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About CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy that aims to
understand, anticipate and manage the needs of an organizations and potential
customers. It is a journey of strategic, process, organization and technical change
whereby a company seeks to better manage its own enterprise around customer
behaviors. It entails acquiring and deploying knowledge about ones customers and
using this information across the various touch points to balance revenue profits with
maximum customer satisfaction.
CRM is a management approach that seeks to create, develop and enhance
relationships with carefully targeted customers to maximize customer value, corporate
profitability and in turn, shareholder value. Customers are getting actively involved,
either directly or indirectly with production processes. It wont be long before they
become valuable CRM stakeholders. CRM is a comprehensive approach which
provides seamless integration of every area of business that touches the customer
namely marketing; sales, customer service and field support-through the integration of
people, process and technology, taking advantage of the revolutionary impact of the
Internet more effectively. An enhanced relationship with ones customers can
ultimately lead to greater customer loyalty and retention and, also, profitability. In
addition, the repaid growth of the internet and its associated technologies has greatly
increased the opportunities for marketing and has transformed the way relationship
between companies and their customers are managed.

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Introduction & Evolution of CRM
Relationship management is a process of building long term mutually beneficial
relationship with the customers. The Financial Institutions in the developed countries
are using this marketing tool very effectively by taking full advantage of Information
and Communication Technologies.
The Indian Banking Industry which was operating in a Bureaucratic style prior to
1991 had to undergo large scale transformation with the opening up of the economy.
The Sector has been facing unprecedented challenges with the wave of liberalization,
privatization and globalization of Indian Economy. Banks in India are under intense
pressure in todays volatile market place. Steep competition, globalization, growing
customer demand and exposure to higher credit risks are forcing the banks to find new
ways of improving profitability. On the other hand, cost-cutting measures have forced
banks to manage operations with few Customer Relationship Managers and Product
Specialists. Industry consolidation also poses fresh challenges to this sector. Even
today, most of the banks in India rely on the legacy of Customer Information System.
In such a scenario, it is difficult to have a complete customer view across divisions.
They face unprecedented challenges to sustain their growth path for survival. The
challenges include customer retention, reducing transaction costs, risk management
and Regulation Compliance.
This result was huge proliferation in customers choice. The strategic tool that was
chosen for aiding this process was Information technology and most of the banks went
through adoption of various stages and forms of IT over the years and the process is
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still continuing. The rapid growth of Information Technology and its potential to serve
the customer in a new way awakened the marketers and enabled them to transform
these challenges into opportunities. Under these circumstances, customer satisfaction
became an important aspect of business. The search for new strategies began to meet
not only the high expectations of customers but the need to retain them. The
competitive world witnessed many banks participating in the race to optimize their
profits. It increased the pressure to perform leading to adoption of advanced
technology and better skilled work force.
Therefore, business model changed from bank-centric approach to customer-centric
approach. The customer became not only the essential but the most important part of
the business. The Service Sector has emerged as a key sector in Indian Economy. The
contribution from this sector to our GDP is approximately 56.5 % as per the current
years Budget Report (2012-13). Including construction, the contribution increases to
64.8 %. The continuous growth of GDP at 8% and above has become possible due to
the good performance of this sector. In the post-reforms era, there has been a sea
change in the financial sector. In such a scenario, the services have grown rapidly and
the customer has been more often a purchaser of services than a product.
The Financial Services is the backbone of service sector. This is important not only
for the banking sector but of the Indian Economy as a whole. This is so because
banking is catalyst and life of modern trade and commerce. It is an integral part of all
the businesses and social activities. The rapid transformation of services in the
banking systems has led to evolution of a highly competitive and complex market
where there is a continuous Refinement of services. Hence, the increased role of
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banking in Indias Economic development on one hand and the changes in the
business climate on the other has put increased pressure on them. These changes are
compelling the banks to reorganize themselves in order to cope with the present
conditions.
Now, the Financial Institutions are trying to provide all the services at the customers
doorstep. The customer has become the focal point either to develop or maintain
stability in business. Every engagement with the customer is an opportunity to either
develop or destroy a customers faith in the Bank. The expectations of the customers
have also increased many folds. Intense competition among the banks has redefined
the concept of the entire banking system. The banks are looking for new ways not
only to attract but also to retain customers and gain competitive advantage over their
competitors. The banks like other business organizations are deploying innovative
sales techniques and advanced marketing tools to gain supremacy.
In the present Indian Banking Scenario, two prominent phenomena are the focal point
to emerging practices and policies. These are Technology and Relationship
Marketing. The power of technology has revolutionized banking services and
practices. Relationship Marketing is seen as the only differentiating factor given the
almost commoditization of banking services. On observation of the recent
restructuring, rebranding and reengineering efforts of many banks, we find that the
key motive towards these is to utilize customer centricity as a strategy. Further,
catalyzing the importance of Technology and Relationship marketing is the Core
Banking Solution (CBS). All the banks have overcome the teething troubles of CBS
and it has become the axis of banks growth and performance. Going further, most of
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the Banks have invested in technology enabled Customer Relationship Management
Software to utilize CBS generated customer information for enhancing business
opportunities, access to customers and support. Thus, CRM is a logical progression of
CBS for Indian banks. Although at a nascent stage, it is developing swiftly. Customer
Relationship Management is the integration of these two cornerstones of Indian
banking viz. technology and relationship marketing. It has a potential to bring about
dynamic changes in marketing practices of banks in near future, with the objective of
business growth through managing customers as assets, systematically collecting,
analyzing and disseminating customer information and use of this customer
information for acquiring, retaining and better servicing customers. An understanding
of the current status of the CRM initiative in majority of banks suggests that only a
minuscule of the potential of CRM has been realized. The key impediment is the lack
of understanding and acceptance of CRM as an organization wide strategy and need
for reorientation of organization structure to adopt this. The paper investigates these
issues and suggests a framework for reaping the benefits of this investment in CRM
by various banks.
Evaluation of CRM
One of the important marketing tools in the developed countries is Relationship
Marketing. The CRM is a comprehensive approach for creating, maintaining and
expanding relationship with the customers. It has emerged as one of the most widely
prescribed solutions for diminishing market share and sluggish growth of many
industries in general and banking and financial sector in particular. CRM is a simple
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philosophy, which places the customer at the heart of the business processes, activities
and cultures for improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits. In one of the
encompassing definitions, CRM is described as the establishment, development,
maintenance, and optimization of long term, mutually-valuable relationship between
the customers and the organizations. It is a comprehensive approach for creating,
maintaining and expanding relationship with customers.
The concept of CRM is very important to the business sector. The essence of the
business had been described by Mr. Peter Drucker, the Management Guru as, the
purpose of the business is to attract and retain a good customer. Good Customer
Service is the best brand ambassador for any bank. The entire business process
consists of highly integrated efforts to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customers
needs. The modern business has realized it and is making all out efforts to become
customer-centric across the globe. Hence, CRM is not a once-for-all affair but a
continuous process. It is the way of carrying out business covering all aspects of the
modern business. It is an integral approach of dealing with customers by deploying the
advanced information technology.
CRM - Conceptual framework
CRM is the strategy for building, managing and strengthening loyal and long-lasting
customer relationships. CRM is a customer centric approach based on customer
insight. Its ultimate objective is towards Personalized handling of customers as
distinct entities through the identification and understanding of their differentiated
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needs, preferences and behaviours. A few more definitions which clarify CRM
concept are
According to Philip Kotler, CRM is the process of carefully managing detailed
information about individual customers and all customer touch points to maximize
customer loyalty. It can also be described as a business strategy comprised of process,
organizational and technical change to better manage business around customer
behaviours.
Components of CRM
It is bundle of sales, Marketing and Customer support applications. Integration of the
applications through the web makes the CRM applications really attractive.
Transactions are tracked through CRM and Data mining is used for the analysis of
data.
The Old Concept






THE BACK OFFICE (General Manager, Manager
Finance, HR)
THE CUSTOMER
THE FRONT OFFICE (Cashier, Clerk)
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The Current Concept







Emergence of CRM
The primary reason for the emergence of CRM is the change in the marketing
environment. Today marketing model is changing from the product-centered approach
to customer-centered approach. Organization needs to create customized offers for
customers and ensure relationship by providing better customer service and
management of customer expectations. So, marketing should be devoted at enhancing
customer relationships. But one should take note of the increasing use of the internet
which is changing what is possible and what is expected in terms of CRM as
technological advances in global networks, convergence and improved interactivity
are to explain the growth of CRM. Now companies should go beyond CRM towards
whole relationship management by managing superior value chain delivers a high
level of product quality, and service quality.
THE BACK
OFFICE
THE
CUSTOMER
THE FRONT
OFFICE
THE FRONT
OFFICE
THE BACK
OFFICE
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From relationship marketing to customer relationship marketing
The concept of relationship marketing was first founded by Leonard Berry in 1983.
He considered it to consist of attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer
relationships within organizations. In the years that followed, companies were
engaging more and more in a meaningful dialogue with individual customers. In doing
so, new organizational forms as well as technologies were used, eventually resulting
in what we know as customer relationship management.
The main difference between RM and CRM is that the first does not acknowledge the
use of technology, where the latter uses Information Technology (IT) in implementing
RM strategies.
CRM Objectives in Banking Sector
The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology and human resources gain
insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers. If it works as
hoped, a business can: provide better customer service, make call centers more
efficient, cross sell products more effectively, help sales staff close deals faster,
simplify marketing and sales processes, discover new customers, and increase
customer revenues. It doesn't happen by simply buying software and installing it. For
CRM to be truly effective an organization must first decide what kind of customer
information it is looking for and it must decide what it intends to do with that
information. For example, many financial institutions keep track of customers' life
stages in order to market appropriate banking products like mortgages or IRAs to
them at the right time to fit their needs. Next, the organization must look into all of the
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different ways information about customers comes into a business, where and how
this data is stored and how it is currently used. One company, for instance, may
interact with customers in a myriad of different ways including mail campaigns, Web
sites, brick-and-mortar stores, call centers, mobile sales force staff and marketing and
advertising efforts. Solid CRM systems link up each of these points. This collected
data flows between operational systems (like sales and inventory systems) and
analytical systems that can help sort through these records for patterns. Company
analysts can then comb through the data to obtain a holistic view of each customer and
pinpoint areas where better services are needed.
In CRM projects, following data should be collected to run process engine:
1) Responses to campaigns
2) Shipping and fulfillment dates
3) Sales and purchase data
4) Account information
5) Web registration data
6) Service and support records
7) Demographic data
8) Web sales data.

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NEED
FOR
CRM
Intense
competition
Well
Informed
Customers
Decline in
Brand
Loyalty
Improved
Customer
Retention
Need for CRM
The important factors that establish the
need for CRM in the Banking Industry
are detailed below:
Intense competition
There is intense competition among
the Private Sector banks, Public
Sector Banks and Foreign Banks and
they are all taking steps to attract and
retain the customers. New
technologies, research facilities, globalization of services, the flood of new
products and the concept of all the facilities under one roof to provide better
customer service leading to customer delight.
Well Informed Customers
The Customers in Banking Industry today are well informed. With the introduction
of new technology, the world has become like a small village. Thus, if a Bank
wants to have more customers, it should develop a good relationship with its
present customers and try to maintain the same in the future also.
Decline in Brand Loyalty
In the present scenario, brand loyalty is on a decline. The customers are switching
over frequently to avail the better facilities from other banks. Newer and superior
products and services are being introduced continuously in the market. Thus, the
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banks have to upgrade their products, improve customer service and create bonds
of trust through proper care of customer needs and regular communications. With
the help of CRM, strong customer loyalty and a good image for the organization
can be developed.
Improved Customer Retention
In the intensely competitive baking industry, retention of existing customers is
vital, which can be achieved through the process of CRM.
Customer Focus in Banking Services
As the intense competition becomes a way of doing business, it is the customer who
calls the shot in deciding the nature of products and services offered in the market.
The customers are becoming demanding, dominant and selective. In fact the
perceptions and the expectations of the customers have undergone a sea change, with
the availability of banking services to the customers at their door steps through the
help of technology.
Marketing of customer services aims at two important goals: prosperity to the bank
and satisfied customers. Banks offer tangible services like loan schemes, interest rates
and kinds of account and the intangible services like behavior and efficiency of staff,
speed of transactions and the ambience. The banks may need to include customer
oriented approach or customer focus in their five areas of businesses such as Cash
accessibility, asset security, money transfer, deferred payment and financial advices.
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The customer relations' managers should focus:
To win back or save customers
To attract new and potential customers
To create loyalty among existing customers and
To up sell or offer cross services.
The future of banking business very much depends upon the ability of the banks to
develop close relationship with the customers. In order to develop close relationship
with the customers the banking industry has to focus on the technology oriented
innovations that offer convenience to the customers. Today customers are offered
ATM services, access to internet banking and phone banking facilities and credit
cards. These have elevated banking beyond the barriers of time and space.
Customer relationship management (CRM) practices have traditionally included sales
activities, marketing, customer care and even technical support. However, these same
Customer
Oriented
Approach
Cash
Accessibility
Asset
Security
Money
Transfer
Deferred
Payment
Financial
advices
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organizations handle collections the way they did 20 years ago with separate
customer care and accounts receivable functions. This reactive strategy stalls
collection activity -- and payment -- until the customer is well past due.
However, a new preventive collections approach that combines advanced
technology and sophisticated billing analytics identifies revenue recovery
opportunities early in the payment cycle. This strategy, with proven success at sites in
27 countries, secures payment before the customer ever reaches the collections stage.
In many cases, customers that have receivables issues are still contacting the
companys customer care representatives to conduct business. But one can route these
contacts to a new type of collection associate called universal agents who handle
customer service calls and then move the conversation to billing or collection issues.
In a single call or multi-channel engagement, costs are reduced, payments are
rendered, and customer relationship is preserved and revenues increased.
Here are the seven key steps to establish and manage a preventive collections strategy
alongside your current customer relationship management practices:
1. Choose the right people
Screen agents for collections, with a customer care skill sets up-front. Identify
individuals capable of serving as universal agents, able to handle virtually any issue
from standard customer care issues to past-due collections. Then, match top
performers in each area to specific clients.
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Universal agents can easily be identified by their customer service skills and a thick
skin required for past-due collections. Simply put, you can teach a collections agent
how to handle customer care, but customer care agents rarely have the skills needed to
manage collections calls.
2. Provide up-front and ongoing training
Once identified, universal agents should receive special training. They must have the
empathy, bridging and negotiation skills needed to open and close a customer care
issue and negotiate and resolve a past-due billing issue often during the same call.
A certain amount of ongoing training is required. Agents must be kept abreast of the
latest client offers. They must know how to change a customers payment due date,
offer credits, or waive a service fee.
If the customer recently lost a job, the universal agent must be able to show empathy
and offer payment alternatives.
3. Control customer service quality and performance
With customer data and payment habits on their screen the moment the call comes in,
universal agents can deliver a quality customer experience by offering empathy and
sympathy while remaining firm enough to meet the clients collection targets.
Statistics prove that empathy and the ability to offer alternative arrangements as
opposed to the traditional, bottom-line collections call enhances customer
satisfaction/loyalty and increases the likelihood of receiving payment.
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4. Leverage customer data to build prevention strategies
When a customer gets his or her paycheck, every company wants to be paid first. By
having the individuals payment history on-screen at the outset, the universal agent is
better able to negotiate. They may offer suggestions like: Can we change the due date
to better fit your needs?
After incorporating a more conversational, sympathetic approach, our clients
experienced a twelve percent lift in payments. Though a friendly, caring approach
increased the handle time, it also delivered superior financial results.
5. Provide access to all customer contact channels
More and more consumers and business people are using non-traditional means for
communications. Communicate in the medium of their choice. Employing a multi-
channel approach, the preventive collections program can leverage or combine voice
communications with other direct contact channels, including direct mail, chat and
email.
6. Deliver global consistency
Implement and enforce a set of operating standards for all customer care and
collection interactions throughout your operation. This will ensure equally trained
agents with reliable service to your clients around the world.
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This program is derived from a set of highly defined standards developed from global
call center experience over the past 20-plus years. It delivers universal agents with
consistent skill levels, regardless of where theyre located.
7. Provide motivation and incentives
Every client has different needs. When it comes to motivating and incenting universal
agents, there are a variety of client-specific compensation models. Earnings and
incentives can be based on cure, liquidation and collection rate measurements.
With this strategy, agents are able to engage late-paying customers and gradually
move them away from the collections process, in some cases permanently. Identifying
and resolving past-due issues before the customer reaches the collections stage is a
proven way to enhance the bottom line.
CRM Strategy
In any organization CRM strategy is a wide-ranging and detailed definition of the
scope of' the CRM programmed towards organizational goals. "The strategy is needed
to keep businesses customer centric and to help the company constantly evolve
internal processes and technology to acquire and retain customers. CRM is
fundamentally a strategy aligned with the superseding corporate strategy. It tries to
attempts to optimize a firm's profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by
focusing on a customer centric process. The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses
use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers
and Customer relationship management is a broad approach for creating, maintaining
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and expanding customer relationships. CRM is the business strategy that aims to
understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of an organization's current
and potential customers. At the heart of a perfect strategy is the creation of mutual
value for all parties involved in the business process. It is about creating a sustainable
competitive advantage by being the best at understanding, communicating, and
delivering and developing existing customer relationships in addition to creating and
keeping new customers. So the concept of product life cycle is giving way to the
concept of customer life cycle focusing on the development of products and services
that anticipate the future need of the existing customers and creating additional
services that extend existing customer relationships beyond transactions the value of
those customers.
Implementing CRM strategies, firms can achieve many goals such as:
Plummeting costs of sales
Plummeting costs of acquiring new customers
Enhanced customer satisfaction and profitability
Decreasing the need to acquire so many new customers
Calculate profitability of customers
Higher customer retention rates
With an effective CRM strategy, a business can increase revenues by:
Providing services and products that are exactly what your customers want
Offering better customer service
Cross selling products more effectively
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Helping sales staff close deals faster
Retaining existing customers and discovering new ones
Requirements of an Effective CRM
Structure
An effective CRM system consists of the following:
Personal Customer Needs
Personal contact
A knowledgeable and reliable banker
Relevant information
Customized and timely solutions
Value for money
Business Customer Needs
A professional partnership approach
High levels of information
Customized and highly responsive service
Quality Customer Information

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Types of CRM

Broadly, three types of CRM are adopted by banks:
(1) Operational CRM In this, CRM software packages are used to track and
efficiently organize inbound and outbound interactions with customers including
the management of marketing campaigns and call centres. Operational CRM
supports frontline processes in sales, marketing and customer service, automating
communications and interactions with the customers. They record contact history
and store valuable customer information to ensure a consistent picture of
customers relationship with the bank that can be retrieved by staff as per
requirement. The major benefits of operational CRM to banks are:
a) Sales Force Automation
b) Customer Service and Support
c) Enterprise Marketing Automation
(2) Analytical CRM It is about analyzing customer information to better address
marketing and customer service objectives and deliver the right message to the right
customer at the right time through the right channel. It involves the use of data
analysis to extract knowledge for optimizing customer relationships.
The major benefits of Analytical CRM to banks are:
Operational
CRM
Analytical CRM
Collaborative
CRM
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a) Customer Retention
b) Fraud Detection
c) Optimizing marketing efforts as per customer life time value
d) Credit Risk Analysis
e) Segmentation and targeting
f) Development of customized new products matching the specific preferences
and priorities of customers
(3) Collaborative CRM - These involve systems facilitating customers to perform
services on their own through a variety of communication and interactive channels. It
brings people process and data together and enables channeling of data and
information appropriately to bank staff for proactive decision making and enhanced
informed customer service and support activities. It provides a means of information
sharing to all concerned in timely manner and includes customer as a creator of
service. The major benefits of collaborative CRM to banks are:
a) Providing efficient customer communication across a variety of channels
b) Online services to reduce customer service costs
c) Providing access to customer data while interacting with customers.
Thus, CRM can be understood as a catalyst enabling transformation of Banking from
traditional Transactional banking to Relationship Banking by use of technology.

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Benefits of CRM
Benefits of CRM can be categorized into 3 groups namely: benefits for customers,
benefits for employees and benefits for banks.
1) Benefits for customers
There is more coordinated and professional approach to customer
contact.
With up-to-date customer information, Banks can offer more
personalized services.
Customers feel empowered if they have greater access to products and
services. For example, 24 Hours banking.
Targeted product and service offerings can be timed to coincide with
customer events and requirements e.g., Education Loans and Tourism
Loans.
2) Benefits for employees
Employees are empowered with the information to deliver high quality
service and meet customer expectations
Employees have more time to serve customers.
Employees have higher satisfaction ratings
3) Benefits for banks
Managers are empowered with information that can help them manage
customer relationships and make better decisions.
Optimum use of resources
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Customer satisfaction and increased loyalty
Improved customer acquisition and cross-selling
It helps in capitalizing on short windows of opportunities in the market.

CRM in Banking: Global scenario
Worldwide banks have explored and realized the benefits of CRM in a variety of
ways. Different banks have implemented the philosophy in their own different way. A
few illustrations will give a glimpse of the global scenario with respect to CRM in
Banking.
Royal Bank of Canada utilized CRM to develop models of assessment of customer
profitability and life time value. These were then included in determining customer
decisions like Customized Marketing campaign, establishing service levels,
segmentation, targeting, product design and pricing. Customers vulnerability to
attrition also is analyzed and the most valuable are flagged before they defect, in order
to take preventive action in a focused and effective way.
Banks Employees Customers
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Wells Fargo Bank renowned for leadership in service and convenience to varied
customer segments focused on customer service through CRM. Application of CRM
enabled better integration of customer information and service applications to assist
representatives of customer sales and services to easily provide a one-stop-shop for
any banking service or transaction. Using CRM, Wells Fargo takes full advantage of
available customer information to offer customer the choice, convenience and price
benefits so that they give the Bank, all their business.
Wachovia Bank uses customer transaction data to support modeling processes that
evaluate each branchs current and long term profitability. In Atlanta Banks largest
market, significant performance improvements were attained when it used the output
of modeling process as a basis to decide which of its 96 branches to close and which
location to open new ones.
CRM in Banking: Indian scenario
Although significance of Relationship Marketing practices and optimizing and
maintaining customer relationships across diverse customer segments has been
realized and practiced by all banks in India, the technology enabled CRM is still at a
developing stage. Different Banks are at different levels of CRM adoption and
implementation and majority of them can be considered to be at preliminary stages.
Operational CRM is the most wide spread, but collaborative CRM is most evident in
internet banking, mobile banking, ATM functions, POS devices and initiatives like
availability of pass book printing machines to enable customers to update their
passbooks themselves. Also SMS alerts at various significant customer service events
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are proliferating. Analytical CRM is being utilized but not by all banks. Here also a
few illustrations of Indian banks using CRM will define a clearer picture of CRM in
Indian banking.
Yes Bank has developed YCCRM (Yes Bank Collaborative CRM), the prominent
features of which are discussion boards and templates. These enable sharing of
relevant customer information to all concerned staff members to design new products,
provide proactive service, and informed customer handling leading better service. It
enables collaboration among staff and customers to create higher customer value
through use of CRM software.
Punjab National Bank deployed CRM software with modules of Prospect
Management, Lead Management, Activity Management, Product Management,
Complaint Management and Business Intelligence Reporting. The payoffs are in terms
of increased customer base, cross selling, sales force optimization, efficient lead
management and higher productivity.
ICICI identified five functional areas which when integrated will give Bank its CRM
Business Transformation Map. Core areas of transformation were business focus,
organization structure, business matrix, marketing focus and technology. The pay offs
were : lower total cost of ownership, efficient management of volume growth, greater
responsiveness to market needs, improved operations, decrease in operational costs,
reduction in turnaround time, and integrated platform for all applications of bank. The
recent CRM application is enabling ICICI customers to perform transactions via the
platform of face book, a social networking site. This brings the bank one step ahead in
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providing convenience and service through CRM. SBIs Business Intelligence system
integrates data from nearly 70 databases to form a single enterprise data warehouse
model. The system generates 248 reports daily for top management and each of the
branches have access to reports generated particularly for them. This has empowered
decision makers to have actionable data lending to faster decision making based on
latters information.
Bank of Maharashtra has developed in-house software which generates and updates a
variety of reports on detailed customer information and sends to branches. These
reports are utilized for better customer understanding, better customer support and
service by access to relevant customer information with all stakeholders to enable
decision making and Business Development as well as retention activities.
Issues and Challenges
CRM is a strategic initiative which has organization wide implication. Many banks are
still struggling to make proper use of this very useful mechanism. However, the
adoption and utilization is dependent on a number of factors and impediments.
Broadly the issues are pertaining to: People, Processes, Data and Technology. Also a
major drawback is the general perception of CRM being a Technology imperative.
There is a great need to understand that technology is only the enabler to CRM. In the
real sense it is an organization wide strategy. The success of this depends on a careful
integration of Organizations goals, structure, systems, processes and resources.
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Technology issues
The following are the impediments to CRM implementation in context of technology:
(1) Misconception about role of technology: Most officers perceive technology as a
limited to record of information and transaction. The use of technology in further
sophisticated information processing and dissemination is not done.
(2) Lack of Integration: There are multiple channels and multiple technologies in use
simultaneously in customer interface, service and sales. The integration of this
complex system of technologies is a challenge.
(3) Empowerment to frontline staff: A Frontline staff has customer profile and data.
Most of them have no motivation to further process these and make full utilisation of
Process
People
Data
Technology
Lack of Knowledge, skills & training
Lack of motivation
Inadequate performance mgmt.
parameters.
Change in culture
Change in structure & systems
Demand for more pro-activeness
Fragmented Data
Legacy systems & Quality of data
Lack of initiative to manage & utilize
data
Misconception about role of
technology
Lack of Integration
Empowerment to frontline staff
Underutilization
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these to provide better services and proactive selling effort. They are neither trained to
use customer analytics nor to customise the Banks offering.
(4) Underutilization: the single integrated view of customer, past transactions
preferred mode of business are known, but no mechanism is in place to utilise this
with aid of software like lead management and activity management for higher
effectiveness in sales and service.
Data issues
The issues related to data are:
(1) Fragmented Data: Banks have multiple repositories of data accumulated across
various channels. Systematically collecting and organizing this huge data is big
challenge.
(2) Legacy Systems: Historical data collected from legacy systems tend not to have
been collected in any standard form.
(3) Quality of data: As huge amount of data has to be cleaned and a lot of missing
data has to be identified and included. This process has to be carried out across
branches which in addition to their core tasks have this work.
(4) Lack of understanding, skill and initiative to manage and utilize data:
Employees expected to organize and systematically manage data may not dot
efficiently because of the lack of understanding of the strategic perspective of this
activity. They also lack the necessary infrastructure and skill to complete this task.

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People issues
1) Lack of knowledge and skills in converting data to customer knowledge
2) Lack of motivation for utilizing the potential of CRM solution
3) Inadequate performance management parameters
4) Less or insufficient decision making authority : In order to use CRM concept
towards customer centricity ,sufficient decision making power is required to
provide customized, responsive and proactive services
5) Training: Staff lacks training in IT, its applications, the complete use of software
and its applications as well as marketing skills, analytical skills, uses of customer
information and service skills for implementation CRM.
Process issues
As CRM is an organization wide strategy the entire processes need to be aligned
appropriately. Some important process issues are:
(1) Change in Culture: The CRM implementation demands a change in
organizational culture in terms of vision, mission, philosophy, and shared values. This
encompasses a fundamental change in the organizational practices and employee
behaviour.
(2) Breaking the silos: CRM cannot succeed in Silo structure of departments. It
demands integration and collaboration of all departments on a continuous basis. So,
Breaking of silos prevalent in traditional organisation structure is a challenge.
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(3) Change in Structure and Systems: CRMsuccess lies in ownership of CRM by all
departments with Marketing in the strategic role of combining efforts in all these
towards better customer service. This basic structural change from product centric
organisation to customer centric organisation faces impediments in terms of role
conflicts, ambiguity, resistance and attitudinal impediments.
(4) Demand for more pro-activeness and flexibility: The former strict hierarchical
and rigid structure has to be transformed to flexible, responsive and proactive
structure. This demands top management support, proper training and efficient follow
up systems. In addition to behavioral issues the full utilisation of CRM benefits cannot
be attained unless this is enabled.
Strategic framework for successful
implementation of CRM
A global survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value and part of IBM
Business Consulting Services three part series Doing CRM Right, claims that only
15 percent of CRM projects are fully successful, but that the success rate can be
improved to as high as 80 percent, through proper business methodology and
prioritization.
Banks have made a large investment in technology and benefits thereof are being
realized in terms of improved customer empowerment, customer orientation and
convenience. Yet to realize the full potential, a need to emphasize the strategic
importance of CRM is felt. For successful adoption and implementation relevant
changes in banks culture, practices, processes and employee attitudes are required.
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The following section suggests a strategic framework to enable successful CRM
implementation.
(1) Recognizing CRM as a strategic initiative
(a) CRM has many dimensions, resulting in varied perspective to CRM. Therefore, the
CRM philosophy in its true sense is not understood by stakeholders. This becomes a
major impediment to acceptance and implementation of the concept. So, it is
imperative to state that CRM is a long term strategic initiative meaning that it
emanates from the mission of organization and is considered as a key means of
attaining the organizations long term objectives. It also means that it is designed to
sustain the organizations objective attainment, fitting in the plan of action formulated
to optimize the organizations opportunities and face the threats. Here a clarification
of some myths about CRM is helpful.
(b) Before embarking on CRM, it is necessary to delineate CRM and technology. It
should be clearly understood that the role of technology is in enabling the CRM
strategy. Once this is clearly understood, CRM will get a buy in by all employees in
Bank. Passing the entire responsibility of CRM related tasks on to IT department does
not result in conversion of technology applications into business. Passing solely to
Marketing department, without educating the officers about functionalities, results in
non-utilization in most cases and underutilization in some. The need of the hour is
recognition to CRM as organization wide strategy or planned sequence of activities to
develop and nurture customer relationships.

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(2) Top management support
Without leadership and endorsement of top management, the CRM initiative may not
get the required weightage, attention and effective deployment. In fact, the philosophy
should be propagated and sold to internal customers i.e. employees at all levels by
senior management. A particularly important role of top management in this context is
development and sharing a CRM vision. A study of best practices adopted by
organizations successful in implementation of CRM indicates that senior managers of
these firms create a vision for how CRM will change their organizations. In addition
to this, they include attributes that affect customers perceptions of value, how they
can bond with organization, product and purchase intent. This vision evolves as the
organization progresses ahead in CRM journey. For example, at a major Canadian
Bank, initially the vision was associated with the development of customer
information systems. With time the vision became more focused on the delivery of
differentiated value propositions through products to customers.
(3) Realignment of Organizational Structure and practices
Sales force Automation, dashboards, loads of customer information in MIS reports
cannot lead to CRM implementation in its true sense unless and until the organization
structure in Banks is realigned. The present structure in most banks are product and
process centric. Having installed technology set up for CRM, relevant changes in
structure making it compatible to adoption and use of technology enabled CRM is the
need of the hour. This has certain dimensions such as:

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(a) Steering Committee for CRM
At present, there are Marketing divisions, IT departments, MIS departments, Data
Centres and Project Management offices. All are working towards effective
management of customer information towards attainment of Banks objectives, one of
which is maintenance of customer relations to develop business. There is a need to
streamline this effort towards attaining the CRM vision. This can be achieved through
formation of a CRM Steering Committee at the top level which has representatives
from all these departments. The Committee can synergies the efforts of all these
departments, so that CRM practices are identified, communicated and practiced in
coordination with sufficient top management support and functional expertise.
(b)Breaking of Silos
Present systems are marked by a silo approach where in IT department works in
isolation to marketing department. They have different objectives and strategies. But,
it is necessary to understand that CRM cannot be successful in this environment.
Coordination, communication and joint ownership of both the departments is
essential. This will enable IT people to give technical expertise and marketing people
to link the market realities to technology and then plan products, services to match
them.
(c) New positions
The ownership of CRM concept and management of its implementation and adoption
throughout the Bank is not possible without creation of some new positions which
handle the responsibility and anchor the propagation of the concept. Most desirable is
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that, at all levels officials responsible for different dimensions of CRM be employed.
To overlook the overall implementation and management, an H.O. level position be
created. Then IT, Marketing positions for specific tasks of campaign management,
software development and product development etc. can be created.
(4) Change in culture
CRM being a strategic initiative demands a change in organisation culture pertaining
to perceptions and practices. CRM to be successful needs buy in from all
organisational members and particularly the recognition of the fact that each one is
responsible for CRM. It is often observed that CRM is perceived to be the task of
employees in direct contact with customers. The truth is every employee is a part of
process leading to customer satisfaction. So, each can contribute meaningfully in
value addition to customer irrespective of his task and role in process sequence. Thus,
a realisation of each employees basic role towards customer centricity will strengthen
adoption of CRM.
(5) Communication and coordination
To put life into technology and strategic plans for customer acquisition, service and
retention, communication of CRM vision, enabling practices and desired behaviours is
necessary. Also, coordination of human efforts and customer communications to
software enabled CRM updates, alerts and templates is essential. This can be achieved
by Multichannel Integration Process. Today Banks customers are utilising a variety of
channels, leading to strategic customer information scattered in islands across Bank.
CRM objectives cannot be attained unless these transactions across channels like
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internet, mobile, call center, branch, POS terminal, ATM, etc. are tracked. The
multichannel integration will enable a unified view of the customer leading to better
insights into his preferred products, channel preference, usage frequency, needs and
wants. This definitely will aid not only better and informed service, but also new
product development, targeting, approaching the customer with the right product at
the right time, through the right channel. This phenomena called `versioning can
differentiate a Banks offerings from other players just bombarding offers and
products through all possible channels leading to wastage of effort, resource and time.
Apart from this, unified customer view will enable informed decision making
preventing attrition, bad loans and frauds.
(6) Motivation
Lack of motivation towards adopting, accepting and using CRM applications is a
major impediment to CRM in Banks. This can be addressed by helping employee at
all levels to understand CRM concepts and firms vision for CRM as well as
communicating customer, market and profitability data to describe the Banks
progress, as it proceeds on its CRM journey. Also helpful will be setting expectations
to help individuals and groups align their performance with the goals of CRM. It is
essential to set expectations to help individuals and groups align their performance
with the goals of CRM. People need to know the link between CRM and their own
role performance and success.
(7) Training
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Adequate training to end users is essential keeping in view the involvement of new
technology, realignment of business practices and magnitude of fundamental change
in Banks service offerings. Training at all levels focused on CRM philosophy,
applications in banking, new processes to be adopted, employees role in customer
service, and change management along with use of new technology is the need of the
hour. In addition, behavioral training in reinforcing customer centric attitudes and
behavior is required. In other words, rather than simply demonstrating how to use
softwares features and functionality, training should teach employees how to
effectively execute the business process, enabled by the CRM system.
E-CRM in Indian Banks
The advancement in information and communication technology has made the new
millennium, e-millennium. The dividing line between banks and non-banking
financial institutions, like insurance and mutual funds, is getting blurred. Competition
from players in the market has resulted into products and services traditionally offered
by banks and financial institutions, are now being offered by non-banking
organizations more efficiently and effectively. In India the monopoly of banks over
payment systems would be broken very soon after the launching of satellite based
money order services by the P & T department. Now banking activities are not
confined to borrowing (collection of savings) and lending (disbursement of loans), but
provides a plethora of services keeping in mind the requirement and convenience of
customers. In the fast changing banking environment worldwide, banks in India will
not only have to learn the new rules but also upgrade the skills as well as the tools of
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banking. The challenge lies in addressing these issues and at the same time keeping
the wheels of growth moving.
Technology, people and customer are the three elements on which hinges the success
of banking in the e-millennium. Technology will be an enabler in managing the pace
and quantum of change. Success in technology can be brought about by skilled human
resources. In response to these technological challenges, organizations have to evolve
internal capabilities and skilled human resource management which is fundamental in
generating these capabilities. However, ultimately the banks performance depends
upon the satisfaction of its customers. In the emerging competitive and technological
driven banking era, banks have to strive hard for retaining and enlarging their
customer base.
E-CRM, which is the latest buzzword in the corporate sector, is perceived as one of
the effective tool in this direction by the banks. The present paper attempts to analyse
the concept of e-CRM in Indian banks from its various dimensions covering
specifically its need, process, present status and future prospects.
Towards E-CRM
In the early 1990s, the concept of relationship marketing was formally introduced into
the services marketing literature. Financial services institutions, airlines and other
service providers found it profitable to retain and reward existing customers rather
than run after new customers. It was established that building closer relationships with
the customers resulted in better returns to organizations through the following means:
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1. Increased use of services by loyal customers.
2. Charging of price premiums for customised services.
3. Referrals by satisfied customers that brought in new customers.
The concept developed for services marketing also found applications in the case of
industrial and customer products. The conventional market approach based on 4 Ps
(Product, Price, Place and Promotion) is strongly grounded in the industrial age where
goods were mass-produced, as distributed and mass-communicated using mass media.
However, after the advent of Information era, it has become possible to target
customers on a one-to-one and one-to-many basis and satisfy their individual needs.
The customer relationship management (CRM) is a well-defined series of functions,
skills, processes and technologies which together allow organizations to more
profitably manage customers as tangible assets. The emphasis is on defining the
customer as valuable in the long-term and on viewing customer relationships as
learning relationships. CRM recognizes that success over a period stems from
customer loyalty and that long-term profitability lies in fostering unique lifetime
relationships with small number of carefully chosen customers. It calls for increasing
customer share, that is, retaining customers and selling them new customer made,
higher-margin products over time.
The concept of CRM when seen in the context of e-business or transactions over an
electronic medium, it translates in to e-CRM, which essentially deals with managing
customer interactions over the web. After the adoption of the Internet and availability
of electronic channels of communication, it is becoming possible to capture customer
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related information intelligently at the interaction stage itself. E-CRM applications are
the generic of application systems which handle customer interactions over these new
electronic channel of communications.
The whole model of CRM revolves around the customer life-cycle comprising the
following four stages:
1. Customer requisition through referrals.
2. Customer development through personalization and customization.
3. Leveraging customer equity through cross-selling and up-selling.
4. Customer retention and referrals.
In e-CRM these four steps of CRM are managed by using electronic media.
E-CRM and its Benefits
The long-term business relationships provide many potential benefits for banks and
clients. It is generally less costly for any service firm (bank) to maintain and develop
an existing client relationship (Berry 1983). The customer can also make transaction
cost savings by developing a long-term relationship with bank. The numerous studies
carried on in USA reveals that transacting through Internet is much more economical
than other channels. For instance, it has been estimated that while it costs nearly US
$1.07 per transaction using the normal means, on the Net the costs comes to a mere
cent. Even when compared with telephone banking (5 cents) and the ATMs (2.7
cents), the Net seems to have an edge. In addition, the strategic and social benefits
may be considerable for both parties (Halinen 1989). A long-term relationship may,
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for instance produce strategic benefits for the bank in its marketing by generating
references and credentials or it may create competitive advantage by building barriers
to switching. The client on its part may enhance the quality of services offered by
engaging in long-term business relationship with a bank (Berry & Parsuraman 1991).
In Net banking the financial statement can be viewed, printed or down-loaded in any
format for ease of analysis. Thus, Internet as a service-delivery channel shifts the
control of transactions from the bank staff to the customer. Net bank customers find
better information through websites than from the unwilling, less knowledgeable and
non-cooperative banking staff.
Thus high level of customer control that translates into customer satisfaction and
repeat purchase is the most critical advantage of e-CRM in banks. Other related
benefits include decreased cost of sales and promotion, high supply-chain
management integration and improved logistics management.
Differences between CRM and e-CRM
Major differences between CRM and eCRM:
Customer contacts
CRM Contact with customer made through the retail store, phone, and fax.
eCRM All of the traditional methods are used in addition to Internet, email,
wireless, and PDA technologies.

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System interface
CRM Implements the use of ERP systems, emphasis is on the back-end.
eCRM Geared more toward front end, which interacts with the back-end through
use of ERP systems, data warehouses, and data marts.
System overhead (client computers)
CRM The client must download various applications to view the web-enabled
applications. They would have to be rewritten for different platform.
eCRM Does not have these requirements because the client uses the browser.
Customization and personalization of information
CRM Views differ based on the audience, and personalized views are not
available. Individual personalization requires program changes.
eCRM Personalized individual views based on purchase history and preferences.
Individual has ability to customize view.
System focus
CRM System (created for internal use) designed based on job function and
products. Web applications designed for a single department or business unit.
eCRM System (created for external use) designed based on customer needs.
Web application designed for enterprise-wide use.

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System maintenance and modification
CRM More time involved in implementation and maintenance is more expensive
because the system exists at different locations and on various servers.
eCRM Reduction in time and cost. Implementation and maintenance can take
place at one location and on one server.
Current Status of e-CRM in Indian
Banks
Internet has enabled banking to be at the click of the mouse. At present there are five
functional categories for online banking sites on line brochure center, interactive
bank, e-mails, calculations and cyber banks, which offer customers access to account
information, inter-branch funds transfer and utility bill payments. Banks have tied up
with service providers in telecom and power sectors like MTNL, BSES and cellular
service providers for allowing their customers to make bill payments online. In India,
new private sector banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Global Trust Bank and UTI
Bank, have taken the lead in e-banking. Among the foreign banks, Citibank, has
noticeable presence, while others like Federal Bank, HSBC Bank, Deutsche Bank and
ABN Amro Bank, are moving towards becoming big players in e-banking. Even the
state run banks like SBI and Union Bank of India have realized the advantages of such
services.
ICICI Bank, the first bank to offer e-banking services in India has more than one lakh
regular internet user accounts, of which more than 25 percent are of NRIs. The bank
has viewed advanced information technology as a managerial and competitive tool
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and has tried to harness technology to the maximum possible extent to deliver superior
customer services.
The Bank has emerged leader in B2B and B2C initiatives. B2B solutions (i-payments)
aim at facilitating online supply-chain management to it corporate clients by linking
them with their suppliers and dealers in a closed business loop. All members in this
loop are required to maintain the account with the bank. This product has gained
considerable market acceptance and the bank has already entered into memorandum
of understanding with over 100 large Indian companies.
The Bank became the first bank in India to introduce utility bill payment through
Internet. Bank has entered into tie-ups with leading telecom companies such as
MTNL, Tata tele-services, VSNL and cellular operators such as BPL Mobile, Airtel
and Usha Martin. Tie-ups have been established with BEST & BSES for electricity
payment in Mumbai. The bank with its net banking service called Infinity goes a
step forward by allowing the account holder to transfer fund into another persons
account with the bank. Also one can intimate about the loss of an ATM card over the
net when using Infinity. Corporate sector can issue letter of credit and make inquiries
regarding bills sent for collection via this service. It also provides facility for
nicknaming all accounts to avoid remarking lengthy accounts number.
UTI bank, has tied up with Cosmat Max, to create a communication network for its
customers. The network will have 50 VSAT terminals at strategic locations, which
will help in ATM servicing and internal management information system. The bank
has signed a memorandum of understanding with equitymaster.com for e-brokering
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activities of the site. This will enable the bank to leverage its database for e-commerce
and other initiatives with data-warehousing and data-mining, where information of the
customer spending habits will be used to sell other corelated products like credit cards.
HDFC Bank has, for the first time in India made the e-shopping experience secure
online and real time with the launch of its payment gateway. This will allow any
Visa/Master credit card holder anywhere in the world to make payments for global
services over the Internet. The bank has tied up with 15 portals and is in talk with
several others to offer secure business to customer e-com. transactions. The first
secure, on-line and real-time e-com. credit card transaction in the country was done on
the Easy.2 shoppe.com shopping mall, enabled by HDFC bank on a Visa card,
heralding the launch of the payment gateway. HDFC Bank also offers a direct debit
option whereby its customer can pay for the goods or services by a secure password
enabled transfer of funds from their account to the merchant account.
The state run public sector bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) made a quiet foray into
net banking. The countrys largest commercial bank launched on-line SBI - an
account browsing facility over the Net for customers in eight select branches including
four NRI branches.

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E-CRM Techniques used by Banks in
India
Banks leveraging technology can develop innovative customer solutions to attain
growth with profitability within the framework of sound risk-management practices.
Techno-savvy banks are tapping into online services to initiate a new era in
relationship management to create one to one relationships as well as one to many
relationships to enhance their competitive advantage.
Recent developments in critical areas of IT, have changed the way banks are
managing their customer relationships. The following are some of the latest e-CRM
techniques used by banks in offering new products and services to its customers.
1. Internet banking: Internet is being used by banks to disseminate information to
customers about banks products and services through their websites. The banking
services are provided through Net with convenience of ease and accessibility. Internet
banking offers many benefits to the banks viz. Vast reach, reduced transaction costs,
direct marketing and cross selling, build banks brand, etc. It also offers benefits to
customers viz. reduced cost, convenience, banking with the bank and not the branch,
speed, better cash management, etc. The new private sector banks ICICI Bank,
HDFC Bank, UTI Bank and the Global Trust Bank have taken the lead in Net
Banking. The state run public sector banks are lagging behind in Net banking,
although modest beginning has been made by the State Bank of India.
2. Data Warehousing and Data Mining: This technique is used to develop and use
customer data to check their profile, retention and loyalty patterns. They provide
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valuable inputs for retaining customers and developing products and services for the
future.
3. ATMs: At present installed number of ATMs in the country is 1800, which is likely
to be more than 4000 by next year. Most of the demand for this technology is coming
from State owned banks. Until now, ATM services have been confined to deposits and
withdrawal from bank accounts by customers. The growth in ATMs has been fuelled
by a race among banks to expand their customer base by going in for more value
added services (bill payments and ticketing services) on these machines.
4. Telebanking or Mobile banking: These services empower the customer with an
instant access to routine queries and transaction or check bank balances.
5. Computerized decision support system: This helps the banks in applying
optimization techniques in functional areas such as, assetliability management,
optimization of investment portfolios and asset portfolios through linear
programming. This is a practical tool which helps the bank managers and customers in
optimizing investment decisions.
6. E-mail: Banks can maintain the list of its best customers and inform these members
through e-mail the various services and schemes offered by the bank. These days this
is considered as one of the cheapest and effective means of communication.
7. Computer networking: Networking between the branches of divisional, regional,
zonal and head office of banks provide access to customer data base from the
executive desk. This will integrate the front-office applications with back-office
requirements, thus generating MIS for branch managers and executives at the different
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controlling offices including Head office for accurate, speedy and cost-effective
customer services.
8. Customer smart cards: These cards are issued to key customers which carries all
the relevant information, details of previous and repeat purchases, to make it
convenient for the customers to recall and for the banks to keep a track of the
behavioral and purchase trends. Utilities like BEST in Mumbai are already using
smart cards for ticketing in its luxury buses.
E-CRM Future Prospects
To take advantage of growing markets, global giants like PeopleSoft, SAP, Baan,
Nortel, Talisma Corporation, Oracle Corp., Pivotal, and Siebel Systems are planning
to invest in India so as to provide e-CRM softwares and services to Indian companies
including banks. This will facilitate the e-CRM in Indian banks.
On account of factors such as rise in the depositor base of banks and an increasing
tendency among the new generation banks to diversify into web-enabled services, the
number of net bank registrations has sky-rocketed. World-wide trend shows that net
banking is perceived as a convenient and fast way of doing banking business and is
fast gaining grounds. In Australia, the banks that do not provide net banking facility
and do not share information over the net are considered dead ducks. In spite of all
these advantages, IT-enabled banking is subject to severe constraints and limitations.
Firstly, the use of web banking by customers has been by and large limited to balance
enquiries and making utility bill payments. Secondly, for online banking to reach a
critical mark we need requisite infrastructure in terms of availability of personal
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computers, adequate bandwidth and uninterrupted power supply, which presently is
lacking in India. Thirdly, the awareness about the online banking even among the
upper echelons of society is very poor. Lastly people are insecure about the security
offered by online banking. Hackers have managed to crack into even the Pentagon and
NASA web servers, besides a host of other high security sites.
Once these issues relating to infrastructure and security are resolved IT-related
services will get a big boost in Indian Banks. Indian government, being aware of the
problems relating to e-transaction has already passed a bill on IT on May 17, 2000.
The bill involves legal provisions relating to piracy, defamation, advertising, taxation,
digital signatures, copyrights and trade secrets in the cyber-world. The bill intends to
facilitate e-business by removing legal uncertainties created by new technologies.

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Banks with their Respective CRM
ICICI and CRM

ICICI bank currently has the ability to process 0.27 million cheques per day
and manage 7000 concurrent users.



The bank has successfully implemented Finacle software and has deployed the
solution in the areas of core banking, consumer e-banking, corporate e-banking and
CRM. ICICI Bank has also gained the flexibility to easily develop new products
targeted at specific segments such as ICICI Bank Young Stars- a product
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targeting children, Women's Account addressing working women and Bank
@campus targeting students.
The CRM initiatives in Indias ICICI Bank hold together its compelling story of
growth. Its growth in customer base, channels and product & service offerings. The
ICICI bank is one of the private sector bank which is providing the customer value
added services. They are not only able to satisfy the customer but they are successful
in building a never-ending relationship with the customer. They are able to retain them
and carry business with them to benefit both the organization and the customer.
Customer preferences and needs are very well understood by this bank. With the
help of technology they are able to develop brand equity in the market
and differentiate themselves from the competitors. On the 19th of January 2000, a
click and mortar made an announcement that offered a clear but early measure of the
impact of the "e" in e-business. On that day the ICICI Bank released performance
figures related to its previous years dotcom initiatives. The company reported a
staggering 500% increase in Internet customers during the period from March
31, 1999 to December 31, 1999 from 4000 to 24,000 customers in 9 months. While
the absolute number of 24,000 or the growth of 500% might not mean much, it does
speak volumes of the nascent potential. ICICI Bank and the ICICI Group as a whole
have been striding purposefully down the e-pathway. The group prefers to call it a
"clicks and bricks" strategy that provides multiple access points to its customers. For
its traditional customers there are the lean and mean brick and mortar branches
propped by ATMs, call centers and direct selling agents. Internet banking and WAP
enabled services take care of the Supply and technology savvy professionals of today.
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The rise in Internet banking customers is a result of the Infinity, Internet banking
facility launched by the bank. The facility, initially made available to NRIs and later
to resident Indians permits online opening of accounts, bills payment, account
information.
Call centers
ICICI Banks Bombay call center handles 25 different products, for 10 million
customers, with 620 positions. Now ICICI Banks branch network handles less than
half of all transactions a shift which has taken an axe to the companys cost- to-
serve. ICICI appreciated early on that by centralizing their service infrastructure, and
centralizing their service expertise, they created a new level of service for customers.
The call center has played a leading role in transforming the banks value
proposition for its customers: The call center also provides an opportunity
to shift the qualitative nature of the relationship between bank and customer to a
new level. Much of the extra leverage with customers that the call center
brings is tactical. A customer is a lot more receptive to up selling and cross selling
when theyre phoning ICICI. The humble call center is ICICI Banks means of
shifting away from a market share based product-as-commodity mindset, to those
stresses the importance of deepening exiting customer relationship.
ICICI used to spend a lot of energy trying to make sales. Now their emphasis has
changed they spend their energy to get to know the customer better. It is when a
customer feels comfortable with the relationship they have with ICICI that they are
likely to deepen their commercial relationship with them. The call center is there new
tool to getting to know the customer better. The speed of the shift away from the
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branch as the primary means of interacting with the bank shows the receptiveness
of Indian consumer behavior to the use of new channels. The technology usage is far
higher in a call center compared with any other environment. The call center is a
cheaper channel than the branch, and often it is more convenient for the customer.
This convenience can be supported by technology to provide a higher level of service
than was possible previously. All the products and process are unified in the single
call center allowing the customer to get a seamless service. So ICICI is therefore
able to truly take a customer centric customer view. ICICI is able to get a customer
who has been rejected from taking a credit card; they immediately offer a debit card.
The ability to serve across all product categories from a single location has enabled
the bank to provide a level of service qualitatively superior to its competitors, and this
is offered as a complementary extension of the branch capabilities. Even the branches
are moving very rapidly towards offering seamless service to all the customers. The
relationship between the branches and the call centre is very good, and the branches
are discovering how to focus their efforts on more rewarding service relationships.
ICICI has understood the importance of customer service
over the phone, but it was only fairly recently that they began the task of consolidating
their resources on customer service and customer relationship enhancement.
The bank takes people who are first class graduates with a lot of yearning to learn.
Following a selection process that includes telephone, personality and literacy
tests, there is a post-recruitment process embracing a continuous learning
program.
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E-marketing
The e-initiatives of the ICICI group have not been limited to customer servicing. The
marketing activities for its various products are also taking the online route. In April
2000, through tie-ups with Orange and Airtel, ICICI started offering limited WAP
based services for customers on the move. A month later, on its way towards
a full-fledged online mobile commerce service, the company commenced
offering services like balance updating, request for cheque book, details of last 5
transactions, request for statement etc. Corresponding services are also available for
the banks credit card customers. On the anvil are personal banking services, payment
services for utilities, travel and ticketing information etc.
Modus Operandi
The group has leveraged on a number of tie-ups to come up with its various offerings.
For its Internet banking offering the ICICI Bank uses Infinity from Infosys, for its
credit card business it uses Vision Plus from PaySys, USA. For WAP services the
tie-up with cellular service providers Orange and Airtel helps reach out to
these users, while the WAP technology is being implemented by the in-
house ICICI Infotech Services. To leverage the Net for its marketing
initiatives, ICICI Bank and Satyam Infoway have jointly set up a ".COM" company to
promote banking products on the Net. The bank has also entered into agreements with
leading corporates like BPL, Rediff.com, Usha Martin and Tata
Communications for B-to-C solutions in a bid to further strengthen its
54 | P a g e

Internet banking product offering and services. Payment systems are
perhaps the bane of any financial services company looking to move
online. Security and privacy are issues that every bank looking to move online is
grappling with. The ICICI Group has come up with its own answer to the problem.
ICICI joined hands with a consortium led by Compaq to take the lead in
offering a solution to the Indian e-commerce community. This consortium
offers a B2B and B2C e-commerce payment gateway within India. The B2C payment
gateway will help the Internet shopper, the web merchant and the banks to engage in
e-commerce, while the B2B payment gateway will facilitate virtual transactions in the
corporate world. CRM has been envisioned by the bank to support its goals in sales,
customer service, and analytics. Already, about 30.40% of the banks home loans are
cross-sold to existing customers. Similar ratios have also been reported in the sale of
insurance policies. Ratios of about 50.60% have been seen out of the credit cards and
personal loans business. The banks stated intention is to take these ratios to as high as
60.75%. ICICI Bank states that these high levels of relationship maximization are
made possible by how its CRM system is able to "know and understand the customer
better, which customer is most suitable for what kind of product and at what point in
time.
In the area of service, the bank receives as many as 150,000 customer requests per
day, a challenge not only to channel capacity but also to how the bank is able to
ensure that each request is recorded, tracked, and resolved. Last, customer analytics
have been used to support various strategic decisions of the bank. Recent strategic
decisions of note are several anti-attrition programs, the intended attrition of
55 | P a g e

unprofitable customers, the imposition of fees, and various customer segment tactical
initiatives.
ICICI Banks CRM capability is built on a Teradata data warehouse that integrates
data from multiple sources, including the Oracle database and various flat files. The
system provides users with information about each customers checking accounts,
fixed deposits, credit cards, and other financial information. The bank has taken on the
end-to-end proposition of SAS for enterprise intelligence, which offers a credible
integrated approach to analytics, including data detection, data cleansing, data
preparation, event detection, reporting and business intelligence, and
campaign analysis. The bank estimates that it is able to track more than
1,200 parameters concerning demographics, transactions made, channel usage,
and product relationships. Through Behavior Explorer and views, business users
develop customer profiles and run ad hoc queries. Analysts then use the
information to guide product development and marketing campaigns that are
intended to address each individuals total requirements, instead of just
pushing a product. The success of cross-selling to existing customers has also been
enabled by the banks growing capabilities in lead management. The home loans
business unit, for example, has built a lead management system rolled out to about
700 users. The system is able to allocate leads, schedule meetings, provide a
record of all interactions with the customer, and give reminders for customer
follow-ups. A lead generation tool has also been developed in-house to capture and
route Product applications made over mobile phones.
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CRM working of ICICI BANK
CRM, according to ICICI consists of following approaches:
[A] Getting personalized information on customers.
[B] What is the value of the relationship?
[C] Customized offerings to the customers
[D] Converting a prospective customer into a true customer.
[A] GETTING PERSONALIZED INFORMATION ON CUSTOMERS
The bank collects all the information about the customers for processing. ICICI bank
has mainly 4 service offerings viz: loan account, saving account, current account and
fixed deposits. Moreover, the bank has many customers in each category. So, they
collect the data on one server and thus the company gets the personalized
information on each customer by asking them to fill the information in
customer application form.

[B] WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE RELATIONSHIP?
After the collection of the personalized information on every customer, the department
checks out the value of the relationship with each and every customer. Later, they
decide how to approach the customer for knowing what his needs and wants are?
After this is done, the company offers him the customized product.
[C] CUSTOMIZED OFFERINGS TO THE CUSTOMER
The step which comes after deciding the value of the customer is that the company
offers the person the customized product. Moreover, they also practice a concept
called cross- selling over here. Cross selling refers to offering another product from
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the service offering of the bank to the customer which he has not gone for.
[D] CONVERTING A PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMER INTO A TRUE
CUSTOMER.
The last approach of CRM according to ICICI bank is that they try to convert the
prospective customer into a true customer. Right from the moment the inquiry comes,
they follow- up the customer and then make him to come to the bank
occasionally and then regularly.

The processes for delivering CRM-The tools and the processes are as follow
Customer application form
Centralized software where the whole data is collected.
Wide range of offering
Cross selling and
Feedback forms
Customer application forms
Bank collects all the data from customer application form and gets the personalized
GETTING PERSONALIZED INFORMATION ON CUSTOMERS
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE RELATIONSHIP?
CUSTOMIZED OFFERINGS TO THE CUSTOMER

CONVERTING PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMER
INTO A TRUE CUSTOMER.
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information to know which product to offer to which customer. This process helps in
collecting the data and knowing what the customer wants.
Centralized software where the whole data is collected
The data collected through customer application forms is available at one server and
can be accessed anytime, anywhere. So, this helps in the further process of customized
offerings and cross selling.
Wide range of offering
After collecting the data from the customer, team decides what product
to offer to which customer. In case the bank recognizes you as a
valuable customer then is offers a more customized service.
Cross-selling
It refers to offering another product from the service offering of the bank to the
customer which he has not gone for. For example, if customer has savings account
with the bank then they offer him a insurance, fixed deposits etc. This depends on the
value of the customer to the bank. Cross selling is not offered to every customer. It
depends on how loyal the customer is to the bank. The more business he gives us, the
more are his chances of being special services offered.
Feedback forms
The bank distributes feedback forms at all its branches. The customer feedbacks on
the service, technology used, employee behavior and promptness in solving
customers problems, are taken and they are analyzed.
DIFFERENT CHANNELS FOR ACCESS SERVICES
Bank Branch ATM Phone Banking
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Internet Banking
Insta Banking
Mobile Banking
Call Centre
BANK BRANCH
We can find a host of ICICI retail products at our widespread Bank
Branch network-Bank Accounts, Credit and Debit cards, Bonds, Demat Accounts,
Loans against Shares, etc.
ATM NETWORKS
Make balance enquiries
Make cash withdrawals
Free access to all ATMs
Trilingual ATMs
Payee name available on the Mini statement.
Mini statement shows last 10 transactions
Ledger Balance available in Mini statement.
PHONE BANKING
24 hour manned Customer Care Center
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) facility available
Bill pay requests
Stop payment request
Balance enquiries
Give standing instructions for payments
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Open a Fixed Deposit
Dial a draft
INTERNET BANKING
Payment of Utility Bills-electricity, phone etc.
Online Railway ticket booking
3-in-1 Demat Account
Inter Bank funds transfer (available in select cities)
Third party transfers
Credit Card bill payments
Enable mobile banking alerts
Importance of Internet Banking for customers
1) Bill payments: We can pay our bills like electricity, telephone, gas
etc, mobile phone bills and insurance premium bills etc online, or
through phone banking. Just log on to icicibank.Com or call the phone banking
number to do the same.
2) Check the status of the payments made
3) Query on all the bill payments made by us
4) The bill pay service is absolutely free of cost.
Mobile Banking
ICICI bank mobile banking enables us to bank while being on the move.
ICICI bank mobile banking can be divided into two broad categories of
facilities:
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Alert facility: ICICI bank mobile banking alerts facility keeps us informed
about the significant transactions in your accounts. It keeps us updated
wherever we go.
Request facility: ICICI bank mobile banking requests facility enables us to
query for our account balance.
INSTA-BANKING
ICICI Banks Insta Banking enables us to conduct banking transactions anytime
from anywhere. You can avail of this anywhere-Anytime banking service through our
24-hour channels like ATM, Internet Banking, Instant Voice Response (IVR) Banking
and Mobile Banking, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. These unique and user-friendly
channels have brought banking services to your fingertips. From balance enquiry
to checking cheque status to ordering a new cheque book, you can
communicate with ICICI Bank from the comfort of your home or in the middle of a
busy day at the office.
Call center is a cheaper channel than the branch, and often it is more
convenient for the customer. The ability to serve across all product categories from
a single location has enabled the bank to provide a level of service qualitatively
superior to its competitors, and this is offered as a complementary extension of the
branch capabilities. The relationship between the branches and the call center is very
good, and the branches are discovering how to focus their efforts on more rewarding
service relationships.

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HDFC and CRM

HDFC Bank is making all possibilities come true for its customers. The bank
offers targeted messaging and other customized services using NCRs 'Aptra
eMarketing software. The bank runs one-to-one (customized) and one-to-all targeted
messaging via all self-service channels like the ATM, mobile banking and
Internet banking. Most banks do not have clean data of the customer with
regards to residential address and other details. This implementation helps HDFC
Bank with a more thorough analysis of the change in customer demographics and
thus, plans their campaigns better after being equipped with a thorough data repository
in the data warehouse. Along with targeted messaging, the bank is also offering fast
ATM services. HDFC Bank has launched favorite transaction that allows the
customer to set a particular amount for withdrawal so that every time he visits the
ATM he will not be accessing the same screens. This has reduced the number of
screens the customer must access while using the ATM machine for withdrawing
cash. Till now, the customer had to access 9 screens, which has now been
reduced to five screens, which has in turn resulted in a reduction of 40 percent in
the time taken to complete a transaction. The customer also has the option to undo the
'favorite transaction' and go on with the regular screens. HDFC bank with a daily
turnover of 300 transactions per day per ATM, which adds up to about one million
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transactions per day. As part of the first phase, HDFC Bank has made its ATMs across
Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar faster by allowing customers to save their 'favourite
transactions on ATMs. In fact, approximately 25 percent of Pune-based customers
have already used the 'favorite transaction' feature. HDFC is globally the first bank to
use the entire suite of offerings from Aptra eMarketing; it has deployed everything
except the call center suite. They have been powered by the data warehousing, data
mining, modeling and analytics abilities and have structured data in the CRM to
implement this software. The major benefits from the implementation is saving about
40 percent of the transaction time at the ATMs, ability to personalize
communication via self-service channels enabling active engagement with
the customer, which further enhances the ability of the CRM for analytics.
HDFC has revamped its corporate website in line with its communication philosophy.
The new improved, interactive, and user-friendly website is in sync with its need-
based communication strategy of helping individuals through their decision
of selecting the right plans that fit their needs.
Protection: Need for a sound income protection in case of
unfortunate demise of an individual
Investment: Need to ensure long-term real growth of an individuals money
Saving: Need to save for the milestones and protect an individuals savings too
Retirement: Need to save for a comfortable life post retirement
The new improved website leverages to educate customers in choosing the right. The
website is designed to provide an enhanced user experience to our existing
as well as prospective customers through simple navigation, faster access,
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and rich content and enhanced utility as a service delivery tool. The objective of their
new website is to educate customers right from the process of identifying their needs,
to the final process of select the plan that fits their needs, The website features an
elaborate and exclusive knowledge section designed to help a customer.

The other salient features of the website are:
Caters to all types of Internet users - advanced, moderate and new users
Faster and convenient navigation (e.g. no need to use 'back page button;'
access to relevant and important links available on every web page)
Key information at your fingertips. e.g. structured flow of key product information
and their features
Enhanced interactivity through user interaction and involvement (tools and
calculators)
Modular structure making the website 'future ready' with flexibility to
accommodate restructuring and additional content in future
Uses flash and other advanced software to provide a better surfing experience to
the user, but through its intelligence moves to a classic mode if the user does not
have the requisite software to view the same.
Compatible with all browser s i.e. Internet Explorer 6 and above, Firefox Mozilla,
Safari, Opera and Google Chrome.
And compliant with W3C.
For HDFC, the CRM activities span three segments: Back-office, which enables all
transactions. For instance, a transfer of funds will involve recording the transfer
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request, debiting and crediting the account appropriately and the transformation
by telex or demand draft. The back office enables the core activities of
banking transactions. Distribution of the bank's products and services in the market.
That is, enabling customer interaction through the Internet, ATMs, the mobile phone.
HDFC's corporate customers need not visit the bank for many of their transactions
either. PC-based corporate banking lets authorized personnel in corporates open letters
of credit or pays suppliers and integrates the transaction with the ERP system. The
third sort of automation enables the business intelligence and CRM aspects of
a bank's business. HDFC Bank can analyze channel profitability. Say, determine
which type of customer access which channel the most, and evaluate the cost-benefits
of offering a service to customers. For cash management, they use a package from a
Pune company called CashTech. There Depository systems run on software provided
by Mumbai-based Kalpataru. For loans, that uses Nucleus Software. To provide
round-the-clock service and support to its customers, HDFC Bank has Unix-based
systems from Sun Microsystems as hosts for its banking software. It is in the process
of moving the application to a mainframe-class Unix machine (the E10000 from Sun)
.Many other systems run on Intel-based Compaq or IBM hardware with Microsoft NT
or Windows 2000 as the Operating platform. The systems are run on a
centralized basis with the branches accessing them via telecommunication
lines (leased lines from the DoT). All departments within the organization were
automated simultaneously. They work on a centralized database, the addition of new
branches and new cities made very little impact on the day-to-day
operations of the other existing branches. Every server at HDFC Bank had its
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own direct attached storage that led to distributed storage upgrades and inefficient
use of storage. The storage sub-systems were not highly available and
resilient. Thus, to provide scalable, reliable storage systems, and a SAN
environment for all their applications, HDFC Bank opted for a solution from Hitachi
Data Systems. Playing in a dynamic market, where there is a constant need to
innovate and stay ahead of competition, HDFC Bank's objective is to build
sound customer franchises across distinct businesses, so as to become the
preferred provider of banking services for target retail and wholesale
customer segments.
HDFC Bank operates in an automated environment in terms of
information technology and communication systems. All the bank's branches have
online connectivity, which enables it to offer funds transfer facilities to its
customers. Multi-branch access is also provided to retail customers through
the branch network and ATMs. In terms of software, the corporate banking business is
supported by Flex cube, while the retail banking business by Fin ware, both from i-
flex Solutions. The core banking software is running on both IBM AIX and SUN
Solaris. The BI is running on HP servers. It has various other banking applications on
Microsoft and Solaris servers. The bank has prioritized its engagement in technology
and the Internet as one of its key goals and has already made significant progress in
web-enabling its core businesses.
They have roughly more than 150 TB of storage on Hitachi technology. We have our
production servers running on enterprise storage and our entire test and development
servers on modular storage. Every server in the organization had its own
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direct attached storage. This led to distributed storage upgrades and inefficient
use of storage.. The organization has ordered around 75 TB of enterprise class storage
and about 30 TB of modular and SATA Storage for use by applications due to growth
in the business and addition of new applications to support existing and new business
areas. HDFC bank is using all ERP, CRM with BI, OLTP/RDBMS, e-mail from
Lotus, core banking, treasury management etc.; the complete capacity with production
and test development is more than 150 TB.
HDFC Bank's customer philosophy is based on four core values-operational
excellence, customer focus, product leadership, and people.

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Interview
Rajat Rohan
Relationship Manager
(Chembur Branch)
HDFC
What is your designation & role in this bank?
I am the Relationship manager for the Chembur branch of HDFC & my basic role
is to monitor and maintain customer relationships, and also to try and increase
these relations. I supervise all the customer interactions done by the employees &
also deal with the customers whenever required.
How long have you been associated with HDFC?
I have been associated with this bank for the past 2 year, and since then I am
handling the post of relationship manager for this branch
What CRM system does HDFC use?
HDFC uses an eCRM system called CRMnext
Which company provides you this system?
Our CRM system is provided by WIPRO
How does the system work?
The CRM system in this bank is very efficient & convenient & makes tracking the
customer very easy. CRMnext has information about all the current customers,
their financial history, personal details, & also possible leads of customers. It has
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daily updates done by each and every employee on the possible business leads that
are formed daily. These leads are captured in the system and are classified
according to their status (Fresh/Old); Priority basis (Urgent/Normal); Product
Type, etc. every employee in the bank has to compulsorily update about any
interaction with their current customer or any business leads generated. Later on
these information is assessed by the supervisors and the leads are tracked. We also
monitor all custor interaction through this system and give reviews and
recommendations on them if needed. Our customers are categorized into groups
for easy monitoring & relationship management.
How are the customers categorized for CRM in your bank?
Each and every customer is categorized according to their bank balance & the
relationship they maintain with our bank. There are mainly 4 categories formed by
the HDFC bank for this CRM system, they are:
1. Emperia
2. Preferred
3. Classic
4. Normal
with emperia being the category of customers with highest balance and slowly
moving down to other categories. There is a specific bank balance requirement for
each of these categories. There is a dedicated personal manager appointed for each
of the first 3 category customers. The basic duty of these managers is to grow these
customers relationships & as and when the customers grow they can me moved to
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the higher balance category. However there are only limited no. of customers to be
considered under each manager.
What is the span of control for each of this category?
For emperia it is 125 customers, Preferred it is 200 customers and for Classic it is
50 customers.
However, If suppose any branch has 50 emperia customers & the span of control
for an emperia manager to be appointed is 125; then these customers will be
managed either by the preferred categorys manager of that branch or those 50
customers will be handled by the emperia categorys manager of some other
branch.
Similarly for every new A/C eg: current A/C opened in the bank, it is updated in
the system and immediately a manager is given the responsibility tp manage an d
supervise it. New customer form a new category
Can you tell me something more about CRMnext system?
The CRMnext system also helps us classify customers as primary and secondary
A/C holders. It basically links various accounts of the same group together. It is a
mainly done family wise. Eg: if a customer is a preferred category customer and he
makes 5 of his family members join the same bank, all these 5 members accounts
will get linked to the preferred categorys members account & it is called a group.
It is then the duty of the CRM to try and increase the GRP (group product holding)
The System has provision for recording each and every interactions any employee
has with any customer or lead. Apart from all this the system also lets the
relationship manager to access pernal information of the customer to learn about
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his nature/ behavior before meeting nwith the customer.
Each and every employee has a separate username & password to login into the
CRMnext system and any work they do has to be captured into the system.
The system has place for all kind of information necessary for better relationship
management.
What Future holds for CRM?
In my personal opinion, the CRM system is a must for any sector and it has a lot of
future prospect in all the sector of the economy. CRM will in turn lead to all the
businesses being performed more efficiently and high customization is possible
with its help, the standard of services can be improved and it will equally
contribute to develop the business and earn higher profits for it.

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Questionnaire
G.N Khalsa College
Banking on Relationship: A comparative study of CRM in the
Indian Banking Sector
NAME:__________________________________________________ Age:____ Gender:__________
Address: _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Mobile no.: _____________________ Email id: ______________________________
1. Are you a customer of
ICICI
HDFC
Others

2. Which banking service channels do you most frequently use?
ATM
Branch
Phone
Internet

3. How often do you use the bank services per month?
1-5 times
6-10 times
11-15 times
Over 16 times

4. What kind of services do you usually use?
Withdraw
Deposit
Transfer money
Money exchange
Update passbook, Cheque
Others
5. Does the bank inform you about the new services / changes in the services on time?
Yes
No

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6. Please indicate the level of service provided by the bank
Sr.
No
Factors
Very
Good
Good Fair Poor
RELIABILITY
1 The bank performs the services right at first time.
2 The bank provides the services at the time it promises to do so.
3 The bank has an easy to excess communication network &
means, for all its customers, irrespective of their location.

RESPONSIVENESS
1 Employee of the bank give you prompt service.
2 The behavior of the employees of the bank instills confidence in
customer.

3 Employees of the bank are consistently courteous with you.
4 The bank has employees who give you personal attention
EMPATHY
1 When you have a problem, the bank shows a sincere interest in
solving it.

2 Employees of the bank are always willing to help you.
3 Employees of the bank are never too busy to respond to your
requests.

4 The bank has guidance signs indicating as to which counters are
offering which services.

TANGIBLES
1 The bank has places to sit and wait.
2 The bank is neat and clean.
3 Employees of the bank are neat in appearance
ASSURANCE
1 The bank has cordial front ranking staff (security personnel etc.)
2 You feel safe while doing transaction with the bank.
3 Employees of the bank have the knowledge to answer your
requests.



7. Rate your overall satisfaction with services offered by your bank?
Highly Satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied
8. Do you think bank is maintaining good customer relations through its services?
Yes
No


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Primary Research analysis
Q2. Which banking service channels do you most frequently use?
Banking Service channel ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Atm 56% 14 40.91% 9
Branch 32% 8 45.45% 10
Phone 4% 1 0% 0
Internet 8% 2 13.64% 3



41%
45%
14%
HDFC
Atm
Branch
Phone
Internet
56%
32%
4%
8%
ICICI
Atm
Branch
Phone
Internet
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Q3. How often do you use the bank services per month?
No. of times bank service
used per month
ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
1-5 times 55% 11 60% 12
6-10 times 40% 8 35% 7
11-15 times 0% 0 5% 1
over 16 times 5% 1 0% 0



55%
40%
5%
ICICI
1-5 times
6-10 times
11-15 times
over 16 times
60%
35%
5%
HDFC
1-5 times
6-10 times
11-15 times
over 16 times
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Q4. What kind of services do you usually use?
Kind of service usually
used
ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Withdraw 37.14% 13 42.42% 14
Deposit 31.43% 11 27.27% 9
Transfer money 2.86% 1 18.18% 6
Money Exchange 2.86% 1 0% 0
Update Passbook, Cheque 22.85% 8 12.12% 4
Others 2.86% 1 0% 0



37%
31%
3%
3%
23%
3%
ICICI
Withdraw
Deposit
Transfer money
Money Exchange
Update Passbook,
Cheque
Others
43%
27%
18%
12%
HDFC
Withdraw
Deposit
Transfer money
Money Exchange
Update Passbook, Cheque
Others
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Q5. Does the bank inform you about the new services / changes in the services
on time?

Bank informs about new
services/changes
ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Yes 80% 16 75% 15
No 20% 4 25% 5



80%
20%
ICICI
Yes No
75%
25%
HDFC
Yes
No
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Q6. Indicate the level at which the service is provided
Reliability
Reliability ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Very Good 15% 9 23.33% 14
Good 76.67% 46 68.33% 41
Fair 8.33% 5 8.33% 5
Poor 0% 0 0% 0



15%
77%
8%
ICICI
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
23%
69%
8%
HDFC
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
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Responsiveness
Responsiveness ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Very Good 26.25% 21 37.50% 30
Good 67.50% 54 46.25% 37
Fair 3.75% 3 16.25% 13
Poor 2.50% 2 0% 0



26%
68%
4%
3%
ICICI
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
38%
46%
16%
HDFC
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
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Empathy
Empathy ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Very Good 17.50% 14 21.25% 17
Good 56.25% 45 60% 48
Fair 25% 20 17.50% 14
Poor 1.25% 1 1.25% 1



18%
56%
25%
1%
ICICI
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
21%
60%
18%
1%
HDFC
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
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Tangibles
Tangibles ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Very Good 41.67% 25 40% 24
Good 50% 30 50% 30
Fair 5% 3 6.67% 4
Poor 3.33% 2 3.33% 2



42%
50%
5%
3%
ICICI
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
40%
50%
7%
3%
HDFC
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
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Assurance
Assurance ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Very Good 35% 21 45% 27
Good 58.33% 35 45% 27
Fair 6.67% 4 8.33% 5
Poor 0% 0 1.67% 1



35%
58%
7%
ICICI
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
45%
45%
8%
2%
HDFC
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
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Q7. Rate your overall satisfaction with services offered by your bank
Overall satisfaction ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Highly Satisfied 15% 3 25% 5
Satisfied 80% 16 75% 15
Somewhat Satisfied 5% 1 0% 0
Dissatisfied 0% 0 0% 0
Highly Dissatisfied 0% 0 0% 0





25%
75%
HDFC
Highly Satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly Dissatisfied
15%
80%
5%
ICICI
Highly Satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly Dissatisfied
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Q8. Do you think bank is maintaining good customer relations through is services?
Is Bank maintaining good
customer relations
ICICI HDFC
Percentage Number Percentage Number
Yes 95% 19 100% 20
No 5% 1 0% 0




95%
5%
ICICI
Yes
No
100%
HDFC
Yes
No
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Conclusion
It is rightly said by peter ducker,
"The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer."
Thus banks have understood that their job is not just confined to take and give money from/to
the customer but also to give prominent and efficient service at the same time.
The research helped me conclude that no bank can survive today in the corporate cannibalism
culture where customers can switch service as and when the like due to the large no. of
options (competitors).
Thus to survive in this cut throat struggle to stay on top CRM is the Need of the Day.
Also the comparative study made me understand the different CRM techniques used by the
bank and it was also noted that all banks have created a customer redressal forum to help
customers.
The comparative study between ICICI and HDFC regarding their CRM came to conclusion
that *** HDFC has a better technique and a efficient system to satisfy the customer needs and
wants. ***


86 | P a g e

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