How CRM be Applied in the Life Insurance Company - Dissertation Example

?A Study of How Relationship Management be applied in the Life Insurance Company in China Recommendations Most businesses, including Ping anLife insurance company, have invested a lot in Customer relations Management and expect to see the Return on Investment (ROI) in due course (Al-Ghamdi, Sohail & Al-Khaldi, 2007). CRM strategies are meant to help improve the company’s operations and steer the company to achieve more success as far as attracting and retaining customers and clients is concerned. The importance of CRM in this more competitive business environment coupled with rapid technological changes and effects of globalization, the significance of CRM cannot be underestimated. Ping an Life insurance company certainly recognizes the importance of CRM in the modern business environment and has moved swiftly to put in place measure to attract more customers and retain them. There exist however a lot of challenges and limitations in the implementation of the company’s CRM strategies which make it rather difficult for the company to achieve its full potential (Al-Ghamdi, Sohail & Al-Khaldi, 2007). This is especially so because CRM requires business to change their operation strategies from product centered approaches and put more focus on the customer as the focal point in the company’s marketing endeavors. Such a shift will always be difficult for companies like Ping an Life that have been in operation for a very long time and who have been relying on the older methods and techniques of marketing. This research study has investigated and studied the CRM strategies of Ping an Life insurance company and evaluated how they are performed and come up with various recommendations for improvement. These recommendation are aimed at enabling the company achieve even much greater results with their CRM strategies. The recommendations are as follows; Since most of the company’s clients have been directed to the company through referrals from existing clients, the first recommendation would be to strengthen the reward system. Existing clients should be motivated to pass positive messages to their friends and family about the company and encourage them to come work with Pin an Life company. The existing clients should be given rewards, whether its discounts or otherwise for each and every new client brought to the company (Al-Ghamdi, Sohail & Al-Khaldi, 2007). The other recommendation that is crucial to the company’s CRM strategy is the use of technology. The company should adopt a technological approach by using the internet to track prospects and communicate with them (McGregor, 2012). There are also plenty of application software that can help improve the CRM strategy of the Ping an Life insurance company. The company should identify one that suits their operations and work with it. The company also needs to manage the new change by incorporating views of all stakeholders in the company and prepare them for the impending change. This will include collecting their views about the impending changes in marketing and how other departments will be affected and addressing each concern. The members of staff will then be trained on how to deal with customers in the new dispensation Conclusion It is no doubt that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is becoming a very essential element of businesses. The ability of businesses to attract and retain a large portion of their clients and prospects gives them a very huge competitive advantage in the highly competitive business world. The significance of CRM in the Asian business environment is also becoming apparent, especially in China with a majority of the big companies and corporations having strong Customer Relationships Management strategies. The insurance company Ping an Life has had numerous challenges in the past regarding to its marketing strategies and the importance given to Customer Relations Management cannot be understated. The big attention bestowed on Customer Relations Management is as a result of the rapid developments and changes in the business environment given the impact of technology on business and the evolution of the marketplace from being production and sale- centered marketing to customer centered marketing where the focus is put on the customer as opposed to the sales process. Focusing on customers will intern boost both sales and marketing strategies (Al-Ghamdi, Sohail & Al-Khaldi, 2007). The main aim of businesses should be to attract new clients and customers and retain existing customers through various marketing strategies. Excellent customer service and satisfaction is critical to improving company’s revenues, profit and market share. Globalization has also been very instrumental in creating a highly competitive environment in the business world where companies have struggled to be more innovative and create winning strategies. Globalization has enabled businesses and products to appeal to a large audience beyond the geographical borders within which the business is located (McGregor, Richard 2012). There are numerous companies and businesses selling the same or similar products. With this kind of competition, it has become necessary for customer relations management strategies to step in to help companies profit from the many customers available and cater for the demand of their commodities all over the globe. Thus, the application of customer relationship management can be seen as an effective marketing tool to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction, thereby promoting the business performance. Nowadays, there is a growing number of companies use CRM to enhance company competitive power in the marketplace in China (McGregor, 2012). This study has gathered a lot of information about the Ping an Life Insurance company of China and how it applies CRM in its life insurance programs. The insurance company’s CRM strategies have been closely analyzed and evaluated for the purposes of this scientific study. Like most businesses, there is always need to improve on current strategies and Ping an Life is no exception. The company has strong customer relations management strategies but there are still various loopholes that need to be addressed in order to strengthen the company. The insurance industry within which Ping an Life lies is very competitive in China. A majority of clients of insurance companies are attracted to the companies through referrals from existing clients. With this in mind, offering great customer service to existing clients should be the bedrock of any strategy aimed at retaining and bringing in new clients. Ping an Life, being the second biggest insurance companies in China, its CRM strategy largely depends on customer referrals and feedback. Implementing CRM systems and strategies in Ping an Life insurance company is very vital for various reasons. First and foremost, a good CRM system enables Ping an Life company to convert, track and follow up on their leads efficiently. Leads have very profound value in marketing in that if they are treated well and convinced to sign p to the company’s insurance programs, they will end up being some of the company’s valuable clients and might even recommend other clients to the company. A good CRM system is necessary for Ping an Life because it will enable them to collect relevant data on their leads to determine how best they can approach them and convince them to be part of the company’s insurance programs. Secondly, a good CRM system is also necessary for Ping an Life because it will lead to improvements in the percentages of deals closed by the company. The more the deals the company closes the more the number of clients the company will have at the time (McGregor, 2012). A good CRM strategy will enable Ping and Life to constantly communicate with their leads and prospects, gather more information about them and determine the how best they can tweak their life insurance program so as to attract them and bring them on board. Customer relations management will ensure there is consistent communication between the company and the prospects. The CRM strategy will also create an environment for the company to prioritize certain leads and prospects to close their deals at the appropriate times. An evaluation of the application of current CRM strategies by Ping an Life reveals a lot of positives for the company in the recent past. Since its inception in 1988, the company has grown and expanded rapidly to become one of the biggest companies in China (Romano and Fjermestad, 2009). It is the second biggest insurance company in the country and has a large number of clients. More and more clients continue to line up for company’s services. All these rapid growth and expansion in the company’s client base can be attributed to the company’s customer relations management. Part of the company’s successful customer relations management has been to make use of current clients as referrals in order to reach out to more prospects. The other strategy has been to train its sales people and marketers in proper customer centered salesmanship and customer relations management. This has made the customer the core of the Ping an Life insurance company’s operations. Albeit being relatively successful in its customer relations management strategies, there can be seen to be a lot of limitations in the company’s operations and strategies derailing Ping and Life insurance company from achieving its full potential as far as customer relations management is concerned. One such huddle that has limited the company from achieving its full potential in customer relations management is poor public relations. This is far as creating and maintaining a positive image of the company among the public in China and indeed also on the international scene and among the target market segment. Among the general public there exist concerns over the company’s ownership, which is not clear to date. Some of prospects who would have been signed up for the company’s services are put off by such minor details of having to deal with a company whose ownership is not well known with certainty among the public (Romano and Fjermestad, 2009). The other limitation is the full exploitation of technology to assist in management of customer affairs. With rapid technological developments and the effects of globalization being felt all over, it becomes mandatory for business to adopt a technological approach on most of their operations (McGregor, 2012). Technology in customer relations management ranges from software applications that help to manage and track customer and prospects’ details and data associated with it and the use of the World Wide Web (www) to achieve the same objective. Ping an Life can employ technology to bring their customer relation management efforts to somewhat near perfection. This will result in better management of client data, integrity of the whole system will be maintained and more prospects will be reached. Another limitation in the implementation of CRM strategies at Ping an life is the resistance to change from the internal structures of the organization. It is very true that change is inevitable. It is also true that forces resistant to change are also likely to delay or derail the whole process of change. Some of the employees and management of the company may find it difficult to adopt new ideas and ways of operation and may make it difficult for the company to proceed with modern methods of CRM. A shift from product centered marketing to a more customer centered marketing approach can be a difficult transition \if not handled properly (Romano, Nicholas C. and Fjermestad, Jerry L. 2009). There is need for the whole company to move in one accord to achieve this objective. In the case of Ping an Life insurance company, some of the employees and managers have been in the company for long and feel more comfortable working in the old way. It is difficult for them to shift from their comfort zone and adopt current methods of CRM. The future of the company in terms of CRM is very bright. Many industry participants expect Pin an Life to grow expeditiously in the near future with a vast majority of citizens in China, Asia and other parts of the globe signed to their life insurance program (Yujong, 2009). In order for this to be achieved, the company has to incorporate the recommendations identified and restructure its operations to focus on the customer as the main figure in the organization. This is because most of the company’s finances emanate from clients and customer who have taken up their services. It is only in order that the company offers better services to them, incorporates their ideas and wishes and responding to their queries in a timely manner. Ping and Life will adopt technology and improve in other areas of the company’s structure such as public relations management. All the employees of the company will be trained on how to deal with the customers, clients and prospects. These are some of the trends that are expected to take place in the company in the foreseeable future (Romano, and Fjermestad, 2009). All in all, the underlying concept is that CRM is a very powerful tool in attracting and retaining customers. CRM strategies can be adopted by all companies regardless of the industry in which they operate in.CRM technology may be industry specific but the underlying managerial concepts are the same and functional for all companies (Yujong, 2009). Ping an Life insurance company can benefit a great deal from a good CRM system. Just like any other company if they approach CRM with an open mind, readiness to accept change and adoption of relevant technology. The insurance company can use its better position as the second largest company in the industry and amerce huge resources to ensure their CRM strategies are applied to the end and see more expansion and growth. References Al-Ghamdi S. M., Sohail M. S., &Al-Khaldi, A. 2007. “Measuring consumer satisfaction with consumer protection” Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume: 24 Issue: 2 pp: 71 – 79. McGregor, R. 2012. The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. Harper Perennial: New York, 2012. Romano, N. C. and Fjermestad, J. L. 2009. Preface to the focus theme on eCRM. Electronic Markets 19(2-3) 69-70. Yujong H. 2009. The impact of uncertainty avoidance, social norms and innovativeness on trust and ease of use in electronic customer relationship management. Electronic Markets 19 (2-3) 89-98. Zeckhauser, R. 2008. "Insurance". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd ed.). Indianapolis: Library of Economics and Liberty. Read More