Data Mining Techniques for Customer Relationship Management Essay

CRM is a process that turns the customer’s data into customers’ loyalty through activities which is collecting customers’ data, analysing customer data and identify target customers, developing CRM through programs and implement CRM programs.

The most effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are deliberately designed to align and enhance the strategic initiatives and programs of a given business or enterprise. They must take into account customer preferences, needs and wants as well, and strive to create a foundation of shared information and insight over time There are a myriad of studies that show how effective CRM systems are in transforming businesses and making them more customer-centric, profitable and responsive to rapidly changing market requirements. The level of adoption and continued use of CRM systems also assures a company's culture stays agile enough to respond to changing market conditions while also keeping the level of expertise and knowledge about customers continually growing (Chen, Chiu, 2010). Having a single system of record pertaining to all customer interactions give companies a competitive advantage in that they have greater insight into how prospects make buying decisions (Wang, Feng, 2012). When implementing a CRM system there are five critical success factors that are essential to its success and these include cost, risk, scope, time, and quality. The most effective CRM implementations that deliver the greatest value balance all five of these factors and synchronize them together to create strategies that deliver consistently profitable results. These five critical success factors are essential

CRM as we know it today has evolved out of a variety of stand-alone technologies, such as call centers, and sales force automation systems. During the 1980s companies had begun to notice that it was possible to consolidate these disparate technologies. Insurance companies and banks, in particular, saw a golden marketing opportunity in the customer data they had gathered. Call centers began to conduct outbound calls such as up-selling where they would persuade the customer to purchase: more products from their line, upgrades, or other add-ons and so on. Soon enough customers began to be seen as a single entity across all departments, which led to a single view of ‘the customer’. Customers soon got used to CRM care and

Chen, I, J. and Popovich, K. (2003) Understanding customer relationship management (CRM). People, process and technology. Business process management journal, Vol. 9 No 5. Retrieved from http://cis.csuohio.edu/~ichen/CRM.pdf

An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can be used to identify, retain, satisfy and obtain customers by using technology to optimize strategies for understanding customers’ needs to manage business interactions with current, former, and prospective customers. Additionally, CRM also enables companies to maximize internal, external, marketing and customer service operations to better address the needs of the customer building a better relationship with customers that a more profitable. (Ahmad & Buttle, 2001)

How data mining can assist bankers in enhancing their businesses is illustrated in this example. Records include information such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, number of children, and etc. of the bank?s customers over the years are used in the mining process. First, an algorithm is used to identify characteristics that distinguish customers who took out a particular kind of loan from those who did not. Eventually, it develops ?rules? by which it can identify customers who are likely to be good candidates for such a loan. These rules are then used to identify such customers on the remainder of the database. Next, another algorithm is used to sort the database into cluster or groups of people with many similar attributes, with the hope that these might reveal interesting and unusual patterns. Finally, the patterns revealed by these clusters are then interpreted by the data miners, in collaboration with bank personnel.4

The main goal of Customer relationship management is to create a strong bond between customers and the company. The strong bond can be build by focusing on the two main objectives of CRM. Providing the organization and all of the employees that treat customers with a single and complete view of every customer at every touch point and across all channels and providing the customer a single and complete view of the company and its extended channels (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004).

Today, customer relationship management is very important to the business world. Most of the companies established a department and the programs to manage their relationship with the customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy which designed to help a company to understand and look forward to the needs of its potential and current customers (Anderson & Stang, 2000). Customer data is being collected in several different areas of the company, stored in a central database, analyzed, and distributed to key points (Anderson & Stang, 2000).The business world once was “product-centric”, the companies just provided what they could produce. However, it is now become “customer-centric”, they provide products and service

The data mining tasks are the kinds of patterns that can be mined. There are many tasks in data mining, the most common ones are: Association, classification, clustering and outlier detections. In the following sections describes the results of applying data mining techniques to the data of our case study for each of the four tasks.

The website, eCommerce site or B2B platform works as a two-way interface between clients, prospects, company staff and business partners. CRM software typically manages these relationships by profiling contacts, providing authorized access to informational sources, managing customer service and analyzing business opportunities based on customer and contact behavior. However, any CRM system runs on data and is only as effective as the data that’s collected. The software will never perform to its full potential unless it 's fully integrated through the API layer to automate intelligence-gathering activities from the behavior of clients, prospects, decision-makers, business associates and other stakeholders. Integrating your systems generates many informational feeds that tell sales departments where to focus their efforts to provide better user experiences.

In order to establish a suitable CRM system and increase the success rate, understanding CRM processes is especially important. Building CRM system, there are many works need to do(). Firstly, the target customer market should be identified. Different customer strategies are focused on different target customer markets based on their profitability. Then, firms set customer objectives, for example, acquire customer satisfaction and loyalty. After that, the leaders and managers should support and commit the implementation of a CRM system. At the same time, when companies change their targets, a plan about changing

The key aim of this project is to develop an information system based on data mining techniques to build upon existing customer relationships and increase profit. Part & Parcel Computers has been at the forefront of the computer parts industry for the past fifteen years. They have developed a reputation for the cheapest computer parts by focussing on a cost-leadership strategy. P&P computers have a loyalty card programme that provides discounts and benefits to its customers but has not used this collected data to specifically identify and target its loyal customers. Unless P&P computers build sales volume with the data, it is merely an overhead without any tangible benefit (Cox, 2012).

It’s very important to a business to have good customer relationships; CRM Software’s main objectives are to attract new customers while maintaining and satisfying their current customers and trying to win back the trust of former customers. Customers are one of the most important variables for a business owner to pay attention to, when trying to create a profit. Customer Relationship Management software keeps track of customer information to help the company maintain a strong relation with the customers. Good CRM Software brings together information from all databases within a company and gives

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had

Customer relationship management (CRM) is widely implemented and centralized system which offers a place for interaction under a company. An employee can handle again the repeated problem which occurred in the past by re-investigate it. Besides, CRM provides a place to identify what customers wants. Employees can track customer’s expectation by their feedback and communication that can improve their buying experience and stay interact with customer in order to understand their true needs.CRM also has ability to let the company see the customer interaction in clear picture. Different customers from different segments require different products and services, but this complex situation can handle well by CRM. Furthermore, CRM provides quality and efficiency system in the company management that helps company achieves their success by building long-term customer relationship.