CHAPTER-6

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

C. Findings
A: 6.1 Introduction
A: 6.2 General Findings common to all the sectors
A: 6.3 Findings specific to Banking Sector
A: 6.4 Findings specific to Hospitality Sector
A: 6.5 Findings specific to Insurance Sector
A: 6.6 Findings specific to Telecom Sector
A: 6.7 Conclusion

D. Suggestions
B: 6.1 Introduction
B: 6.2 General Suggestions common to all the sectors
B: 6.3 Suggestions specific to Banking Sector
B: 6.4 Suggestions s specific to Hospitality Sector
B: 6.5 Suggestions specific to Insurance Sector
B: 6.6 Suggestions specific to Telecom Sector
B: 6.7 Conclusion

C: Scope for future Research

A) FINDINGS:

A: 6.1 Introduction:
The present study gives an insight into the Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
practices adopted by the five organizations selected each from Banking, Hospitality (Hotels
only), Insurance and Telecommunication services. The study has revealed how customer centric
the CRM processes are and how successfully the CRM initiatives have been implemented by
these organizations. The observations and findings of this study are based on survey of the
customers as well as the high ranking officers and managers of the organizations belonging to

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the different service sectors. The sector wise observations and findings are presented here in this
chapter.

A: 6.2 General Findings common to all the sectors:

1. Majority of the customers have opined that their organizations respond promptly to
complaints and take corrective actions, the organizations have made internet transactions
available to them and internet transactions are convenient to them.

2. A good majority of the customers have also expressed that the staff of the organisation is co-
operative, they give them a sense-of-belonging to the organization, send greetings on special
occasions and the staff is trustworthy. The customers also receive information about special
offers from their respective organizations.
3. Some of the organizations have implemented e-CRM and the customers find it beneficial to
them as it has improved their relationship with the organization and has improved staff
behavior. Majority of the customers have opined that there was never any delay in the service
rendered by the organization. The organizations welcome suggestions from the customers
and take action and always invite their customer to customer meets. (Table No.5.2)
4. It is initially observed from the mean rating scores of the customer that the processes of the
Life insurance service sector are more customer centric when compared to Banking,
Hospitality and Telecom services. (Table No.5.3). This is further proved by testing of the
hypothesis (Tables 5.83) that ‘There is a significant difference in the customer centricity of
the CRM processes implemented by different service sectors’.
5. It is found that customers with the following demographic and behavioral characteristics find
the services rendered by their organizations to be customer centric.

o Female Customers
o Customers with qualifications of below and up to 12th
o Customers who are professionals
o Customers with longer duration of association with the organizations
o Customers who never experienced improper service and
o Customers who have not received any invitation to customer meets or those who are
invited on special occasions (Table Nos.5.5 to 5.11)

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6. It is further revealed by testing of hypothesis (Table No. 5.84) that there is significant
relationship between age groups, gender, qualifications, occupations, association with the
organisation, frequency of visits, frequency of complaints, improper service experienced and
frequency of customer meets with customer centricity scores. The relationship is as follows:

• Age groups and customer centricity rating are independent of each other.
• Gender and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other.
• Qualifications and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other.
• Occupation and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other.
• Association with the organization and customer centricity rating are dependent on
each other.
• Frequency of visits and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other.
• Frequency of complaints and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other.
• Service experienced and customer centricity rating are dependent on each other. and
• Frequency of customer meets and customer centricity rating are dependent on each
other.
7. It is revealed from the results of testing the hypothesis that the CRM programmes
implemented by the different service sectors are different (Table No. 5.89). This difference is
in terms of the CRM dimensions of ‘sensitivity towards customer needs’, ‘communication
process’, ‘intermediaries management’ and ‘internal environment for CRM’, which are as
follows:
• The customer need sensitivity is the highest in the CRM programmes implemented by the
selected organizations belonging to the banking sector followed by insurance, telecom
and hospitality sectors.
• The communication process is the best in the CRM programmes implemented by the
selected organizations belonging banking sector followed by insurance, hospitality and
telecom sectors.
• The intermediaries management is the best in the CRM programmes implemented by the
selected organizations belonging banking sector followed by insurance, telecom and
hospitality sectors.

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 • The internal environment for the CRM programme is the best in the selected
organizations belonging insurance sector followed by banking, hospitality and telecom
sectors.

A: 6.3 Findings specific to Banking Sector

1. Based on the customers’ survey it is found that the CRM processes implemented by the PNB
are most customer centric as compared to the other banks. Followed by HDFC, SBI, ICICI
and BOM.
2. Majority of the banks have implemented the CRM programme with the following top three
objectives
i) To enhance service quality
ii) To enable Up-selling and cross-selling
iii) To ensure customer satisfaction or Prompt redressal of customer complaints or
grievances.
3. The CRM organization structure of majority of the banks comprises of a CRM chief at the
head office and CRM officers at the regional, zonal and branch offices. This is the case with
80% of the banks. 20% of the banks have a CRM organization comprising of a CRM chief at
the head office and CRM officers at the zonal offices and no CRM responsibility further
down.
4. The different CRM technologies put to use by the banks are Call Centre technology, which is
being used by 80% of the banks, Contact Management is used by 60% of the banks,
Campaign Management is used by 80% of the banks, Data Warehousing is used by 60% of
the banks, Personalisation capability of the CRM application software is used by 80% of the
banks, Marketing Automation is used by 40% of the banks, and Sales Force Automation is
used by 20% of the banks.
5. The main benefits of implementing the CRM programme as envisaged by the banks are
customer retention as is the case with 80% of the banks. It is also observed that customer
loyalty is the second benefit sought by 60% of the banks, the third benefit is referrals sought
by 60% of the banks and the fourth benefit that the banks look at is customer satisfaction
sought by 20% of the banks.

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6. It is found that all the five banks selected for the study have CRM application software. Out
of the five banks three banks have custom-built software and the other two banks use off-the-
shelf software package. These off-the-shelf software applications in the real sense are not off-
the-shelf software packages but they are solutions that were configured to the exact
requirements of the banks by the vendor. The total investment made by the banks in the
application software ranges from Rs. 2 to 4 crores.

The bank managements justify this investment as they expect the return on investment
through growth in business through new customers, enhanced service quality resulting in
customer satisfaction, which in turn would result into word-of-the-mouth advertising for the
bank. While some banks have also justified the investment since it results into employee
satisfaction. The payback period of the investment in the CRM solution according to the
managements of the banks is maximum of 3 years as expressed by one of the banks and 1 to
2 years in case of two banks and the rest say it takes less than six months to see the benefits.
7. It is revealed that two of the banks have procured their CRM application software solution
from Infosys Technologies (I) Ltd., while two banks have procured their CRM application
software from TCS Ltd. and Wipro Technologies Ltd. has provided the CRM application
software to one of the banks.
8. The study has revealed that the banks faced problems in maintaining the customer database
due to the size of the data and the managements had to cope up with the rate of growth of
customer data. The mean rate of growth of customer data in banking is 18.40% per year.
9. It has been found that Account opening forms is the main source of customer information
for the management of all the banks while some of the banks obtained customer information
through personal interaction. It is also observed that Customer meets, which is not used to
seek customer information is not a part of the bank management’s strategy for gaining
customer knowledge. Further it is observed that 60% of the banks learn about the customer
expectations through personal interaction with the customers. While 40% of the banks learn
about the customer expectations from feedback forms and the rest 20% learn about their
customers’ expectations through customer meets.

The study revealed that majority of the banks measure the satisfaction level of their
customers by collecting customer feedback through a form or through personal interaction

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 while some banks find out their customer satisfaction level by way of appreciation notes.
10. It is observed that 40% of the banks use a three step procedure for complaint management
that is registering the complaints, analysis of the complaints and taking corrective action.
Another 40% of the respondents from this industry use the process of firstly registering the
complaints, then forwarding them to the higher office and finally the higher office takes the
necessary corrective action. 20% of the respondents resolve the complaints quickly at the
branch level without taking it to the higher office.
11. It is observed that 80% of the banks believe that loyal customers are profitable hence except
for one of the banks rest all the banks have a strategy for identifying its loyal customers. It is
also revealed that 40% of the banks have a special package comprising of rebate in interest
rates for rewarding their loyal customers. Another 20% of the respondents offer different
types of concessions to the loyal customers and some of the banks have premium lounges
with facilities in large branches to reward their loyal customers.
12. It is revealed during the course of this study that all the banks believe that there is a relation
between customer loyalty and profitability. Customer loyalty results in referrals, which
means new customers, that is growth in business and hence profitability. This is further
proved by testing the hypothesis on page No. 241
13. It is observed that most of the banks categorise their customers on the basis of their value.
The criteria used for categorisation of valuable customers that is high value customers are
identified on the basis of their deposits in the bank, their credit worthiness and promptness in
paying EMIs/Loan installments.
14. The study revealed that the banks have not developed any metrics to measure the success of
the CRM programme implemented but they have devised their own way of measuring the
success of the CRM programme. The success of CRM is measured through growth in
business and new customers acquired through referrals.
15. It is found that in all the selected banks, the CRM progamme is under the top management
with a high ranking officer of the rank of general manager and above is responsible for the
CRM programme. It is also found that a system is in place in the selected organizations
through which the staff concerned with CRM or sales/marketing interacts with the senior
management in matters related to improving and upgrading the CRM programme.

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16. The study has revealed the strategy adopted by the different banks for acquiring new
customers. The strategy adopted by most of the banks depends mainly on advertising to
acquire new customers. A good majority also depends on referrals to acquire new customers.
While some banks use campaign management to acquire new customers.
17. The study has also revealed the strategy adopted by the different banks for retaining their
existing customers. The strategy adopted by most of the banks is to provide high quality
service to retain existing customers while some of the banks also depend on personal touch
for retaining existing customers.

A: 6.4 Findings specific to Hospitality Sector

1. Based on the customers’ survey it is found that the CRM processes of hotels with five star
rating are most customer centric as compared to the hotels of lesser rating. The processes of 3
star hotels are more customer centric than 2 star and 4 star hotels.
2. It is found that all the selected hotels have implemented the CRM programme with the
following top three objectives
i) Customer satisfaction
ii) To increase customer loyalty
iii) To enhance the service quality
3. The CRM organization structure in all the selected hotels is limited only to the hotel itself
because each hotel is considered as an independent organization. Therefore in all the 5 star, 4
star, and 3 star hotels the CRM responsibility lies with the guest relations officer of the hotel
and in case of the 2 star hotels the CRM responsibility is with the front office staff.
4. It is found that unlike other service sector organizations the hotel industry has not
implemented any CRM technology. The only technology implemented is limited to the hotels
website for online reservations and inquiry. Some of the hotels are also members of some
web portals, which help the member hotels in bookings and providing information to visitors
of the web portal.
5. Although the hotel industry has not made a significant investment in any technology, they
have a CRM programme in the form of the CRM concept clearly spelt out to the sales and
marketing staff. This is reflected in their duties and responsibilities. Therefore the hotel

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 managements look at certain benefits of the CRM programme, which are customer retention,
customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.
6. It is found in case of the hotel industry that none of the hotels use CRM application software
whereas, they make use of the operations software installed in the front office for
reservations, booking and billing for their CRM needs. The operations software provides the
marketing/sales staff with a customer database. Thus the hotels practice database marketing
by analyzing the database without using any specialized technological tool.
7. It is found that the most popular operations software used by most of the 5 Star hotels is
‘Opera’, which also helps the management in their CRM needs like database marketing. The
investment in this software package is less then Rs. 50 lakhs.
The investment and the CRM efforts of the hotels are justified by the management on the
grounds that it helps in creating loyal customers resulting in assured business and customer
value. Thus return on investment.
8. It is found in the hotel industry that it does not have to cope up with a huge size of customer
data. However the rate of growth of customer data is the highest among the four selected
service organizations, which stands at 19.90%.
9. It is revealed that guest form is the only way of obtaining the customer information in hotels
as is the case with 100% hotels. The hotel guests (customers) are required to fill the guest
form at the hotel’s front office. This form furnishes all the basic information pertaining to an
individual customer that is required for the CRM programme. Besides the guest form, the
management also learns about customer expectations through customer interaction and
through feedback forms. It is found that all the hotels find customer satisfaction level by way
of feedback forms, although they have an option to do so by way of interaction with front
office.
10. It is found that all the hotels take immediate action as soon as they receive any complaint.
11. All the selected hotels believe that loyal customers are profitable as such they have their own
criteria for identification of their customer loyalty, which in most of the cases is the number
of days stay at their hotel in a year and repeated visits. It is found that most of the hotels
reward their loyal customers with special offers in the form of facilities, and also offer
discounts on the services provided.

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12. It is revealed during the course of this study that all the hotels believe that there is a relation
between customer loyalty and profitability. This is further proved by testing the hypothesis
on page No. 238
13. It is revealed that all the selected hotels believe that customer loyalty results in referrals,
which means new customers. That is growth in business and hence profitability. In case of
some of the hotels they believe that along with referrals, customer loyalty benefits the hotel
in terms of customer-life-time-value, which in turn results in profitability.
14. It is revealed that 100% of the hotels categorise their customers on the basis of their value. It
is revealed that all the hotels identify high value customers on the basis of the billing amount
and repeated visits.

15. It is found that ‘growth in occupancy rate’ is the only metric used to evaluate the success the
CRM programme in all the selected hotels.
16. It is found that the responsibility of CRM is mainly with the guest relation officer of the hotel
whose main responsibility is customer satisfaction, besides he along with the sales
department coordinates other activities of CRM like communication and establishing a
relationship with its existing customers.
17. It is found in all the hotels that the sales/marketing staff is responsible for acquiring new
customers and also retaining existing customers.

A: 6.5 Findings specific to Insurance Sector

1. It is found on the basis of the customers’ survey that the CRM processes implemented by
Reliance Life Insurance Company are most customer centric compared to the other
companies. LIC is rated as the second most customer centric followed by Bajaj Allainz,
ICICI Prudential Life and Tata AIG Life Insurance.
2. The top three objectives of implementing the CRM programme in case of the insurance
companies are as follows:
i) To retain existing customers.
ii) To achieve customer loyalty.
iii) To ensure customer satisfaction thereby generate sales leads.
3. It is found that all the insurance companies have a CRM organization structure comprising of
a CRM chief at the head office and CRM officers at the regional, zonal and branch offices.

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4. The different CRM technologies put to use by the insurance companies are Call Centre
technology, which is being used by all the insurance companies, Contact Management is
used by 60% insurance companies, Personalisation capability of the CRM application
software is used by 20% of the insurance companies, Marketing Automation is used by 20%
of the insurance companies, and Sales Force Automation is used by 10% of the insurance
companies. Campaign management and Data warehousing technologies have not been
implemented by the insurance companies as a part of the CRM programme.
5. The main benefits of implementing the CRM programme as envisaged by the insurance
companies are, customer satisfaction which is the case with 100% of the insurance
companies. It is also found that customer retention is the second benefit sought by 60% of
the insurance companies, the third benefit is customer loyalty sought by 40% of the
insurance companies and the fourth benefit that the insurance companies look at is referrals
sought by 20% of the insurance companies.
6. It is found all the insurance companies selected for the study use CRM application software.
Out of the five selected insurance companies four insurance companies have custom-built
software and one insurance company uses off-the-shelf software package. The total
investment made by the insurance companies in the application software ranges from Rs. 50
lakhs to 3 crores.
All the insurance companies justify the investment made in the CRM software on the
ground that they expect a growth in business as well as customer retention. It is further
revealed that 60% of the life insurance companies have also expressed that the investment in
CRM will lead to referrals, which will also result into word-of-the-mouth advertising for the
company and some of the companies have justified the investment because they would be
getting customer-life-time-value due to increased customer loyalty. The payback period for
the investment in the CRM solution according to all the insurance companies is 2 years and
the benefits start accruing within one year.
7. It is found that two of the insurance companies have procured their CRM application
software solution from TCS Ltd., while one insurance company has procured its CRM
application software from Siebel Oracle, Opus Indigo has provided the CRM application
software to one of the insurance companies and one insurance company has developed its
CRM software application in-house.

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8. The study has revealed that the insurance companies are constrained by the size of the data
and faced problems in maintaining the customer database. The managements had to cope up
with the rate of growth of customer data. The mean rate of growth of customer data in
insurance sector is 15.20% per year.
9. It is found that in the insurance sector the main source of customer information is the
insurance advisors and the application forms while in some cases it is the channel
partners. It is also found that Customer meets is not used as a source of customer
information. Further it is found that all the insurance companies come to know about their
customers’ expectation through their advisors while 60% of the insurance companies also
get to know of their customer expectations during customer meets and sometimes from the
organisation’s portal.
The study revealed that all the insurance companies measure the satisfaction level of their
customers by way of feedback from their advisors and some companies also come to know
of their customer satisfaction from the feedback forms collected during customer meets.
10. It is found that the insurance companies use a procedure of firstly registering the complaints,
then analyzing the complaints and then taking the necessary corrective action at the branch
level itself without forwarding them to the higher office although they have an option to do
so.
11. It is found that 60% of the insurance companies believe that loyal customers are profitable,
40% of the companies have a strategy for identifying its loyal customers and 60% of the life
insurance companie`s have responded with special offers to reward their loyal customers
12. It is revealed during the course of this study that all the insurance companies believe that
there is a relation between customer loyalty and profitability. This is further proved by
testing the hypothesis.
13. It is found that only two insurance companies categorise their customers on the basis of their
value. While three companies do not do so. The criteria used for categorisation of valuable
customers that is High Net Investors (HNI) on the basis of the investment made in insurance
policies and other products.
14. The study revealed that the insurance companies have not developed any metrics to measure
the success of the CRM programme implemented but they have devised their own way of

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 measuring the success of the CRM programme. The success of CRM is measured through
growth in business and new customers acquired through referrals.
15. It is found that in all the insurance companies, the CRM progamme is under the top
management with a high ranking officer of the rank of general manager and above is
responsible for the CRM programme. It is also found that a system is in place in the selected
insurance companies through which the staff concerned with CRM or sales/marketing
interacts with the senior management in matters related to improving and upgrading the
CRM programme.
16. The study has revealed the strategy adopted by the different insurance companies for
acquiring new customers. The strategy adopted by all the companies depends mainly on
personal selling (through advisors) to acquire new customers. Two of the insurance
companies also depend on call centres for acquiring new customers. It is also found that all
the companies to certain extent depend on channel partners for acquiring new customers.
17. The study has also revealed the strategy adopted by the insurance companies for retaining
their existing customers. The strategy adopted by most of the companies is to keep in
constant touch with the customers to retain existing customers while some of the companies
also depend on personal service and the advisor playing the role of an investment advisor for
retaining existing customers.

A:6 .6 Observations specific to Telecom Sector

1. Based on the customers’ survey it is found that Airtel is the most customer centric telecom
company in terms of the CRM processes implemented and Reliance Communication is the
least customer centric. Airtel is followed by Idea, BSNL and Tata Indicom.
2. Majority of the Telecom companies have implemented the CRM programme with the
following top three objectives
i) Up-selling
ii) Customer support
iii) Customer complaint management or Customer satisfaction.
3. It is found that the CRM organization structure of majority of the Telecom companies
comprises of a CRM chief at the head office and CRM officers at the regional, zonal and
branch offices.

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4. It is revealed that the different CRM technologies put to use by the Telecom companies are
Call Centre technology, Contact Management and Campaign Management which are being
used by all the telecom companies.
5. It is found that the main benefits of implementing the CRM programme as envisaged by the
Telecom companies are customer retention the main benefit of implementing a CRM
programme as is the case with 100% of the Telecom companies. It is also found that
customer loyalty is the second benefit sought by 100% of the telecom companies.
6. It is found that all the telecom companies use custom-built application software for their
CRM programme.
7. It is found that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the most popular CRM application
vendor in this sector with 60% of the telecom companies having procured their CRM
solutions from them. Siebel from Oracle is the next popular application software with 40% of
the telecom companies. It is found that 100% of the telecom companies have invested above
Rs. 4 crores in the CRM application software.
8. It is found that 100% of the telecom companies have expressed that the investment made in
the CRM application software is justified because they expect a reduction in customer churn,
which is a common feature of the highly competitive telecom service market. 20% of the
telecom companies have also expressed that the investment in CRM will lead to creation of
loyal customers resulting in customer-life-time-value.
9. It is found that 80% of the telecom companies have expressed that the return on the
investment can be seen within 1 to 2 years of implementing the CRM programme. 20% of
the telecom companies have expressed that the benefits will start accruing within 1 year.
10. It is found that the mean rate of growth of customer data is 8.20% with the telecom sector.
11. It is found that the application form is the sole source of information for the managements
of all the telecom companies. The information furnished by the customer at the time of
applying for a telephone connection (activation in the case of cellular phone users) is the only
way available to the managements of the telecom companies.
12. It is found that all the telecom companies learn about the customer expectations from their
franchisees and some through call centre (customer support).
13. It is found that most of the telecom companies find out their customer satisfaction levels
from their franchisees, 20% of the companies find out the customer satisfaction level

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 through their customer care centers and 20% of the companies use their relationship
centres for measuring customer satisfaction level.
14. It is found that all the telecom companies take immediate action as soon as they receive any
complaint.
15. It is found that all the telecom companies believe that loyal customers are profitable hence
the telecom companies have a strategy to identify loyal customers. It is also found that the
loyal customers in the telecom sector are not rewarded.
16. It is revealed that all the telecom companies believe that there is a relation between customer
loyalty and profitability. According to the managements of the telecom companies, customer
loyalty results in referrals, which means new customers leading to growth in business and
hence profitability. This is further proved by testing the hypothesis.
17. It is found that none of the telecom companies categorize their customers on the basis of their
value.
18. It is found that ‘growth in businesses and ‘reduction in customer churn’ are measured to
evaluate the success the CRM programme in the selected telecom companies. ‘Growth in
business’ is the metric of evaluation in 60% of the selected telecom companies. The other
metric is the percentage rate of reduction in ‘customer churn’ is measured to evaluate the
success of the CRM programme in 80% of the selected telecom companies.
19. It is found that in all the selected telecom companies, the CRM process is under the senior
management. The staff concerned with CRM or sales/marketing interacts with the senior
management in matters related to improving and upgrading the CRM programme.
20. It is revealed that all the telecom companies have adopted advertising to acquire new
customers while some of the telecom companies also depend on sales promotional schemes
for acquiring new customers.
21. It is revealed that all the telecom companies retain their existing customers through high
quality service.

A: 6.7 Conclusion:

It is concluded that the banking sector is more responsive to CRM which is evident from
the findings of this study in terms of investments made in technology, organization structure for
CRM and the dimensions rating of the CRM programme implemented. However when it comes

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to customer centricity, it is the insurance sector that is most customer centric. The hospitality
sector is not far behind on these scores and this research would like conclude that this sector is
also a forward looking sector since the customer centricity and CRM dimension scores of lesser
rated hotels are not lagging in any way, which indicates the outlook of the managements of these
hotels. The telecom sector is technologically ahead in implementing certain CRM technologies
this is obviously so because of the high market demand for the service in the state. On the whole
it may be concluded that the selected service sectors have taken rapid strides in applying and
adopting of technology which is comparable to organizations in the developed countries.

B) SUGGESTIONS

B: 6.1 Introduction:

In this part of thesis the researcher has proposed some suggestions based on the
observations and finding presented in the previous section as well as on the basis of discussions
the researcher had with the managers and officers of the selected organisations during his visit to
the premises of these organisations. This study on the CRM practices implemented in banking,
hospitality, insurance and telecom service organizations would like to draw the attention of the
managements of these organizations to the main benefits surrounding CRM lay in the fact it
promises a win-win benefits, greater efficiencies and higher-spending customers. It is a data-
driven approach that, at best, enables companies to assess each customer's current needs and
potential profitability cost-effectively and to tailor offers and services accordingly. CRM if done
right enhances customers' loyalty and boosts revenue.

B: 6.2 General Suggestions Common to all the Sectors

1. The management of the all the organisations have well understood the fact that loyal
customers are profitable hence they identify loyal customers. It should be noted that mere
identification of loyal customers does not suffice their objective of increasing profitability.
Hence it is suggested that the organizations must also be able to distinguish between the
various categories of customer for example:

The customer is loyal and profitable - the managements can focus on deepening the
relationship, strengthening loyalty and optimizing profitability through cross-and up-

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 selling.
The customer is loyal but unprofitable - the managements should maintain the
relationship and secure loyalty because the customer may become profitable at a later stage
through cross- and up-selling. If not, the customer should be dropped.
The customer is profitable but not loyal – in this case the companies should focus
completely on strengthening the relationship and building loyalty.
The customer is not loyal and unprofitable – it may be advisable to abandon such
customers.
2. It is suggested that for CRM to be truly effective, an organization must first decide what kind
of customer information it is looking for and it must decide what it intends to do with that
information. For example, the selected organizations especially belonging to banking and
insurance sectors do not keep track of customers' life stages in order to market appropriate
products to them at the right time to fit their needs. Next, the managements must look into all
of the different ways information about customers comes into a business, where and how this
data is stored and how it is currently used. The concerned staff, for instance, may interact
with customers in different ways including call centres, Websites, across the counter, mobile
sales force staff and marketing and advertising efforts.
3. It is suggested that the organizations should develop evaluation metrics to measure the
success of the CRM programme implemented. The metrics should be in tune with the
objectives of the CRM like most technology investments, hardware and software on its own
will not change a company. A clear business strategy is needed to achieve that. Agreeing on
the goals of CRM investment and the ways to measure its progress is crucial in a CRM
implementation.
4. The managements of all the organization who have implemented different CRM technologies
should understand that the hardware and software on its own will not change the
organization. Effective training programmes (internal marketing) to help address a weak
point in CRM implementations that is people skills should be undertaken. The managements
of banking, insurance and telecom organizations should display effective leadership so as to
bring about a change in the employees so that they demonstrate the merits of adopting the
technology and its capabilities.

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5. A CRM programme is not exclusively for marketing or sales department it belongs to the
whole organization. The concept of CRM must be known to all and should be taken by
members of the organization at all levels in the same spirit and intensity only then one can
say the organization is customer centric.
6. Quality is a litmus test which customers use to differentiate between the services offered by
different organizations. Therefore, making ongoing improvements to the quality of service
and/or product is vital for the success of all CRM initiatives.
7. Application of technology to have a technology enabled CRM without a customer oriented
organization would be a futile exercise. Key business processes that come in direct contact of
the customer have to be restored in other words one has to go ‘back to basics’ to develop
better relationship with profitable customers.
8. Every customer has a relationship with the organization, but the nature and definition of such
relationships vary according to the needs and requirements of the customer. It is very
important to recognize that relationships with customers vary significantly. Therefore it is
suggested that organizations should take it up as a challenge to recognize the relationship the
customer intends to have and must act in accordance with the wishes of their customers while
trying to achieve profitability.
9. It is suggested that the organizations should empower the CRM operating team members to
overcome any difficulties and obstacles that may crop up.
10. Since customer needs change the organizations have to tailor their offerings to these
changing needs. Therefore continuous improvements in the processes are required. It is
suggested that organizations should offer reward schemes to their staff for valuable
suggestions. Staff should be given the chance to participate and propose ideas for making
improvements in a systematic and structured manner.

B: 6.3 Suggestions specific to the Banking sector

1. Although the CRM organization structure in the banking sector is well defined with
responsibility assigned from top to bottom at all the levels, it does not mean that only those
personnel are responsible for CRM. CRM will succeed only when the concept spreads across
all levels of the organization. Therefore it is very essential that the essence of CRM is
understood by one and all through a strong internal marketing of CRM.

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2. It is suggested that for a service like banking, which operates in a very competitive
environment, loyalty programmes should be initiated. A loyal customer is not only profitable
but will be instrumental in making the processes and management proactive to the changing
needs of the customer by confiding in with valuable knowledge.
3. This study has revealed that the PNB bank is most customers centric. Whereas the ICICI
bank is technologically far ahead of the rest of the banks. This shows that mere application of
technology dose not suffices the cause. Hence it is suggested that the staff be inculcated with
the essence of CRM, have a right mental makeup and put in sincere efforts while serving the
customer.
4. Most of the banks have a technology enabled CRM. Therefore they should make full use of
the capabilities of the technological solutions adopted. For example customer behavior can
be predicted by the use of data mining.
5. As a part of customer knowledge management strategy the banks should firstly undertake a
project to focus on the problem of collecting and cleansing data that is available in the
routine course. The project should promote the involvement of the branches, and campaigns
must be launched for popularizing the importance of gathering and maintaining reliable
customer data among branch staff. This effort and awareness will make the customer
knowledge management strategy meaningful.

B: 6.4 Suggestions specific to the Hospitality sector

1. The managers and marketing executives in the hospitality industry should adopt a continuous
strategy for collecting customer information. Unlike other services, in hospitality the
opportunity to come in direct contact with their customers are high. Therefore, it is natural
for hotels to collect customer information on a regular basis. But information collection is
just the first step in generating customer knowledge. This information has to be combined
with experiences to develop consumer insights, which help them serve their customers better.
2. The hotel managements are recommended to run loyalty programmes. Customers who
become members of the loyalty clubs by the virtue of their value to the hotel, are important
people not only on the premises of the hotel but also have privilege to flash their loyalty
membership cards at the locations of the hotels’ channel partners like travel agents, airlines
and other allied service providers. This gives the customer a sense-of-belonging to the hotel.

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 This is the feeling that bonds the relationship which not only gives the hotel the customer’s
life-time-value but will definitely lead to referrals.

B: 6.5 Suggestions specific to the Insurance sector

1. The insurance companies should formulate a sound customer knowledge strategy. It should
realize that one time collection of customer data is not enough. Customer knowledge gets
built when information is collected systematically over a period of time. This can be done
through regular surveys and during customer interactions. But importantly this information
has to be combined with the organisation’s experiences with customers to build rich
customer profiles, investing patterns, preferences and savings patterns. Customer knowledge
can be used to initiate customization of the service for customers based on their needs. By
tailoring the elements of services marketing mix, firms can customize their offerings to all or
select customers.
2. In the insurance sector where the personal selling through insurance advisors is the most
effective way of selling the products and services, the insurance advisor is the most important
link between the organization and the customer. Therefore the top-level and middle-level
managers should take it upon themselves to train the advisors to practice relationship
management and build relationship with their clients because a good marketer first forms
relationships and then sells his goods.
3. In the highly competitive insurance market to survive and have a competitive edge, insurance
companies need to implement CRM not only technically but also as part of the culture.
4. Customer Relationship Management is the key to success in the present era and only those
organisations can succeed who have been able to build a base of loyal customers, because a
loyal customer advocates the companies’ name and products much better than the
organization itself.

B: 6.6 Suggestions specific to the Telecom sector

1. It is seen that the telecom companies have intermediaries in the form of customer
care/relationship centres. The researcher would like to suggest to the managements to do
some introspection and find out if the concept of CRM has percolated to this level, which is
the last link between the customer and the organization. It is also suggested to the

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 managements of the telecom companies to develop customer centric strategies so as to retain
and attract customers. Such customer strategies include differential tariffs, customized one-
to-one communication and customized customer care programmes.
2. It is suggested that the managements of the telecom companies device a mechanism of
categorizing their customers and manipulate their marketing mix so as to customize their
strategies to the specific requirements of the customer for mutual value.
3. The telecom service industry is facing hyper competition with high rate of customer churn,
which is in the range of 3.5% to 6 % which is much higher than the industry standard of 2%
in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore the managements of the telecom companies look at
CRM to reduce the rate of customer churn. Therefore it is suggested to focus on efficient
churn management through the application of churn prediction models with the help of data
mining tools.
4. It is suggested that the managements of the telecom companies should undertake constant
monitoring of customer feedback by updating the online and offline customer response
methods and designing both reactive and proactive customer response schemes, thereby
delighting the customers.

B: 6.7 Conclusion:
It is concluded that the managements of all the organizations selected for the study are
unanimous in the way they define Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and their
understanding of the concept of CRM. However this study has thrown sufficient light on the
CRM practices and how these practices differ among the different service sectors and within a
service sector. Hence based on these findings this study has made some suggestions that are
common to all the service sectors like formulating a sound customer knowledge strategy,
categorization of customers on customer value, devising a mechanism to measure CRM progress
and internal marketing. Besides this study has also made some important suggestions specific to
the selected service like the banking service organizations are recommended to design their
offering based on a customer knowledge strategy. The Hotel managements are suggested to
implement loyalty programmes which would lead to referrals. The Insurance companies would
benefit through tailoring their offering to high value customers that is high net investors and the
telecom companies have been suggested to develop churn prediction models by using tools like
data mining.

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C: Scope for Future Research:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) being a relatively new discipline, provides
ample scope for further research studies. Some of the aspects of CRM that can be investigated
are as follows:
 Development of metrics for measurement of CRM success at all levels of an
organization.
 Development of a scale to measure the depth of relationship, stages of relationship
development and underlying dimensions of business relationship.
 Identifying the ideal timing (stage of relationship) for undertaking cross-selling and up-
selling.
 Each stage of the customer life cycle also provides opportunity for research.

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