Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Perception - Selective Retention
Selective Retention:
People forget much of the stimuli which they receive and only remtain that information which reinforces their values and decision. You are more likely to remember the positive features of brand pressure cooker since they help reassure you that the decision which you had made was correct.
ref: Insurance Software Insurance SFA, agency management system
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Consumer Behavior---Introduction
‘What’ products and services do we buy, ‘why’ do we buy, ‘how often’ do we buy, from ‘where do we buy, ‘how do we buy, etc. are the issues which are dealt with in the discipline of consumer behavior. Consumer behavior can be defined as those acts of individuals (consumers) directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts. Just by human nature, consumers can be spontaneous, unpredictable, and selfish.
One thing that we have in common is that we are all consumers. In fact everybody in this world is a consumer. Everyday of our life we are buying and consuming an incredible variety of goods and services. However, we all have different tastes, likes and dislikes and adopt different behavior patterns while making purchase decisions. One may preferred to use colgate toothpaste, Dove soap, Head & Shoulder shampoo while your spouse may prefer another type for same requirement. Similarly, you may have a certain set of preferences in food, clothing, books, magazines, recreational activities, forms of savings and the stores from where you prefer to shop, which may be different not only from those of your spouse but also your friends, neighbors and colleagues. Each consumer is unique and this uniqueness is reflected in the consumption behavior and pattern and process of purchase. The study of consumer behavior provides us with reasons why consumers differ from one another in buying and using products and services. Customers and their behaviors comprise of many attributes and differentials. These differences are not just associated with demographics, groups or any one particular item. There is a complex development of behaviors that exist in the consumer markets.
In the world we live today, businesses and top Marketing executives must understand what differentiates their companies or their products from others and must understand the needs of the consumers in their markets. If they able to understand their product and consumer’s need, than it’s very easy for them to develop a strategic plan and create a market niche and develop their customer base with very good customer relations. Customer Relationship Management can help them to take competitive advantage in the market. Customer Relations depend on understanding the customer and their reactions to the environment which will at last prolong the life of customer relationship between company and their customers.
Understanding the customer need can be a starting point for majority businesses. There are possibilities of gap occurs between customers expectation and what businesses think customers expect. It result into overlook or not understanding customer's perceptions and real requirement.
ref: agency management software
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
CRM

- Operational - automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative
- Collaborative - direct communication with customers that does not include a company’s sales or service representative
- Analytical - analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes
Operational
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact channels in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time.Many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call center agents.
Collaborative
Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for a variety of different purposes, including feedback and issue-reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such as web pages, email, automated phone or SMS.The objectives of collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.
Analytical
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:
- Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness
- Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention
- Analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
- Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
Prediction of the probability of customer defection.
Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of predictive analytics.
Key functionalities of Any CRM:--
A typical CRM system is subdivided into three basic sub modules:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Service
More on Functionalities of CRM come next time.
With a CRM system, fields are automatically populated by the information that is repetitive (Name, D.O.B., etc.) such that agents save vast amounts of time and energy on these forms, time and energy that is then reassigned to attaining new cases.
