Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a management technique used by businesses to improve interactions with both customers and workers. CRM programs, in particular, are used by businesses to improve operational efficiency while enhancing productivity. The program also teaches employees how to communicate with customers. The CRM also focuses on building pleasant workplace environments and decreasing human errors. This study aims to give evidence on CRM adoption; team concepts related with performance during and after the CRM training program; and distinctions between the roles of the leader and manager in guaranteeing the program’s success.Additionally, the paper goes on to evaluate two theories of leadership in facilitating CRM adoption; and impacts of adopting CRM in the organization.

 Evidence of how this CRM program was implemented

The implementation of the CRM program in the airline sector put more emphasis on safety issues. Initially, human errors were the major cause of delays and the adoption of this program was the solution to address safety issues. In this sector, the CRM was suitable in serving clients while ensuring that the airlines effectively manage sales, services, and marketing. To assist the airline to maximize the strategic value of clients, the CRM offered a detailed analytical solution, which in turn, was vital in measuring and optimizing airlines’ relationships with clients (Tarokh & Majidi, n.d). Since the CRM can be conceptualized as a program comprising of links, and dynamic features, it enabled airlines to maintain sustainable competitiveness. The features include different subsystems; e-CRM operation; Web Base Airline-passenger interaction; and Airline data warehouse. Moreover, the CRM in airline sector is an asset-based application that involves components built on an electronic CRM to allow communication with customers regardless of the time and location. Owing to the fact that customer interaction is significant, the airline industry adopted this program to plan and integrate a multi-channel interaction management with other subsystems. Interaction management is the basis of customer service as it facilitates the collection of client data. Accessibility of customer information on the CRM is essential when it comes to making sure that every client needs are addressed in an effective manner. Following the implementation of the program, the airline industry has been in a position to understand customers’ behavior and measure marketing results, support promotion via data integration between marketing and users (Tarokh & Majidi, n.d). Furthermore, CRM adoption has enabled airlines to get a single view of clients across the contact points and enterprise while responding dynamically to market demands.

Distinguish between various team concepts as they relate to performance during and after this training program.

Training programs for CRM involve different departments such as sales, marketing, administrator, management among others. For the marketing and sales team, training entails focusing on target goals once the organization makes CRM an income driving tool. Moreover, the marketing and sales team might be skeptical as they are result-oriented (Labus & Stone, 2010). Therefore, these teams are impatient about a program that takes time to generate results. If results are not noticeable, the teams may mistrust the program. Nonetheless, the sales and marketing teams are the strongest motivators of the CRM implementation. For that reason, training can help marketing and sales teams to trust the program while enhancing performance. The administrator, on the other hand, should ensure training is aimed at addressing some of the complex issues and how to use the CRM in their daily duties such as role-based functionalities and basics. This can lead to improved outcomes, especially, if the administrator is able to guide employees how to use the program daily. The training of IT personnel is also important since it allows them to present the required understanding of technical elements in the program. Additionally, this allows them to address any installation and adoption issues that may arise. As such, training for IT, teams is necessary to deal with the server, data immigration, tuning, bugs, information protection and other technical problems.

Explain the difference between leaders and managers, as well as the influence and power they may have on the success of CRM program.

Management entails controlling a team to attain intended objective while leadership focuses on a person’s capacity to not only motivate but also influence others for the success of the firm. With respect to the CRM, a leader can inspire and influence employees to accept the adoption of the program. Again, the leader can motivate employees by showing them how to use the CRM in the routine activities (Xu et al., 2002). The leader’s support can contribute to the success of the program. Most importantly, a leader can use the success of this program by demonstrating his/her commitment by incorporating CRM in the daily communication with workers. The leader can also influence the success of CRM by sharing information, report generation; monitoring tasks can be an effective way of using the program. That is, the success of CRM greatly relies on the leader’s action as well as commitment. On the other hand, the manager can ensure the success of CRM using control and power. By and large, the success of CRM is determined by a leader and manager. Essentially, the team can succeed under the leader and manager’s guidance (Labus & Stone, 2010).

Evaluate at least two theories of leadership and the role that leaders utilizing these theories play in facilitating this program.

There are several theories when it comes to facilitating CRM program. A number of theories see leadership as embedded in various perspectives including; leadership as a combination of personalities; leadership skills or leadership as the process. According to trait leadership theory, individuals inherit specific qualities, which make them good leaders (Labus & Stone, 2010). A leader with traits, abilities, and interests is likely to be effective and hence, facilitate the adoption of CRM within an organization. Specifically, trait theory focuses on achievement drive and motivation to lead others to realize target objective. An important quality is to lead others in the use of CRM. Behavior theory is also another concept that involves abilities and styles that are developed with time. Under this theory, a leader uses behavior such as task-based, task-oriented, and relational-based to enable, empower, the transformational and initiating system (Labus & Stone, 2010). This is useful with regards to facilitating CRM since a leader develops employees’ behaviors through training as well as experience. Moreover, the leader develops employee’s behaviors to use CRM to meet intended goals.

The general effects on the organization that may result from this program, using various organizational theories

An organization that adopts CRM programs can be sure of increased customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction entails how the organization offers its goods or services to fulfill clients’ demand. Adopting this program means that the organization recognizes customers’ needs, therefore, it gets an opportunity to create and offer products and services to meet customers ’demand (Mithas, Krishnan & Fornell, 2013). Another effect that the firm enjoys after adopting RM is improved client loyalty. When clients are loyal to the company, they would make repeat purchases regularly (Xu et al., 2002). In addition, they would offer positive reviews about the organization that eventually enhances the reputation. For instance, with the CRM, the organization can send emails wishing their customers happy birthdays. The goal of the email is to remind customers that they will receive a gift card during birthdays and in turn, increase their loyalty to the company because they feel valued. The customers can use the gift card to redeem free goods and services offered by the company. The adoption of this program also improves the performance of the organization, particularly profits. This can be attained through repeated sales due to increased contentment. Again, loyal clients are willing to pay more for goods or services because they are less sensitive to price than new ones. When clients are not priced sensitive they can purchase goods and services even if they are costly in relation to rivals. Ultimately, they can also buy in large quantity regardless of the price, thus lead to increased volume of sales.

Conclusion

Apparently, evidence about CRM adoption is determined by customer satisfaction and the organization is able to manage its operations in an efficient manner. Basically, in CRM implementation, the organization must take into account training various teams so as to avoid cases of failure or disorganized success. A manager and leader play an important role in terms of adopting and implementing the CRM because they provide required guidance and direction to ensure the success of the program. Nonetheless, trait and behavior leadership theories are important in facilitating the CRM program within the organization. In the end, an organization that adopts CRM can be assured of increased customer satisfaction; customer loyalty and improved performance.

References

Labus, M., & Stone, M. (2010). The CRM behavior theory-Managing corporate customer relationships in service industries. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 17(3-4), 155-173.

Mithas, S., Krishnan, M. S., & Fornell, C. (2013, May). Why do customer relationship management applications affect customer satisfaction? American Marketing Association.

Tarokh, M. J., & Majidi, M. Application of Customer Relationship Management in Airline Industry.

Xu, Y., Yen, D. C., Lin, B., & Chou, D. C. (2002). Adopting customer relationship management technology. Industrial management & data systems, 102 (8), 442-452.