Role of Crm in Retail Essay Example

acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer.

Expectation of customers is increasing he asks for more and more value for the same price, and whoever provides him increasing value for money, he buys products from that marketer. Every retailer today is aiming at an attempt to make a casual customer into loyal customer who develops a bond with the retail store he/she visits customer relationship management is ahead of the transactional exchange and facilities the marketer to understand the customer’s sentiments and buying habits so that the customer can be provided with the products and services before he starts demanding. This is possible through the integration of four important components i. e. , people, process, technology and data. The retail Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India over the last couple of years.

India retail sector comprises of organized retail and unorganized retail sector. Now days the term CRM has become a buzzword in the Indian Retail World. There are a lot of reasons which can be attributed to changing consumer paradigm and the role played by the organized retailers in making CRM a happening phenomenon. Every retailer in India today is looking at some or the other form of CRM or its prime constituent loyalty based programme. In the retail milieu, where generating and retaining foot falls is the greatest impediment to success, the challenge lies in constantly innovating methods of attracting new customers and keeping their interests alive.

Loyalty programmes as a part of CRM based activity are one of the ways of overcoming this challenge. CRM was invented because customers differ in

their preferences and purchasing habits. If all customers were alike, there would be little need for CRM. Mass marketing and mass communications would work just fine. A customer-centric firm is capable of treating every customer individually and uniquely, depending on the customer's preference. A one-to-one marketing paradigm has emerged that suggests organizations will be more successful if they concentrate on obtaining and maintaining a share of each customer rather than a share of the entire market.

The underlying principle behind relationship marketing is that organizations can enhance customer satisfaction through a relationship and in so doing can enhance their own performance. For such benefits to accrue, relationships must be developed and managed to the customer's satisfaction. In the commercial world the importance of retaining existing customers and expanding business is paramount. Customer retention is an imperative in modern business – a strategy whose objective is to keep a company’s customers and to retain their revenue contribution. Customer retention is the driving force behind Customer Relationship Management (CRM), relationship marketing and loyalty marketing