Unit 41 CIMM Customer Relationship Management Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 41 CIMM Customer Relationship Management
QFC Level	Level 5

Task 1

Introduction

In this section of CIMM Customer relationship management assignment, it will focus on the relationship marketing or customer relation management (CRM) with the implication and use of knowledge management and expertise Information and Communication tools. It will summarize about the benefits of CRM and will focus on improvement in customer satisfaction through CRM services.

1.1 knowledge management and its role in relationship marketing

Knowledge management (KM) refers to the process of sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of the organization. KM has multi tasking approach that helps management in achieving the objectives with the best use of knowledge. It helps in gaining the gaining and sustaining the competitive advantage. On the other side customer marketing  provide customer services by developing relation with the customer through the use of customer information and this information is gained from services, programs, messages and media. Knowledge management plays a crucial role in relationship marketing. It helps D&D enterprises to solve the complex problem. The organization ties up the knowledge base activity to customer records using computer peripheral that guide about the products, service decision and customer services  (Khodakarami and Chan,  2014).

The main objectives of the organization is to answer the as many as question on the knowledge base rather than solving through phones and mail. For that organization can coordinate the marketing to make the right now knowledge base with important content for the new product launch or for the update of existing product that still receiving the interest from the customers. KM can be used effectively if the gap is filled between the sales, marketing, services and internal management. The problem is that the internal management cooperation is not effective for managing the data. Fulfilling individual role would not solve the problem for improvement in relationship marketing, individual have the join together to provide more value to customer and product knowledge. Though the cost of marketing research and promotions are high but at the end the customer satisfaction will generate the revenue in long run (Garrido-Moreno et.al. 2015).

1.2 The ways how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) supports the customer relationship management (CRM) in particular organization

ICT refers to the transfer of information from one end to another through the communication channels using technologies that help in reducing the time of transmission and also useful in getting immediate actions. There are numerous ways to transfer the data i.e. through mails, satellite mobile phones etc with the use of efficient hardware, software and other devices that comes under the category of ICT.  Number of ways organization can use ICT to support the CRM. This are:

• The customer data can be integrated at the one place as the organization has different branches which sometimes create difficulty for the D & D management as well to the customer. With the use ICT tools data can integrate in the centralized data base management which would also useful in maintaining and updating the data. This facility would enhance the customer satisfaction (Limbu et.al. 2014).
• D & D can direct mail to the registered user about the new stock arrival and discounts on online news letter through mailing them individually. It also acts as the effective tool in achieving the competitor advantage.
• The D & D organization would try to know the opinion and views of the end user which can be through the feedback form attached with their official websites. The feedback would be considered by use of data mining software that helps in knowing the customer preference and strength of the organization.

Even Though the set up cost are high for deploying ICT tools but in long run it would able the organization to attain the customer satisfaction and sustainability in competitive world (Mukwasi and Seymour, 2016).

1.3 Benefits of CRM in D & D enterprises similar to other organization

CRM is the method of developing the relation with the customer through the collection and analysis of information from the customer or from the market. Data can be collected through the knowledge management and ICT tools in order to attain the retention of customer for long time. The need to analyze and organize the data helps in solving the issues of the customers for the products and services of the organization. The fundamental principle of CRM is to retain the existing customer rather than to focus on only sale factor (Abdul-Muhmin,  2012).

Mc Donald’s is the similar organization like D & D enterprises that would help to know the benefits of CRM. The Mc Donald’s management considers the CRM as the important function by executing the improved data, fast solution to problems, real time reporting. The management had inbuilt the specific software for receiving the feedback and solving it on time. This help the Mc Donald’s to achieve the customer satisfaction and to attract the potential customer to their business environment. The application of ICT tool would help the management to solve the problems quickly from the concerned department and adopt the necessary measures to solve it. Modification in CRM services would attract the visitors in the restaurant and in long run it will enhance the profitability of the organization (Mukerjee, K., 2013). Change would also ensure the frequent visit of the customer that would useful in gaining the business objectives and increase the customer’s equity.

1.4 Justify the recommendations for the improvement in CRM for the selected organization

CRM refers to the strategies, practices and technologies that organization uses to collect the information and data and customer interaction to achieve the business objectives of retaining the customer and attracting the new customer.

M Donald’s is the similar organization which is operating globally had to put the stress on building the strong customer base to meet the customer expectations. CRM is the best strategy that would help in meeting the objectives. The following recommendations for improving the relationship management in Mc Donald’s need to emphasize:

• The modification in the ICT tools such as data warehouse and data mining in order to achieve objective and support with the focus on adding new innovative functions in the CRM system (Hong  and Chun, 2013).
• The management should emphasize on the feedback collection procedures in provide quick response to the customers queries. The necessary information collected from the feedback should be communicated to service department so that they can improve their services and provide quality.
• The participation of front line employees is necessary for achieving the customer support. They should be confident enough to change the buying practices and preferences, attitudes of the customer for the particular product. The upper management participation is also important to extract the information from front line employees (Bahrami et.al. 2012).

The most important recommendation is to improve the feedback collection process and involvement of employees with the modification in ICT tools.

Conclusion

In the report, the D & D had shown the understanding of knowledge management with their role in relationship marketing. It had emphasized on the use of Information and Communication tools to achieve the objectives of CRM. The report concluded about the benefits of CRM and its ways in different similar organization. At the end, it had recommended the ways for improvement in customer support services to enhance the customer satisfaction. 

Task 2

Introduction

In the current task, the report will explains about the stakeholder’s analysis by taking the voluntary sector and public sector organization. It will also depict the relationship with the customer in not for profit organization and their importance to promote the healthcare and social welfare. The report will highlight the marketing key issues in virtual organization and methods of marketing applied in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

2.1 Carry out a stakeholder analysis for a voluntary sector and a public sector organization

Stakeholders are the key driver’s in every organization. It includes individuals, groups, community leaders and other business that have the power to influence the results and functioning of the organization. It is necessary to conduct the stakeholder’s analysis in order to know their interest and powers in the management. Analysis can be done by performing stakeholder mapping in the following way for voluntary sector and public sector business.

            Figure 1 Stakeholder's Mapping Matrix

                                                                             Table 1: Stakeholder's Mapping

Stake holders	Description	Volunteer organization (Hope for Justice) Examples	Public sector organization (NHS) Examples
Latent’s	These team have high power but little interested in the functioning of organization. Creating higher value for this team is important (Jiang et.al. 2014)	Patients	Residents of England
Apathetic	This team has low power with low interest. Thus less priority would be given to this team	Business organizations	Patients admitted in the nursing homes.
Promoters	This dimension Has the highest power and interest in the functioning of the organization. Organization needs to manage the promoters and inform about the strategies, new action plan and projects undertaken.	Donator’s and trustees of the organization	Department of Health London
Defenders	This team reflects high interest with low power. Thus updating with information is necessary to them.	Employees	Employees

By using the above table, the organizations can analysis the need and importance of stakeholder’s in the management with their power to influence the functioning and growth of the organization.

2.2 The nature of the relationships with customer within two selected not-for-profit organizations

Customer relation is the most effective part for the organization and connects the organization with the clients. Non-profit organizations always try to explain the benefits of the services to the clients thus they are able to develop the society in better and effective way. Various non-profit organizations provide low cost thing to the clients thus they are able to interact with the patients. Following are the non-profit organizations that identify the nature of relationship with the customers:

• British Heart Foundation: The organization is liable to raise the funds for the diseases like heart blockages, heart attack etc. The non-profit organization always tries to give treatment to the patients at low cost this is the best way to connect with the customers in the market. The customer base for this organization is too large and they are serving all around the globe. British Heart Foundations provides support to those people who are suffering from the infection and any other heart related disease. The main motive of this organization is to develop the society and provide low cost services to the customers (Chi et.al. 2015).
• British Red Cross Society: It is the substitute organization of the International Red Cross and business is serving emergency services to the vulnerable patients with the help of ambulance, first aid service and many other medical services in the organization. The volunteers in this organization provides face to face interaction with the clients and also help the business to maintain the better services for the general public.   

So it can be said that non-profit organization maintains the direct and in-direct relationship with the clients by which manager can easily maintain the relation with the clients.     

2.3 Methods used in marketing within the public, private and voluntary sectors

Marketing is the most important element in all the organizations either they are public, private or voluntary. Many organizations thought that marketing is just selling the products and services to the people but it is way to interact with the new clients and to promote the product in the local and international market. Private sector use the marketing in various ways to promote the product, connect with the clients, to maximize the profits and to raise the customer base. Private sector is the vast sector and operating the transaction is the different parts of the world. The aim of D&D enterprise is to gain the attention, interest of the new clients and to identify the desire and action of the present customers. With the help of marketing private businesses strategy can place their position in the market. Various tools are available for the private organization like social media, Twitter, Facebook etc (Yen, D., 2014). 

On the other hand public organizations can easily identify aware the local public about the services provided by the government. The public organization like NHS provides facility to the people in form of health care services. NHS adopts various promotional techniques to create the awareness to the local public. NHS creates various national policies to promote the services in the organization and various mediums are available to promote are newspaper, magazines, pamphlets etc.
On contrary voluntary organizations that focuses to provide services to the local public in order to develop the society. The main source of their income is donations by which they can easily promote their services in the market. The volunteers in this organization promote the services of NGO’s in the market. The main aim of the organization is to deliver the services to the local people for betterment of the society (Khang et.al. 2012).  

2.4 The key issues involved in marketing in a virtual organization

The virtual organization is way of business that uses the internet for selling and delivering the products to their clients. The clients in this organization always try to connect with the organization with the help of internet. Customers in this organization always use the e-mails, facebook, organization application and website of the organization. The sales representative of the organization always try to interact with the clients with the help of internet. Through internet virtual organization promote the brand and make the buyer aware about the services of the organization. Virtual organizations always try to connect with the clients in the organization. Various problems are faced by the TESCO PLC to interact with the clients this are as follows:

• The competitors in the market adopt various marketing policies sometimes they cut down the prices of the products and services and that affect the marketing policies of the organization. For instance TESCO PLC adopts the online payment of the services and products but the rivalry organization adopts cash on delivery option for the customers thus it affects the customer base of the organization ().
• The sales team of the organization is the backbone of the organization that is liable for generating the revenue for the organization. But in the case of virtual organization sales team does not interact with the clients they provide online services to the customers so lack of medium may affects the marketing of the organization.
• Sometimes trust of the clients is the biggest hurdle for the organization because online purchasing may provide low quality products as per the mindset of the clients.

Conclusion

The report identifies the various modes of marketing under public, private and voluntary organizations and also carries out the stakeholder analysis for the voluntary and public sector organizations. The report analyzes the nature of relationship with the clients for British Heart Foundation and British Red Cross Society. The marketing methods assist the private, public and voluntary organizations in different ways.

Task 3

Introduction

The report analyzes the importance of applying the extended marketing mix in the service sector and also identifies the difficulties peculiar to the marketing of the services that can be overcome with D&D enterprise. It also explains the role of IT in the service marketing management for the organization.

3.1 The extended marketing mix in D&D enterprise

The traditional marketing mix assists the organization to gain the competitive advantage of the organization. The marketing mix in the organization is major pillar for the business and helps the business to set the bench mark for the services in the organization. Traditional marketing mix is product, price, place and promotion and now they are extended with 3 more P’s in the organization. The 3 new P’s are people, process and physical evidence. The extension of this three new P’s assists the organization to build the strong organizational base and attain the goal easily. It has been identified that the new 3 P’s help the organization to manage the transactions easily.

• Process: Process is the way that assists the organization to manage the day to day operations. D&D enterprise it the London based organization that operates the business in different parts of the London. The organization has to manage the operations its operations by hiring the employees or providing the franchisee to the local people for better output (Goi, 2015).
• Physical evidence: The management of D&D enterprise focuses on the quality services to the clients and always tries to solve the problems of the employees for better output. D&D enterprise has opened the outlets at different locations and serves as a part of the physical evidence that generates the attraction of the new client towards the businesses.
• People: The employees in D&D enterprise are considered to be the seller that is responsible to provide quality services to the clients. Proper training to the employees makes the services to the clients more satisfactory in comparison to the untrained employees. It is required to monitor the performance of the employees for better outcome in the organization. This P helps the organization to raise the productivity of the employees.

                              Figure 2 Extended marketing mix

3.2 The product/service mix can be used to enhance value for the customer and organization

Product mix is said as the available product line of the business. It can be divided in to the depth, length and width of the product mix. On the contrary in hand service mix is the combination of various services of a business in the market to increase the value for the clients.
Service mix is divided in to three platforms like facilitating service, improvement in services and major services. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the service mix, D&D enterprise is selected:

• Enhancing services: Under this category organization has to increase the services for the customer satisfaction. For better customer availability management is liable to provide the best services to the clients and it depends on the management that proper availability if services to the customers. For example information of product delivery to the clients and collection of feedback of the services provided (Yoon et.al. 2012).
• Major services: The major service of the D&D enterprise is to serve quality services to the clients. Organization’s major objective is to maintain the relationship with the clients in order to sustain in the market. The major services of the organization must be strong so nay client must not move towards the competitor.
• Facilitating service: This is term under which organization serve better services to the clients and tries to retain them with the organization. For example D&D enterprise provides details related to the product ordered by the clients this is the additional services that are provided by the management.

                                              Figure 3 Product mix

3.3 Difficulties peculiar to the marketing of services can be overcome with reference to D&D enterprise

Organizations have to face various problems in the organization thus they are not able to reach the clients in more effective way. Different competitors adopt different marketing strategies in order to promote the services in the market and sometimes it may affect the marketing principles of the organization. The marketing is the best way to interact with the clients but management faces various problems to promote the products in the market. For example D&D enterprise is London based retail organization that sell the products to the local public and have various outlets across the London but organization face the problem to sell the products online due to lack of marketing activities (Velikan et.al. 2013). Sometimes organizations provides various service to the clients like online product selling, online delivery but due to lack of internet services management is not able to deliver quality services to the clients. The most difficult barrier for the organization in the marketing process is lack of marketing sources and unavailability of the marketing professionals in the organization. D&D enterprise is facing the problem of marketing due to lack of online platform for marketing in the local market so is more difficult for the organization promote the services in the market.

The declined sales in the organization may affect the marketing activities of the organization and also decrease the customer base of the organization. Proper marketing of the service may help the business to carry out the best outcome of the client satisfaction in the organization (Sebastiani et.al. 2013).     

 3.4 The role of IT (Information Technology) in services marketing management in D&D enterprise

Technology is the best way to generate the better services to the clients and it assists the organization to get better outcome from the services. With the help of technical support management can easily identify the demand of the clients and serve them as per their requirement. Information Technology is the electronic technique to serve the service to the clients like retrieving, sharing and collecting the information from the different sources. D&D enterprise is adopting the IT to deliver quality services to the client and maintain the position of organization is the market. Information Technology is the best way to provide desired services to the customers. Digital communication helps the business to maintain the friendly relation with the clients and provide the online platform to the customer to purchase the products. Technology use increases the cost but in the end it gives lots of benefits to the organization(Tedlow and Jones, 2014). It helps the business to gain the customer retention and also help the business to double the profits margin. It may lower down the human resourse efforts and also help the business to gain the competitive advantage. The main role of the Information technology in the organization is to provide best services to the clients.    

Conclusion

The report evaluates the role of information technology in the organization and it may improve the overall efficiency of the organization. It identifies the difficulty in the marketing of the services in the organization and also identified the extended marketing mix that is Process, Physical evidence and People.

References

Books and Journals

Abdul-Muhmin, A.G., 2012. CRM technology use and implementation benefits in an emerging market. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 19(2), pp.82-97.
Bahrami, M., Ghorbani, M. and Arabzad, S.M., 2012. Information technology (IT) as an improvement tool for customer relationship management (CRM). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, pp.59-64.
Chi, N.W., Chen, P.C. and Tsai, Y.Y.R., 2015, January. The Interactive Effects of Emotional Labor and Service Behaviors on Building Customer Relationships. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 16769). Academy of Management.
Garrido-Moreno, A., Lockett, N. and Garcia-Morales, V., 2015. Exploring the role of knowledge management practices in fostering customer relationship management as a catalyst of marketing innovation. Baltic Journal of Management, 10(4), pp.393-412.
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