Critical Success Factors for a CRM Program

Name Title Institution Date Customer Relation Management program A program may be defined as an ordered list of events to take place or a set of procedures to be followed. Customer Relationship Management is a model used to manage and integrate a company`s relations and interactions with current, future, and prospective customers. CRM program entails use of technology plan, organize, automate, and synchronize marketing, customer relations, technical support, and sales. CRM Programs enables enterprises to manage customer relations in the most organized way. One of the ways in which an enterprise manages customer relations is through creation of a database. A database assists an enterprise to organize and relate all the information about customers in such an easy way that salespersons, management, and other service providers can match customer needs with product plans. This makes enterprise and customer relation very efficient and effective CITATION cun02 \l 1033 (cunningham, 2002). The Critical Success Factors for a CRM Program A good CRM Program should help the marketing agents of an enterprise identify their best customers with ease. This further helps in managing marketing campaigns in an effective way. One of the critical success factors for an efficient CRM Program is possibility of collecting reliable information. Reliable data is used to improve customer satisfaction and maximize on enterprise revenue: targeting the most profitable customers and further provision of the highest level of services CITATION Kos11 \l 1033 (Kostojohn & Matthew , 2011). In any profit making enterprise, the customer is most important part of the entity. All efforts should be directed towards improving customer services. The customer is the end user of an enterprise products and services and thus determines the efficiency of an enterprise or entity in general. In the process on implementing a customer relations management program, there are several factors which if ignored can lead to poor results. Among the many issues that should be addressed in the process of implementing a CRM program include but not limited to answering the following questions: how will the organization implement the program? What is the role of all the staff and other personnel for a successful CRM? What are the myths and realities of a CRM? What are the challenges involved in implementing a successful CRM? CITATION KRi08 \l 1033 (Richards, 2008) What does a customer relationship management program entail? Many think that it is all about technology. The notion has actually been propagated by the fact that CRM has been mostly pushed by software dealers. Upgrading technology is very easy and can be very straightforward at one point. However, there are much more that will be needed as a result of changes in the technology. There is need to change on business culture and business processes. Customer relationship management program may prove very difficult to implement without technology. CRM does not, however, mean putting system to support existing business processes and culture. For many entities, CRM means a completely new direction. New direction in this sense means new and better strategies that will lead an enterprise to improved profitability by creating an effective customer base that is good enough to raise customer loyalty. Planning and setting direction as a function of CRM Program To ensure that a CRM Program achieves the best and most desirable results, planning is inevitable. There is ultimate need to determine the strategy to be used, clear definition of the driving mission, goals, and expectations of the management, general staff and the clients. Inculcating the critical success factors of customer relationship management into resource allocation and further specification of how the organization will support the success factors t...