In a true sense, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an approach for enhancing customer experience and satisfaction by serving their needs and requirements in the most efficient way. In achieving this objective, the importance of external (customer facing) and internal (cross functional) processes can hardly be overlooked. This is exactly the junction where significance of Business Process Management (BPM) is realized. In other words, the convergence of BPM and CRM results into a Process Driven CRM.

One of the most noticeable benefits that BPM offers is the capability of facing any dynamic business condition. This is enabled through efficient handling of process, right from designing phase to execution. Krawler jSonic BPM offers comprehensive capabilities for process management, workflow automation, collaboration, data management and reporting.

Most of the time, the processes managed and automated by BPM are cross-functional i.e. the processes are spread across various business domain of enterprise.  When this ability to efficiently handle the business process is incorporated in CRM, the effectiveness of CRM is increased many fold.

Consider the situation where a customer places a bulk order enquiry to the customer representative. In order to answer the customer query, information from inventory, quality and manufacturing division is required.  The CRM solution that doesn’t have a process centric approach is of no value in such scenario.

BPM enables CRM to collate the information and metrics across the enterprise that results in better customer service.

Workflow automation is another area where CRM can be benefited by incorporating BPM. The workflow engine in BPM enables stakeholders to define the automatic routing of tasks related to customer processes. Although in CRM, the Case Escalation functionality supports workflow automation, it is limited to CRM domain only. With BPM, tasks can be automatically routed among other enterprise domain such as inventory, whenever required.

In conclusion, CRM is all about acquiring, managing and serving customers. This can be done efficiently and effectively only by having a strong enterprise wide process framework that is delivered by BPM.

There is no denying the fact that the global economy around the world is facing the recessionary heat which is being felt by every Organization – small or big, global or local. In such difficult times, Enterprise Owners become impatient in acquiring new customers and improving their diminishing bottom-line. The need of the hour however, is to concentrate on “Business Basics”. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can definitely help enterprises in achieving that!

Let us briefly visit some of the action areas from business perspective that can help Businesses to perform better during Economic Downturn.

Up-Sell and Cross-Sell Opportunities

During the recessionary times, the most effective way of getting the business is to do “Up-Sell” or “Cross-Sell” to the existing customers. The probability of succeeding in Up-Selling and Cross-Selling is directly related to how the customer relationship is maintained in the past. This is exactly where the benefits of CRM can be realized in such a tough time!
A Customer Relationship Management solution effectively and efficiently caters to the aspect of customer retention through functionalities such as Account Management, Contact Management, Case Management and Activity Management, among others. The automation of these functionalities helps in optimizing the related sales and marketing efforts.

Customer Segmentation

The philosophy of customer segmentation is evergreen irrespective of economic conditions. But its value has increased many folds, when even a penny spent on marketing and sales effort means a lot! The CRM solution enables stakeholders to accurately analyze the data related to market segments, products, leads and campaigns. This results into better understanding of customer demography, product/brand loyalty and purchase behavior, among others. To summarize the point, CRM aids in formulating a “Sales Funnel” that provides  information about the most profitable customer segments and helps devise appropriate methods (Personal campaign, Mass marketing) to target them.

Empowering Marketing and Sale Team

Enterprises tend to reduce the marketing and sales resources during the tough times. Such an approach is definitely not fruitful in the long run. The emphasis should be on empowering the marketing and sales team and thereby enhancing their productivity as well as efficiency.
The CRM solution offers automated functionalities such as lead management, order processing, product pricing, mobile notifications, system generated emails and other administrative tasks. The end result of such CRM initiatives is that the Marketing and Sales representatives can concentrate better on those activities that directly impact the company’s bottom-line and do away with the routine non-value adding tasks.

In conclusion, CRM solution enables Organization to focus on customer acquisition and retention even in the most demanding situations and that too with the most optimized approach.

Krawler CRM enables stakeholders to study customer’s needs and behavior in order to provide better customer experience. Krawler Business Intelligence 2.0 blended with its CRM offers a unique feature – Customer Intelligence that empowers managers at every level of the organization to gather and analyze information regarding customer details and activities.