Customer Relationship Management 

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 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 this 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 employee comes 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.

S. No.    Questions    Marks - 10
1. Based on the case above, critically analyze 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 touchpoint      

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 customization      

Personalization

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      

Minimizes breadth, depth, and nature of the relationship      

Achieve mass customization 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 behaviors      

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 characterized 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 optimization      

Search engine marketing      

Quality score      

Traffic building campaign

Question No.  20    Marks - 10
Online public relations (or e-PR) should aim to maximize 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    

retailer’s management      

customer relationship management      

company relationship management      

supplier management