Customer Business Strategy: CRM Implementation and Benefits

This report delves into the customer business strategy within the realm of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It begins by defining CRM and introducing customer-business strategy, emphasizing its role in managing customer interactions to enhance satisfaction and retention. The report explores the core aspects of the strategy, including building trust, addressing customer needs, and leveraging feedback. It outlines the benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction, improved retention, effective communication, market optimization, and valuable business insights. The report also examines the challenges in implementing these strategies, including a lack of top-level engagement, communication gaps, difficulties in defining consumer focus, decision-making power issues, and employee competency concerns. The report then highlights the role of technology in enhancing customer service, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Real-world examples, such as the airline industry, are used to illustrate the practical application of these strategies. Finally, the report concludes with an overview of the key findings and implications for organizations seeking to improve their customer relationships.

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Customer Relationship Management
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Abstract.
Customer-relationship management involves an organization’s way to manage its
interactions with already existing customers and new customers. CRM is a broad topic with
many subtopics. This paper will discuss one of the subtopics, which is the customer-business
strategy. It consist has six sections, the first being the introduction that explains more about
customer-relationship-management and customer-business strategy. The second section will
discuss the subtopic customer-business strategy, what it is, and how it works in an organizational
set up as well as the people involved. The third section will outline the benefits of the customer-
business strategy. The fourth section will explain the challenges in customer-business approach,
and the next chapter will explain how technology can be used to improve customer services in an
organization. The paper will also give relevant examples. The last section is the conclusion made
after the literature review.

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Introduction.
Customer-relationship management involves an organization's way to manage its
interactions with already existing customers and new customers. The organizations observe the
customer's behavior over a certain period to create a better relationship with its customers, and
customer retention has a positive impact on the growth of the company as it increases the sale
made per annum. Nowadays, it's challenging to maintain loyal customers because there is too
much competition from a wide range of similar products, it is, therefore, necessary for a
company to practice CRM where they focus on maximizing the number of sales per year through
building a good customer relationship to acquire repeat customers as well as new customers.
This is achieved through observation of customer's changing behavior, identifying their needs,
and solving their problems through customer business strategies. The stIt has several benefits, as
well as challenges. By use of technology, it has become more comfortable, efficient, fast, and
more cost-effective for organizations to improve their customer services (Woerner and Wixom,
2015).
Customer business strategy.
Customer-business strategy involves carrying out business with maximum customer
satisfaction and excellent customer services. It focuses on creating a good experience for the
customers during, before, and after delivery to build a good relationship with customers who
eventually become loyal customers to your business. If fully implemented, the customer-business
strategy can significantly improve the growth of your organization. It helps you meet the
customers' expectations and become more competitive in the market. Your organization has to
come up with a customer's behavior that helps it grow (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017)

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Customer business strategy focuses on three main aspects, which are: trust and reliability,
solving problems responsibly and identifying opportunities and customer’s needs. (Frambach,
Fiss and Ingenbleek, 2016). The strategy focusses on finding out what the consumer expects
through past experiences, finding out why the customers prefer you to your competitors. It may
not only be about the quality of goods and services provided but also the customer service that
makes customers to build trust in you (Peterson and Crittenden, 2018).
Through careful evaluation of customer’s feedback and complaints, you can identify an
opportunity of an unmet need and focus on solving the problem. Organization also have to train
your employees on addressing issues in case a customer complains to them if a customer
complains solve effectively, and the customer is satisfied with the service provided, they will
spread a right word of mouth drawing more customers to your organization. The other hand, if
the problem is not solved, the customer will talk negatively about your organization and thus
keeping away more customers from coming to your organization (Kohtamäki and Partanen,
2016).
An example of an industry using this strategy is the airline industry. The sector is faced
by a problem of having a significant demand that they can meet, some people book flights but
change their minds at the last minute. The plane then flies with an empty seat which has a
negative effect on the cost, they sometimes have more passengers booking a particular flight to
avoid empty seats, In case they all show up, they give an offer as compensation to a willing
person to sacrifice a position so that customers won't feel disappointed (Rahimi and Kozak,
2017).
Benefits of customer business strategies.

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Customer-business strategy has many benefits to any organizations; they include:
1. Increase customer satisfaction.
The primary benefit of customer-business strategies is increased consumer satisfaction, this
strategy focuses on marketing, and the growing number of sales an organization makes per year,
and therefore, any activity done is to improve customer service. Better services are provided if
the management has a better understanding of the customers they are dealing with, in case of any
problem arising the management can easily refer to the customers' past relationship through
purchases they made earlier, their preferences or anything about the customer's behavior to
improve customer services. As a result, the customers feel more satisfied, and they give feedback
on how satisfied or unsatisfied they on the services or products delivered (Wynstra, Spring and
Schoenherr, 2015).
2. Customer retention.
By applying these strategies, the customer is more satisfied, and they feel like part of the
organization. They become consistent and loyal customers. They spread the right word of mouth
concerning your organization and refer family and friend to become customers to your
organization as well. As a result, the number of sales is increased and so are the profit margins.
The organization also spends little on advertising and marketing because they already have
repeat and loyal customers. The organization also gets a better competitive edge because it
becomes difficult for competitors to convince loyal customers (Taneja, Pryor and Hayek, 2016).
3. Effective communication.
Implementing these business strategies enhances effective communication among all the
departments. The customer information acquired is shared across all the departments in the

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organization; the different departments are guided by that information to improve customer
service. Any member of staff is also able to answer all the questions the customers may be
having regarding the products and services. The staff members are all ready to work together as a
team to improve efficiency in production thus giving their customers quality products (Serra and
Kunc, 2015)
4. Market Optimization.
Customer-business strategies enable you to develop a cost-efficient marketing plan targeting
more customers. Through the proper understanding of the customer's behavior, needs, and
preferences, you can identify the best time to market your products. The strategies also enable
you to group your customers based on their buying behaviors and preferences. Therefore you can
quickly identify the most profitable groups. Through the information you have acquired, you can
choose the most appropriate marketing strategy for each group. Through market optimization,
you experience growth and increased profit margins (Reim, Parida, and Örtqvist, 2015).
5. Gain valuable understandings.
Using the customer business strategy also help analyze the business performance at large by
reviewing its marketing results, an increase in sales made per year, and the profit trends. By
critically understanding this information, the management can make better decisions regarding
business activities and make better plans to improve profitability and overall business growth.
Managers have to gather all vital information for them to lead effectively (Lloret, 2016).
The airline industry has benefited from the customer-business strategy because they
managed to satisfy its customers, developed a good relationship, and hence, they become loyal
customers.

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Challenges in implementing customer-business strategies.
Despite this strategy being so beneficial to the organization, you may face some challenges
while implementing them. These challenges include:
1) Lack of top-level engagement.
The senior most managers don't engage themselves in the implementation of strategies, and
they often leave it for low-level managers and subordinates to deal with it. Sometimes the
customers need assurance from the top-level managers that their expectations shall be met. It is
also essential for the top managers to interview the customers to know their level of satisfaction
to make the right decisions for improving customer services. The senior managers should be the
ones guiding the others on how to handle customers and must show commitment towards
enhancing the customer services. If they can’t do that, the organization might fail in delivering
the expectations of the customers (Vidgen, Shaw and Grant, 2017).
2) Lack of excellent communication between the organization and its customers.
For the customer-business strategy to be a success, there has to be effective communication
between the organization and the customers. Most employees don’t listen carefully to what the
customers have to say which a challenge becomes because you cannot know what the customers
expect and therefore, cannot satisfy their needs. Unsatisfied customers tend to look for better
organizations with better services. Organizations should, therefore, insist on listening to
customers for them to experience growth (Larsson and Viitaoja, 2017).

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3) Defining your consumers.
Another challenge organizations experience in customer business strategy is knowing which
consumer to focus. Some consumers may have negative feedback on the services or products
provides, but they defer from other customers who feed satisfied by the same services. Negative
feedbacks were given because the product did not meet the customer's expectations, and you
have to find out the reason the customer was not satisfied. Sometimes it’s difficult for
organizations to know who where they should look because different customers of the same
product have contrasting feedbacks (pieth, Schneckenberg and Matzler, 2016).
4) Power to make decisions.
Employees lack the power to decide on matters concerning customer satisfaction while they
are the one who experiences direct contact with the customers. Employees have a better
understanding of what the customer’s need, where customers think the organization is going
wrong and what should be done to improve customer service. The people with the power to
make decisions don't understand these issues critically and are therefore likely to make wrong
decisions (Yang, Evans, Vladimirova and Rana, 2017).
5) Lack of employee competency.
For any organization to be successful, it requires competent employees to relate with the
customers and for efficient production. Some employees have poor interpersonal relationships,
which makes it difficult for them to connect well with customers. The customers are not satisfied
and choose to move to another organization because your employees are lacking problem-
solving skills and are not ready to listen to the customer's complaints (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart
and Wright, 2017).

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For example, the service industry may encounter challenges while trying to implement this
strategy, the employees have direct contact with the customer, and yet they cannot make
decisions concerning customer service. Some employees may not be competent, and they don't
know how to develop a good relationship with customers, this makes the customers feel
unsatisfied and leaves the organization for another organization with better services.
Technology and business-customer strategy.
Customer service is essential to all organizations; the customer service you offer may
have either a positive or negative impact on the growth of your organization. Organizations with
the best customer services have a better competitive edge. It is therefore essential to use
technologies that can help up improve the efficiency of customer services and at a lower cost.
Using technology is more effective in terms of time as compared to work done by individuals, it
is possible to serve a wide range of customers within a short time through automation of some
programs. It is also efficient and free from too many errors, and it is cost effective in that the
organization does not require large numbers of the workforce to meet the customers’
expectations. There are very many benefits of using technology in customer-business strategy
(Cook, 2017).
With the new technologies that have emerged, it has become easier to interact with
customers, know more about their personal information, and find out their preferences. It has
also become more accessible for customers to feedback on services provided or ask relevant
questions; customers are also helping organizations in marketing products through social media.
New customers learn about existence and more about the quality of your services or products
through social media (Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble, 2015).

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For example, manufacturing industry organizations can use software that helps store
customer information at a central place where all departments can source the information when
required. They could also use emails for follow up after sales or to help customers contact the
organization efficiently and fast. Customers can also get the desired information from the
organization's website, where vital information concerning the organization’s product.
Conclusion.
In summary, the customer-business strategy has a dramatic positive impact on customer
relationship management. The approach focuses on exceeding the customers’ expectations to
make them repeat customers. Information about the customers' needs, preferences, and behaviors
is essential in decision making on matters concerning customer service. Satisfied customers will
always come for more with gives your organization a better competitive edge. Using this strategy
has several benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction, customer retention, effective
communication, gains valuable understandings, and market optimization. However, some
challenges include: lack of top-level engagement, lack of proper communication between the
customers and the organization, some employees are not competent enough, and the power to
make decisions is not given to employees while they are the ones who have direct contact with
the customers. Organizations can use technology to improve their customer services. Use of
technology is more efficient, free from errors, fast, and cost-effective. Use of technology makes
it easier for organizations to interact with their customer, get feedback and respond to
complaints, customers can also learn more about the organization on the organization’s website
(Shuen, 2018).

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