Evaluating CRM And Promotional Mix Strategies Of A Business Consultants Ltd.

Importance of CRM in modern business

A proper relationship between a customer and an organization is utmost important to create a high level of customer satisfaction. Most of the business organizations concentrate on enhancing the relationship between the customers and the people who run the business. The Customer Relationship Management or the CRM system has the power to incorporate all the necessary items that needs to be done to satisfy the customers of the business as well as create a competitive advantage for the business that helps them to beat their rivals in attracting more and more customers (Tsou and Hsu 2017). CRM in the modern era is the best possible way to achieve success as it differentiates the best with the better ones. It not only helps the organization to attract customers and make them to retain the profitable customers.

Business consultants are the ones who advise the other business houses on strategy, problem solving and planning the business of the clients in the appropriate manner to help them gain a commendable market share. A Business Consultants Ltd. has been in the business for more than 10 years from now and is a reputable name in the market. It operates a number of offices in the central business district of London and has a number of well known clients under its fold. The marketing strategy of the following business organization is no different from that of any other companies. The marketing plan of the business helps to identify and meet the needs of the customers (Navimipour and Soltani 2016). The marketing department of the mentioned organization considers the perspective of how the client chooses the company and formulates the marketing plan accordingly. The foremost thing that is performed by the following department is to ensure that the plan follows a written process which is effective and clear enough for the clients to understand. According to, Navimipour and Soltani (2016) a better understanding and acceptance of the different elements helps to build a strong relationship with the clients and it will ensure the return of the clients to the consultant for future planning or advertisement. The management of a business consultant has also the aim of maintaining a standard procedure for all their works as such a procedure helps to attract the most profitable clients. The cost of their service has also been kept at a standard rate which helps in retaining as well as attracting the customers. 

Overview of A Business Consultants Ltd.

The recent improvements in Information Technology has been inspirational for the company as it has helped the organization to make more targeted communications and also to approach the customers in a much organized way to promote the products. The competition from other products and e-consultants has been increasing gradually which has forced the management to make a number of strategic changes to meet the demands of the modern customers. The company has focused more on the use of CRM to effectively communicate and satisfy the customers. Apart from the traditional CRM practices e-CRM has been recently introduced by the management to create loyalty among the existing customers of the organization. The company have divided it into three different categories namely strategy, technology and people. A business Consultants Ltd. has focused on the relationship management of the customer to be capable to achieve the highest rate of satisfaction among the existing customers. Its strategies to enhance customer satisfaction will also be helpful to attract other potential customers. The company has implemented the system based on the e-CRM techniques. The use of internet and latest software by the company helps them to manage the business operations and other processes more smoothly and efficiently (Taylor et al. 2015). The current set of processes helps the IT team of the business to allow the organization to increase their profit and also enable customer satisfaction by meeting all of their needs. The most important contribution of the e-CRM technologies in the formulation of the marketing strategies are the ability to deliver the best possible services at the correct time.

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the system that has the objective to improve the relationship with the existing set of customers and also helps to attract new and other potential customers. The rise in the customer centricity is widely considered to be the most important achievement of CRM implementation. The formation of the IT department in the organization has helped the organization to develop a shared vision amongst the employees of the organization and has also helped to form a better communication channel that helps to integrate the work of the different members of the organization (Taylor et al. 2015). The management of the business consultant firm is able to take much wiser and better decisions for each and every actions of the following business. The market orientation helps the employees of A business consultants Ltd. to act more freely and pursue for different goals and objectives. This also helps them to perform in a much better way and in turn increases the operational efficiency of the mentioned company.

CRM techniques used by A Business Consultants Ltd.

Business organizations implements a number of different CRM techniques according to their needs. Each of the companies has their own set of CRM needs as because their preferences are different from each other. Some common CRM practices are;

1. CRM helps to be clear about the goals of the organization
2. CRM helps to customize the operations of the business
3. CRM increases coordination between different departments of the organization
4. CRM helps in retaining customers and attracting potential customers
5. CRM increases operational efficiency of the business

A business Consultants Ltd. has taken up a number of different CRM techniques to ensure customer satisfaction. They are;

1. CRM helps to retain customers-The CRM technology helps to retain the customers of the business. The maintenance of the database of the different customers helps the organization to establish a long-lasting relationship with them (Lovelock and Patterson 2015). This relationship will surely bring the customer back to the business for future transactions.
2. CRM helps in maintaining cloud based data-Cloud based applications are believed to be the future of the software world. CRM is gradually being transferred to cloud based form and such a transformation will provide easy access to the software from any place in the world. Its transformation can also help it to integrate it with other forms of software which is perhaps the most important benefit of the cloud based system.
3. CRM helps in predictive analytics-The advanced form of CRM software helps the business organization to aim for the best customers available in the market and focus more on them. The following prediction can be made considering the nature of their past purchases and market behaviors.
4. CRM can be said to be social savvy tool-The following software has been installed by the management of A business consultants Ltd. more because of the immense user friendly nature of the software and its ability track the interactions of the customers across a number of different social media platforms (Khodakarami and Chan 2014). The company immensely follows the activities of their clients on face book and twitter to make a clear prediction of their nature of purchases.   

A clear picture of the effectiveness of the CRM techniques can be best explained on a detailed discussion of the different CRM activities of the following organization. The identification of the effectiveness has been done on a scale of 1 to 5 accordingly.

Set 1- Application of the programs for interaction with the customers is the most common type of CRM measure that is used by the organization. The company applies and develops flexible programs for ease of interactions with its customers.

Set 2- Segregating the Customer Base of the company helps in the study of the customers and thus helps the organization to get a thorough knowledge of the customers, their behavior, choices and demands. The company divides the customers on the basis of their common choices accordingly. This may include choice, preferences, interests, perceptions and opinions. The management of the consultant company as mentioned in this project can also group the customers according to their profitability and also according to the demographics.

Set 3- Flexibility that the company enjoys in providing quality services to the customers is another important benefit of the CRM technology as it helps the organization to change the offers at any time and satisfy the demand of the customers.

Set 4- The management of the programs that are connected with the stages of the relationship with the customers is one of the key areas of discussion as because the organization arranges and executes the programs to attract the different customers to the business.

Set 5- The final set is the assessment of the effectiveness of the CRM programs. The standard which the company maintains to implement the actions of the program is utmost important to identify the type of services that are delivered to the customers of the business. The management of the company can also measure the percentage of customers that both avails the services of the company and also the lost clients. Such a measurement helps to collect all the necessary results that are needed to construct the annual report of the business firm. 

The development of the marketing strategy of the business will be followed by a seven P formula. A business Consultants Ltd. develops Marketing strategies based on the seven P’s of marketing mix. The modern marketing world is filled with different new possibilities and thus a small change in the marketing mix can result into bigger changes in the marketing policies of the following business (Khodakarami and Chan 2014). The marketing team of the mentioned business organization has a fair amount of experience of the market and each of the different P’s are optimized by the department to achieve the best possible results.

1. Product- There are a number of different companies both large scale as well as medium and small scale that takes the help of A business Consultant Ltd. to get an idea about the exact product and service that they intend to offer in the market. Thus similar to these companies the consultant company has also its own set of product that can be defined as the market driven business strategies or the services that they provide to the clients. The marketing strategies help the organization to promote the value of the products and establish the superiority of such products in the market.
2. Price- The Company as discussed in the report does not have any physical products but has non-tangible products in the form of consultancy services offered to the clients. The management of the business organization has set up the prices of the services in such a way that it not only matches the reality of the market but also increases the profit percentage of the organization (Kitchen and Burgmann 2015).
3. Place-The market driven strategies of the following organization chooses the exact place where the clients can be able to interact with the salesperson. This can happen through a number of different sources like e-mail, phone or interview and also by meeting face to face. Thus place is an important consideration for the business house as any change in place can adversely affect the condition of the market.
4. Promotion-Promotion is perhaps the most important consideration for a consultant company. Minor changes in promotional strategies can lead to huge changes in marketing strategies (Khan 2014). A strategic based research is thus carried out by the management of the organization to promote their services in the best possible way. Promotional mix helps to create a creative design for the different organizations, plans a direct mail procedure and successfully provides promotional channels for the different products and services across the profitable channels in the market.
5. Packaging- Packaging is believed to create the first impressions for the business organization and thus success depends largely on the innovations in packaging which helps in the success of the business (Hassan et al. 2015). Packaging has a crucial role to play from the beginning which is the time of contact and the point of purchase
6. Positioning- Successful Marketing is possible only by proper positioning of the business in the minds of the people. A Business consultancy Ltd. has been successful to gain a permanent place in the minds of a set group of loyal customers.
7. People- People refers to the staff and the people who sales the services of the company to the customers. The presence of experienced people in the company structure helps the customers to be satisfied with the service and in turn they refer the quality services to other potential users. Thus people form an important element of & P’s in marketing. The management of A Business Consultants Ltd. has an effective training program in place which creates a simulator environment for the trainees to help them satisfy the customers more easily in the practical field (Andrews and Shimp 2017).

Assessing effectiveness of CRM techniques

The success of a particular product or service depends on whether the company is able to communicate the benefits of the particular service to the target market. The failure to communicate the benefits of the particular service will lead to a downfall for the company. The current Promotional Mix strategy of the organization has been provided in a detailed table;

Types of Promotional Mix	Discussion
· Public Relations	The company has given due importance for the formation of a solid relationship between the management, customers and the media channels. Proper relationship between these parties helps in the creation of publicity and thus reduces the chances of any negative situations in the future.
· Sales Promotion	The marketing team of A business consultants Ltd. has the aim to increase the short term sales of the organization by means of providing discounts to the clients and by other forms of additional benefits for them.
· Personal Selling	This involves the interaction or the meeting between the consultant of A Business Consultancy Ltd. and the client.
· Advertisement	The business firm generally pays for the communication through the mass media channels like TV, billboards and other forms of mass media channels.
· Marketing via Internet	Advertising the services of the organization through the internet has turned out to be the latest form of selling. There are a number of different internet web pages where the company advertises its services for the clients to have a look.
· Sponsorship	Sponsorship is another form of promotion as it helps to increase the brand value of the product and services. A Business Consultancy Ltd. sponsors both medium sized events as well as large scale events.
· Social Media	Promotion through social media channels like Face book and twitter is the latest trend in promotional mix as the following sites have a large scale following which helps to promote the services of the organization to new start ups and potential entrepreneurs.

The modern market has been undergoing changes every now and then and marketing teams of different organizations are into a rat race to correctly predict and implement the most effective strategy to gain success in the future. Social media is the latest trend in the market that is termed to be the future of marketing (Hassan et al. 2015). Some of the important elements of social media marketing include;

1. Though social media platforms are free for the users in future the scenario might change. However the options of advertisement and sponsorship in these platforms might remain free and thus the company can employ the following approach to create a different experience for the users.
2. The emergence of a number of new social apps has been and will continue to be instrumental to the success of the social media marketing in the near future. The increase in the social apps will open the doors for further promotion and advertisement of the organization.
3. Social media tools bring individualization on the consumer experience and thus they have a great impact on the buying behavior of the customers.

AIDA Model stands for attention, interest, desire and action. It is a common form of acronym used in marketing and advertising. The following marketing strategy helps the marketing managers of the business organizations to formulate and implement effective communication strategies so that communication between them and the consumers becomes easy. The following describes a common list of events that occur when a customer comes in contact with an advertisement (Hassan et al. 2015). The management of A business consultants generally innovates new kinds of advertisements that are bound to grab the attention of the potential customers. The use of innovative quotes, colors, background or some new channel of advertisements has come to the use of the marketing team of the department. According to the business firm the mission of the AIDA model is to;

1. Attract a potential customer
2. Raise the amount of interest in him
3. Must have a convincing ability

Some recent changes have been gradually integrated into the AIDA model to make it more flexible and easy to market the services of the organization. The new changes have transformed the way that the marketers approach the customers and allow the customers much more scope to choose the best option (Choudhury and Harrigan 2014). The integration of AIDA within the social media further provides a new dimension to the business and helps the business to make inroads into a new set of modern customers. The advantage that social media provides the mentioned business is its ability to draw immense attention and interest. Social Media is the largest platform for the company to expand its wings and it always keeps on updating (Bhaduri and Fogarty 2016). 

After a detailed analysis of the CRM techniques and its use in the consultancy business some potential gaps can be identified which may have a clear impact on establishing a proper customer relationship. However there are different ways by which these gaps can be closed;

1. The CRM software that is used by A Business Consultancy can be formulated in a much easier and proper way.
2. A detailed analysis of the customer behavior can be recorded and stored by the organization
3. An updated data on the CRM techniques will help the organization to stay competitive in the market.

Promotional mix strategy of A Business Consultants Ltd.

Conclusion 

The following report has enabled the readers to identify the uses of CRM technology and its technological advantage in the modern marketing world. A thorough analysis of the report will make the people accustomed to the techniques of modern marketing used by the consulting company and its effectiveness in the market. The readers will also be able to gain a proper knowledge on AIDA marketing techniques and the promotional mix strategies used by the organization. Thus it can be concluded that a proper mix up of the marketing strategies will help the business to earn much more revenue. 

References

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