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Journal of Business Management and Economics 4: 03 March (2016).
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JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS
Homepage: http://innovativejournal.in/jbme/index.php/jbme
Customer Relationship Management in Practice: A Study of Multicredit Ghana
Limited, a Micro Finance Institution in Ghana
1
Prosper Gameli Agbanu, 2Ogyamkpa Martin Ampomah, 3Peggy Dzifa Tagbotor, 4Peace Fiadzomor, 5Israel Kofi
Nyarko
1,2,3
Department of Management Studies, Ho Polytechnic, Ho Ghana
Ghana Education Service, Ga South District, Accra Ghana
5
Department of Marketing, Ho Polytechnic, Ho Ghana
4
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15520/jbme.2016.vol4.iss3.181.pp09-17
Abstract: Most organizations acknowledge that customer relationship management has become unavoidable part of business, but the importance
of its management is not yet understood by Senior Business Managers. The purpose of this study is to examine customer relationship
management in practice at the Multi Credit Ghana Limited Company in Kumasi. Twelve senior managers who were purposively sampled and
thirty sales personnel who were randomly selected were used for the study. A descriptive survey design which involved a case study was used
for the study. An interview schedule was used as the main instrument to collect data from the respondents and the data collected was analyzed
using qualitative and interpretative procedures. The results of the study revealed that five resources or competencies have shown key concerns
for customer relationship management in the company. The findings were CRM strategy formulation, planning process, top management
commitment and involvement, top management support for CRM and the relationship between CRM and business. The competencies and their
related attributes identified were used as mechanisms to explore CRM practical experiences in the case study institution, Multi Credit Ghana
Limited .It is recommended that single organization should not be used to study CRM issues which is a broad and complex concept.
Keywords: Customer Relationship, Top Management, Management Commitment, Business Managers, Competencies.
partnering relationships with their most important and
cherished customers. Despite the considerable interest in the
concept of CRM in the past two decades, researchers have
not yet reached a consensus view on what the term CRM
entails. An equally nagging problem is the terminological
fog surrounding the concept CRM. In fact in the marketing
literature, the terms ‘customer relationship management’
and ‘relationship marketing’ are often used interchangeably.
Nevin (1995) pointed out that these terms have been used to
reflect a variety of themes and perspectives. Some of these
themes offer a narrow functional marketing perspective
while others offer a perspective that is broad and somewhat
paradigmatic in approach and orientation.
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has attracted
the expanded attention of practitioners and scholars. This is
because more and more companies are adopting customercentric strategies, programs, tools and technology for
efficient and effective customer relationship management
(Peppard and Ward, 2004). Companies are realizing the
need for in-depth and integrated customer knowledge in
order to build close cooperative and partnering relationships
within their customers. Customer Relationship Management
covers a broad spectrum and the definition given by Peppard
and Ward (2002). Points to this fact, they define CRM as a
comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining,
and partnering with selective customers to create superior
value for the company and the customer. It involves the
integration of marketing, sales, customer service, and the
supply-chain functions of the organization to achieve greater
efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering customer value.
As is implicit in the above definition, the purpose of CRM is
to improve marketing productivity. Marketing productivity
is achieved by increasing marketing efficiency and be
enhancing marketing effectiveness.
In Customer
Relationship Management, marketing efficiency is achieved
because cooperative and collaborative processes help in
reducing transaction costs and overall development costs for
the company. Good customer relation leads to superior
mutual value creation. Customer Relationship Management
is therefore paramount to all financial institutions if they are
to be proactive in developing their business and building
Statement of the Problem:
Financial institutions have come a long way from the use of
CRM to improve operational efficiency and management
decision-making to bring about effectiveness. Recently,
CRM has been used to provide strategic advantage to
improve their competitive strategic advantage to improve
their competitiveness with their institutions. Ability to serve
customers has therefore made its way to the centre of
corporate strategy. It is necessary and imperative that
customer relationship is managed successfully. However, it
can be argued that whilst the above CRM processes are
fairly known, relatively few empirical studies have been
carried out particularly in Ghana to investigate whether
these principles and theories are followed by practicing
managers who are at the deep end of the business. This
study seeks to delve into how CRM processes, principles
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Prosper Gameli Agbanu et al, Journal of Business Management and Economics, 4 (03), March, 2016
and theories are followed in the MultiCredit Ghana Limited
in Kumasi.
opportunities; and various forms of partnering with
customers including co-branding, joint-marketing, codevelopment, and other forms of strategic alliances
(Miller,1993).
Purpose and Objectives of the Study:
The aim of this study was to examine customer relationship
management practices put in place at the MultiCredit Ghana
Limited, a Micro Financial Institution in Kumasi,the second
largest city in the Republic of Ghana. Specifically, the study
was designed to:
a.
Assess the roles and functions of the CRM
department of the MultiCredit Ghana Limited;
b.
Define those CRM processes which need to be
improved by top management of the MultiCredit
Ghana Limited; and
c.
Look at the strategies put in place to continue to
develop the CRM of the MultiCredit Ghana Limited.
Scholars from other academic disciplines, particularly those
interested in the area of information systems and decision
technologies, are also exploring new methodologies and
techniques that create efficient frontline information systems
(FIS) to effectively manage relationships with customers.
Several software tools and technologies claiming solutions
for various aspects of CRM have recently been introduced
for commercial application. The majority of these tools
promise to individualize and personalize relationships with
customers by providing vital information at every point in
the interface with the customer. Techniques such as
collaborative filtering, rule-based expert systems, artificial
intelligence, and relational databases are increasingly being
applied to develop enterprise level solutions for managing
information on customer interactions.
Significance of the Study:
The study is significant in that the empirical findings from
this study would help Board of Directors, Executive
Management of the MultiCredit Ghana Limited and those at
the top management position responsible for taking
decisions. The results or outcome of the study would help
them to come out with strategies and measures that would
enhance the CRM of the institution. The study focused on
one Micro Financial Institution but the findings and results
can be generalized and applied to other Financial
Institutions in the Ashanti Region and generally in Ghana,
as most conditions and CRM strategies in the Financial
Institutions remain the same.
As mentioned earlier, some of the views on CRM offer a
narrow functional marketing perspective while others offer a
perspective that is broad and somewhat paradigmatic in
approach and orientation. A narrow perspective of customer
relationship management is database marketing emphasizing
the promotional aspects of marketing linked to database
efforts (Smith, 1990). A narrow, yet relevant, viewpoint is to
consider CRM only as seeking customer retention by using a
variety of after marketing tactics that lead to customer
bonding or staying in touch with the customer after a sale is
made (Lee, 1991). A more popular approach with the recent
application of information technology is to focus on
individual or one-to-one relationships with customers that
integrate database knowledge with a long-term customer
retention and growth strategy (Miller, 1993). Thus, Porter
and Miller (1992) have defined relationship marketing as
“an integrated effort to identify, maintain, and build up a
network with individual customers and to continuously
strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of both sides,
through interactive, individualized and value-added contacts
over a long period of time”.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Meaning of Customer Relationship Management:
Before examining the conceptual foundations of CRM, it
will be useful to present the significance and different
perspectives of what is perceived to be CRM by relationship
marketing scholars, so as to justify the suitability of the
definition adopted for this study. The emergence of new
channels and technologies is significantly altering how
companies interface with their customers, a development
binging about a greater degree of integration between
marketing, sales, and customer service functions in
organization. For practitioners, according to Weiss and
Alder (1984) CRM represents an enterprise approach to
developing full-knowledge about customer behavior and
preferences and to developing programs and strategies that
encourage customers to continually enhance their business
relationship with the company. Marketing scholars are
studying the nature and scope of CRM and are developing
conceptualizations regarding the value and process of
cooperative and collaborative relationships between buyers
and sellers.
Porter (1985) applies the individual account concept in
industrial markets to suggest CRM to mean, “Marketing
oriented toward strong, lasting relationships with individual
accounts”. However, the objective o a company is not really
to prune its customer base to identify the programs and
methods that would be the most profitable as it creates value
for the firm and the customer. Hence, the definition of
CRM adopted for this study is that: “Customer Relationship
Management is a comprehensive strategy and process of
acquiring, retaining, and partnering with selective customers
to create superior value for the company and the customer.
It involves the integration of marketing, sales, customer
service, and the supply-chain functions of the organization
to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness in
delivering customer value”.
Many scholars with interests in several sub-disciplines of
marketing, such as channels, services marketing, businessto-business marketing, advertising, and so forth, are actively
engaged in studying and exploring the conceptual
foundations of managing relationships with customers.
They are interested in strategies and processes for customer
classification and selectively; one-to-one relationships with
individual customers; key account management and
customer business development processes; frequency
marketing, loyalty programs, cross-selling and up-selling
The emergence and Concept of CRM Practice:
As observed by Yin (194), developing customer
relationships has historical antecedents going back into the
pre-industrial era. Much of it was due to direct interaction
between producers of agricultural products and their
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customers. Similarly, artisans often developed customized
products for each customer. Such direct interaction let to
relational bonding between the producer and the customer.
It was only after the advent of mass production in the
industrial era and the advent of middle men that interaction
between producers and customers became less frequent
leading to transaction oriented marketing. In other words,
the production and consumption functions became separated
leading to the marketing functions being performed by
middlemen, and middlemen, in general, are oriented towards
economic aspects of buying since the largest cost is often
the cost of the goods sold. In recent years however, several
factors have contributed to the rapid development and
evolution of CRM.
These include the growing deintermediation process in many industries due to the advent
of sophisticated computer and telecommunication
technologies that allow producers to directly interact with
end-customers. For example, in many industries such as the
airline, banking, insurance, computer software, or household
appliances industries and even consumables, the deintermediation process is fast changing the nature of
marketing and consequently making relationship marketing
more popular. Databases and direct marketing tools give
these industries the means to individualize their marketing
efforts. As a result, producers do not need the functions
formerly performed by middlemen. Even consumers are
willing to undertake some of the responsibilities of direct
ordering, personal merchandising, and product use related
services with little help from the producers. The recent
success is on-line banking.
supplies, and the sale of services along with the individual
capital equipment. Customers have liked the idea of
systems integration and sellers have been able to sell
augmented products and services to customers. Then, the
popularity of system integration began to extend to customer
packaged goods as well as to services (Griffin, 1990). At
the same time some companies started to insist upon new
purchasing approaches, such as national contracts and
master purchasing agreements, forcing major vendors to
develop key account management programs (Peppard et al,
2000).
These measures created intimacy and cooperation in the
buyer-seller relationship. Instead of purchasing a product or
service, customers were more interested in buying a
relationship with a vendor. The key (or national) account
management program designates account managers and
account teams that assess the customer’s needs and then
husband the selling company’s resources for the customer’s
benefit. Such programs have led to the establishment of
strategic partnering within the overall domain of customer
relationship management (Lee, 1991). Similarly, in the
current era of hyper-competition, marketers are forced to be
more concerned with customer retention and loyalty (Shank
et al, 1973). As several studies have indicated, retaining
customers perhaps offers a more sustainable competitive
advantage than acquiring new ones. What marketers are
realizing is that it costs less to retain customers that to
compete for new ones (Peppard and Ward, 1999). On the
supply side it pays more to develop closer relationships with
a few suppliers than work with more vendors (Shank et al,
1973; Griffin, 1990). In addition, several marketers are
concerned with keeping customers for life rather than with
only making a one-time sale (Porter and Miller, 1985).
Charles Schwab and Meryl Lynch’s on-line investment
programs, direct selling of books, automobiles, insurance,
etc., on the Internet all attest to the growing consumer
interest in maintaining a direct relationship with marketers.
The de-intermediation process and consequent prevalence of
CRM is also due to the growth of the service economy.
Since services are typically produced and delivered at the
same institution, it minimizes the role of middlemen.
Between the service provider and the service user, an
emotional bond also develops creating the need for
maintaining and enhancing the relationship. It is therefore
not difficult to see that CRM is important for scholars and
practitioners of services marketing (Eisnedhart, 1989, and
Chan, 2002).
There is greater opportunity for cross-selling and up-selling
to a customer who is loyal and committed to the firm and its
offerings. In a recent study, Peppard and Ward (1999)
found that relational intensity increased in hospitals facing a
higher degree of competitive intensity. Also, customer
expectations have been changing rapidly over the last two
decades. Fueled by new technology and the growing
availability of advanced product features and services,
customer expectations are changing almost on a daily basis.
Consumers are less willing to make compromises or tradeoffs in product an service quality. In a world of ever
changing customer expectations, building cooperative and
collaborative relationships with customers seems to be the
most prudent way to keep track of their changing
expectations and appropriately influencing them (Kay,
1993). Finally, many large intentionally oriented companies
are today trying o become global by integrating their
worldwide operations. To achieve this they are seeking
cooperative and collaborative solutions for global operations
from their vendors instead of merely engaging in
transactional activities with them.
Another force driving he adoption of CRM has been the
total quality movement. When companies embraced the
Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy to improve
quality and reduce costs, it became necessary to involve
suppliers and customers in implementing the program at all
levels of the value chain. This created the need for closer
working relationships with customers, suppliers, and other
members of the marketing infrastructure. Thus, several
companies, such as Motorola, IBM, General Motors, Xerox,
Ford, and Toyota, formed partnering relationships with
suppliers and customers to practice TQM. Other programs
such as “just-in-time” (JIT) supply and “materials-resource
planning” (MRP) have also made use of interdependent
relationships between suppliers and customers (Davis,
1981). With the advent of digital technology and complex
products, the systems selling approach has become common.
This approach has emphasized h integration of parts,
Such customers’ needs make it imperative for marketers
interested in the business of companies that are global to
adopt CRM programs, particularly global account
management programs (Handy, 1993). Global account
management (GAM) is conceptually similar to national
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account management programs except that they have to be
global in scope and thus more complex.
from customers who demand to be selected. On the other
hand, other companies do have formalized processes of
selecting relational partners through the use of extensive
research and the evaluation of chosen criteria. The criteria
for partner selection vary according to company goals and
policies. They can range from a single criterion such as the
revenue potential of the customer to multiple criteria that
include variables such as customer commitment,
resourcefulness, management values, technological and
market leadership, national and global presence, strategic
value, and complementary business processes. When
several criteria are applied and a complex model developed,
it is necessary to test its validity based on strategic fit and
the distinctive competitive advantage to the firm.
The Purpose of CRM and its Operational Goals:
The overall purpose of CRM is to improve marketing
productivity and to enhance mutual value for the parties
involved in the relationship.
Improving marketing
productivity and creating values can be achieved by
increasing marketing efficiencies and/or enhancing
marketing effectiveness (Adair, 1986; Adam and Ebert,
1989). By seeking and achieving such operational goal as
lower distribution costs, streamlining order processing and
inventory management, reducing the burden of excessive
customer acquisition costs and by considering the
economics of customer retention, firms can achieve greater
marketing efficiencies. They can also enhance marketing
effectiveness by carefully selecting customers for their
various programs, by individualizing and personalizing their
marketing offerings to anticipate and serve the emerging
needs of individual customers, by building customer loyalty
and commitment; by partnering to enter new markets and
develop new products, and by redefining the competitive
playing field for their company (Porter and Miller, 1985).
Thus, stating the objectives and defining the purpose of
CRM in a company helps clarify the nature of the CRM
programs and activities that ought to be performed by the
partners. Defining the purpose also makes identifying the
relationship partners with the necessary expectations and
capabilities to fulfill mutual goals an easier task.
Furthermore, it helps in the evaluation of the CRM
performance. The results achieved can be compared to the
objectives. These objectives can be specified as financial
goals, marketing goals, strategic goals, operational goals,
and organizational goals.
CRM Performance Metrics:
CRM performance metrics provide inputs for strategic,
marketing and financial goals assessment.
Strategic Goal Metric:
Periodic assessment of results in CRM is needed to evaluate
if the programs are meeting expectations and if they are
sustainable in the long run. Performance evaluation also
helps in taking corrective action in terms of relationship
governance or in modifying relationship marketing
objectives and program features.
Without proper
performance metrics to evaluate CRM efforts, it would be
hard to make objective decisions regarding continuation,
modification, or termination of CRM programs. Developing
performance metrics is always a challenging activity as most
firms are inclined to use existing marketing measures to
evaluate CRM.
However, many existing marketing
measures, such as market share and a total volume of sales
may not be appropriate in the context of CRM. Even when
more CRM oriented measures are selected, they cannot be
applied uniformly across all CRM programs, particularly
when the purpose for each program is different. For
example, if the purpose of a particular CRM effort is to
enhance distribution efficiencies by reducing overall
distribution cost, measuring the programs impact on revenue
growth and the customer’s share of the business may not be
appropriate. In this case, the program must be evaluated
based on its impact on reducing distribution costs and on
other metrics that are aligned with those objectives.
Similarly, in the mass-market context, consumers expect to
fulfill their goals related to efficiencies and effectiveness in
their purchase and consumption behavior. Porter and Miller
(1985) contend that consumers are motivated to engage in
relational behavior because of the psychological and
sociological benefits associated with reduction in choice
decisions. In addition, to their natural inclination to reduce
choices, consumers are motivated to seek rewards and
associated benefits offered by CRM programs.
Relational Parties and Partners:
Customer partner selection (or parties with whom to engage
in cooperative or collaborative relationships) is another
important decision in the relationship formation stage. Even
though a company may serve all customer types, few have
the necessary resources and commitment to establish CRM
programs for all. Therefore, in the initial phase, companies
have to decide on which customer types and specific
customers or customer groups to focus their CRM efforts
on. Subsequently, when a company gains experience and
achieves successful results, the scope of CRM activities can
be expanded to include other customers in the program o to
include additional programs (Brady, 1986). Although
partner selection is an important decision in achieving CRM
goals, not all companies have a formalized process of
selecting customer partners.
By harmonizing the objectives and performance measures,
one would expect to see more goal-directed managerial
actions by those involved in managing the relationship. For
measuring CRM performance, a balanced scorecard that
combines a variety of measures bases on the defined
purpose of each program (or each cooperative/collaborative
relationship) is recommended (Handy, 1993). In other
words, the performance evaluation metrics for each
relationship or CRM program should mirror the set of
defined objectives for the program.
Financial Goals Metrics:
However, certain global measures of the impact of a CRM
effort by a company are also possible. Shank et al, (1973)
developed a model to suggest the asset value of cooperative
relationships to firms. If the cooperative and collaborative
relationship with customers is treated as an intangible asset
of the firm, its economic value-added can be assessed using
discounted future cash flow estimates. In some ways, the
Some select customer partners by following the intuitive
judgments of their senior managers and select other partners
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Prosper Gameli Agbanu et al, Journal of Business Management and Economics, 4 (03), March, 2016
value of relationships is similar to the concept of the brand
equity of the firm and hence many scholars have alluded to
the term relationship equity (Finch and Rhodes, 1992).
Although a well- accepted model for measuring relationship
equity is not available in the literature as yet, companies are
trying to estimate its value, particularly in measuring the
intangible assets of the firm.
department, data were captured from two Senior Managers
within each relevant functional department.
The choice of the MultiCredit Ghana Limited was
convenience sampling technique because the researcher was
once a customer to the above Micro Financial Institution. It
was therefore easy for the researcher to get access to the
respondents to conduct the interview and collect the
required data for the study. The selection of Top Executives
Managers to serve as respondents for the study was by
purposive sampling technique because they are the people
with requisite knowledge of the information required for the
study. Thus, the Top Executive Managers are the people
involved in strategic Customer Relationship Management
planning and have knowledge about the business impact of
CRM. The sales personnel were chosen using simple
randomize technique.
Marketing Goal Metrics:
Another measure used by firms to monitor CRM
performance is the measurement of relationship satisfaction.
Similar to the measurement of customer satisfaction, which
is now widely applied in many companies, relationship
satisfaction measurement would help in finding out to what
extent relational partners are satisfied with their current
cooperative and collaborative relationships. Unlike customer
satisfaction measures that are applied to measure satisfaction
on one side of the dyad, relationship satisfaction measures
could be applied on both sides of the dyad. Since both the
customer and the marketing firm have to perform in order to
produce the results in a cooperative relationship, each
party’s relationship satisfaction should be measured
(Mullins, 1996). By measuring relationship satisfaction
relationship satisfaction, one could estimate the prosperity
of either party to continue or terminate the relationship.
Such prosperity could also be indirectly measured by
measuring customer loyalty (Smith, 1990).
When
relationship satisfaction or loyalty measurement scales are
designed based on the antecedents, they can provide rich
information on their determinants and thereby help
companies identify those managerial actions that are likely
to improve relationship satisfaction and/or loyalty.
Interview schedule was the main instrument used to collect
data for the study. The use of interview was appropriate for
this study because it helped the researcher to explore live
experiences of top management personnel of the institution
concerning CRM. The interview schedule also provided the
researcher an opportunity to ask other probing questions and
get into the daily lives of the Top Executive Managers in
connection with issues pertaining to CRM. The interview
was conducted personally by the researcher to ensure
complete coverage and give an opportunity for the
researcher to interact with respondents. Because of time
constraints, top executives used help the researcher to
interview them one by one. The semi-structured interview
schedule used helps the researcher to pose similar questions
to all the respondents. The questions were framed in such a
way that they allow further probing questions whenever
clarification was necessary. Interview proceedings were
audio-taped and later transcribed.
METHODOLOGY
The study used a case study which applied descriptive
survey design. One-short descriptive survey within the
qualitative research tradition was used.
One-short
descriptive survey design was used since information was
collected from a single sample drawn from the population of
interest on only one occasion. A descriptive survey was
appropriate because the information gathered from the
sampled population was used to describe the opinion of the
customers in relation to the Customer relationship
management, the problem being addressed. The study was a
fixed on-experimental descriptive survey design,
Justification for the fixed non-experimental descriptive
survey because unlike an experimental (Cooper and
Schindler, 2001). There are considerable literatures in
support of the adoption of qualitative and interpretative
methods used in this study. This study also draws on the
strengths and limitations of a single case study to explore
CRM at MultiCredit Ghana Limited.
Data collected were analyzed using qualitative and
interpretative procedures and the results presented in chapter
four for discussions.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Assessment of CRM Practice in the Company:
The first stage of the data analysis examines the
organization in general and attempts to describe the
company’s impression concerning the practice of customer
relationship management.
This analysis is bases on
examining the transcribed interview data.
The overall mission, purpose and value of the company have
been articulated by the Executive Assistant to the CEO. The
managerial structure includes under the CEO, several
Directors. One of the directors among other things is
responsible for creating policies for all areas of the micro
financing and in charge of banking operation. Reporting to
this Director is the Customer Relationship Management
Director in only two levels under the CEO. The head of
CRM is responsible for formulating the company’s CRM
programs. The formation process of CRM refers to the
decisions regarding initiation of relational activities for a
firm with respect to a specific group of customers or to an
individual customer with whom the company wishes to
The target population fir this study was all top executives
staff, sales personnel and loan clients in the MultiCredit
Ghana Limited. However, this was not possible because of
time and resource constraints. Data were collected from
Top Management namely, Executive Assistant to the Chief
Executive Officer, Customer Relation Managers, Human
Resource Managers, Heads of Banking Operations, five
Branch Managers, and thirty sales personnel. In order to
strengthen the responses from the respondents in the same
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Prosper Gameli Agbanu et al, Journal of Business Management and Economics, 4 (03), March, 2016
engage in a cooperative or collaborative relationship.
Hence, it is important that a company be able to identify and
differentiate individual customers. In the formation process,
there are three important decision areas. The HRM Director
interview response with expression such as “our CRM
programme involves” the definition of the objectives of
engaging in CRM; selecting partners or customers or
customers for appropriate CRM programmes and relational
activating schemes for relationship engagement with
customers”.
was asked to explain how top management have
demonstrated their commitment to CRM within the
company, he has this to say: 224 people employed in our
five (5) branches to deliver what we need to deliver for
customers’ satisfaction. We’ve got commitment of money
to spend on customer care programs. Customer acquisition,
retention and strong customer relationship building is
another program so as to obtain customer loyalty. It is
argued that in customer care “technology investment cannot
strictly give a return on investment unless it replaces an
older technology and carried out the same functions more
efficiently” Griffin (1990).
The implication is that
identifying and quantifying the benefits of any system can
be a difficult and sometimes even impossible task. This is
because cost incurred by business departments in specifying,
testing and implementing the customer care programs are
rarely included adequately.
It is accepted and agreed among both management team and
the operational staff that CRM formation process offers
tremendous opportunities but that the organization has not
as yet capitalized on these opportunities. Paraphrasing on
account by a senior manager, he explains;
“I think at present, we are probably not at the lending edge
of CRM exploitations however, looking at the longer term
vision for where current retail banking is going, our
perception of CRM exploitation could be and should be
different”. In fact, when this manager was asked to
characterize what types of CRM programs do the company
has, he responded continuity marketing. This opinion can
be captured from two different statements made by both the
operation manager and the Executive Assistant. “The
customer satisfaction with the company is somewhere in
between highly satisfied with service level and cost and then
highly dissatisfied with service level and cost”. The CRM
function has a substantial reputation among business
management but then, it is not seen as satisfactorily
delivering what it promises.
Notwithstanding this difficulty, it would appear that
organizations are now recognizing the importance of
customer relationship management and therefore are
committing more resources for its funding. Not only have
top management shown their commitment to CRM
initiatives in this company but also to some degree
demonstrated their involvement in CRM practice. Asked
how top managers have demonstrated their involvement in
CRM programs two senior management gave these separate
examples. One of the values of our company is “customer
satisfaction is a top priority and it is on-going”. CRM plays
a role in our company’s future positioning. The company’s
future competitive positioning in this industry is to head the
competition. Currently, management has worked hard over
the years to become the third best micro finance company in
Ashanti Region. Remember, we started operating less than
10 years ago. It was due to strategic approach to customer
acquisition and building a strong relationship between the
customers and the management.
A careful review of the company’s practices suggests that
there are several types of CRM programs. Broadly
specified, the company’s CRM strategy fall into the
following categories: continuity marketing, one-to-one
marketing but not partnering programs. Each one of these
can take different forms depending on whether they are
meant for end-consumers, business-to-business customers
(Peppard et al, 2000).
A senior business manager indicated that “MultiCredit
Ghana Limited focus is on empowering and bringing
financial independence to its target customers. The company
has designed a range of financial products. The company is
able to grant loans with flexible repayment period speedily
and without the usual red-tapism associated with bank
loans”. Customer finance product is one of the quickest turn
around on loan disbursement in the savings and loans
industry. The management in consultation with the Board
of Directors has credit application by customers; loan
appraisal, collateral and authority for loan approvals have all
been modified. The purpose of the modification is to
improve the quality and speed of customer service, while
allowing the company to improve personnel efficiency,
productivity and maintain portfolio growth and quality.
Strategic CRM approach:
The 80/20 percent rule prevails whereby we have learnt that
20 percent of customers generate more than 80 percent of
the revenues for most companies and it is not uncommon to
find that an even lower percentage of customers can
generate more than 80 to 90 percent of the revenues. Under
such circumstances it is not prudent for a company to
allocate equal resources to all customers. The company’s
approach to CRM strategy formulation can enhance
marketing effectiveness by carefully selecting customers for
their various programs, by individualizing and personalizing
their market offerings to anticipate and serve the emerging
needs of individual customers by building customer loyalty
and commitment. The statement made by the HR Director
that “the small scale business customer remains the key
influence in developing CRM strategy” justifies the
company’s strategic plans for CRM.
Perception of CRM within the organization:
Top management has a clear expectation of CRM within the
organization. The strongest exception of customer care
manager’s performance in the company seems to be based
on a mutual exchange for profit. When a branch manager
was asked about his perception of customer relations within
the company? He said: “…… my perception about the
CRM is a clear phenomenon that seeks a mutual exchange
and fulfillment of promises in building and enhancing
relationship between our customers and the company”. His
Top management commitment, involvement and support
for CRM:
Overall, top management are seen as committed to customer
Relationship management process, when the CRM director
14
Prosper Gameli Agbanu et al, Journal of Business Management and Economics, 4 (03), March, 2016
views seemed to be shared by a Senior Human Resource
Manager who commented on senior management’s
perception of CRM performance as follows: “…… we
talked to our branch managers all the time, so it is not really
a perception, it is reality because, there is relational
exchange, communicating suggestions on services rendered
to customers and sharing of knowledge. The CRM manager
has contributed in maintaining customers, there is customer
loyalty and above all, there is a significant increase in
customer loans and deposits”.
generation, the CRM spend a lot of time working with each
other whether they like it or not”. Communication between
business and the CRM relatively present in dialogue, by
being two-way as business view CRM as providing input
into processes which as which suggest that cross fertilization
of knowledge between business and CRM is encouraged.
This observation was shared by the Executive Assistant
that; “the relationship between the head of CRM and top
management can be described as being trusting top
management can be described as being trusting, fertile,
synergistic and comfortable. A senior business manager
added that this relationship is… based on the understanding
of what is deliverable with the resource that we’ve got”.
From the above comments, regular informal contacts
between the CRM department and the company seem to be
good and mutual. This plays a valuable part on improving
alignment and mutual understanding as noted by Miller
(1993).
From the view point of the Branch Manager and the HR
manager, the quality of service in terms of customer
relationship management appears to be good. When the
Head of Banking Operations was asked to characterize
customer satisfaction with the customer care process of the
company, he made this observation: from the perspective of
reliability, service delivery is exceptional. Customers
commended us for early opening hours of 8:00 am. The
queues in the banking halls are reduced. Even if there is,
customers are made to sit comfortably for their turn.
Contributions of customer relations function in the
company:
As observed by Miller (1993), developing customer
relationships has a historical antecedents going back into the
pre-industrial era. Much of it was due to direct interaction
between producers of agricultural products and their
customers. Similarly, artisans often developed customized
products for each customer. In recent years however,
several factors have contributed to the rapid development
and evolution of CRM. These includes the growing deintermediation process in many organization due to the
advent of sophisticated computer and telecommunication
technologies that allow producers to directly interact with
end-customers.
CRM formation process:
The formation process of CRM refers to the decision
regarding initiation of relational activities for an
organization with respect to specific group of customers or
to an individual customers with whom the company wishes
to engage in a cooperative or there are three important
decision areas: defining the purpose (or objective) of
engaging in CRM; selecting parties (or customer partners)
for appropriate CRM programs; and developing programs (
or relational activity schemes) for when asked what types of
CRM programs do you have. The customer relation
manager answered…”we have one-to-one marketing where
our sales girls go round the city to prospective customers
and the existing customer to mobilize savings at their work
places and haves. We also have partnering programs in
place”.
Based on the contribution of the CRM in industries, a
serious IT manager was asked about his opinion on the
contribution of the CRM function to the company; he said
… personal experience with customer care is very good.
The CRM department has made it possible for the company
to promptly meet customer financing requirements.
Education of customers and other stakeholders in the
company’s financial position’. This is a clear indication of
good performance of customer relations function.
The Head of Marketing and Sales Force has conserved that
…since the customer remains the key to our success, all
kinds of customers being it small road side food vendor or
business-to-business customers are treated equally and given
the due care in order to retain them”. As observed Porter and
Miller (1985), Adam and Ebert (1989) improving marketing
productivity and creating mutual values can be achieved by
increasing marketing efficiencies and/or enhancing
effectiveness.
Relationship between CRM and the business:
A typical interaction between the business and the CRM
department both sides working together on customer relation
programs and under the same directives regarding what
needs to be done to manage the business. As a Senior
Manager described: “what we are doing in working a lot
closer with the CRM functional department so for example
we are working through the same chief executive revenue
Role and function of the CRM department:
It is believed that the values and beliefs of the role and
function of the CRM department define expectations.
Consequently, both the banking operations and the customer
relations department in the company were asked to comment
on what they saw as being the role and function of the
customer relations department. Table 1 summarizes the
result.
Table 1: Roles and Functions of CRM Department
CRM

Approach to develop full knowledge about customers’
behavior and references.

Strategies that encourage customers to continually enhance
their business relationship with the company.

To individualize and personalize relationship with
customers by providing vital information at every point in the interface
with the customer.
15
BANKING OPERATIONS

To provide key account management and customer
business development process.

To work on customer loyalty programs and acquisition

To support the business and operations of the company and
its customers.
Prosper Gameli Agbanu et al, Journal of Business Management and Economics, 4 (03), March, 2016
Table 1 show the roles and functions of CRM Department
summarize by responses from both the CRM and the
Banking Operations. From these responses, the general
view of the customer relation department is seen as being
strategic to the success story of the organization. The
customer relations department helps in the creation of value
for both the customers and the company.
CRM governance is staff training, performance of every unit
of the organization’s operation and finally, staff motivation
in order to successfully carry out the CRM governance.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, the results agree with that of Peppard and
Ward (2004) and Chan (2002) that “managing customer
relation function and delivering business value, is essentially
a set of knowledge based activities; a complex and multidimensional set of tasks and processes, incorporating many
different but interdependent types of knowledge. It involves
integrating and coordinating knowledge from many
individuals from different disciplines and backgrounds with
varies experiences and expectations located in different
branches of the organization”. This demand a close
partnership between CRM staff and the business staff at all
levels, both in formal processes and informal working
relationships and indicates why it is necessary to have a
close relationship between customer care professionals and
other employees. From the findings and conclusions of the
study, it is recommended that:
a.
The data collection procedure developed should not
be keyed to the CRM resource/competence and their
interdependencies but should accurately be structured
to represent the situation that exists in the company.
This will ensure that the research design adhered to
procedure for validity of case study recommended by
Yin (1994) and Eisenhardt (1989) that multi sources
of evidence should be used during the conduct of the
case study.
b.
The methodology employed could lead to possibility
of some vital information could be misrepresented
because data was captured mostly from Senior
Management and operational staff. More customers
should be involved in the study to ensure fair
representation of the view of all stakeholders of the
company.
c.
The approach of using CRM resources/competencies
and their attributes highlighted in this study as a
means of gaining insight into CRM may place
restriction of the outcome of the study. Other aspects
such as the organization culture and flexibility
recommended by Powell and Dent-Micaleff (1997)
could be implored to enhance the richness of the
study.
d.
The financial and time constraints as a result of
continuous postponement of interview schedule due
to more people want to conduct research into the
operations of the company.
e.
In order to avoid issues of potential biases and
misrepresentation of information, responses should be
separated into biased-opinion responses and more
realistic comments.
f.
Using a single organization to explore such broad and
complex concepts is not the ideal approach to gaining
in-depth and insight into CRM issues.
CRM Governance department:
Customer relationship management is developed, managed
and governed. The degree to which these governance
responsibilities are shared or managed independently will
depend on the perception of the norms of the governance
processes among the relational partners given the nature of
the CRM program and the purpose of engaging in the
relationship. When the customer relation manager was asked
where does the management responsibility of your
relationship programme lie and why? She responded that
…”the responsibility lies with the Senior Management and
why because not all customer relationship management
should be managed alike.
Whether management or
relational partners jointly undertaken or involved in the
governance process raises some issues that must be
addressed. When asked what are the issues that must be
addressed? She explained that issues concerning planning
process, employee motivation and the purpose of engaging
in the relationship”
From the observations made by the customer relations
manager, it is quite interesting to find out that the CRM
governance is a reserve responsibility of the senior
management. The customer involvement as a partner is
limited.
Perceptions of CRM within the organization:
Scholars from other academic disciplines particularly those
interested in the area of information systems and decision
technologies are also exploring new methodologies and
techniques that create efficient Frontline Information
System (FIS). Several software tools of CRM have recently
been processes for customer classification and selection and
selectivity.
One-to-one relationship with individual
customers; key account management, loyalty programs and
various forms of partnering with customers. It is important
that a company be able to identify and differentiate
individual customers, in this formation process, the
company have deigned one-to-one marketing, business-tobusiness for small and micro companies. The objectives of
the CRM formation process are to build customer loyalty
and commitment, reduce customer acquisition costs and
then to control economics of customer retention costs.
Management has agreed that the only way to stay on top and
in business is from the customers hence customer
relationship management.
Relationship management governance processes in the
organization:
The company’s responsibility of planning, formulation,
developing and implementing of CRM processes is an issue
which rested on the shoulders of the top management. The
control power of CRM process is not a shared responsibility
of senior business managers and the customers. The issues
that are addresses by the senior management concerning
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