Customer Relationship Management: A Case Study of Religare Securities Maraimalai Nagar

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1 65 Customer Relationship Management: A Case Study of Religare Securities Maraimalai Nagar Josephine Lalrindiki, Research Scholar, Department of Management, Mizoram University, Aizawl Dr Amit Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Mizoram University, Aizawl ABSTRACT Customer Relationship Management plays an important role in an organisation. It is not possible today to be market driven without an institutionalized customer relations management (CRM) system in place. Marketers have to turn to CRM in a big way as they face an out and out customer dictated business environment today. CRM enables the firm to select its customers with better precision. It can identify easily the high volume/low volume, frequent/occasional, and staunch / shifting customers and apply the right marketing strategies to them. The paper on "Customer Relationship Management in Religare Securities, Maraimalai Nagar" tries to examine the management of Customer Relationship,the present position and how they can implement a better and focused strategy which will improve today's marketing scenario. Keywords: Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Trust INTRODUCTION If we look back, we can see how much India had prospered, especially in the field of finance and marketing. Though India is a developing country, the economy is quite in a good shape as we can see and the financial market has been progressing every now and then and the world sees India as an emerging power house for finance and thus led the country to a great height and position. Many companies in India are listed in the stock exchange and have been affecting the country. Broking firms play a major role in the smooth functioning of the Stock Market because investors trade through these broking firms. It must be kept in mind that major share of investors are price sensitive and they decide the investment options and the options to trade trough on the basis of cost effectiveness because of lots of opportunity in this sector with that is the increasing competition. More and more companies are entering into this sector, so to maintain and acquire the client base it requires good marketing strategies on the companies part. So, to be on the safer side broking firms are trying to maintain relationship with their customers with the help of Customer Relationship Approach. A firm does not win the value game by the mere creation of the value. It has to deliver and make it available to the targeted customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is emerging as a vital part of marketing and helps companies improve the profitability of their interactions with the customers. We are already witnessing a big shift from a mass market oriented delivery format to an individualized reach and serve format. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Morgan and Hunt (1994) defined Relationship marketing as the marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges. The separation of the producers from the users was a natural outcome of the industrial era. On the one hand, mass production enforced producers to sell their product & services through middlemen, and on the other, industrial organizations, due to specialization of corporate functions, created specialist purchasing departments and buyer professionals, thus separating the users from the producers. Wilson (1995) summarized different relationship variables that affects the relationship of firm with different stakeholders, those variables are Commitment, Customer Trust, Cooperation, Mutual Goals, Interdependence and Power, Performance Satisfaction, Structural Bonds, Comparison Level of Alternatives, Adaptation, Nonretrievable Investments, Shared Technology, and Social Bonds. Ryals and Payne (2001), in financial sector a lot can be learned by other sectors from CRM implementation experience in financial companies (Ryals and Payne, 2001). The authors try to use financial sector experience to theorize approaches of CRM implementation and present a framework to its adoption. Before doing so, an attempt is made to describe the essential technological notions of information enabled CRM systems including: data warehouse, data marts, data mining and tools, such as clustering techniques, conjoint analysis, regression analysis and neural networks. These techniques are best

2 66 presented in relation to marketing objectives that they need to serve. Corner and Hinton (2002) argue that, at least, in CRM system implementation dynamic is much more complex and engage other parties, such as extra-company contributors and project managers. These extra parties, in tandem with higher sensitivity of organizational politics surrounding sales and marketing or customer service systems, require consideration of new risks, resulting from this complexity. Gefen (2002) in his article reviewed that comparison of CRM to ERP systems and arguing that customer relationship activities are not as standardized as other business activities, such as accounting or procurement. Hence CRM implementation calls for much more complex and flexible approach. Rygielski, Wang and Yen (2002), calls for increased responsibility by CRM implementers in terms of privacy rights. The authors urge 3 implementers to balance between respect towards the privacy of consumers and economic gains from using CRM and establish privacy policy to make sure the CRM doesn t gain opposite results. Bull's (2003) paper also uses a case study to demonstrate how miscommunication among management, IT and marketing staff, lack of engagement and empowerment of certain employees, led to five failures in addressing issues related to targeting the customer as the most important problem the new CRM was intended to solve. Fjermestad and Romano (2003), who claim that compared to homogeneous users of other traditional information systems, users of CRM may include all levels of management, permanent and temporary field customer service representatives and customers themselves. Hence the CRM should be designed to cross much more organizational boundaries and contain broader functionalities that would be used by both known and unknown users. Gurau, calin (2003), being more concerned with strategic planning and customer-centric approach that organizations need to follow for success in CRM implementation, ground most of their arguments for evaluating CRM efficiency from economic perspective. According to them effective CRM should give precise understanding of customer cost and revenue generation and one of the overarching aims of technology enabled CRM should be customer segmentation based on their lifetime value. Panda (2003) suggests that many organizations fail to do so only because of technology involvement the CRM implementation is perceived mainly as a technological exercise rather than a strategic goal. Span from predictable sales and hence, profits, to generation of new business through sharing positive opinions and recommendations. On the other hand, customers should also feel benefits from entering a relationship with a company. In addition to security and comfort the customers would also seek economic benefits expressed in special discounts, rewarding for their loyalty, as well as time savings, and special treatment by company front line staff. And these customer expectations that are very difficult to manage, should be properly studied and reflected in company s approach towards service delivery and product quality. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY To analyze effective Customer Relationship Management in Religare Securities, Maraimalai Nagar RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. In this study primary data and secondary data have been used. Primary data have been collected through surveys. Data collection has been done through the use of structured questionnaire. SAMPLING Convenient sampling method has been adopted for this study. The researcher has chosen 50 samples in and around Maraimalai Nagar. The researcher had prepared questionnaire to elicit responses for the following areas - Income group Years of trading. Satisfaction level. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS Profile of the sample respondents Occupation PROFESSION FREQUENCY PERCENT Business Services Entrepreneur 5 10 Others 15 30

3 67 have been with the company for a considerable amount of time. As the above table depicts, a good majority of the respondent belonged to services profession who invested in share market through Religare Securities. While entrepreneur invest the least. i.e, 10%. Reasons for investing REASONS RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE Reputation of the company Consumer friendly policies Advertisements 7 14 Good Services Any other 4 8 From the analysis done above it can easily be interpreted that 40% of the respondents from service sector invested in share market, reason being that they think it is a good investment as it can bring profit and add to their income. Time period of investing TIME/YEARS RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE TOTAL 50 From the data it has been found that 34% people have been Religare clients due to good consumer policies offered by them. 8% respondents cited other reasons. It is clearly understood from the data that 34% of the respondents are Religare clients due to the consumer friendly policies, it offers like Negotiable Brokerage, providing updated information, providing accurate solutions to their problems, etc From the graph it can be easily conclude that 44% respondents have been Religare clients from 2-4 years, this is a maximum % among respondents. And the least is 14% which are for 1 year. Awareness of customer relationship marketing policies OPTIONS RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE Yes No The data clearly depicts that 44% of the respondents have been Religare clients from 2 to 4 years.this is more than enough to judge the company, this means that the clients are atisfied with the policies of this particular firm and service provide by them. This is the reason why they a

4 68 The data clearly depicts that 70% are aware of the customer relationship management policies followed by Religare and the rest 30% are not aware. It is quite straight forward question as 70% of the respondents are aware of CRM policies followed. The reason may be that they understand the terms and conditions than the rest. Customer relationship marketing policies PRACTICES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE Optimum solutions Updated Information Long term 1 2 concessions Door step 3 6 services Regular in touch Any other 5 10 Choose the most effective customer relationship practices PRACTICES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE Optimum solutions Updated Information Long term 1 2 concession Door step 5 10 services Regular in touch Any other 2 4 Analysis This question is for all the respondents which are very important for the company to identify which is the most effective policy. Here 34% respondents think that giving up to date information is the key, while 26% says providing optimum solutions is important. The least is 2% for long term concessions. By studying the chart above we can conclude that 40% respondents thought that the CRM policies followed by the company is providing updated information of the policies and the least is long term concessions which is 2%. 40% of the respondents respond that getting updated information is the best CRM policy adopted by the company. Policy here is a broader term which includes giving those details about share market, new policies and new SEBI rules of the market. 34% of the respondents think upto date information is important because they have invested huge amount of their money and they want to be informed. Reason for religare to follow these practices PRACTICES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE Building brand image Competitors 3 6 Retention of customers Increase in 4 8 sales and profit Word of mouth 6 12 Any other 2 4

5 69 This chart gives an idea about why Religare should follow above mentioned practices. 50% of the respondents were in favour of retention of customers. The least is 4% which is any other. 50% respondents stated that retention of customers should be the main reason for a company because in such competitive world if a customer is not satisfied from a particular firm they can easily move on to other company so it became necessary for a company to provide good services, schemes to retain the customers. Satisfaction level for staff efficiency FREQUENCY PERCENT Very satisfied Quite satisfied Neutral 7 14 Quite dissatisfied 7 14 Very dissatisfied The above chart shows the satisfaction level of the staff efficiency from the respondents. 36% are quite satisfied with the efficiency of the staffs. The rest of the responds vary from 14% to 8%. The reason which can be given for this case is that 36% of the respondents may have better relations with their dealers and updates are provided to them instantly than 14% or 8% of the respondents who are neutral or very dissatisfied with the staffs. FINDINGS: 40% of the respondents from service sector are investing in share market while 10% of the investors are entrepreneur. As respondents from the service sector think that it is a good investment as it can bring profit and add to their income. 44% have been Religare clients from 2 to 4 years, this shows that the clients are satisfied with the policies of the firm and service provide by them. The least is 14% which is for 1 year. In reasons for investment, 34% of the respondents have been Religare clients due to consumer friendly policies offered by them as they offer like negotiable brokerage, providing updated information, providing accurate solutions to their problems, etc While 8% responds other reason. For awareness of the customer relationship management policies followed by Religare 70% are aware and 30% are not aware of it. The reason can be customers need to understand the conditions and terms and they also need to have interest or it can be the firm s fault in not giving proper information to their customers. Among the policies followed by Religare, 40% thinks that the firm is providing updated information among the policies and the least is a long term concession which is 2%. The respondents were given a choice to choose the most effective customer relationship policies which will prove to be useful for the firm so 34% chose upto date information because they have invested huge amount of their money and they want to be informed. While 26% chose optimum solutions. The least is 2% which is long term concessions. In the reason why Religare follow certain policies, 50% responded in favour of retention of customers because in such competitive world, if a customer is not satisfied from a particular firm they can easily move on to other company so it became necessary for a company to provide good services, schemes to retain the customers. 4% are in favour for other reasons. 36% of the respondents were quite satisfied with the efficiency of the staffs the reason behind this can be the respondents were having a good relation with their dealers and updates are provided to them instantly and there are also 14% and 8% of respondents who does not seem very pleased. 60% of the respondents think that customers relationship policies are influential in further

6 70 investing. And 40% are not very influenced with the customer relationship policies for further investment. If policies and services are good then they will be satisfied with the company and invest further. 62% of the respondents are willing to recommend Religare Securities to their friends and relatives and 38% denied it.respondents that are willing to recommend Religare Securities are the ones who are satisfied or maybe they are the ones who have earned profit recently. In the experience of the respondents in share market, 36% of the respondents are in average, 14% are in excellent and the least is 10% which is poor. It may be because the market trend is not stable and profits are not guaranteed every time investment is made. SUGGESTIONS From the research study, it has been found that the customers are very particular about the quality and service and hence they want Religare to increase the quality of their services by providing the customers with upto date information and enhance the customer care department where queries can be solve immediately. There should be more banners, posters, pamphlets distribution, i.e., they should focus on advertising and public relations to improve the awareness level among the people. They should give importance to their loyal customer by contacting them and making them feel important to them and try to retain their new customers. Though a consumer friendly policy seems to be very effective, they need to find a better way which will be helpful to all the customers. They should find a way to improve their information system with their customers to avoid dissatisfaction of the customers. Timely release of information & quick redressal of clients grievance is an important point If, Religare is looking to develop long term relationship with its clients. Religare securities should provide more secure information to their prospective clients and transparency in operation of business activities. They should educate their customers so that they have a clear view of what is happening in the market. CONCLUSION Religare Securities being a private sector, in order to thrive and excel, have to understand about the customers expectations. They also have to understand about their competitors and their strategies in understanding their customers and maintaining relationship with their customer.since brokerage industry is a very competitive one it is high time for Religare Securities to understand about their customers needs and give importance in maintaining relationship. The only thing which is needed to focus on is that they should have a strong marketing strategy so that prompt service and availability of forms is made available to the investors at a short notice provided that it keeps into mind the traditional base for marketing in India, which is a price sensitive. We can say that Religare has a great future ahead. REFERENCES: [1] Bull C., (2003). ''Strategic issues in customer relationship management (CRM) implementation''. Business Process Management Journal [2] Corner I., Hinton M., (2002). ''Customer relationship management systems: implementation risks and relationship dynamics''. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. [3] Fjermestad J., Romano N., (2003). Electronic customer relationship management. Revisiting the general principles of usability and resistance an integrative implementation framework. Business Process Management Journal. [4] Gefen.D.,(2002). "Implementation Team Responsiveness and User Evaluation of Customer Relationship Management: A Quasi-Experimental Design Study of Social Exchange Theory". Journal of management information systems ( ), 19 (1), p. 47 [5] Gurau, Calin (2003). "Customer-Centric Strategic Planning: Integrating CRM in Online Business Systems". Information technology and management [6] Morgan,Robert M., and Shelby D. Hunt (1994), The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing. Journal of Marketing 58 (July), [7] Panda T. K., (2002). Creating Customer Life Time Value Through Effective CRM in Financial Services Industry. Journal of Services Research [8] Ryals, L., Payne, A., (2001). Customer Relationship Management in Financial Services: Towards Information Enabled Relationship Marketing. Journal of Strategic Management [9] Rygielski, C., Wang, J.-C., Yen, D. C. (2002). Data mining techniques for customer relationship management, Technology in Society. [10] Wilson, David T. (1995), An Integrated Model of Buyer-Seller Relationships. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 23 (4),