Multiple Chapters on "CRM at Gibca Group Companies"

Multiple Chapters 18 pages (5430 words) Sources: 15

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Customer Relationship Management at GIBCA Group Companies

The current era is generically recognized as the technological revolution, a time in which technological innovations and developments are made on nearly daily basis. This rapid pace of development impacts directly on all features of the every day life, from the preparation of the breakfast, to the complex analysis of the statistical information.

Within the business community, the technological revolution has created countless mutations. Examples in this sense encompass the inclusion of computers in the workplace, the usage of the internet or the development of intranets. This situation has lead to adjacent implications, such as a necessity to train the staff members to operate the technological applications or the best usage of the technologies to create competitive advantages. A specific means in which technologic applications can be used to create these advantages refers to the collection and processing of customer related information.

Modern day customers no longer represent the group which purchases whatever the company produces, but they have become the group which tells the companies what to manufacture and sell. This status quo was generated by the incremental forces of globalization, by the inclusion of technological applications in the manufacturing process or by the intensifying competition, all which presented the customer with a wider product and service offering. In this context, the clients became more pretentious and their satisfaction now represents the key component of business success.

Given this understanding of the modern customer, companies develop and implement wide series of strategic courses of action in order to become better acquainted with the customer base, to understand its needs and to become able to serve these needs in a way that leads to increased organizational profitability. A specific means of achieving these objectives is through the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, techniques and practices.

CRM, as well as most marketing efforts, has traditionally been the focus of business models in service providing companies. Yet, at a global level, it has to be noted that more and more companies switch their focus from manufacturing to service providing. Within the United States for instance, nearly 80 per cent (76.9 per cent more specifically) of the entire national output is generated by service operations, with the remaining 21.9 per cent being generated by industries and 1.2 per cent by agriculture. In terms of the individuals employed in the sectors, over half of the total labor force is employed in the services sector (Central Intelligence Agency, 2010). This virtually translates into an increased propagation of the CRM practices throughout countries, industries and sectors.

Additionally, the forces of globalization have intensified competition within the manufacturing industries as well, meaning that it becomes more and more crucial for producers to integrate Customer Relationship Management as a means of ensuring customer loyalty. Today, CRM emerges within the non-service industries, but here, it can be observed in rather incipient stages.

2. Problem Statement

As a response to the new challenges within the contemporaneous market place, the GIBCA Group has turned its attention to the strategies of Customer Relationship Management. Yet, rather unfortunate, the company has been unable to adequately gather and process customer information. The poor management of customer data led in turn to poor results in the field of CRM, which subsequently materialized in poor sales levels at the GIBCA Group companies.

3. Study Objectives, Research Questions and Hypotheses

In light of the acknowledged problem, this research strives to identify and present means in which the customer data can be used in a more efficient means, which would in turn lead to superior implementation of the Customer Relationship Management tools and concepts. It aims to retrieve conclusions useful for the group in increasing its sales levels, but also for the individual companies which form the group.

The research commences at three premises, or three hypotheses, as follows:

a) When the company becomes better able to collect and use customer information, it will be better able to implement customer relationship management strategies. In other words, as the marketing team at the GIBCA Group interacts with the customer at the superior level, it will become better abet to understand his desires and to develop the adjacent strategies.

b) Higher quality CRM is better able to serve customer needs, and in turn, generate increased revenues, as well as revenue stability

c) The GIBCA Group places an incremental emphasis on Customer Relationship Management and will continue to do so in order to enhance customer satisfaction and organizational revenues.

In the verification and validation of these three hypotheses, the research will aim to answer the following questions:

1. What are the particularities of Customer Relationship Management at GIBCA?

2. How is the management of customer data related to Customer Relationship Management and how could improved management of customer data lead to improved CRM?

3. How does Customer Relationship Management improve organizational profitability?

4. What measures and strategies should the managerial team at the GIBCA Group develop and implement in order to better manage their customer data and consequently increase their profitability rates?

4. Significance of the Study

The research project on the implementation of Customer Relationship Management at the GIBCA Group is characterized by two distinct significances. First of all, there is the academic importance of the paper. From this standpoint, the work reviews and points out to some of the most important researches already conducted in the field. This virtually means that it recapitulates the already made developments, and additionally, that the study is relevant as it starts at proven and solid grounds. Another academic significance of the study is given by the approach taken in the analysis. In this order of ideas, the current paper looks at CRM through the lenses of customer data -- this approach is uncommon within the specialized literature.

Secondly, there is the managerial and practical importance of the study. From this standpoint, the research paper offers solid recommendations for the managerial team at GIBCA as to how they could use customer data to increase their profitability levels. The recommendations are viable at the overall level of the entire group, as well as the individual level of its component companies. Extrapolating, the findings in the study are also noteworthy of consideration for other managers in the construction industry or for managers administering large groups. All these parties would be introduced to the mechanisms of efficient Customer Relationship Management and they will be better able to implement the solutions to their own advantage.

5. Limitations of the Study

There are two sets of limitations -- academic and practical. The academic limitations -- or better said the academic challenges -- refer to the findings of theoretical conclusions within a real life situation. The practical limitations refer to the negative impacts which might be felt by the GIBCA Group companies, such as:

Reduced operational efficiency as more time is spent assisting the research process and professional duties might be neglected

The occurrence of internal tensions based on the results of the study as one company might be implementing CRM at superior or inferior levels relative to the other companies

Internal dissatisfactions on the part of the staff members who would be faced with the necessity to readjust their approach to professional chores.

Additionally, due to these limitations, but also due to issues which would be identified during the actual research, it is highly possible for the current study to raise new questions. And from an academic standpoint, the raising of new research questions is a strength of the research process.

6. Definition of Terms

Before launching the actual discussion on GIBCA and its customer data usage within Customer Relationship Management, it is of the utmost importance to pin point several terms which would be used throughout the development of the research project. They include:

CRM -- Customer Relationship Management -- the process of managing the means in which the company interacts with the customer base with the intent of increasing customer satisfaction and generating increased profits. More information on CRM will be offered throughout the Literature Review chapter, which, among other things, will contain several definitions of Customer Relationship Management, as they have been presented within the specialized literature.

Customer data -- information the company collects on its clients, such as their degree of satisfaction towards a certain product or service, their suggestions for improvement, their complaints and so on.

Organizational profitability -- a complex financial term which reveals the levels of profits a company makes; a distinction should be made between revenues and profits in the meaning that the profit is retrieved by the subtraction of the operational and other costs from the totality of the revenues. The levels of profitability are measured through the composition of several profitability ratios such as gross profit margin or net profit margin. In the context of the current research project, the profitability will be understood in a simplistic manner as the ability of the company to generate revenues in the context of the costs incurred (Investopedia, 2010).

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