Customer Relationship Management (HOS)
Assignment A
1 . What is the difference between CRM and SFA? Can you use SFA as a substitute for CRM? Support your answer with examples from industry.
2 . What can a CRM do for an organization? What type of organizations can benefit from CRM?
3 . What is social CRM? Why is social CRM important for my business?
4 . Discuss legal issues related to using customer database. Support your argument with relevant examples.
5 . Explain evolution of customer relationship management. Discuss customer life cycle value with examples.
6 . Differentiate between CRM and E-CRM. Discuss evolution of E-CRM.
7 . Critically evaluate the statement "CRM is emerging as a most important factor affecting business growth".
8 . What is campaign management? Identify elements of campaign management cycle from the perspective of repeat buyers.
Assignment B
Case Detail:
Natalia Georgio knocked on the door of her new marketing director’s office. Elizabeth Gardos hadn’t done much with the space yet. Aside from two chairs, a desk, a computer, and a picture of her daughters, the office was empty. “You need to get some art in here,” Natalia observed. “I know,” Elizabeth said. “It’s been a busy two weeks. I want to put up some photos of the dancers.” The two women worked for Delacroix, an avant-garde dance troupe based in New York that had five companies touring the U.S. and Canada. Natalia, a former dancer, was the organization’s executive director. She’d hired Elizabeth, another former dancer, for her decades of marketing experience, most recently at Violet, a fast-growing woman’s athletic clothing company. Despite the stagnant economy, Delacroix was growing at a healthy pace, in part because of its policy of keeping ticket prices reasonably low. Still, Natalia thought the company needed better marketing to support its expansion strategy. Elizabeth, who’d been keen for a new challenge and to return to the dance scene, had jumped at the opportunity. “So why did you want to meet?” Natalia asked. “I have some ideas I want to run by you—some things I’ve noticed in these first couple of weeks.” “Great, let’s hear them.” “I’m really surprised that Delacroix has never surveyed or gathered information of any kind from customers before,” Elizabeth said. “Yeah, that’s not really our thing. We take our lead from the dancers, not the audience.” “Then what you do here isn’t really marketing,” Elizabeth said cautiously. “It seems like marketing’s only responsibility is to decide how long shows should run, how to advertise them, and what to charge for tickets. You promote the shows and Should people attend, but you don’t really know who your customers are or why they come.” “You mean, we promote the shows,” Natalia said, smiling. “You keep saying ‘you,’ but you’re part of this company now.” “We. Sorry.” “You’re right; marketing’s role has been limited up to now. But part of the reason we brought you in is to give us some new ideas.” Natalia had a mandate from Delacroix’s board members to take the company in new directions: to explore international engagements and television and film opportunities. But she was nervous about formulating her strategy without any research upon which to build a case for risks worth taking. She’d explained that to Elizabeth during the interview process. “I think we should start, at a minimum, by doing a simple customer survey,” Elizabeth said, “just with people who have signed up on the website and clearly want to be in communication with us. We can gather some basic information and find out what they like best about our shows. That will give us some insight into other audiences and markets we should target.” “That’s certainly an idea,” Natalia said, choosing her words carefully, “but it would also be a big change for us. There are some people in this building who will resist.” She was referring primarily to Henry Delacroix, the company’s founder and artistic director. Although Natalia was technically in charge of the company, Henry still exerted a lot of influence. “So it won’t be an easy sell?” Elizabeth said. “No, I don’t think it will.” the artistic mission “Why do we want to ask what our audience thinks?” Henry said. “We don’t care what they think.” Elizabeth and Natalia glanced at each other across the conference table. “Henry, come on—we care that they come to the shows,” Natalia said. “Of course, I know our audience is important. But our business depends on the creative expertise of our artists.” Henry
forced a smile and turned to Elizabeth. “When people come to our shows, they expect to have an unbelievable, unique experience—one that they’ll never forget. How can people tell you what they want if they haven’t ever seen it before? If we ask them what they want, we’ll end up doing Swan Lake every year!” Natalia shifted in her seat uneasily. She knew that many of the board members—not to mention the dancers—felt as strongly as Henry did about maintaining artistic control. If Delacroix were to adopt a customer-centric approach, it could lose some of its best people. Elizabeth cleared her throat and passed Henry a brief report. “Here are some examples of how my previous firm, Violet, used social media to better understand customers, get feedback on products, and test new ideas.” She paused as Henry gave the report a cursory glance. “This allowed us to make better decisions about how to price our products, how to go to market, and when to take risks with new offerings. I know the product in this case is very different: We’re a dance company. But there are similar benefits here. Take your fan website, for example—” “Yes, 90,000 people have signed up,” Henry replied. “Right, it’s great. But you—I mean, we— don’t really engage with those people. We have practically no data on which of them are coming to our shows and why. That means we have no idea which opportunities to pursue next, or how to present ourselves—to sell ourselves—to the media or to corporate partners. We’re feeling around in the dark. It may work for giants like Apple to tell customers what they want, but that won’t work here.” “It has up to now,” Henry said, smirking. “But the game has changed. You’re thinking about different ways to expand. I know we want to go international by the end of the year, but we know little about what, say, a London audience would really want to see.” “We will tell them what they want to see,” Henry shot back. “Many companies
operate this way. Tiffany doesn’t survey the women of the world asking what kind of jewelry they want. The company has faith in its designers and their imaginations—and it gets a better product as a result. We can’t keep our artists inspired and innovative if we start letting customers tell us what to do.” Natalia looked at Elizabeth apologetically, but she recognized that Henry had a point. Delacroix hadn’t been founded to meet customer needs; its mission, from the beginning, had been to push the boundaries of modern dance. Henry’s relentless pursuit of that goal had brought the company much success. “What about what happened last year at the Joyce?” Elizabeth asked. Natalia looked at her new hire, who’d clearly done her research. Delacroix had invested a big chunk of its marketing budget in promoting the three-month run of a new show. Expected to be one of its best ever, the show featured dancers in huge masks. Unfortunately, the masks seemed to terrify all the children in the audience. There were walkouts at every performance in the first few weeks, and then parents flooded the website, as well as ticket and review sites, with complaints. After much internal deliberation, the company decided to put a note in the program warning that the masks might be scary for children under eight. Natalia had wanted to do more, maybe even remove the masks from the show, but a few board members held strong to the principle that they shouldn’t bow to customer dictates. They also told her, however, that they didn’t want to see that sort of mistake again. “It was an unfortunate incident, definitely a failure on our part,” said Henry. “But we learned from it: No more scary masks in our shows.” “But if we had an ongoing dialogue with our customers, we might know these things ahead of time—know that they want more kid-friendly performances, or that we need to market certain shows to certain segments of our audience,” Elizabeth countered. “We could avoid these sorts of failures. I know from my time at Violet that information is power. New ventures, new partnerships, more exposure—you can’t gamble with these things. You have to get it right. Customer research will help minimize our risk.” Henry shook his head. “You’re just not getting it—” “OK.” Natalia stood up. “We’re not going to resolve this today. Elizabeth, can you e-mail that report to Henry and me? We’ll discuss it offline.”
Just one survey? Natalia was in a cab and headed home when her cell phone rang. It was Henry. “You’re not really considering this, are you?” he said as soon as she’d picked up. “Yes, I am. Elizabeth has some great points. How are we going to enter international markets if we don’t know anything about the audiences there?” Natalia looked out over the water as the cab started across the Brooklyn Bridge. “How am I going to compete with every other company that wants a chance at TV if we don’t have the customer research? Those Hollywood execs will laugh us out of the room, never mind the corporate partners.” “And what will you do when our customers ask us to put our dancers in Smurf costumes? Will you order one for Sophia?” Natalia smiled at the thought of the company’s most famous—and most difficult—dancer dressed as Smurfette. “Stop being dramatic, Henry. They’re not going to tell us to do something ridiculous.” “Fine, not the Smurfs, but you know we’ll have to take fewer risks, to err on the side of selling tickets instead of pushing the creative envelope. You were a dancer, Natalia, one of our best. Remember the mission? Remember how energized you felt by it?”
“Of course I remember. I also remember that it’s part of our mission to bring modern dance to as many people as possible.” Natalia tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. She knew as well as anyone how much Delacroix relied on the board members and dancers for innovation. “But I was brought in to professionalize this company, to expand on what you started. And customer research—real marketing—may be part of that. Elizabeth knows what she’s talking about. She ran the whole customer initiative at her previous job, and it was a huge success.” “She sold clothes, Natalia,” Henry said. “Fair enough. But what’s the harm in a survey or two? If the customers give us outrageous feedback, we don’t have to listen to it.” “But if we ask what they think and then don’t give it to them, we’ll alienate them,” Henry said. “We’ll damage the relationship. And you know there’s going to be resistance from the board.” Natalia was not surprised. The business types would be all for it, she knew, but the members with an artistic background—the ones who understood the creative process—would never approve it. She pictured each of the board members sitting around the table at their next meeting, only a few weeks away. Henry was right. They would probably divide on this issue, almost evenly. “Besides,” Henry continued. “We’re doing fine. Why rock the boat now?” “Now feels like precisely the time to rock it,” she said. “The board is expecting big things from us over the next year, risky things we’ve never tried before.” “And we’re going to be successful only if we trust our own creativity and our own instincts—not customer research.” Natalia looked out the cab window. She felt tired. “You still there?” Henry asked. “Yes.” “Well, think about this. We can’t have it both ways. Either employees come first, or customers do. You know where I stand. Where do you?”
Please give your answer in at least 25 words and press save and continue button.
1. Based on the case above, critically analyse the concept of creating demand Vs. meeting existing demand. Should an organization seriously consider the latter? Support your answer with relevant examples.
2. Based on the case above, take a stand on what is more important for the business: displaying creativity through product and service or creating products and services in sync with the customers' needs? Support your answer with relevant examples.
3. In the case above, should Delacroix launch a customer research initiative?
Assignment C
Question No. 1 Marks - 10
Customer Relationship Management is about
Options
- Acquiring the right customer
- Instituting the best processes
- Motivating employees
- All of the above
Question No. 2 Marks - 10
CRM technology can help in
Options
- Designing direct marketing efforts
- Developing new pricing models
- Processing transactions faster
- All of the above
Question No. 3 Marks - 10
A _________ is an organized collection of detailed information about individual customers or prospects that is accessible, actionable and current for marketing purposes such as lead generation and others.
Options
- Customer database
- Customer mailing list
- Business database
- None of the above
Question No. 4 Marks - 10
_______uses sophisticated mathematical and statistical techniques such as neutral networking and cluster analysis.
Options
- Data mining
- Data survey
- CRM
- None of the above
Question No. 5 Marks - 10
The main drawback of CRM is
Options
- Implementing CRM before creating a customer strategy
- Rolling out CRM before changing the organization to match
- Stalking, not wooing, customers
- All of the above
Question No. 6 Marks - 10
The marketing messages committed to customers wishes is a part of
Options
- Permission marketing
- Activity marketing
- Supplier marketing
- None of the above
Question No. 7 Marks - 10
The method used to assess real cost of providing services to an individual customer is
Options
- Cost based accounting
- Activity based accounting
- Turnover based accounting
- Price based accounting
Question No. 8 Marks - 10
_______is any occasion on which the brand or product is used by end customers
Options
- Customer touch point
- Retailers touch point
- Company touch point
- None of the above
Question No. 9 Marks - 10
Building long-term relationships with customers is essential for any business. The application of technology to achieve CRM is a key element of e-business but what does CRM stand for?
Options
- Customer relationship management
- Consumer relationship management
- Customer resource management
- Customer retailing management
Question No. 10 Marks - 10
There are different techniques to both initiate and build relationships with customers by using a combination of online and offline techniques. What is the 'customer life cycle' though?
Options
- Techniques to encourage customers to increase their involvement with an organisation
- The stages each customer will go through in a long-term relationship with a supplier
- An approach to building and sustaining long-term business with a customer
- The answers above are all correct
Question No. 11 Marks - 10
The four marketing activities within the customer relationship management include customer selection, customer acquisition, customer retention, plus:
Options
- Customer referrals
- Customer re-sell
- Customer extension
- Customer Up-sell
Question No. 12 Marks - 10
Using digital communications technologies to maximise sales to existing customers and encourage continued usage on online services is known as:
Options
- Electronic customer relationship management
- Customer-centric marketing
- Mass customisation
- Personalisation
Question No. 13 Marks - 10
Using the Internet for relationship marketing involves integrating the customer database with websites to make the relationship targeted and personalised. Through doing this there are many benefits to be gained but which of the below is not an advantage?
Options
- Targeting more effectively
- Minimises breadth, depth and nature of relationship
- Achieve mass customisation of the marketing messages
- Lower costs
Question No. 14 Marks - 10
Accepting that a customer has agreed to opt-in to receive further information, with customer profiling the minimum amount of online information that needs to be collected is an e-mail address. What is really required though to decide if the customer is a good potential target for further communications?
Options
- Opt-out facilities to be removed
- Interruption marketing
- Permission marketing
- A qualified lead
Question No. 15 Marks - 10
RACE is a practical framework to help marketers manage and improve the commercial value gained from digital marketing. The term stands for Reach, Act, C, Engage. What does 'C' refer to?
Options
- Collect
- Collaborate
- Consolidate
- Convert
Question No. 16 Marks - 10
Companies that understand how customers use digital media in their purchase decision buying can develop integrated communications strategies to support their customers at each stage in the buying process. Customers have individual preferences in the ways they use the web depending upon why they need to use it and this web use is known as:
Options
- Searching behaviours
- Undirected information-seekers
- Directed-information seekers
- Directed buyers
Question No. 17 Marks - 10
E-commerce managers aim to deliver the most effective mix of communications to drive traffic to their e-commerce sites. The different techniques can be characterised as:
Options
- Offline marketing communications
- Digital media channels
- Online marketing communications
- All of the above
Question No. 18 Marks - 10
A marketing campaign will not be successful if the costs of acquiring site visitors and customers are too high. The term used to describe the cost of acquiring a new customer is known as:
Options
- Bounce rate
- Referrer cost
- Allowable cost per acquisition
- Cost per acquisition
Question No. 19 Marks - 10
The use of online and offline promotion techniques to increase the audience of a site is known as a:
Options
- Search engine optimisation
- Search engine marketing
- Quality score
- Traffic building campaign
Question No. 20 Marks - 10
Online public relations (or e-PR) should aim to maximise favourable mentions of companies, products, brands, etc which are likely to be visited by target audiences. Which of the following activities fall within the remit of e-PR?
Options
- Blogs and podcasts
- Social networks and online communities
- Communicating with media (journalists) online
- All of the above
Question No. 21 Marks - 10
Social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) usage has become so widespread that to discount a social media strategy would be a mistake best avoided. Social customer relationship management (Social CRM) is a relatively new term which helps to define the broad scope of social media across the customer life cycle and value chain. The Altimeter report (2010) provides a framework for reviewing strategy implementation and is known as:
Options
- Social CRM modelling
- The 5Ms
- Social media CRM framework
- None of the above
Question No. 22 Marks - 10
Online marketing communications include the development on online partnerships and are regarded as an important part of a marketing mix. There are three key types of online partnerships; link building, affiliate marketing, and one other:
Options
- Interactive advertising
- Online sponsorship
- Ad serving
- Media multiplier
Question No. 23 Marks - 10
E-mail marketing has to make strategic plans regarding outbound and inbound e-mails. E-mail is most widely used as a prospect conversion and customer retention tool. A database of customer names, email addresses and profile information used for e-mail marketing is usually known as:
Options
- House list
- Viral marketing email directory
- Customer and prospect database
- Customer profiles
Question No. 24 Marks - 10
A strength of social media and viral marketing is:
Options
- Considered credible
- It is possible to reach a large number at relatively low cost
- Cannot be ignored in user's inbox
- Highly targeted with controlled costs
Question No. 25 Marks - 10
Building and sustaining long term business with customers is the aim of :
Options
- Customer management
- Customer acquisition
- Customer relationship management
- Electronic customer relationship management
Question No. 26 Marks - 10
There are four classic marketing activities involving customer selection, acquisition, retention, and one other:
Options
- Customer demographics
- Customer extension
- Customer differentiation
- None of the above
Question No. 27 Marks - 10
By integrating customer databases with websites, marketing can be improved and the benefits of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) then include:
Options
- Targeting more cost-effectively
- Achieve mass customisation
- Increased depth, breadth, and nature of the relationship
- All of the above
Question No. 28 Marks - 10
Permission marketing is an established approach and the concept of opt-in typically involves:
Options
- The customer agreeing to receive marketing communications
- Profiling a customer's interests and value to an organization
- The customer proactively selecting opt-in
- All of the above
Question No. 29 Marks - 10
A key CRM technique is to encourage existing customers to recommend friends or colleagues to purchase. This is:
Options
- Cross-sell
- Up-sell
- Reactivation
- Referral
Question No. 30 Marks - 10
A key CRM technique is a sub-set of cross-selling, but in this case selling more expensive products. This is:
Options
- Cross-sell
- Up-sell
- Reactivation
- Referral
Question No. 31 Marks - 10
Using the RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage) marketing value framework, what does Reach aim to do?
Options
- Build customer relationships over time to achieve retention rates
- Achieve conversions to marketing goals such as fans, leads, or sales on web presences and offline
- Build awareness on other sites and in offline media and drive to web presences
- Engage audience with brand on its website or other online presence
Question No. 32 Marks - 10
What would be a key performance indicator for the Reach step?
Options
- Revenue or goal value per visit
- Conversion rates
- Repeat conversion
- Bounce rate
Question No. 33 Marks - 10
Process of manage information about customers to maximize loyalty is said to be
Options
- company relationship management
- supplier management
- retailers management
- customer relationship management
Question No. 34 Marks - 10
In buyer decision process, percentage of potential customers in a given target market is called
Options
- customer funnel
- company funnel
- marketing funnel
- retailers funnel
Question No. 35 Marks - 10
Record which is based on business customers past purchases, sales price and volumes is classified as
Options
- business database
- customer database
- databases marketing
- company marketing
Question No. 36 Marks - 10
Whole cluster of benefits when company promises to deliver through its market offering is called
Options
- value proposition
- customer proposition
- product proposition
- brand proposition
Question No. 37 Marks - 10
Third step in customer's value analysis
Options
- assessing attributes importance
- assessing company's performance
- monitoring competitors performance
- Both 2 and 3
Question No. 38 Marks - 10
All costs customer expects to incur to buy any market offering is called
Options
- total economic cost
- total functional cost
- total customer cost
- total functional cost
Question No. 39 Marks - 10
Percentage or number of customers who move from one level to next level in buying decision process is called
Options
- conversion rates
- marketing rates
- shopping rates
- loyalty rates
Question No. 40 Marks - 10
Customized products and services for customers and interaction to individual customers are part of
Options
- retailers management
- customer relationship management
- company relationship management
- supplier management