Crm Assignment free essay sample

Introduction Student banking is an important aspect of banks and students because it provides a suite of financial, educational and social engagement services that collectively help students to better understand banking and how to smartly interact with finances. In this regard, FNB should attract, acquire, satisfy and retain students because they represent future profitability if successful relationships are created. However for this to be done, the bank needs to successfully market itself to this target segment by giving them reasons to bank with FNB, offer incentives to students and offering value added benefits that best satisfies the students’ needs. It is imperative that FNB create a sense of trust and commitment by tailoring products and services that are affordable, more customer focused; that help develop the next generation by giving them much needed financial skills. Trust may stimulate students to try new or available products and services thereby being loyal and growing together with the bank if satisfied. We will write a custom essay sample on Crm Assignment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This helps to build a relationship between FNB and students. A successful relationship between students and FNB is important in the migration of the target market from their life start accounts to other accounts after completion of tertiary education and joining the corporate world. Further, timing and communication channels, as well as core value-chain aspects will be discussed. The strategy will also focus on the importance of service delivery, securing of customer focus, and building customer relationships. Timing and communication channels As markets expand and competition and communication channels increase, FNB will need to be able to keep track of current market trends and developments. FNB can use various direct communication tools and can map their current channel partners. With this knowledge they can identify the rising stars, i. e. the students as well as their general market and allow these markets to approach them pro-actively. Lead Generation is not a new part of the process, but it has a new approach. With FNB’s data knowledge and direct communication tools they will be able to select the most effective way of expanding this student target group. Conversion rates on leads have a higher conversion success rate than cold contacts because the prospect is pre-qualified, before you ever receive the lead (Linea-directa solutions, n. d. ). FNB should train and motivate their sales team, and provide them with intelligent tools that will make the process easier, and these teams should have constant support from top management. They should assist and guide their sales team at every stage of the sales process from profiling and qualifying the leads to closing the deals; from invitations to events, to developing and maintaining the customer relationship. Precise targeting will enable them to find their most positive leads and the best customers for upsell and cross-sell. With detailed reporting and improved market insight FNB can continuously improve their products and services to suit the needs of the student market. This data will not only support sales but it will also build the size and quality of their database. FNB can also acquire smaller banks to increase their general market share, and they could also have that acquisition specifically aimed and directed to handle the student market. It’s definately more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. This is why appropriate investment in FNB’s existing clients is so crucial, so that they can hold onto their current clients and build new ones at the same time, allowing their business to continually expand (Linea-directa solutions, n. d. ). If they keep existing clients happy and satisfied, positive word-of-mouth will flow attracting new customers. FNB’s communication programs should be aimed at getting maximum response through different communication channels, such as postal, web, email, elephone and now growing and very effective trends such as mobile and social media. These new trends work especially well with the student markets as they are actively involved in social networking sites. This will get FNB great coverage and interaction with this market. But these trends require accurate targeting and engaging content. In their dialogues and promotional communications materials FNB should focus on how they can best motivate their individual customer and call for their action. They should live up to their ‘How can we help you’ slogan, and really get down to helping when customers require the assistance. In today’s relationship marketing it is no more enough to track the experiences of your customers and learn about them. It is about enriching every interaction you have with your customers by welcome calls, helpdesk, customer service setup support, complete customer care, complaint handling, win-back programs. FNB should also try to engage their student market with educational yet fun and interactive games and problem-solving through social media sites and mobile applications. The student market is generally prone to participate in fun and rewarding competitions. FNB could attract the student market by teaming up with ‘party’ events and night clubs that will allow students discounts on entrance fee as well as drinks. This would be an effective way to communicate with this market and really grab their attention. The 6 core value chain aspects will now be discussed: Acquisition In terms of acquisition, CRM strategies should assist a bank to target customers based on the ‘value’ they bring to the organization, now and throughout the life of the customer. This will enable the bank to identify, target and capture new customers (Russ, 2006). Thus, FNB needs to ensure that their value propositions have traction with the right market segments, in this case the student or graduate market. Clearly, customer insight and strategy are the core differentiators for the bank. Therefore, the banks people, applications, systems and processes must support these strategies to get the right products and services to the right customer. FNB needs to offer the correct portfolio of products and services that’s at east as broad and of high quality as those of their competitors, to attract new customers as well as retain existing customers in both the general and student markets. According to Russ (2006), by doing this, a bank can safeguard the lifelong profit potential of these student markets. These markets represent the untapped revenue streams that can fuel a bank’s growth. Students are individuals who have very low income or no income at all; hence the purchasing behavior of students would vary to that of a businessman. In the banking world, choosing the right bank for the student can be difficult due to the numerous different types of accounts available. Thus, In-depth research needs to be done. Most students will make decision after obtaining various information such as: 1. Interest rate of the bank. Interest rate is basically a rate that the bank will pay the student on any of his saving accounts. This is represented in a percentage form and is dependent on the type of account one holds. Student in this case will try and open an account that will give them a higher interest rate. 2. Overdraft and loans