fix it

Introduction Comment by Author: Use need to number it. Please use our template

Business environments are experiencing dramatic changes, with today’s companies experiencing such challenges as expanding markets, increasing competition, as well as rising expectations from consumers. Establishing good relationships with customers presents business with greater opportunities for growth. The establishment and management of relationships, which is usually referred to as relationship marketing, has become a fundamental concept in marketing. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems use has increased in the recent years due to its effectiveness in improving customer value. As such, many companies have emphasized on attaching significant importance to the electronic CRM, which helps in ensuring that consumer needs are effectively addressed, thus facilitating realization of customer satisfaction. Through offering companies increased capabilities in terms of information on customer history, profiles, and data, CRM systems play an integral role in supporting critical areas of various core processes of a company, which include service delivery, sales, and marketing.

Despite the increased usage of sales’ automation systems in sales departments, a recent study by Wang & Feng (2012) has revealed that there are significant deficits in modern day service, sales, and marketing processes. In particular, only 22 percent of companies have acquired a uniform customer perception, with 37 percent of the company involved in the study knowing the specific customers whose needs are addressed by individual business units. The implication is that many companies are losing in terms of both productivity and profitability because of the weaknesses associated with customer contact. To this end, companies should focus on eliminating the various weaknesses related to customer contact through the integration and implementation of customer relationship management (CRM ) systems. There is an increased need for more and more companies like Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. (referred to as Jidian hereafter) to adopt CRM systems as a way of improving effectiveness of customer interactions, customer management, and ultimately customer satisfaction. Comment by Author: You need to change the following names to Jidian

Business organizations acknowledge the fact that the retention of existing customers is cheaper than the attraction of new customers. As such, the development of successful long-term relationships with consumers required a greater level of focus on the “economically” valuable consumer, while avoiding wasting resources like time and money on the economically invaluable customers (Wang & Feng, 2012). Appropriate CRM practices have the capacity of positively influencing customer satisfaction rating while also leading to an increase in the level of customer retention, which significantly increases customer loyalty. This shows that effective adoption and implementation of CRM practices positively affects organizational productivity. This paper focuses on the need for Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. to integrate effective CRM practices in its operations, especially those concerned with all forms of customer interactions. The specific research objectives for this study include:

i) To investigate the CRM strengths that that Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. can leverage towards improving customer satisfaction and overall organizational productivity. Comment by Author: According to your arguments above, I cannot understand why you would like to fulfil those three research objectives. You need to link your argument to your research objectives well by explaining why they are important and necessary for this company (remember, this company only).

ii) To examine analyze the CRM problems that Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. has been facing, which have compromised the realization of the desired level of customer attraction and retention.

iii) To identify the various strategies that Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. may adopt towards improving the usage of its CRM system.

The present study is guided by the following research questions.

i. What are the CRM strengths that Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. can leverage towards improving customer satisfaction and overall organizational productivity? Comment by Author: Like above, why do you want to answer this question? Because it is important and necessary for this company. But why it is important and necessary for this company? You need to explain well before putting forward this research question. This is applicable to the two RQs below.

ii. What are the CRM problems that Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. has been facing, which have compromised the realization of the desired level of customer attraction and retention?

iii. What are the strategies that Jidian can（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. may adopt towards to improveing the usage of its CRM system? Comment by Author: What is the meaning?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is very important in the chemical industry. The chemical industry is large and very important in the world today as it produces raw materials and products used in the pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural products. The chemical industry is very competitive and thus, having a well-managed Customer Relationship ManagementCRM team and tools ensures maintenance of customers and subsequent increase in the revenue of a company. Thus, it is important for companies in this industry to keep a close track of the customers through the CRM team. Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. is one of China's largest production manufacturing companies and whose supplies and machinery are used around the world. The company is well known for its production of machinery and equipment in the pharmaceutical and chemical field. The main products produced by Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. include glass-lined reactors, fermenters, centrifuges, granulators, mixers, capsule filling machines as well as rollers (Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd, 2020). The company has made great tides over the year, and its improvement can be attributed to well-managed Customer Relationship Management. Comment by Author: Why chemical industry only? Do you mean Jidian operate in the chemical industry (I don’t think so)? If yes, you need to specify Comment by Author: You have defined the abbreviation before so use the abbreviation only Comment by Author: You need to be more specific – what types of machinery do they manufacture? Comment by Author: Integrate with the previous sentence Comment by Author: What is this?

The company has a great overseas relationship with overseas customers as well as local customers. This has enabled the company to export its products around the world. The products from Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. are shipped to all the continents and almost all the countries. This good relationship has been created within the 20 years the company has been in operation. The company believes in offering the best deals to its customers at the best prices, thus creating a pleasant environment for its clients. The company has many strengths in its CRM, which can be attributed to the fast growth of the company. These include the company's use of software for online interactions and monitoring, continuous engagement of the customers, and social media use for communication with customers. On the other hand, there are limitations to its CRM, which need to be improved, and this includes the CRM project team management and uniqueness of its CRM. These challenges always slow the engagement and relationship process and should be turned into strengths for the company to gain more customers and for easier maintenance of existing customers. Comment by Author: Really? Comment by Author: You introduce here the strength of the company in terms of CRM, but why do you investigate the CRM problems that the company has been facing? You need to give some introductions as well – as mentioned, why your RQs are necessary and important?

There are different methods that are used in enhancing customer relationships. One is live assistance of the customers. This is a good way that customer relationship officers use to boost customer engagement. Waskito (2018) contends that businesses using visual engagement tools mark an 83% year-on-year increase in annual revenue and achieve 2.7 times greater annual improvement (decrease) in customer effort scores. Visual engagement involves communicating with customers visually in the form of screen sharing, Co-Browsing, or face-to-face video conferencing (Lockwood, 2004). The use of visual tools in assisting customers is adopted in organizations and businesses in order to save on time for employee interaction as in the comfort of their places. They can interact with the businesses by use of video tools. Video tools involve a one on one interaction between the customer and the organization officer by the use of videos for live assistance (Kotorov, 2003). This saves the time they would have used traveling to meet customer service officials physically. Customers will thus appreciate what does not waste their time. The use of visual engagement tools makes it easy for customers to troubleshoot their software or accounts, as well as to ask any questions they have about their transactions (Abhyanker, 2008). This contributes to CRM by ensuring that customers are satisfied with the services offered. Comment by Author: Please explain this. Not clear what it exactly means Comment by Author: Any difference with “live assistance of customers”? Please specify, otherwise it is confusing

Another method of CRM is the automation of customer support. This is a method of customer support provided by an automated system like a chatbot and other artificial intelligence software (Taylor, 2015). Today, technology has taken over the world, and businesses are also striving to cope with the technology pace and improve customer experience and support. When there is a delay in customer support delivery, the customers tend to give up with the given business and leave dissatisfied (Abe, 2008). Automating customer support using software like chatbots can redefine your customer satisfaction rates by improving your response times, engagement, and your customers’ interests (Plakoyiannaki, 2006). The businesses develop systems that are fitted with the most commonly asked questions by customers. When customers log into the customer support system, they are first exposed to these questions to determine whether their inquiry is a part of these questions (Johnston, 2012). Since the questions have direct answers, the customer will not have to wait on line to get answers to their query. Automation of customer support also provides customers with procedures regarding business transaction processes and any other form of inquiry. This makes the experience of the customers better. Comment by Author: You need to explain like this for the previous one Comment by Author: Good

The other method of CRM is a continuous marketing engagement. Customer engagement entails both the physical and emotional connection of the customers to the given brand (Nabe, 2002). If customers are not well engaged in business, they are likely to raise a red flag, which will have a dire consequence to the business. These consequences may include finding an alternative, which is an advantage to the competitors. Actively disengaged customers cause disruption and dissatisfaction within the company (Angel, 2002). When a business gets customers, it is important to try and retain them for the betterment of the future operations of the given business. Royal customers are far more profitable if retained than looking for new customers and making them loyal (Waskito, 2018). As a result, the customer relationship management team must strive to retain loyal customers as they look for new ones, other than finding new ones at the expense of the old loyal customers, as it happens in many businesses. The more engaged the customers are, the happier they are, and the easier it is to retain them, recommend other customers, and buy more (Ivanovic, 2011). Providing a high-quality customer experience is an important component in customer engagement strategy (Peppard, 2000). Engagement can be done by listening to the comments of customers and responding to them. Comment by Author: Explain it Comment by Author: Not understandable Comment by Author: Any other methods?

Today, social media has become the most used form of media, and businesses are using it to enhance the customer experience. Social media can be defined as forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (Newell, 2000). The customers share both positive and negative experiences and reviews using the business social media and expect an immediate response from the business personnel (Diffley, 2018). When businesses improve on their use of social media and use them for customer service and not just for business satisfaction, they gain increased exposure for their customers. Social CRM is the involvement of social media in CRM (Reinartz, 2004). This is a way of improving customer relationship management to better business operations and gains. Social CRM supports CRM and customer interactions alongside traditional methods like phone calls (Kumar, 2010). In this case, the customers can choose what platform to use, depending on the ease of use. According to Berry (2000), a social CRM system helps businesses gather richer, actionable insight about customer sentiment on their company, their brand, and specific products or services. Comment by Author: What is the meaning? What is social CRM? Comment by Author: It is still unclear in this section how social media can manage customer relationships

The other causes of poor customer relationships in business are lack of delivery as per expectations and failure to focus on customer experience. The quality of services offered to customers matters a lot in the way the businesses relate with their customers. The hope of every customer is that they will receive the expected services and quality goods from the company they trade in (Bhat, 2016). If this is not the case, there is a rift created, and the relationship between the customers and the business is ruined. When promises are made to customers and not delivered, the customers tend to react in a negative way, and this rates the company negatively (Chen, 2003). In addition, the failure to focus on the experience of customers results in unreasonable customer relationships. Businesses should always follow up on the customers and find out how their experience was after every service delivery process (Diffley, 2018). This gives the business the ability to evaluate the process of service delivery and improve on any negative comment given by the clients. The customers are the main assets in a business, and they should thus receive such kind of treatment.

Good customer relationship management is very beneficial to the enterprise in the long run. When a business exercises good customer relationship management, it increases its efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability. When the customers are satisfied with the offered services, they tend to buy more from the given enterprise, thus increasing their sales (Dewnarain, 2019). Also, there is an increase in effectiveness and efficiency as customers are treated the right way and in a way they would like to be, thus improving their experience. Improved ability to target profitable customers, integrated offerings across channels and improved sales force efficiency and effectiveness (Plakoyiannaki, 2006). Good customer relationship management increases customer retention in an enterprise. There is no customer who will be willing to leave an enterprise where they are treated well and where their goals and targets are met (Ivanovic, 2011). Thus, the customers will be easily retained and recommend others to the enterprise as they are satisfied with the enterprise's services.

Good customer relationship management creates an excellent experience for the customers, both new and old. Enterprises that offer good customer relations management services find it easy to attract new customers in their business from competing businesses that lack such a form of services for their clients (Heimbach, 2015). In this case, they are existing customers who recommend their friend to the business, and when they are treated well, they are retained (Waskito, 2018). This increased the market share of the given enterprise, and in this case, they increase their production and profits. Coming up with an acquisition strategy that also promotes retention is a win-win scenario for everyone involved (Buttle, 2019). This encourages customers to recommend others as they are also benefiting from the referrals. Customer satisfaction should be an objective for every enterprise in its quest for growth. A good customer relationship management also offers an enterprise the improved ability to target profitable customers (Goldenberg, 2002). When there is a close relationship between the customers and the enterprise personnel, the customers are well examined and monitored regarding their purchase trends, delivery, and satisfaction levels. Losing some key customers is very costly to an enterprise, and these customers must thus be treated rightly to avoid losses to the company (Kolegayev, 2015). This can only be achieved if there is a good relationship with them, only achievable through customer relationship management to keep the customers on board and satisfied always. Comment by Author: Better to shorten the two paragraphs above and further discuss the consequence of unfavourable CRM

This research presents a contemporary review based on the literature examined in the in developing the literature review in the above section, which implies that the study embraces a qualitative approach towards data collection. As a way of obtaining a perspective of CRM as well as how its effective implementation affects Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd., four articles were selected. The rationale behind the selection of only four articles is based on the fact that they satisfied the inclusion criteria, especially in terms of their focus on the CRM implementation phase as well as higher rate of citation. The term “customer relationship management” was keyed into the Google Scholar and various research articles published on the google function searched. It was tremendously important to utilize the customer relationship management as the keyword for search because a mere usage of the acronym “CRM” could generate results that possess distinct meaning meanings from customer relationship management. The selected articles were then analyzed and coded as a way of identifying the various categories that the authors tended to discuss as recurring issue, including the number times that issue was mentioned. An analysis of the articles was conducted as a way of obtaining critical insights for the discussion section presented later in the paper. Comment by Author: So there is no empirical data like interview data? Comment by Author: How did you select those four articles? Comment by Author: Why Google Scholar only? Comment by Author: How did you filter out other articles? Comment by Author: How? Comment by Author: It seems you base your thesis on those four articles, but your research focus is Jidian. How did you answer your RQs regarding Jidian based on articles not specific to Jidian? This is very confusing. I think there is a mismatch between your RQs and methodology – simply, you cannot answer your RQs based on the current methodology unless you collect more empirical data from the company. This will largely influence the quality of this thesis

In the bid to obtain the most relevant articles to the topic understudy, the Google Scholar search engine was used. Developed by Google, the search engine is primarily aimed at finding scholarly literature, which include theses, abstracts, articles, and books. The search engine was selected on the rationale that it is effective in providing scholars with articles that best relate to a given keyword searched. After typing the term “customer relationship management”, the search engine produced numerous articles related to the search term, and the four articles that best fit the research topic were selected. The idea is that the four articles would result in the most relevant data that would result in findings that are consistent with the research objectives. Typically, a higher number of citations for a given article implies that the research has been utilized by many scholars in their studies, which means that citations form an important metric to show the relevance and significance of an article in contributing to a given topic. In other words, it shows that the content is more valid with respect to the research topic. All the selected articles for this study had more than 250 citations. Comment by Author: How did you know they “best fit”? Comment by Author: Not really. You need to judge based on your need

Table 1: Articles Selected

As pointed out earlier, this study embraced a qualitative approach that obtains information from literature review and four scholarly articles selected. The review of literature adheres to a basic guide, which implies that it gives this thesis a background, evaluation of data, and consolidating the literature information towards answering the research questions for the study. Through identifying the information gaps that are manifested in the articles reviews, the researcher is presented with a relevant path towards answering the research questions. To this end, this study is grounded on critical thinking skills, particularly in terms of reviewing and analyzing the information presented in the selected articles. The researcher was keen to organize the major points identified in the articles reviewed, and supported the individual arguments and perspectives based on research. For effective collection of information from the articles, the research read the selected sources keenly while making notes on the most important points that were discussed with respect to the research objectives. The information reflected in the notes made was compiled and presented in the discussion section of this thesis. Comment by Author: Unclear For example, in RQ1, you tend to identify the strengths of Jidian in CRM, but how did you find answers from the articles that are not specific to Jidian? Comment by Author: What research? Comment by Author: This is not a scientific data analysis method Normally, for qualitative data, we use NVivo to code them

The research method obtained for this research had numerous limitations, which may significantly affect the research findings. For instance, the low number of articles chosen for the study implies that the information obtained may not sufficiently respond to the research questions. Moreover, with CRM systems being part of the ongoing technological advancements, it may be asserted that there are significant knowledge gaps that are manifested in the field, meaning that there could not be a perfect approach or answer that may be utilized or standardized for all companies. As a matter of fact, there are numerous and different attributes that have to be taken into account within a CRM, which implies that only a few research articles have been able to focus on the CRM as a whole. Therefore, there is a limited number of articles that have focused on CRM, and a deeper understanding of the field could only be realized via a broader empirical background. The lower number of articles selected for this thesis, as well as the limited research conducted in the CRM field, shows that the reliability of this study may be limited to some extent. Comment by Author: Obviously, you know it Comment by Author: But is not the main problem. The primary issue is the mismatch between RQs and methodology. In addition, the selected methodology is not a scientific one Comment by Author: You can solve this problem by collecting empirical data Comment by Author: Yes, so why did not you do it? Comment by Author: If you cannot change the method, avoid mentioning it

Based on the analysis of the selected articles, it has been found that from the perspective of marketing, CRM plays an integral role in identifying and targeting best customers, especially in terms of finding new markets as well as strengthening the relationships between a company and its clientele. The four articles have revealed that CRM does not only facilitate the improvement of customer loyalty, but it also enhances the efficiency of a company. With CRM system in place, a company is presented with better opportunities of tracking diverse information within the organization, which in turn ensures that the company makes clear goals that facilitate better creation and management of sales. The availability of information through the CRM also helps in the realization of a higher value for the company and its customers, which ultimately enhances the process of product development.

The four articles also discuss CRM from a sales perspective. In this regard, the articles subscribed to the evidence-based finding that CRM is capable of increasing the sale rate because it facilitates a real-time sharing of information between employees, especially the information related to various customer interactions. With effective implementation of CRM, the articles agreed that the customer confidence is significantly boosted because they are able to obtain update via their accounts on a real-time basis. To this end, a company is bound to gain good reputation, which increases its revenue per every call made by a sales representative.

Another CRM perspective that comes out from the four articles relates to field services. In particular, the four articles acknowledge the fact that CRM plays an integral role in emphasizing customer satisfaction through addressing all customer concerns and problems within the least time possible. Thanks to the CRM system, employees within the management and service portals are smoothly integrated in a system that presents them with more information towards addressing work-related issues. Additionally, such information ensures that employees are presented with answers that can be given to both internal staff and consumers, which decreases the length of calls and enhances transparency of any changes that may have occurred such that customers are kept on the loop regarding their entire journey with a given brand.

From the four articles, the customer support perspective from the usage of CRM system is also manifested. In this regard, the articles suggest that CRM system enhances transparency in the flow of information, which helps in strengthening the individualized issues that may arise. In addition, with an effective CRM system in place, organizations tend to experience increased known issues and solutions, which are bound to make the support more efficient. Therefore, an organization that adopts and effectively implements CRM is presented with greater opportunities of taking care of most of the problems that may be experienced by the customers. In addition, the company may be better placed to lower the costs associated with staffed support. The collection of feedback regarding consumer satisfaction from diverse help-forums may consolidate vital information that is required in developing the effective channels of customer support.

Knowledge is one of the key attributes that came up in the review of literature. In this regard, when managers and employees have the access to information that is obtained from a given knowledgebase, they are more equipped to have solutions to various concerns that may arise along the journey of their interactions with customers. With a CRM system in place, the implication is that all employees have a joint platform that gives all employees identical information, thus increasing their effectiveness in terms of dealing with various information challenges that may be experienced within the company. When all employees have the same information, the implication is that there is an improved speed of response to new needs of the customers. This simply means that the organization exhibits more flexibility. Additionally, the effective integration and implementation of CRM enhances the spread of general information, with the entire organization presented with more opportunities of working united with various underlying issues as opposed to a given department at a time.

The concept of company communication is also discussed in the four articles analyzed in the study. In particular, the analysis of the articles reviewed identifies two elements of company communication. Firstly, CRM has the capacity of changing a company’s workflow, which requires that the various departments remain open with information such that it is shared across all departments within the organization, with a consistent dialogue necessary towards ensuring that every department fully takes advantage of the underlying potential. Secondly, any company, regardless of its size, may spread its offices across various parts of the world whereby those offices are treated as if they were a single department within a huge facility. The aspect of company communication emphasizes on the cross-functionality within an organization, which implies that such communication is concerned with both external and internal communication.

The four articles also talk about the CRM aspect of feedback. In this regard, the working effectiveness of a company’s CRM system and methods is largely dependent on customer feedback from both the customers and in-house users of the system. The feedback plays an integral role in facilitating the evolution and sharpening of the various tools that an organizations utilize in their various endeavors. Because of ethical constraints, it may not be possible to execute perfect monitoring of all customers. To this end, the amount of feedback that is obtained may play an integral role in facilitating continuous improvements of the CRM while also improving the flexibility for faster and efficient changes based on the dynamic needs of the consumers.

The strength of customer relationship management can be measured according to customer satisfaction and the retention of customers. Companies with a strong CRM that is well manned have a lot of ease managing their customers and have stable customers. Having stable and satisfied customers helps a company to have a well schemed production and rating. This also raises the revenue of the company and creates a very easy referral to other customers; thus, increasing the number of available customers for the company products. Jidian（Chongqing) Co., Ltd. is one of the world's companies that can be described as having good CRM and being able to retain its customers. This can be proven by the company's continuous growth around the world after about 20 years of existence in the chemical and pharmaceutical equipment and machinery production. The good CRM has been attributed to several activities which are undertaken by the CRM team and the management at large to manage the customers and satisfy them.

One of the CRM strengths at the company is the company's implementation of the technology and software in order to improve on its CRM. The company uses CRM software to improve its customer satisfaction and retention. One of every company's key goals is to have a direct and close connection with its immediate customers. The company has identified its key customers, who are companies involved in the chemical and pharmaceutical field. These companies have to be convinced of why they should rely on the products from the company and not any other companies. To maintain this, the company has implemented a CRM software to communicate directly with clients, which has ensured the adoption of an integrated approach to identify, acquire, and retain consumers. The CRM software has helped the company in dealing with as well as coordinating customer interactions across different geographies, lines of business, departments, and channels. As such, the company has been able towards maximizing the value of all consumer interactions while also driving superior corporate performance. This software is also used in the company to track the progress of the shipped equipment and machinery to other countries.

The other major strength with CRM at the company is the continuous engagement of customers. The company has managed to gain very loyal customers over time as a result of their engagement with the customers. The company uses different mechanisms to engage customers. When a customer makes an inquiry about the company products, they are well responded to and are well guided on the purchase procedures in the company as well as the numerous shipping alternatives to choose from. The engagement is done through the most appropriate communication channels such as emails, phone calls, one-on-one conversation, or even text messages to the individual customer, which facilitates good communication without straining the customer. When a delivery is done, the CRM team engages the customer through an email to inquire from them the state of the equipment and the customer's satisfaction level. Also, in case there is a delay or an expected delay of products to a customer, the customer receives reports about the same accompanied by a well detailed apology showing the reasons for such a delay. The customers thus feel valued by the company. There is also constant communication with customers when there is a new product, offers, and discounts that could be useful to the customer.

The other CRM strength at the company is the use of social media to communicate with customers. Technology is fast changing and the creation of social media platforms has emerged to be a very useful mode of communication for businesses. According to the CRM manager, the company’s social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are not only used for advertisements of the company products but also for communication with the customers and to have a quick interaction with the customers. This is because the company posts information related to new products and any relevant information that customers may need to know via the social platforms. The company assures customers of fast response to their queries anytime through the social media platforms within a period of 24 hours. This gives the company time to respond to the customers substantially and avoid rushed responses to customer concerns. The customers are always linked through the company’s social media accounts and this makes the communication easier for the company.

The other strength that is used by the company to manage the customers has well priced products. According to the sales team at the company, the prices of the equipment and machines produced by the company are of competitive quality in the market. There are many discounts which are offered to the customers, especially on bulk purchases of the machine and equipment. The customers are thus easily retained, and the competition with the other companies producing similar machines and equipment is enhanced. This also makes it easy for the customers to refer other customers to the company for purchases, which continues to grow the company. All these strengths in CRM are enhanced and assured from good management and communication which are key in customer relationship management. The CRM team is friendly and considerate to the customers. The team communicates well and politely to the customers, which creates a friendly and calm environment for the team's engagement with customers, regardless of the weight of the matter that is being addressed in the communication. The CRM team is thus well informed of the customer experiences and what needs to be improved on.

There are several problems that are experienced with CRM at the company. To some extent, these problems have slowed down the growth process and reduced the rate of customer acquisition in the company. It is true that the company has made major strides in CRM and has gained numerous customers, but if not for the problems in CRM, the company would definitely be at a different level both in customer acquisition, retention, and overall revenue generation. The project team which runs the CRM software is quite challenging. Just like in a good number of companies using the CRM software, the Information Technology (IT) team is directly involved and a major part of the CRM project team. The direct involvement of the IT team in the execution of key CRM functions presents a primary challenge in the organization. The IT experts should not lead the CRM project, but should rather just be playing a supporting role in ensuring that the project runs well. The CRM project should be fully run and manned by the sales management team, which is in direct contact with the clients and understands the clients' communication process professionally. It is thus important to clearly define the different roles which should be played by the IT and sales management teams in CRM towards solving the challenge. The IT team should be present to ensure that the tool is running normally and not to operate it, which is sales management's role.

The other major problem with CRM at the company is finding the right solutions to the CRM challenges. Solutions to challenges facing customers are always unique depending on the company and the field of operation. The solutions which are possible in one company may not work well in another. Finding the right solution and solution partner will determine whether the processes produce desired results or not. For instance, a good should embrace such metrics as net new revenue, upsell rate, customer retention, length of sales cycle, customer lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, as well as time of recouping customer acquisition costs. Like most other companies, once faced by a challenge in the CRM field, the company customer relationship management team tends to copy from other companies the solutions they applied when faced by a similar challenge, which include the techniques to handle customer issues on the software. This does not work in most of the circumstances, which may the problem even greater. Not solving CRM problems rightly and timely can cost the company a lot, which may even be very hard to recover from within a short period of time.

The other problem in the CRM at the company is the delayed delivery of products to customers. This is because CRM systems are usually very slow, especially when he server power is not sufficient to facilitate faster responses to different commands. When customers place and order, they have a clear expectation, especially on the delivery time. However, there are challenges experienced within the company or in the transportation process that may delay deliveries. This is a common challenge for most companies that ship products overseas as they use transport mechanisms that they have little or no control of. This may result into delays in the delivery time for the products. As a good CRM team, communication is kept constant at the company in case of such an occurrence. However, these delays in delivery inconvenience the customers as they are either waiting to sell the products or to use them to enhance their operations. These inconveniences may yield a negative relationship between the customers and the company, resulting in major customer relationship management problems. This is a challenge that faces the company from time to time although the communication is always constant as the CRM software tool keeps tracking of the deliveries at all times, giving customers some assurance of deliveries.

Just like any other organization, the company should emphasize on getting the best from its CRM system. To realize this, the company should ensure that its CRM software can be easily used by the employees. In particular, the company needs to undertake research regarding the possible CRM return on investment (ROI) for all the concerned employees and departments before the software is purchases. Finding out what every user wants from the CRM software, as well as identifying what the software needs to accomplish for the users is an important attribute that should be taken into consideration to eliminate challenges that may compromise effective adoption and implementation of the CRM software. Indeed, the company should customize or design the CRM software while keeping the end-user in mind. As such, the CRM software adopted by the company needs to be capable of fitting the needs of all the users, particularly those who use the system more often.

To improve the effectiveness of the CRM system, the company should consider offering CRM training to each employee. Consistent training of the company’s employees will play an integral role in ensuring that they effectively use the CRM effectively, which significantly boosts its outcomes like improved communication with the customers. With a proper know-how on the usage of CRM system among employees, the company will be presented with the opportunity of effectively tracking customer behavior across sales cycle. Before making sales calls to the customers, there is a need to obtain information and data regarding the prospect on social media, which provides fundamental information that provides the company with a better understanding of the current needs of the consumers as well as the ability to predict future needs with a significant degree of certainty and accuracy.

Many companies make the mistake of thinking of – or using – CRM system as a standalone system for sales automation. In this regard, the company needs to move away from the assumption that CRM starts and stops with basic roles like sales and tracking communication with customers. To this end, all the departments in the company must be kept in the loop, which ensures that they fully access the system. This attribute facilitates proper integration of the CRM with various client-informing or client-facing systems. Through ensuring that all employees are integrated into the CRM systems helps in ensuring that everyone in the company is aware of the recent changes to the interactions made with each customer, which ensures that the company maximizes on all the opportunities related to the engagement and establishment of relationships with the customers.

The company should also consider integrating its CRM system with social medial platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among others. This provides the system users with an opportunity of inserting information like email address of new customers as well as detecting the various social media profiles that are linked to the email address. Through accessing the social media profiles of new contacts, the company may identify where such contacts and leads post frequently. The company may also consider adopting a cloud-based CRM system with mobile capabilities, which provides users with an opportunity of easily tracking the customer interactions as well as enhancing the management of files, projects, opportunities, proposals, and leads from various devices at any time.

CRM is a crucial part of every company, and as to be well managed to ensure customers are satisfied. Each business should be ready to invest in customer relationship management if they want to retain their customers and increase their profitability levels. By use of technology, businesses can improve on the experience of their customers by live assistance to limit the time spend seeking services physically, automating customer support for easy access, as well as engaging the customers continually and using social media support. This will help avoid unreasonable customer relationships resulting from poor treatment of customers, resulting in a loss of clients. A good customer relationship management assures a business of customer retention and high profitability rates. The strengths in CRM should be majored on and improved as the company works on making its weaknesses in CRM stronger aspects of the company. The CRM challenges at the company are not too intensive as compared to the strengths and this has boosted the growth of the company and retention of employees. The problems are also not deeply rooted and thus, it is easy to tackle them and even turn them into company strengths.

The integration of CRM in the company will be associated with diverse theoretical and practical implications. For instance, implementation of the CRM will increase the company’s capabilities in terms of delivering personalized and consistent customer experiences across various channels. More importantly, the integration of the CRM system in diverse departments in the company will help in ensuring that all the employees have a full picture of customer information and interactions, which enhances a seamless customer experience. From a practical perspective, the effective implementation of the CRM software will lead to increased customer retention and sales because customer interactions and concerns will be addressed more seamlessly. Additionally, the CRM facilitates automation of various tasks in the company, which leaves the employees with more time that may be utilized to close sales and increase sales productivity.

There are numerous limitations in this research. Firstly, the research was largely based on existing literature, which implies that any biases inherent in some of the research sources may have been replicated in this paper. Secondly, the implications of CRM usage were concentrated on only one company, thus limiting how the system may influence other companies. Future research may need to focus on the effect of implementing CRM system on a specific department, say Human Resources (HR), in the company.

Abe, N., & Pednault, E. P. (2008). U.S. Patent No. 7,403,904. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Abhyanker, R. V. (2008). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/809,827.

Angel, M., Kay, D., Chmaj, J., LuVogt, C., & Trempont, D. (2002). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/081,125.

Berry, M. A., & Linoff, G. S. (2000). Mastering data mining: The art and science of customer relationship management. Industrial Management & Data Systems.

Bhat, S. A., & Darzi, M. A. (2016). Customer relationship management. International Journal of Bank Marketing.

Buttle, F., & Maklan, S. (2019). Customer relationship management: concepts and technologies. Routledge.

Chen, I. J., & Popovich, K. (2003). Understanding customer relationship management (CRM). Business process management journal.

Dewnarain, S., Ramkissoon, H., & Mavondo, F. (2019). Social customer relationship management: An integrated conceptual framework. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(2), 172-188.

Diffley, S., McCole, P., & Carvajal-Trujillo, E. (2018). Examining social customer relationship management among Irish hotels. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Goldenberg, B. J. (2002). CRM automation. Prentice Hall Professional.

Heimbach, I., Kostyra, D. S., & Hinz, O. (2015). Marketing automation. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 57(2), 129-133.

Ivanovic, A. (2011). U.S. Patent Application No. 12/887,905.

Johnston, J. M. (2012). U.S. Patent No. 8,171,022. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Khodakarami, F., & Chan, Y. E. (2014). Exploring the role of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation. Information & management, 51(1), 27-42.

Kolegayev, D., & Sarangadharan, S. (2015). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/066,808.

Kotorov, R. (2003). Customer relationship management: strategic lessons and future directions. Business Process Management Journal.

Kumar, V. (2010). Customer relationship management. Wiley international encyclopedia of marketing.

Lockwood, R. F., Kerven, D. S., Oman, G. M., Purvines, V. E., Small, D. R., Smith, L. O., ... & Wrather, J. L. (2004). U.S. Patent No. 6,694,234. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Nabe, O., Fogarty, D., & Samra, B. (2002). U.S. Patent Application No. 09/828,414.

Newell, F. (2000). Loyalty. com: Customer relationship management in the new era of Internet marketing (Vol. 577). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Payne, A., & Frow, P. (2005). A strategic framework for customer relationship management. Journal of marketing, 69(4), 167-176.

Peppard, J. (2000). Customer relationship management (CRM) in financial services. European Management Journal, 18(3), 312-327.

Plakoyiannaki, E., & Saren, M. (2006). Time and the customer relationship management process: conceptual and methodological insights. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Reinartz, W., Krafft, M., & Hoyer, W. D. (2004). The customer relationship management process: Its measurement and impact on performance. Journal of marketing research, 41(3), 293-305.

Taylor, J., Roberts, J., Oram, C., Gupta, A., Itani, M., Baroudi, S., & Smith, R. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 8,972,876. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Thakur, R., & Workman, L. (2016). Customer portfolio management (CPM) for improved customer relationship management (CRM): Are your customers platinum, gold, silver, or bronze? Journal of Business Research, 69(10), 4095-4102.

Verhoef, P. C. (2003). Understanding the effect of customer relationship management efforts on customer retention and customer share development. Journal of marketing, 67(4), 30-45.

Wang, Y., & Feng, H. (2012). Customer relationship management capabilities. Management Decision.

Waskito, K. S. (2018). The Impact of Customer Relationship Management on Organization Profit of in Somali. J Entrepren Organiz Manag, 7(221), 2.