acting based on knowledge of the tastes, preferences, customs and needs of customers is the key to success in creating a loyal relationship, it is extremely necessary to have technological support capable of providing them with timely information.

Various public service companies, various private services, transportation, tourism, financial institutions, education, health, finance and insurance seek to respond to the needs of their clients. The intention of this article is to guide the decision makers of service companies to carry out an effective implementation of a Customer Relationship Management system.

Methodology

The bibliographic sources that were consulted for the realization of this article are the databases of the digital library EBSCO, PROQUEST, ACM, Emerald Management, BLACKWELL-SYNERGY digital library Internet pages and textbooks of the School of Education library. Graduates in Business Administration and Management.

Relationship of ERP with a CRM

An administrator of any service company that is considering the use of a CRM for the improvement of the company, should be aware that the logical sequence of implementation of business systems is first an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and then a CRM with the In order to extract from the ERP the necessary information to keep both balanced.

It should be clear that an ERP system will not be replaced by CRM since they are different and complement each other. CRM growth will occur more easily in companies in which they have an ERP or a business system already established and known for human capital.

Mora (2007) establishes that a CRM is an example of Relationship Marketing that seeks to retain current customers, create lasting relationships with them and maximize its value for the company. Some of the benefits of having a CRM are:

• Design better marketing programs.

• Control the problems caused by demand uncertainty.

• Make faster and more effective marketing decisions such as pricing and channel strategy.

Figure 1. The CRM pyramid,

Training

Since the implementation of CRM does not consist only of the basic installation of software, it is necessary to involve the most important areas of the company. Human capital, in addition to being one of the most valuable resources available, is the key for the implementation to be successful, therefore, it should be considered a priority to work together with him during the implementation of the CRM through training.

For the training of the personnel that will be involved with the CRM, a solid support, understanding between employees and administrators and having experienced personnel is required. These requirements allow the assigned leader to be in charge of the selection and implementation of the new system, as well as making human capital aware of the importance of all departments being integrated.

Staff training will take on different levels of importance depending on the service company where the implementation is taking place. A common factor among all companies is that notice of the changes that will take place and the objectives of these changes must be given to all personnel who will be involved in the process.

There must be cohesion and coherence among all the members of the organization so that it is possible to achieve the objectives of the CRM implementation through an effective group dynamic.

Implementation process

Before getting into the topic of CRM implementation, it is necessary to bear in mind that a CRM does not solve the problems that the company has in terms of mismanagement of resources and wrong business processes.

1. Economic analysis

The first step that must be taken towards the implementation of a CRM is the analysis that includes a study of the current situation of the relationship with customers, the competition, the situation of the industry and the relationship with suppliers.

The use of technological resources such as ERP and CRM does not only apply to large companies that have the necessary resources to invest in expensive systems. There are SMEs that in their quest to be competitive determine a budget for the development or acquisition of inventory systems, accounts receivable, accounts payable, production transactions, relationship with suppliers and relationship with customers. (Wehmeyer Kai, 2005)

In either case, the investment in systems implementation must be made in areas that directly impact revenues, profits, or reinforcing the company's positioning. For this reason it is important to carry out a cost-benefit study before making the implementation decision. An example of this is: After an economic analysis it was found that by improving the relationship with the client it is possible to strengthen the positioning, which would be reflected in an increase in sales, in this case the CRM would help reduce the complexity of communication channels between client and company, therefore it is assumed that there would be a favorable monetary impact that should be evaluated.

Leslie Kemp (2007) emphasizes that the economic cost-benefit analysis carried out should include the following CRM costs: software, installation, integration, training, updates, support and maintenance.

2. Define objectives

Any marketing strategy that a company decides to implement must be aimed at meeting two main objectives; Acquire new customers and strengthen the loyalty of current customers.

By combining business processes and technology, CRM seeks to understand the needs of consumers as well as detect those opportunities that the company could take advantage of to increase its profits. It also provides important information on customers and potential customers by answering questions such as Who are they? What do they do? and What do they like? This is why it is extremely important to define the scope of the system and immediate actions to be taken.

3. Align processes

The CRM must be aligned with the company's marketing strategy in order to do so through the analysis of relevant events such as in which season a service is used the most, what profile does the customer have that consumes that service, and how sales behave due to changes in prices or promotions, to be able to detect the information necessary to take well-defined courses of action.

In this way, as Kai Wehmer (2005) comments, aligning technological solutions with marketing relationships allows creating a strategic bridge that can lead the company to create long-term relationships with its customers, which is reflected in its value to long term.

Due to its orientation totally focused on the client and in order to exploit the potential of the system, it is necessary that it is also aligned with technology, Data Warehouse and Data Mining as proposed by Mora (2007).

* Technology: Fax, e-mail, sales force, Internet and telephone.

* Data Warehouse: Customer database.

* Data Mining: Models the Data Warehouse information to obtain behavior patterns between certain customer information concepts, for example forecasting demand, analyzing the product portfolio, doing a price simulation, campaign simulation or researching and segmenting markets.

With the alignment of the different areas of the company, it is possible to make the implementation of the CRM more effective and above all more productive.

4. Define scope

The CRM is a great help to control marketing functions, however the system does not solve the problems that are due to lack of correct processes of the company as mentioned above, among the marketing scopes for service companies are: reduction of waiting and resolution times, reduce customer service costs, increase customer retention, increase productivity, increase sales per customer, increase sales per seller, shorten the sales cycle, reduce the cost per loyalty generation, reduce the cost of customer acquisition and increase the response radius to advertising campaigns.

5. Design and choice of CRM

Once an economic study was carried out, the marketing objectives were aligned, the scope of the CRM was defined and it was found that the implementation of the system is a feasible technological application, it must be selected which type of CRM responds best to the needs of the company. company in particular.

CRM software helps companies manage their customer relationships in many different ways, but only 16% of companies that implement this tool have increased its value as discussed in AMR Research (2005), one of the reasons why what this happens is that the correct option is not selected.

A CRM for a service company can be acquired by three means: internal development, external development, and bundled purchase. The internal development of a CRM is the task of the company's systems area, external development is when the company develops custom software with external programmers and the package purchase must be evaluated with respect to the intrinsic needs of the company, some of them the packages that can be purchased are those developed by companies such as Oracle and SAP.

Conclusions

The process of implementing a CRM that a service company must follow is basically the same, but the results obtained will vary according to its effectiveness.

The results obtained through a CRM vary depending on the variables of the particular company, both internal and external. There is no company equal to another as well as no individual equal to another, however the constant base of the strategy of all of them must be based on obtaining new clients and strengthening loyalty with current clients.

It should be taken into account that being a social science, marketing predicts results that may be very close to reality, not in all cases they will reflect reality itself, which is why the human factor is an essential point to consider. Based on this, the CRM should only be used as an effective tool to support science itself and it should be aware that the results will not always be an exact description of reality.

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