CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) in light of PR In the industry, CRM is a widely implemented tool to manage a company’s interactions with its customers, clients and sales prospects whether potential and/or current. Every new strategy that a company devises is to ensure maximum satisfaction of its customers for current and future feedbacks. Customer response drives upcoming trends. Therefore, CRM is a substantiation of strategies, schemes and technologies utilized by companies to manage or analyse customer relations to improve business relations, and enhance sales. This happens over a long period of time throughout the life of customer involvement. Public Relations is the method of teaching or intimating the public about a company’s objectives, it practices and inner workings to ensure faith and good will. In this way, CRM is a species of PR, or every type of CRM is PR but every kind of PR scheme doesn’t involve CRM. Customers are a company’s biggest assets. In olden days when marketing strategies were still in their infancy, the USP of any product available in the market, was spread by word of mouth. Suffice to say, there wasn’t much competition and needs were low. As we advanced into modern times, our needs multiplied and supply magnified. With data mounting and services being put up for sale, satisfaction became a crucial element in rating a company’s status among its peers. For instance, Product A is an experimental new hygiene product, advertised incessantly, and in its first batch is all out of stock. However, its fails on performance and customers are left dissatisfied, owing to silence from the retailers and manufacturers. Product B, is relatively unknown, but has delivered on performance, while any and all customer complaints, interactions have been successfully handled, building the brand over time. Some examples are, Home Lite matches, Cello plastic products, Neelkamal furniture, etc. There is 100% customer satisfaction. Why? Because the relationship is nurtured over time by private communication, with quality product. Today, CRM is such a big aspect of a company, entire BPOs, call centres, service centres have been pressed into business to address customer concerns, evaluate responses through CRM software, develop the standard of performance sought through customer trends, tracking movements of customer through the length of its association with a product or service. The simplest software solution is the internet cloud which links all your accounts and develops a system based on one’s likes, preferences, dislikes, similarities, etc. Maintaining relations this way solves numerous problems and paves way for developing new relations. A customer’s paramount concern is with quality, durability and satisfaction proportional to the value of the product in use. This is another way of value addition. CRM systems use live chat, telephone, direct mail, marketing materials and social media, which in turn browses through purchase history, search history to unveil a bio-data of customers which, in an automated set-up, serves as a Knowledge Bank for the vendor. Through effective PR communication, CRM can be eased into the process of trust building, and brand management. It is said that good work to be recognized must be SEEN by the right people, or else no one knows. Nothing could be more right in today’s competitive world. The customer while being pursued for development, must also be taught or made aware about the company’s objectives. No leeway must be given or allowed in this regard. If there is regular effort on the CRM front, the job of PR automatically becomes simpler, reducing financial burden, distributing labour. It also goes a long way in subtly announcing that the company cares and the customer matters.
