Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has now acquired a prominent place in all the business write-ups, articles and business strategy books. We can see a lot many companies investing very huge amounts to implement an effective CRM device. In today's world, where the competition in the business is too high and intense, Customer Relationship Management or more commonly CRM has been projected as the shortcut for success. But quite ironically, it can be seen that most of those companies who have spent large sums on installing CRM software are not able to define or answer what CRM actually means. In such a scenario, it would be better for us to try to understand the practical implications and applications of an effective CRM strategy and how to implement those in a competitive business environment.
CRM has been defined differently by different business executives and writers based on the different experiences they had, in different contexts. So, to get a comprehensive view of the concept and its use in the day-to-day business activities, it seems imperative to go through some of them.
[...] "CRM is a business philosophy that affects the company at large." CRM IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR When we analyze the nature of the banking business, we are able to see that the insurance providers traditionally concentrated on product creation, with distribution and sales considered as different business focus, and therefore customer relation was not a key concern. And, this sector has been loath to implement changes. In the earlier days in the history of the insurance sector, quite often, a customer had to pass from department to department to get his multiple questions answered about a specific policy. [...]
[...] Those are dealt in detail below: Identifying the most potential customer In an insurance company, the most important channel of distribution is the agency network, and the brokers. The agency network consists of individual persons who are assigned with the task of marketing, mainly selling the insurance products. Here, it is their duty to find out the most potential customers. They usually would be able to perform this task from their live interactions with the society in which they form a part and from their previous experiences. [...]
[...] In the insurance sector, carriers, agents and customers can be empowered by the integration of disparate content and data. In general terms, we can see the objectives behind a successful CRM strategy as reducing marketing and sales costs, improving customer segmentation, increasing the breadth of customer relationships, penetrating new customer segments, and realigning products and channels. Now every insurance company has realized that customer relations are valuable assets, which are to be taken care of, in order to maintain the customer base on a long-term basis. [...]
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