The Concepts of Customer Relationship Management - Statistics Project Example

The ideas behind relationship management are not new. Today it's widely acknowledged that how you treat your s goes a longway to determining your future profitability and companies are making bigger and bigger investments to do just that. Customers are savvier about the service they should be getting and are voting with their wallets based on the experience they receive. The concepts of customer relationship management have been in the air ever since one caveman had a choice of buying an arrowhead from either Og or Thag, but CRM as a term gained currency in the mid-1990s. This dissertation basically aimed to achieve an understanding of whether the concepts of customer relationship management which are so effective in industries like banking, airlines etc can also be as useful as they are for the said industries. This research therefore focused on the broad categorization of whether CRM has the power to create customer loyalty and if yes can the same concept be imitated for the retail industry. The Dissertation describes the customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives undertaken by Tesco, the number one retailing company in the United Kingdom (UK), since the mid-1990s. The company's growth and its numerous customer service efforts are discussed. The dissertation then studies the loyalty card scheme launched by the company in 1995. It examines how the data generated through this scheme was used to modify the company's marketing strategies and explores the role played by the scheme in making Tesco the market leader. This dissertation also takes a look at the various other ways in which Tesco tried to offer its customers the best possible service. Finally, the company's future prospects are commented on in light of changing market dynamics, the company's new strategic game plan. The research method adapted for this research included both the primary as well as secondary research methods. These methods involved conducting interviews, filling of questionnaires etc. The major findings of this study suggest that the customer loyalty for Tesco can further be developed if company improves upon its efforts for increasing the rewards on its loyalty card. Introduction: - Customer relationship management is not a new concept as many organisations have successfully implemented it to achieve better results. The business model of the Dell suggests that how delivering directly to the customers can create strong customer loyalty and help develop the effective customer relationship management within the organisation. In its essence, Customer relationship management is considered as an activity through which organisations try to maintain customer retention and try to develop customer loyalty through that. However information technology has played an important role in the development of CRM not only as a concept but also as a practical reality. However traditionally CRM has remained the domain of some typical and particular industries such as banking, airlines, automobiles, hotels as well as electronic commerce. Retail Industry such as large super stores such as Tesco, ASDA etc has not been able to initiate the same level of CRM as it should have been. As a case study we have chosen Tesco as our reference point for discussing the CRM with specific reference to Tesco. This study will aim to analyze and understand the role of CRM into retail industry and whether CRM can prove useful in Retail Industry. Accordingly research objectives such as the ability of CRM to create customer loyalty, whether CRM has the ability to create the same for retail industry and to finally evaluate the extent of CRM into current industry. Company History History of Tesco can be traced back to the second decade of last century when Jack Cohen started to sell grocessories from a stall in London. The business survived and soon it emerged as the leading grocery providers in the country. Tesco is now the largest retail organisation in UK in terms of its global sales as well as the domestic market share. Over the period of time, it has withstand many fierce competitive forces in the shape of more robust and active competitors however it has been able to manage itself in order to emerge as the leader in the grocery business in UK. Tesco initially started to sell food and drink however over the period of time it has been able to diversify into many important businesses such as clothing, consumer electronics as well as financial services. Tesco in the 21st century: Tesco in 21st century has evolved as a business comprehending many new management practices and tools in order to successfully manage and maintain its traditional grip over the UK's retail market. This transformation of Tesco's, from the bottom of the UK superstore list to the top transpired over the last six years, with Leahy at the helm. Tesco is fully aware, however, that it cannot rest on its laurels, or stay focused solely on its existing markets. Relatively limited growth opportunities exist in the UK food retail market for businesses this size. Leahy has chosen to create new growth in two areas - both posing new challenges. Tesco in the UK is striving to break down the traditional boundaries between retail markets. It is aiming to become a general merchandiser as well as a food retailer - again, building on the trust element of its customers. It is significant that since 1993 Tesco has introduced several market 'firsts' - including the first to offer widespread 24-hour shopping, a nationwide home shopping service, and the nationwide introduction of a Loyalty scheme 'Club card'. These initiatives have been backed by "value" and "price cuts" to customers over the years. Tesco's Rise to Leadership in the UK: Tesco's success in the 1990s can be attributed to the legacies of earlier managements. The portfolio of stores and sites already acquired has, without a doubt, proved to be a great asset. Tesco has 370 superstores (stores of over 20,000 sq. ft.) in the UK - more than any other competitor. Another asset has been good employees who have been with the business a long time, and know it inside out. It is remarkable that not a single executive main board Director left the company for a better offer from elsewhere, during the whole of the 1990s. The overall success of the company as a top retailer of UK is therefore largely due to extensive efforts to manage the value for all the stakeholders of the company including consumers. . Literature Review CRM has mainly emerged as a result of the increasing demand from the customers for high quality goods and services offered by various industries. (Smith, 2006). The core of the business success largely now depend upon the relationship of the company with the customers therefore it is largely now pereived that the CRM is the key to the success of modern businesses. (Nguyen, Sherif, & Newb, 2007). The changes in the preference of the customers and fast moving businesses have made it difficult for companies to retain customers and generate loyalty just through keeping a cordial relationship with them. Organisation now need to come forward to offer better experience for their spending. It is because of this reason that the organisations are adopting CRM. REASONS FOR ADOPTING CRM It is intense for organizations to have competition. The reasons may be different however economic reasons are considered as the most important reasons for implementing CRM. It is also being argued that in industrial sales, it takes an average of 8 to 10 physical calls in person to sell a new customer; 2 to 3 calls to sell an existing customer therefore building on the same example, CRM may be an efficient alternative to sell and retain the customers. It is 5 to 10 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than obtain repeat business from an existing customer. A typical dissatisfied customer tells 8 to 10 people about his or her experience. Although often repeated, sources for many of these numbers could not be found. A 5% increase in retaining existing customers translates into 25% or more increase in profitability. The above benefits suggest that implementing CRM is of critical nature to the organisation. The implementation and adaptation of CRM is also therefore necccessary in the sense that it provides it helps identifying a group of customers on which the organisational resources can be spent to develop strategic relationships. (Bull, 2003) this in return therefore help organizations to tailor and furnish right products aimed at right customers. Problems in Adopting CRM: - The most crucial problem facing CRM is the adoption problem. The decision to adopt this technology has to be made before implementation can begin. While the major suppliers of CRM related products and services have some experience in dealing with the adoption problems at large firms, research suggests that the adoption process within small and medium firms is likely to be dramatically different. Research is needed to gain a better understanding of what motivates CRM adoption by these firms. In this study, a series of hypotheses pertaining to the adoption of customer relationship management (CRM) technology by small businesses are developed and tested. Seven hypotheses are proposed that addresses the influence of environmental turbulence (market uncertainty and environmental hostility), product class knowledge, relative advantage, switching costs, attitude toward change, and firm size. The model helps explain how environment, product related factors, and owner characteristics influence small retailers' CRM adoption behaviours. (http://www.the-dma.org/dmef/proceedings04/10-Peltier-Schibrowsky.pdf) Major cost goals of CRM include: Increase revenue growth through customer satisfaction. Reduce costs of sales and distribution 1 Minimize customer support costs The following examples illustrate tactics to achieve these goals; 1. To increase revenue growth Increase share of wallet by cross-selling 2. To increase customer satisfaction Make the customer's experience so pleasant that the customer returns to you for the next purchase. 3. To reduce cost of sales and distribution 'Target advertising to customers, to increase the probability that an offer is accepted. Use web applications to decrease the number of direct sales people and distribution channels needed ''Manage customer relationships rather than manage products (a change in marketing) 4. To minimize customer support costs 'Make information available to customer service representatives so they can answer any query Automate the call centre so that representatives have direct access to customer history and preferences and therefore can cross Multi channel Customer Management: - It has been observed that in fast changing shopping processes, there are very radical changes in the trends due to the penetration of more channels in the market through which consumers actually interact with the firms. The changes in the information technology has allowed the emergence of different and unconventional channels such as internet kiosks, call centres, direct marketing etc coupled with bricks and mortars business models are now considered as common ways through which customers are now actually experiencing a new era of doing shopping. The intensity with which the trends are changing has posed a challenge to the firms to effectively manage the changing environment besides offering an opportunity for academics to produce the academic responses to the situations. In marketing terminology, a channel means the point of contact with the customer or a medium through which the transactions between the consumers and the firms take place. It must also be noted that these transactions take place with the help of two way communication between the firms and the consumers. The concept of multi channel customer management is the process of design development, coordination and evaluation of channels so that value is delivered to the consumers through effective customer acquisition, retaining them and developing on them through effective relationship management. The emphasis of the multi channel customer is therefore to create value for the firms through effective customer management and hence customer relationship management. (Rangaswamy and van Bruggen 2005). Relationship marketing, CRM and customer-centricity: - Defining the nature, the role, scope and influence of CRM is quite obscure and confusing in nature as there are different perspectives through which CRM can be explored. Functional perspectives suggest that in order to gain customer loyalty, organisations need to make changes in its functional areas such as initiation of loyalty cards, points schemes, events and promotions etc. However it has been largely believed that incentives and rewards are the most effective basis to generate and build the customer loyalty, generate the intelligence to effectively manage the customer behaviour. However, those who believe in the marketing perspective of this concept, consider that the CRM demands a complete customer orientation from the firm- means CRM should be integrated and aligned to the multiple processes and activities spread across the whole organisation and CRM is largely viewed as a complete penetration of the concept into every aspect of the organisation (Sin, Tse, & Yim, 2005). IT FACTORS OF CRM: The success of CRM largely depends upon how successfully companies manage to implement and integrate information technology into its folds. (Nguyen, Sherif, & Newb, 2007). The dependence on IT however has ushered a new era of outsourcing also as more and more organisations are now viewing IT as the backbone of effective CRM. IT Factors in CRM Process Identification Differentiation Interaction Customization Goal Identify individual customer Evaluate customer value and needs Build a continuing relationship ''Fulfil customer needs ''Generate profit Traditional Mass Marketing Not done Clustering Call Centre ''Sales ''Services CRM Customer Profiling Individual level Analysis ''Call centre management ''Auto response system ''Sales automation ''Marketing process automation Information technologies ''Cookies ''Web site personalization ''Data mining ''Organizational learning ''Web application ''Wireless communication ''ERP ''E-Commerce Tesco & CRM CRM introduced in Tesco to increase revenue. For this reason Tesco started Club card. According to Tesco's Chairman Sir Terry Leahy Tesco's Club card program boasts 10 million active households and captures 85% of weekly sales In the five year period following the implementation of the Club Card program, sales have increased by 52% and still grow at a rate higher than the industry average. Store openings and expansions have increased Tesco's floor space by 150%. The 13th February change the way Tesco makes decision, develop products manage it stores the most importantly the way it serves its customers. On the day Tesco launched Clubcard, its customer loyalty programme. Clubcard has given Tesco a way regularly to show its appreciation to customers. Tesco designed Club card not just to show customer loyalty to Tesco, but more importantly to recognise Tesco's loyalty to its customers. Today because of CRM Tesco in not only UK's largest grocery store but also the world's most successful internet supermarket. Beginning with the Customer Insight Zone because exploiting customer data is of critical importance for identifying new value, balancing resources and building closer relationships with customers. Tesco's Tesco club card statement is mailed to millions of customers of Tesco once in each quarter detailing the number of points customers have earned during their shopping. In order to take maximum advantage from this opportunity, Tesco also tend to add additional coupons, vouchers in order to provide incentives to the consumers for their shopping made at the Tesco. Tesco consider this program as very sophisticated and achieved the desired sales results for the company. This has also allowed the company to achieve many benefits especially in achieving a critical mass of consumer data which allowed tailoring its product offerings, ranging of local stores and even deciding their location. (http://www.loyalty.vg, 2005) Indeed, customers are analysed and grouped into hundreds of different segment permutations and combinations, according to factors such as regency, frequency and value, lifestyles, lapse rates, promotional responsiveness, coupon redemption behaviour and many others. (http://www.loyalty.vg, 2005). This data analysis also allowed Tesco to recognize the value of the customer intelligence generate by this scheme. It further enabled it to different dimensions to the analyses of the data. Tesco rationally analyze this data through the creation of a knowledge profit and loss account in order to measure the customer investment, the amounts spend on the analysis of the resources applied besides including the incremental value created through the scheme. The Data mining approach of Tesco has allowed to it to dig deep into the available data and further provided Tesco an opportunity to gain competitive advantage over others as other competitors have failed to achieve the same level of benefits out of CRM as Tesco has. Tesco, leading grocery retailer in UK , the focus is on continuous improvements in customer service. The company gather customer feedback for improving their existing offering and tailor the new ones. It is because of this CRM effort that its online store Tesco.com has been able to generate sales of over one billion GBP . (Temporal., 2008). Conclusion & Recommendation: Chapter Overview: This chapter presents the conclusion and recommendation of the research. The information collected in this chapter will provide information conclusion of what Tesco has done till no. Some recommendation will be given that how it can improve its CRM more effectively. Methodology: Secondary Research: The title of the paper indicates the use of a case study research method. Case study research is the most common qualitative method used in information systems especially. (Orlikowski and Baroudi 1991). Yin (2002) defines a case study as "an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. Case study research can consist of either a single case or multiple cases. Single-case studies are appropriate in circumstances where, for example, the case represents a case for testing a well-formulated theory. In multiple-case studies, a multiple design must follow a replication rather than sampling logic (Yin 2002). When no other cases are available for replication, the researcher is limited to single-case designs. This study represents a single-case study design, which means that only one case has been taken under investigation. The choice between single-case design and multiple-case design should also be kept open during the research process. The reasons for this are that the selected single-case may turn out to be a misrepresentation of the research phenomenon, or that the case does not work out well for some reason (Yin 2002).Depending upon the researcher's philosophical assumptions the case study research can be positivist, interpretive, or critical (Dub' and Par' 2001). Positivist studies generally attempt to test theory, in an attempt to increase the predictive understanding of phenomena. Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991) classified IS research as positivist if there was evidence of formal propositions, quantifiable measures of variables, and hypothesis testing. Just as case research can be positivist, interpretive, or critical, it can also be exploratory, explanatory or descriptive. In exploratory case studies, fieldwork and data collection may be undertaken prior to definition of the research questions and hypotheses. This type of study has been considered as a prelude to a research. However, the framework of the study must be created ahead of time. Descriptive cases require that the investigator begin with a descriptive theory, or face the possibility that problems will occur during the project (Bryn 2004) The proposed case study adopts the explanatory approach that is suitable for doing causal studies, mainly to test the theory (Dub' and Par' 2001).Case studies typically combine several data collection methods such as interviews, documentation, observations, and questionnaires that are a source of qualitative and/or quantitative data (Dub' and Par' 2001). A key strength of the case study method involves using multiple sources and techniques in the data gathering process to strengthen the research findings and conclusions. The researcher determines in advance what evidence to gather and what analysis techniques to use with the data to answer the research questions. Data gathered is normally largely qualitative, but it may also be quantitative. A frequent criticism of case study methodology is that it is dependent on a single case and so it is incapable of providing a generalized conclusion (Tellis 1997). Yin (2002) argues that the relative size of the sample, whether 2, 10, or 100 cases are used, does not transform a multiple case into a macroscopic study. The goal of the study should establish the parameters, and should then be applied to all research. In this way, even a single case could be considered acceptable, provided it met the established objective. Primary Research: - Primary research is information collected on your own by interview, questionnaire and observation for a specific subject. Questionnaire: - Firstly quantitative research was carried out, which was part of the primary research. Quantitative research consisted of creating and developing a questionnaire and distributing them among people. As a method of data collection, the questionnaire is a very flexible tool. The advantages of questionnaire are that they are relatively easy to analyse. They can be used for sensitive topics which users may feel uncomfortable speaking to interviewer about. Also many people are familiar with the format of a questionnaire and to find it easy to fill them out. The disadvantages are that the responders may ignore certain questions which will have an impact on results. Also questionnaires are standardised so it is not possible to explain any points in the question that participants might misinterpret.1 The questionnaire was designed keeping in view the different variables and distributed and before the format was finalised. The questionnaire was designed keeping in view of our research aims and objectives especially that of researching the capability of CRM to generate customer loyalty. The questionnaire was first piloted on 8th march 2006. Five people were involved in the pilot study. Once the feedback was received the comments were analysed and it was decided to alter and reformat some question because the original questionnaire provided a limited insight to the problem. Some questions were answered using close format (Yes/No). The close format was change to open format. So that respondents could describe in their own words. Open format questionnaires elicit a whole range of replies of varying length and articulation. Example (Pilot Questionnaire) Have you used Tesco's website to shop' Was changed to (Original Questionnaire) Have you purchased goods through Tesco website, if yes how was your experience' Yes ' No ' please describe below why After review, the format of the questionnaire was finalised. The questionnaire was again distributed to twenty people on 11th march 2007. This sample was taken from the customers, both male and female customers who shop at Tesco. The two basic methods delivering questionnaire were considered: personally or by post. After a lot of consideration I decided to distribute the questionnaire personally. The advantage of this method was that it would allow me to help the respondents to overcome any difficulties with the questions. This personnel involvement enabled me to find out the reason why some people refuse to answer the questionnaire. Feedback from 16 respondents was received. From which 10 were male and 6 were female. Interviews: Two interviews were carried out for obtaining information and opinions from experts as part of primary research. The advantage of an interview is that the interviewer, can probe for deeper answers, ask for elaboration and examples, discover new areas, and modify questions as time goes on. Another advantages of the interview technique is that you can plan the in advance to gain the information require. The disadvantages are that interviews can be time consuming, as the interview goes on there is possibility of irrelevant information. 2 The two main methods of carrying out the interviews were considered: face-to-face and telephone interview. After a lot of consideration I decided to carry out an interview face to face. Interviewing face to face will allow me to be in a good position to judge the quality of response, to notice if a question has not been properly understood and to encourage the correspondents to be full in her/his answers. In my case telephone interview was not an appropriate method to use because you can not use visual aids to explain question. Also the voice quality is very important factor of a telephone interview. Observation: This method used to record conditions, events and activities through looking not asking. The advantage of this method is that observation can reveal valuable unexpected findings since there are no questions to restrict what is learned. Also another advantage of observation research is that often the respondents and consumer are unaware that they are being observed, allowing their behaviour to observe naturally. The disadvantage of direct observation is that it is time consuming for the evaluator. According to Burton report (2006), the presence of an observer can alter events and have an effort on results; this is known as Hawthorne Effect. Because the participants of the observations know they are participating in the observation. Recording events concurrently can also be difficult. The reason of choosing this method was sometimes people could demonstrate their understanding of a process such as Tesco Club card better by their actions than verbally explaining their knowledge. For example I could easily observe a customer's point of view about Club card while they use or not club card while checkout. Usually person at till asks about to use club card. Also the first hand experience with observing will give me the opportunity to see things that may escape the awareness of the staff and it will enable me to compare my own observations to the perceptions and understandings of the people I have interviewed earlier. (You need to say how you were in a position to make these observations that the process of observing had been approved by the store manager or other responsible person, the aspects of customer behaviour you observed, for what duration the observations were made and the number of customers involved.) This chapter has summarised the choice of the methods for primary and secondary research and justification for the choice made has also been explained. The chapter then goes through the implementation of the primary research by conducting questionnaires, interviewing and observing the retail staff of Tesco's. Finally, the secondary research conducted by various resources has also been added in this chapter. Research Findings: This chapter presents the results of primary and secondary research, which consist of questionnaires, interviews and observation. The information collected will provide the basis of analysis. Suitable methods to display data will be used in forms of graphs and charts, which will make it easier to analyse data. Questionnaire: The questionnaire proved to be very useful method to collect data. (Some discussion needs to precede this statement to show how you arrived at this view.) Constructive and destructive feedback from questionnaire was received. (Explain.) Results from the questionnaires illustrate that 90% customers are satisfied with the Tesco's CRM programme. 10% suggested it be improved. These research findings were achieved by analyzing the customer responses obtained through the said questionnaire. From the analysis of the data it emerged that 90% of the customers are satisfied with the current level of CRM initiatives by the company whereas 10% still feel that there is a need to improve. Interviews: Three interviews were carried out as part of the primary research. All he questions were planned and drafted well in advance. All the questions were answered and during the interview some new questions were added to gain an in depth insight to the topic. The first interview was carried out 10th April 2007; the Michelle Robinson Tesco sales Manager was interviewed. The interview provided a deep insight of how CRM help to improve the sales and revenue of Tesco. The second interview was carried out 15th April 2007; the Stuart Clarke Tesco sales supervisor was interviewed. The third interview was carried out 23rd April 2007; the Emily Nixon was interviewed. Very important question was asked in the interview from Emily as she related with the Tesco's database. Analysis of the interviews suggests that Tesco has launched its CRM project in order to achieve the sales growth and retain a critical mass of customers which can frequent the stores more. This subtly suggest that the assumption undertaken by Tesco while implementing the CRM is the fact they are betting on generating more customer loyalty through their integrated CRM approach. The use of Information technology coupled with intense and targeted marketing seems to have provided the company necessary room to create and than maintain the level of customer loyalty which help it to consistently achieve its sales targets and effectively grow its business and create value. Observation: Being a checkout operator At Tesco's supermarket gave me plenty of time to observe about what customers think about the CRM programme. Research suggests (Burton, 2006) that people behave at differently when they are observed, but this was not true in my case. Being an employee at Tesco's gave me the advantage because no one knew I was observing. All the results achieved from observation were unbiased, as those being observed did not notice me. From the observations it was evident that very high proportion of customer were using Tesco Clubcard. During the course of observation, more than 20 customers were observed checking through the sales points It was also interesting to see that customers were very anxious about there Clubcard to be swiped to get Clubcard points. This was because of the fact that the awards offered From the observation it was clear that mainly customers were content and they had positive attitude using Clubcard. However there were some concerns by customers over using the Clubcard. In this chapter the findings from primary and secondary research were analysed. The results obtained from the research were also explained. The results from this chapter will be used further towards the dissertation. Conclusion: Tesco has performed vary well to make its customer happy and loyal to it. Tesco introduces Clubcard which was very important and big move in the history of retail industry. Because of that move now Tesco is one of the largest Grocers on globe. Due to its Clubcard Tesco knows about its customer desires and needs. Tesco is having the worlds largest online shopping system which help it's to buy any thing by sitting at home. This brings revolution in retail industry. This way Tesco pass many hurdles in retail industry and left its rival far back. Customers of Tesco are quite happy to be intact with Tesco. But still Tesco needs few things to do to improve CRM system more effective. Recommendation: Although Tesco is doing very well but still it needs few very important issues to look at. 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(2002), Case Study Research, Design and Methods, 2nd ed, Newbury Park, California: SAGE Publications. Appendix How can CRM build customer loyalty in Retail industry' A Case Study of Tesco Plc. APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW A Interviewee: Michelle Robinson Date: 10th April 2007 Thank you for taking time out for this interview. The interview will last approximately 15 to 20 minutes, but could be longer depending upon the answer given. All the question and answer would be recorded. I am student of BSc (Hons) Business Computing Solutions; this interview is qualitative research for my dissertation. This interview is confidential and will be used ONLY as part of the dissertation. Q. 1. What were the reasons that compelled Tesco to adopt CRM' A. "To remain in the business, to attain consistent growth in its client age base and ultimately to earn more profit." Q. 2. In your Company how is information shared between different departments' A. We use all the advance sources like through the Internet and conventional methods i.e. mail courier and by phones, besides issuing circulars on important aspects. Q.3. Did your bank faces any problems when it decided to adopt CRM' A. The interviewee said that adopting new technology always need changes that's why we faced many problems because, it was a new approach which was needed to change the infrastructure about customer relationship management. Moreover, staff and customers are even reluctant to accept change in traditional practices. Infra-structure not sufficiently established to address customers complaints due to little knowledge and non awareness of IT advancement Q.4. For managing customers relations what are the channels that are used by your company' A. The interviewee said that Tesco officials frequently visit to respective customers. Customers have appointment of relationship officers and mangers. We are also introducing virtual shopping and have established complaint processing unit and call centres are the key channels. Q.5. Do you provide your staff with any kind of training to get used to CRM' A. It is said by the interviewee that we provide training to the staff in all critical areas in different programs arrange by our administration. Q.6. In your view the CRM applications of Tesco are product or customers centric' A. In this regard the interviewee explained the strategy of Tesco that It is not a one way approach as effective CRM system is yield of both, i.e. product centric as well as focus on customer relations, therefore we are introducing innovative products (refer to annual accounts for year 2006 available www.tesco.com ). APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW B Interviewee: Stuart Clarke Date: 15th April 2007 Q.1. How CRM helped Tesco in Customer loyalty and satisfaction' A. The interviewee said that a satisfied customer base is the key to success for every organization but to achieve a persistent level of satisfaction it is imperative to know the business needs of its customers & do accordingly within the allotted frame work due to customer satisfaction. Numbers of club card account have shown an increasing trend during the last three years. Q.3. Do you think the importance of technology for customer loyalty and what Tesco doing in this regard' A. The interviewee said that technology advancement plays vital role in meeting customers' genuine business needs in a more professional way. Luckily Tesco is pioneer in automation as well and is much ahead of its competitors in this field. Largest Club card network and our web network is major factor for customer satisfaction. Q.4. How do you get customer feedback and what sources you using for it' A. The interviewee explained the sources of Tesco and he said that we have provided complaint boxes in almost each and every branch to this effect. Tesco is using call centres for this purpose. Customer can give their feedback even on net by logging in on Tesco Web Site. Further more, Tesco have an open door policy for customers to interact with the management at every level in respect of their complaints and outcome of the management actions. Q.5. What is the strategy of Tesco about existing customers and prospective customers' A. The interviewee said that our company can fetch new business only if its existing customers are satisfied. For this purpose our company has adopted a strategy to work more on our customer's satisfaction. Satisfaction of existing customers is important for competitive advantage but we can not ignore the prospective customer. That is why Tesco is providing attractive offers to new customers. In short we can say that Tesco is capable of effective dealing with both the existing and prospective customers. Q.6. Online customer service can play a vital role in customer loyalty; do you provide this facility to customers' A. The interviewee said that Tesco is pioneer in online services in United Kingdom. We have started online shopping services in United Kingdom e.g. Order online, call centres, website access, etc. These facilities have performed a vital role for the Tesco. APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW C Interviewee: Emily Nixon Date: 23rd April 2007 Q.1. How do you measure the performance of CRM applying at Tesco' A. The interviewee said that performance of CRM is encouraging in Tesco and we have received a heavy response in the form of business revenue and number of customers. Q.2. How can database help with customer loyalty and what is the future planning for further improvement' A. The interviewee said that we have database system and customers can collect information from the website which has a major advantage for customers who are accessing our services. We are also developing our database system in such a way to collect complete information's systematically to those who access our services. Q.3. Is it fact that, brands attract new customers and what are your strategies for Tesco branding' A. The interviewee said that yes it is true, Tesco brand their products and incur heavy promotional expenses on it through electronic media and bill boards during the introductory phase and then gradually decrease the promotional expenses when the product gets familiar with the public. He gave us the present example of Tesco Club card which is heavily promoted through a slogan "Every Little Helps". Q.4. Do you think that local advertisement can play a vital role to get new customers for Tesco and do you have any techniques to improve loyalty' A. Answering this question the interviewee said that every time we are sending letters to our local customers about our services. Some time before starting a new service we are sending letters to our customers as a survey to ask them about their opinions. This has always a very positive impact on the customers and help to increase the customer loyalty. The reason is because customers feel proud when we ask them about their opinions. This is a great source for customer's loyalty. We are doing all these activities according to the need of customers. Q.5. How do you differentiate yours customer experiences when the customer already assumes competitive sameness' A. The interviewee said that we are the pioneers of Club card technology in United Kingdom which gave us a big competitive advantage over the other companies. Some time some customers are talking about the sameness of our services with other retailers therefore we are paying special attention and provide special services to those customers Q.6. With an increasing focus on CRM in the modern world, does Tesco have own interpretation of CRM' A. The interviewee said that our Company has established a CRM division for the purpose to manage customer relationships so that to gain an advantage over other Companies. Tesco CRM Questionnaire Are you registered with Tesco club card' Yes ' No ' Are you pleased with the service' Yes ' No ' Do you think Tesco Club card helps Customers' Yes ' No ' Have you purchased goods through Tesco website, if yes how was your experience' Yes ' No ' Please describe below why' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Are you satisfied with customer service of Tesco' Yes ' No ' Read More