CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: A GROWTH CATALYST FOR HDFC BANK

Transcription

1 149 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: A GROWTH CATALYST FOR HDFC BANK DR. ASHOK SHARMA*; DR. TAPASYA JULKA**; MS. SONALI BHARDWAJ*** ABSTRACT *Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. **Coordinator, School of Business Management, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India. ***Ph.D. Scholar, School of Business Management, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India. This study explores the role of CRM in enhancing organisational growth in reference to the banking industry (HDFC bank) by trend analysis method. Hence, CRM is the tool which is helping the organisation to build long lasting brand image in customer s mind. This paper analyses the actual impact of CRM in enhancing the organisational performance. This study is undertaken through the use of trend analysis method of banking sector specifically taking HDFC bank as the universe of study. A descriptive approach will be followed in this paper for analysis. Some key parameters affecting the organisational growth of the HDFC bank will be identified and studied in relation to CRM. Based on the analysis of these relation of CRM and these key parameters of growth will be established. This paper concludes with the suggestions to adopt specific measures to enhance the impact of CRM in organisational growth of Banks. KEYWORDS: CRM, Banks, ROI, Growth. INTRODUCTION As the liberalisation has taken place the banking industry has been facing competition from the services of the foreign and private sector banks. This led to the surging of the banks into new initiatives and strategies. One such initiative for stopping the decrease in market share of Indian banks and making more profit is CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Not only banks but all other kinds of industries has identified the importance of CRM as strategy for retaining the existing customer segments which are profitable and focusing on the long term value of the customer. As all the products and services offered by the banks being same, the key differentiator in the banking services which helps developing customer base and sales capacity is CRM.

2 150 THE BENEFITS OF CRM Rapid growth of business through retention of the profitable customer segment. Through CRM only those customers are acquired whose characteristics are known which results in increased profits and hence drives growth. CRM enables the banks (organisations) to offer the right product at right time, due to which individual customer margins can be increased. CRM decreases the cost of customer management. Ease in introduction of new products as they are customer need specific and it is found that the loyal customers readily buy 50 % of the new products rather than the new customers. As soon as the business philosophy is made this philosophy is enacted in the form of technological processes where the customer centric approach is used. CRM focuses on the need of the organisations to understand the customer behaviour patterns. It improves the understanding between the organisation and the customer. This increases one to - one relationship with the customers of the organisation. It has been seen that 80 % of the profits are generated by the loyal customers of the organisation. EVOLUTION OF CRM In the beginning of the civilised society the main focus was on the consumption which means that people use their produce for their own consumption and for exchanging the goods. As the civil society established its roots, the manufacturing and industrial era augmented. This era led to the concept of production. In this concept, the production practices evolved for consumption as well as for sales. As the production scale became larger the amount of produced goods exceeded the demand and hence supply was abundant. To sell these produced goods the concept of selling came into play. This concept follows the rule that sell everything which is required or not required by the consumer. This was known as the transaction orientation. Finally, when customers stopped accepting the goods which they didn t required, the era of consumerism began. This consumer based concept states that, produce whatever is required by the consumer and sell the products which are needed by the consumer in such a way that the consumer purchases again and again from the same marketer or organisation. The customer should be satisfied by the pre sales services, post sales services and the products/services offered by the organisation. While selling the product/services, the front liners try to make relationships with the customers by identifying their needs, preferences, tastes and behaviour patterns etc. This concept is called relationship marketing.

3 151 Consumption Production Transaction Marketing Oriented Selling - Customer Relationship Marketing oriented FIGURE 1: APPROACHES OF TRANSACTION MARKETING AND RELATIONSHIP MARKETING These relationships are based on: 1. The prior purchases made by the customer from an organisation, 2. Good behaviour of the employee who interacts with the customer, 3. Extra beneficial offerings such as home delivery, good ambience, extra working hours, etc, 4. The quality of products / services offered by the organisation. Now days, due to the technological advances these relationships are maintained on the basis of the data base of the consumers which is available with the organisation through: 1. Different researches, 2. Market studies, 3. Census reports, 4. Observation 5. Competitor s data hacking 6. Direct interaction with the customers, etc. With reference to the banking sector, these databases serve as the basis of relationship maintenance, and in order to differentiate every single customer the banks provides unique no. to every customer known as account no. as whenever a client approaches the front desk the customer care executive asks for account no. and by just feeding the account no. in the system all

4 152 the relevant information gets displayed on the screen and then the problem of the customer can be easily resolved by viewing these records. This is also known as e CRM. This is the latest buzzword in the services industry. IMPORTANCE OF CRM Gartner predicted that the market for Social CRM software will be $1 billion by 2012 whereas AMR projected that the market size of CRM software will be $22 billion by At a growth rate of 28% per annum. It has been expected that the overall worldwide software spending will increase 31 per cent this year which is 9% more than the ABI market research predicts that the global market for hosted services will exceed $ 34 billion in 2012, the North American Market will be accounting for $11.6 billion out of this. Worldwide market, which was at $13.1 billion in 2009 and expected to rise to $40.5 billion in 2014, is representing an annual compounding growth rate of 25.3%. Hence, we can see there is a steep rise in software as a service (SAAS) The trend in success of CRM came in notice in early 2004 which was reported by IDC. They surveyed different companies using the CRM software and reported that: a) 19% of companies have positive ROI up to 50%. b) 52% companies with ROI of 51% to 500%. c) 30% companies reported returns of higher than 500% The timeliness of ROI on the CRM initiative taken by various companies was also found out to be positive i.e.: a) 58% companies experienced payback within one year or less. b) 35% got their payback after one to three years. c) 8% had a payback of three years or more. All these investments and rise in spending in the CRM has made Indian organizations realise of the worldwide inclination of using CRM. It has been identified that in 80% of companies CRM have proved to be profitable, therefore it has to be understood by the organisations that in spite of heavy costs involved in CRM it is profitable for them. Time taken for implementation was also less and it ultimately resulted in increasing customer retention and loyalty. If the CRM is implemented and measured in a right way it may result into high ROI (Return on Investment) for the organisations. OBJECTIVE CRM has evolved from just a good behaviour to software based big investments made by the companies, these cater the needs of their customer, in such a way that the customer remains satisfied and build a long lasting relationship with the organisation. This paper is an effort to support that the CRM is a worthy investment for organisations and CRM is a very strong factor

5 153 for the organisational growth, it increases the efficiency and profitability of the organisation which implements it properly. REVIEW OF LITERATURE CRM is defined as a management process of acquiring customers by understanding their requirements, retaining customers by fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations and attracting new customers through customer specific strategic marketing approaches. The process invites total commitment on the part of the entire organisation in evolving and implementing relationship strategies that would be rewarding to all concerned (A Sagadevan& H Peeru Mohamed, 2010). Moreover another definition can be The infrastructure that enables the delineation of and an increase in customer value, and the correct means by which to motivate valuable customers to remain loyal- indeed, to buy again (Jill Dyche, 2009). After defining and getting a clear vision of CRM its use in the private and public banking sectors has been highlighted. It has been found out that through maintaining the customer service quality customer satisfaction can be attained. This leads to the growth of the organisation and profitability (Ipshita Bansal and Rinku Sharma, 2008). By satisfying the internal customers and building good relationship with them the relationship with the external customers can also be retained and satisfied by the banks (Seema Girdhar, 2009). Any bank that wishes to either grow in size of its banking operation or improve its profitability must consider the challenges affecting its customer relationship (Ashok Kumar M. & Rajesh R., 2009) UNIVERSE OF STUDY HDFC Bank Limited started operating as a Scheduled Commercial Bank in January The previously known Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) was one of the first to get an in principal approval by (RBI) Reserve Bank of India to set up a bank in the private sector. HDFC was incorporated in the name of HDFC Bank Limited in August 1994 and its registered office is in Mumbai, India. The bank has a huge presence all over India with its distribution network of 1,986 branches and 5, 471 ATMs in 996 different cities as on March 31 st The size of its balance sheet is 277,353 crore as on March 31, The bank earned a net profit of 3,926 crore, which has increased about 33% from the last year. While the deposits increased to 24.6% i.e. 208,586 crore and advances grew by 27.1% i.e. 159,983 since last year. The Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the bank as on March 31 st, 2011 was at 16.2% as against the regulatory minimum of 9.0% Tier 1 ratio at 12.2.%. The HDFC Bank has made a mark in the Indian banking as it has bagged many awards for the best bank such as: 1. Forbes Asia - Fab 50 companies in Asia Pacific 2. Asian Banker Excellence Awards Dun And Bradstreet Banking Awards 2010

6 NDTV Business Leadership Awards Outlook Money 2010 Awards 6. The Banker & PWM 2010 Global Private Banking Awards. Not only these but more than these are received in best customer service category as well as best technology and IT usage and infrastructure bank by: 1. IBA Banking Technology Awards IDC FIIA Awards Business World Best Bank Awards IDRBT Technology 2009 Awards: Established by RBI 5. Financial Express EVI green business leadership Award 6. Avaya global connect Celent s 2010 Banking Innovation Award. 8. Business World Best Bank Awards 2009 & This establishes that this bank is very customer centric Bank. Hence there is no surprise that the mission of the bank is to become a world Class Indian Bank. Through the focus on product quality and service excellence in conjunction with benchmarking its services against the international standards the bank is becoming nearer to its aim. The bank has adopted best practices in offering products, technology, services, risk management, audit and compliance. Its main objective is to become the preferred banking service provider by building strong customer base amongst different categories of businesses. For this the bank always ensure that the highest levels of ethical standards, professional integrity are followed and full compliance of corporate governance regulatory norms is ensured. The strategy followed by the bank emphasises on three aspects i.e. a) market share expansion by following a path of disciplined growth strategy which focuses on balancing quality of services and growth of volume by delivering the high quality customer service: b) maximise the use of its technological platforms to deliver more products to more customers with minimum operating costs: c) through disciplined credit risk management high standards of asset quality is maintained. CRM SOFTWARE USED BY HDFC BANK HDFC Bank uses CRM Next as CRM software while the cash management is done through using software from a Pune based company i.e. Cash Tech. Moreover the depository system of the bank runs on software provided by the Mumbai - based Kalptaru. Some of the other IT enabled initiatives are:

7 155 1) Nucleus Software for loans. 2) Mainframe - class UNIX machine (the E10000 system) from Sun Microsystems for its banking needs. 3) iflex s Microbanker and Finware as a software for core banking operations. 4) Internet banking software for internet based channel. CRM INITIATIVES BY THE BANK A customer is an asset if he/she is loyal to the organisation, HDFC bank has got majority of these assets in its customer base as 76% of its existing customers are found out to be loyal. This is attained due to holistic CRM approach adopted by the bank. As the bank s director himself mentions in his annual; report that the bank s data warehouse, customer relationship management and analytics solutions have helped it target its existing and potential customers in a cost effective manner and offer them products appropriate to their profile and needs. The Bank realises the value of CRM and IT initiatives offered to the customers for becoming more loyal to the bank. The frauds and credit losses are also lowered by imbibing this approach of CRM. Some of the major initiatives taken by the bank for strengthening its customer experience are: 1) The bank provides Highly IT enabled services in the form of Internet banking. It has been discovered that 60% of the registered bank s customers transact through online banking. 2) Mobile banking and ATM are also providing multi-channel service delivery system to the customers which are discovered to be 80% initiated by the customers which are serviced through non-branch channels. 3) Service quality projects are carried out by the bank using lean Sigma Tool-kit, 5S and other business excellence initiatives are undertaken by the bank just to deliver customer delight. The service quality objectives and the business objectives are merged so that the customer delight and improved profitability can be obtained. 4) Customer service committee which monitors quality of services, formulates comprehensive deposit policy ( in terms of issues arising due to death of a depositor for his account operations), gets approval for the products, surveys customer satisfaction annually and triennially. 5) The bank also offers the customer helpdesk in case of any query, grievance, or direct contact to the bank, through call centres, in branch counters, address, and through bank s website. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS The parameter of growth for any organisation is profit which it earns. Hence a trend analysis is done on the basis of data available to researcher.

8 156 TABLE 1: PROFIT AFTER TAX ( CRORE) YEAR PAT ,141 1,590 2,245 2,949 3,926 ( crore) CHART 1: PROFIT AFTER TAX ( CRORE) SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

9 157 The Chart 1 clearly shows an increasing trend in the profit after tax (PAT), since 2002 to 2011 of the bank this increase in the PAT has become significant from the year 2006 from when the bank started adopting the CRM as its strategy. PAT increased 33.2% over the last financial year. TABLE 2: BALANCE SHEET SIZE ( CRORE) Year BALANCE SHEET SIZE ( crore) 183, , ,353 CHART 2: BALANCE SHEET SIZE ( CRORE) 300, , , , ,000 50, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

10 158 The second most important parameter of growth is Balance sheet size. If it shows increasing trend than the bank is showing higher performance in the industry. Here, the bank has shown an increase of 24.7% over the last year as depicted by the chart 2. TABLE 3: ADVANCES ( CRORE) Year Advances ( crore) 98, , ,983 CHART 3: ADVANCES ( CRORE) 180, , , , ,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

11 159 An increase of 26.8% was witnessed in gross advances in comparison to the previous year. Advances give a figure that how much amount of loan is provided by the bank, as depicted in the chart 3. The trend shows that the advances are increasing which means the customers are availing loans from the bank, which is only possible when the customer is more satisfied and loyal. TABLE 4: DEPOSISTS ( CRORE) Year Deposits ( crore) 142, , ,586 CHART 4: DEPOSITS ( CRORE) 250, , , ,000 50, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

12 160 Chart 4 shows a great rise in the deposits of the bank. This increase is 24.6% from the previous year in total deposits of the bank. TABLE 5: BRANCHES (NOS.) Year Branches (in nos.) 1,412 1,725 1,986 CHART 5: BRANCHES ( NOS.) 2,500 2,000 1,500 1, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

13 161 According to the Chart 5, bank opened 261 new branchesin the year 2011 which resulted in more staffing and hence gave jobs to many unemployed skilled people. This led to the increase in the presence of the bank in new areas and hence will also increase the customer base of the bank. TABLE 6: ATMS ( NOS.) Year ATMs ( Nos.) 3,295 4,232 5,471 CHART 6: ATMS ( NOS.) 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

14 162 TABLE 7: DEBIT CARDS ( NOS. IN LAC) Year DEBIT CARDS ( Nos. in lac) CHART 7: DEBIT CARDS ( NOS. IN LAC) Series 1 Column1 60 Column SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

15 163 The Chart 6 and 7 shows that the increase in the ATM transactions increased by 14% coupled with the growth of the number of ATMs and debit cards. And as alreay been stated that 80% customers prefer using these non-branch channels for availing the services of the bank. TABLE 8: CITIES ( NOS.) Year CITIES ( Nos.) CHART 8: CITIES (NOS.) 1,200 1, SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

16 164 The Chart 8 suggests that the banks customer base will grow due to its presence and penetration has increased in several new cities. TABLE 9: CUSTOMER BASE (IN MILLION) Year Customer Base (in Million) CHART 9: CUSTOMER BASE (IN MILLION) SOURCE: HDFC BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2011.

17 165 Chart 9 states that customer base of the bank has increased to 21.9 million from 18 million in 2009 this is a result of holistic approach adopted by the bank for providing CRM in the bank. CONCLUSION It is an continuous process, more the services will be offered more the customer base will grow and more the customers grow more the services has to be offered. Instead of having broad customer base, the bank s aim is to get broad loyal customer base and the same is achieved by offering better service quality and customer relationship management to its customers. CRM is an important catalyst for the growth of the HDFC bank. The bank is able to attain growth as a whole due to its emphasis on the customer centricity as a key objective. As the bank is providing multi-channel services through ATMs, internet, phone, and mobile banking in addition to its expanding branching network and deeper penetration in untapped areas, the customer base is increasing and hence the bank s profitability is increasing. This ensures the bank s growth. SUGGESTIONS 1. The banks must use CRM software not only core banking software to improve its service experience such as SAP or People Soft. This software helps in handling large data volume and integrating with the IT. 2. The bank should take care of employee behaviour towards the CRM and customers as it has been seen during the study that many bank employees yet lack customer centricity in providing service to the customers. 3. The bank should position itself as a more customer friendly bank as it is the second largest private sector bank in India. FUTURE SCOPE This study is mainly based on the secondary data but in further research the primary data in combination with this secondary data may further prove the relevance of CRM in the Growth of HDFC Bank. REFERENCES H Peeru Mohamed A. Sagadevan, 2010, Customer Relationship Management a step by step approach, New Delhi, Vikas Publications. IDC, 2004, The Financial Impact of CRM, a report. Jill Dyche, 2009, The CRM Handbook- a business guide to customer relationship Management, New Delhi, Pearson Education.

18 166 JOURNALS Ashok Kumar M. and Rajesh R., (2009), Whether Today s Customers are Satisfied? A study with Banks, Indian Journal Of Marketing, New Delhi, Vol. XXXIX, No.9 IpshitaBansal and Rinku Sharma, (2008), Indian Banking Services: Achievement s and challenges, The Icfai University Journal of services marketing, Hyderabad. Vol.VI No.2. SeemaGirdhar, (2009), Building Relationship through Internal customer: a study of south asian selected co-operative banks with special reference to Surat district of Gujarat State Pranjana - The Journal of management awareness, Delhi, Vol. 12 No.2 MAGAZINES Business today WEBSITES