Ibm Customer Relationship Management (crm)

Abstract

Customer relationship management CRM is a significant and vital part of the business management today. It deals with relationship between the organization and its customers. Customers are the most important asset of any organization whether it is a global corporation consisting of thousands of employees and a multi-billion turnover, or a singular trader with a handful of regular customers. Customer relationship management helps the organizations to shift their focus from the product to the customers and understand what customers require and not what a company can make. Thus it helps the organizations to determine mutually satisfying objectives for the company as well for the customer i.e. making profit, reducing cost and providing satisfactory products and services to the customer.

In this paper, we analyze Pep Boys' successful implementation of Customer relationship management CRM. Pep Boys turned to the IBM Retail solution to attain the mutual goal of company's growth and satisfied customers. The paper focuses on the problems of declining customer satisfaction and decreasing efficiency because of outdated retail store technology, faced by Pep Boys. The paper explains the ways through which CRM strategies of IBM helped Pep Boys in finding out the solutions to those problems. In the paper we have used the System thinking approach and have applied the Attractiveness Principle Archetype in our way of demonstration. The content of the paper is based upon the various research papers on Pep Boys, customer relationship management, system thinking; newspaper article, course book and personal experiences.

Introduction

Today, customer is considered as the god in the business world. They in charge of and is everything for organizations. It is easier than ever for the customers to compare products and with a click of the mouse switch companies. Nowadays every business organization tries to provide its customers with the finest product and service. As a result, customer relationships have become the most valued asset for companies. The satisfied customers and a sound relationship with them is the purpose of every business and non business organization. Every company plans strategies, products and services to find and retain the most profitable customer. Thus companies are implementing customer relationship management tools and information systems as an element of customer centric strategy to improve their services, productivity and customer satisfaction. This helps them to improve their chances of success in today's competitive business environment.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is an information technology based strategy aimed at identifying, targeting, acquiring and retaining the best mix of customers [Business dictionary .com)]. It uses information technology tools and software to create cross functional