CRM STRATEGIES AND COMPARISON

Submitted to: Pardeep Bawa

Submitted by: Satbir Singh 11100024 SP223

Customers are more demanding than ever before. Increased choice and
access to more information on alternatives make it harder than ever before to win new customers and retain existing clients in the face of stiff competition. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about understanding people: what makes them talk to you, what makes them buy from you, what products and services they are most likely to be interested in, and what makes them come back to buy from you again and again. To satisfy customers and achieve commercial success, organisations need to collect, organise and share all the information they have about their customers throughout their business in a consistent, efficient way. As per the requirements of the assignment, the industry which has been identified to study is the telecom industry, in which I have identified two prominent companies i.e. Airtel and Vodafone to highlight and compare, CRM Strategies of these two companies, Methods used for Acquisition of data, Customization methods used by companies, Customer Privacy Policies of Companies.

OVERVIEW OF CRM OF AIRTEL

AIRTEL is one of Asias leading providers of telecommunication services with presence in all the 22 licensed jurisdictions (also known as Telecom Circles) in India. They serve an aggregate of 134 million customers. They are the largest wireless service provider in the country, based on the number of customers. They offer an integrated suite of telecom solutions to customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally and internationally. Airtel has also recognised the importance of customer relationship management and so have adopted the framework for creating a long time relations with customers and have been got creative at capturing customer information. They have been innovative in developing better communities

around their brands giving customers more incentives to identify themselves with those brands and exhibit higher levels of loyalty. CRM practices by the company could be stated as The company believes that one way developing an improved focus on CRM is through the establishment or consideration of splitting the marketing manager job into two parts: one for acquisition and one for retention. The kinds of skills that are need for the two tasks are quite different. People skilled in acquisition have experience in the usual tactical aspects of marketing: advertising, sales, etc. However, the skills for retention can be quite different as the job requires a better understanding of the underpinnings of satisfaction and loyalty for the particular product category. In addition, time being a critical scarce resource company makes it difficult to do an excellent job on both acquisition and retention. As a result, Airtel has appointed a chief customer officer (CCO) whose job focuses only on customer interactions. In this organization, the person overseeing the companys marketing activities, the VP-Marketing, has both product management and the CCO as direct reports. The CCOs job is to provide intelligence to the VP from marketing research and the customer database for use by product managers in formulating marketing plans and making decisions. In addition, the CCO manages the customer service operation. Although it would perhaps seem more logical for the CCO to report to product management, the reporting arrangement to the VPMarketing is a signal to the company of the prominence of the position. The CCO also interacts with other company managers whose operations may have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. The notion of customer satisfaction is being expanded to change CRM to CEM, Customer Experience Management. The idea behind this is that with the number of customer contact points increasing all the time, it is more critical than ever to measure the customers reactions to these contacts and develop immediate responses to negative experiences. These responses could include timely apologies and special offers to compensate for unsatisfactory service. The idea is to expand the notion of a relationship from one that is transaction-based to one that is experiential and continuous.

In today's competitive telecommunications market, for AIRTEL customer service is the number one differentiator for companies. Customer relationship management (CRM) applications improve the relationship between the company and its customers. Timely service provisioning, Response to customer queries, and Reporting on network performance Are aspects of CRM. With GIS, call center operators can access all the information on a customer and the associated network based on location. Databases containing information on outside plant infrastructure, signal quality, and equipment can be integrated using GIS and made available using a corporate Intranet. In CRM, Tier 1 handling means the customer's issue is resolved with the initial call. Tier 2 calls require initiating a trouble-ticket and obtaining additional information. Carriers who have successfully implemented GIS support for CRM achieve higher Tier 1 handling and customer service is performed more quickly and economically. GIS improves the speed and quality of contact handling, augments customer satisfaction, and reduces churn.

OVERVIEW OF CRM IN VODAFONE

Vodafone Essar, usually referred to simply as Vodafone, is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India. It was formerly known as Hutchison Essar. It is the second largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue behind Bharti Airtel, and third largest in terms of customers. The company now has operations across the country with over 113.77 million customers. Vodafone is the worlds leading international mobile communications company. It now has operations in 25 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networks with over 200 million customers worldwide. Vodafone is able to offer the right solution to meet the needs of every client, driving measurable improvements in business processes, enabling closer relationships with customers and supporting the achievement of new levels of profitability.

Through supporting consistent best practice processes Customer Relationship Management from Vodafone helps customers make the most of interactions across multiple touch points. Vodafone ads play a great role in building up CRM. The ads having the pug, two friends, Zoozoos, etc have made a mark on the customers. The Vodafone outlets help their customers in dealing with the problems by attending to every customer and by providing them with info or solution.

Strategies and Comparison

Both the companies are in same sector so both of them are facing same privacy concerns. The privacy policies of both the enterprises are similar to one another. Still the basic essentials of both the companies are mentioned below: Privacy policy of Vodafone

Vodafone

India Limited is committed to protecting customers

personal information. They have created Privacy Policy to help customers

understand how they collect, use and protect their information when customers visit companys web and WAP sites and use companys products and services. This Privacy Policy covers the following topics: 1. What personal information does Vodafone collects? Vodafone holds information relating to customers that they have provided to Vodafone (such as on an application or registration form) or that company may have obtained from another companys (such as companys suppliers or from marketing organisations and credit agencies). This information includes, customers name, address, telephone numbers, information on how customer use companys products and services, the location of customers mobile phone from time to time, lifestyle information and any other information collected in relation to customers use of companys products and services. 2. How does Vodafone use customers Personal Information? The information that Vodafone collect from customer is held in accordance with applicable laws and regulations in India. It is used by company for a number of purposes connected with companys business operations and functions, which include: Processing customer orders or applications. Carrying out credit checking and scoring. Providing customer with products and/or services requested. Billing customer. Dealing with requests, enquiries or complaints and other customer care related activities. Carrying out market and product analysis and marketing companys and companys group companies products and services generally; Contacting customer (including by post, email, fax, short text message (SMS), telephone) about company and products and services and the products and services of carefully selected third parties which Vodafone think may be of interest to customer. Registering customer details and allocating or offering customer rewards, discounts or other benefits and fulfilling any requests or requirements customer may have in respect of companys and

companys group companies' loyalty or reward programmes and other similar schemes. Inclusion in any telephone or similar directory or directory enquiry service provided or operated by company or by a third party. Carrying out any activity in connection with a legal, governmental or regulatory requirement or in connection with legal proceedings, crime or fraud prevention, detection or prosecution. . 3. Sharing customer Personal Information There may be times when Vodafone need to disclose customer personal information to third parties. If Vodafone do this, Vodafone will only disclose customer information to: Companys group companies; Those who provide company products or services that support the services that Vodafone provide, such as companys dealers and suppliers; Credit reference agencies who may share customer information with other organisations and who may keep a record of the searches Vodafone make against customer name; If someone else pays customer bill, such as customer employer Those providing telephone and similar directories or directory enquiry services Anyone Vodafone transfer companys business to in respect of which customer are a customer or a potential customer. Anyone who assists company in protecting the operation of the Vodafone India networks and systems, including the use of monitoring and detection in order to identify potential threats, such as hacking and virus dissemination and other security vulnerabilities; Persons to whom Vodafone may be required to pass customer information by reason of legal, governmental or regulatory authority including law enforcement agencies and emergency services; Any person or organisation as authorised by laws and regulations applicable in India. Vodafone also provides customer personal information to carefully selected third parties who Vodafone reasonably believe provide products or services that may be of interest to customer and who have contracted

with Vodafone to keep the information confidential, or who are subject to obligations to protect customer personal information. 4. Protecting customer personal information Vodafone is taking reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information Vodafone collects, uses or disclose is accurate, complete, up-todate and stored in a secure environment protected from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 5. Internet use Vodafone makes every effort to maintain the security of companys internet connections, however for reasons outside of companys control, security risks could still arise. Vodafone uses cookies and other interactive techniques such as web beacons to collect non-personal information about how customer interact with companys website, and web-related products and services, to: Understand what customer like and use about companys website; Understand what customer do not like and do not use on companys website; Provide a more enjoyable, customised service and experience, and Help company develop and deliver better products and services tailored to companys customers interests and needs. PRIVACY POLICY OF AIRTEL

Airtel is committed to protect the customers personal information and/or sensitive personal data and strive to maintain the privacy of personal information. Airtel does collect customers personal information for a variety of regulatory and business purposes. These include, but are not limited to: Verify customers identity Complete transactions effectively and bill for products and services Respond to customers request for service or assistance

 Perform market analysis, market research, business and operational analysis Provide, maintain and improve products and services Anticipate and resolve issues and concerns with products and services Promote and market products and services which airtel consider may be of interest to customer and may benefit customer. Ensure adherence to legal and regulatory requirements for prevention and detection of frauds and crimes.

1. Collection of personal information Airtel and its authorized third parties collect information pertaining to customers identity, demographics, and related evidentiary documentation. They also collect customers personal information when they use company services or websites or otherwise interact with company during the course of relationship. 2. Disclosure and transfer of personal information Airtel and its employees may utilize some or all available personal information for internal assessments, measures, operations and related activities. The same information can be passed to external parties as well. 3. Security practices and procedures Airtels security practices and procedures limit access to personal information on need-only basis. Airtel takes adequate steps to ensure that third parties adopt reasonable level of security practices and procedures to ensure security of personal information. 4. Internet Use Airtel maintains the security of our internet connections. However for reasons outside of our control, security risks may still arise.

Both the companies have the same sections in their privacy policies, in one or the other way, may it be regarding personal information, usage. Both of them ensure the security of the personal information of the customers and have adopted reasonable security practices and procedures, in line with international standard IS/ISO/IEC 27001, to include, technical, operational, managerial and physical security controls in order to protect customers personal information from unauthorized access, or disclosure while it is under their control. Both the companies cannot control the external threats to the data as both are not liable to the information provided by customer to external resources. Customisation Customization is the art of creating different services for different types of customers. Both the companies have differentiated products and services, both tend to satisfy different types of customer segments. The companies provide different services to different types of customers. They provide services like: Customized recharges: Airtel and Vodafone both provide recharges like Bonus recharges and others. For high paying customers they provide extra benefits. Differentiation in services of post-paid, pre paid, or easy post paid customers Data Acquisition The companies use various techniques for data acquisition 1. Data collection by itself: The companies collect customer data by their own, when they provide services to customer or at the time of transaction. 2. Third Parties: Both Airtel and Vodafone, collect the data of customers through research agencies or third parties which they have collected at various times.