Directions (): Read the following passage and answer the questions accordingly.
Business always starts and closes with customers and hence the customers must be treated as the King of the market. All the business enhancements, profit, status, image etc. of the organization depends on customers. Hence it is important for all the organizations to meet all the customers’ expectations and identify that they are satisfied customer. Customer satisfaction is the measure of how the needs and responses are collaborated and delivered to excel customer expectation. It can only be attained if the customer has an overall good relationship with the supplier. In today’s competitive business marketplace, customer satisfaction is an important performance exponent and basic differentiator of business strategies. Hence, the more is customer satisfaction; more is the business and the bonding with customer. Customer satisfaction is a part of customer’s experience that exposes a supplier’s behavior on customer’s expectation. It also depends on how efficiently it is managed and how promptly services are provided. This satisfaction could be related to various business aspects like marketing, product manufacturing, engineering, quality of products and services, responses customer’s problems and queries, completion of project, post delivery services, complaint management etc.
Customer’s perception on supplier helps the customer choose among the supplier on basis of money value and how well the delivered products suit all the requirements. The supplier’s services never diminishes after the delivery as customer seeks high values post marketing services which could help them use and customize the delivered product more efficiently. If he is satisfied with the post marketing services then there are good chances for supplier to retain the customers to enhance repeated purchases and make good business profits. It is necessarily required for an organization to interact and communicate with customers on a regular basis to increase customer satisfaction. In these interactions and communications it is required to learn and determine all individual customer needs and respond accordingly. In case if the products are identical in competition markets, satisfaction provides high retention rates. For example, shoppers and retailers are engaged with frequent shopping and credit cards to gain customer satisfaction, many high end retailers also provide membership cards and discount benefits on those cards so that the customer remain loyal to them.
Higher the satisfaction level, higher is the sentimental attachment of customers with the specific brand of product and also with the supplier. This helps in making a strong and healthy customer-supplier bonding. This bonding forces the customer to be tied up with that particular supplier and chances of defection very less. Hence customer satisfaction is very important panorama that every supplier should focus on to establish a renounced position in the global market and enhance business and profit. Every business unit emphasizes on spurting a long term relationship with customers to nurture its stability in today’s blooming market. Customer’s expectations are now not only limited to get best products and services, they also need a face-to-face business in which they want to receive exactly what they demand and in a quick time.
Customer Relationship Management is an upright concept or strategy to solidify relations with customers and at the same time reducing cost and enhancing productivity and profitability in business. An ideal CRM system is a centralized collection of all data sources under an organization and provides an atomistic real time vision of customer information. A CRM system is vast and significant, but it be can implemented for small business, as well as large enterprises also as the main goal is to assist the customers efficiently. Usually an organization consists of various departments which predominantly have access to customer’s information either directly or indirectly. A CRM system piles up this information centrally, examines it and then makes it addressable within all the departments. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an ‘Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal. Customer Relationship Management strategies have given a new outlook to all the suppliers and customers to keep the business going under an estimable relationship by fulfilling mutual needs of buying and selling.