METHOD OF EFFECTIVE CRM IMPLEMENTATION

Banks can take several steps to strengthen their customer relationship management in an effective manner

1.     Acknowledge email enquiries

            At the very minimum, banks should send out an automated email response that acknowledges receipt of a customer's email and lets the sender know when to expect a more complete response.

2.     Develop the right contact strategy

            By knowing which offers and incentives to offer to which customers and when, banks will not annoy customers with unwanted marketing offers, building customer loyalty along the way. Such goals can be at least as important as realizing cross-sell opportunities.

3.     Providing online `chatting'

           An alternative to telephone support, online chatting is providing a service via emails or any other form of immediate response. This service also offers some of the immediacy of the phone but primarily allows customers to remain online. With online chatting, service agents can usually handle between one and three customer inquiries at once.

 Given that the average call lasts about four minutes, a customer-service representative can handle 10 to 12 customers per hour using "chat", compared with six to eight per hour over the telephone. One of chat's important advantages is that it keeps customers in an online store environment where they remain exposed to merchandise and promotions.

4.     Reduce costs by improving website design and self-service

            Email, telephone support, and chat all involve considerable staffing costs. But to reduce these expenses a site should anticipate customer needs. Sites that is difficult to navigate and don't provide needed information chase away some customers and force those who stay to resort to more expensive channels to satisfy their service needs.

5.     Analyses the project's scope

            Before recommending or embracing CRM, bank executives must analyses the business issues, the customer relationship model and the exact nature of customer interactions and how they tie together. Banks should not embrace top-line growth as an objective until they can understand precisely how CRM technology will provide those new revenues.

6.     Know thy limitations

            Many CRM implementations are severely limited because they fail to provide a complete and meaningful view of the customer. CRM is primarily a business program, and it requires a genuine partnership between various departments to ensure that both business and technology issues are managed effectively.

7.  Change accounts into customer

            Traditionally banks have closely associated customers with accounts, to the point of calling the account the customer and vice versa. Customers will tend to feel alienated when they are treated like a number instead of a person. A conventional account structure usually contains very little information about customers and their needs, or their relationship with competitors or other divisions within the bank.