Method and system for building a database - Essay Example

Method and system for building a database Castle Bingo is the marketing wing of Castle Leisure. Castle Leisure had been incorporated in 1911 and it has celebrated its centenary year in 2011.Castle Bingo owns eleven modern bingo clubs in South Wales area and also at Barnes Hill in Birmingham, Bootle in Liverpool and Corby in Northamptonshire. Role, application and benefits of customer databases in relation to customer relationship management (CRM) and their use in organizations: The people associated with the profession of marketing are well are of the reality that how much important is the Customers Databases in relation to Customer Relationship Management. In fact it can be termed as the life blood for a marketing campaign and organizations other promotional activities. Indeed it is a dire need for each and every business to take into account the customers database tailored with state of the art customer relationship management software in order for that business to excel and prosper. Following are some important points related to customer database discussed under different heads, Role of Customer Database: Customers database plays a vital role in Customer Relationship Management. Customer database is a database marketing technique used to enhance market share by managing customer relations in an effective way. There are many methods available today to determine whether the employment of processes related to customer relationship management system are paying us back or we have wasted our money for nothing. Thus we should apply different methods to justify our return on investment (ROI) (Jon Anton and Natalie 2001). (1) Application of Customer Database: There are numerous applications of Customers Database in Customer Relationship Management. In fact the Customer Relationship Management systems are based on Customers Databases. There are two main steps towards implementation of customer relationship management system. Both systems involve cost. One step is the cost of training the customer service staff and customers their self and second is the step is the usage of this system and data base in such a way which can deliver desired results (Jon Anton and Natalie 2001). (2) Benefits of Customer Database: As far as benefits are concerned, Customers Database provides plenty of benefits regarding Customers Relationship Management. A cost-benefit analysis of Customer Relationship Management system and Customer Database has always been justified. There are a lot of benefits we can gain form customer database. But I am enlisting some important benefits of customer database, 1. Customer profiling is done through customer database. 2. Personalized Offerings can be made through customer database. 3. Building Relationships with customers is done through customer database. 4. Customer life-time value can be determined using customer database. (A Payne, P Frow, 2005) (3) Types of Customer Data: There are many types of customers data based on nature, use, source, application and importance. The following are some important types of customer data according to its use, 1. Loyalty Program Data 2. Insurance Policy Data 3. Customer Service Data 4. Customer Retention Data 5. Banking Industry Data 6. Customer Behavior Analysis Data (A Payne, P Frow, 2005) (4) Role of Customer Types in Profiling Customers, Personalizing Offerings, Building Relationships and Determining Customer Life-Time Value: There are many advantages of customer types. Customer types have a big role in profiling customers, personalizing offerings, building relationships and determining customer life-time value. Customer life-time value is an important database marketing technique. Customer profiling is based on building common definitions that groups of people will fit into. These are based upon age, race, income, housing choices, household structure and more. So customer database is generally organized through customer database. On the other hand personalized offerings, building relationships and determining customer life-time value can be determined after profiling customer is done. Life-Time value of customers is based on different techniques and analysis which are done through customer’s database. How Databases can be used to Select, Explore and Model Large Amounts of Data to Identify Relationships and Patterns of Behavior? Databases are very useful when it comes to select, explore and model large amount of data to identify relationships and patterns of behaviors of customers. Term database is used for some data which is well organized and which provides the select, edit, update and delete functions. So using all these functions it becomes so much easy to select, explore and model large amounts of data to identify relationships and patterns of behavior. Databases are very much intelligent programs. They keep track record of each and every search and other activity. So based on other activities a database can easily identify relationships and patterns of behaviors of customers. Ethical and Legislative Issues Involved in Data Collection: There are some important ethical and legislative issues involved in customer data collection. Some of those issues are challengeable in a court of law. Data collection must be done properly. The following key point should be kept in mind when conducting research, data collection and when contacting customers, Do not include fake data. Only report exact fact and figure. Do not force someone to give some information. Do not plagiarize or use copyright materials without permission Before you precede with the customers data towards planning process be sure, You have got exact data you needed about customers Your have used each possible source to get real information of customers Be sure you have designed the process of CRM appropriately Be sure you have chosen a right mean to contact customer. (Conflict.lshtm.ac.uk 2012)(5) Definition and Brief Discussion on Customer Relationship Management: Definition and brief discussion about customer relationship management is described below under separate heads, Definition: Customer relationship management can be defined as, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a business administration term for the tactics, software programs or typically internet based facilities that help an organization administer customer relationships in a planned approach. For example, a company can maintain the information related to its customer in such a way that sales force, employee and sometimes customers of that company can access that info to plan and execute customer targeting programs. Brief Discussion: Since customer relationship management is a vast topic therefore some of the key points about customer relationship management are discussed here. Customer relationship management enables its marketing department to target its finest customers, administer marketing and promotional campaigns and thus increase customers. Customer relationship management helps organization to increase and modify telesales shares, user accounts and sales administration by streamlining information from internal and external sources and reshuffling existing processes. It takes into account the configuration of individual affairs with customers and increases satisfaction among customers. It gives the employees all important information about customer in order to identify customer need and determine behavioral trends Elements and Benefits of a Customer Relationship Management: elements and benefits of customer relationship management are discussed below under separate heads, Elements: There are some important elements of customer relationship management. Customer relationship management comprises on four elements, (1) Know: know and understand your market needs and customer needs (2) Target: communicate the offer to target customers (3) Sell: provide exact what you had mentioned to the customers (4) Service: provide after sales the customers (A Payne, P Frow, 2005) (6) Benefits: There are a large number of benefits associated with a successful implemented customer relationship management system, 1. It is used to manage relationships with customers 2. It is used to improve relationships with customer 3. It is used to identify customers needs 4. It is used to satisfy customers needs 5. It used to conduct promotional activities 6. It is also used to conduct marketing activities 7. It is used to retain customers 8. It is also used to analyze customer behavior 9. It is widely used to target best customers 10. It is used to Increase sales of organization (A Payne, P Frow, 2005) (7) Some Famous Customer Relationship Management Software’s with some market fact and figures: Please read the following table for facts and figures related to customer relationship management software, (Gartner, Inc. 2008-09-12)(12) Company 2008 Revenue 2008 Share (%) 2007 Revenue 2007 Share (%) 2006 Revenue 2006 Share (%) Amdocs 451 4.9 421.0 5.2 365.9 5.6 Microsoft CRM 581 6.4 332.1 4.1 176.1 2.7 Oracle 1,475 16.1 1,319.8 16.3 1,016.8 15.5 Others 3,620 39.6 3,289.1 40.6 2,881.6 43.8 Salesforce.com 965 10.6 676.5 8.3 451.7 6.9 SAP AG 2,055 22.5 (−2.8) 2,050.8 25.3 1,681.7 25.6 Total 9,147 100 8,089.3 100 6,573.8 100 Benefits that Castle Bingo will Gain: The benefits of customers database and customer relationship management systems described in the start of this report are also achievable for Castle Bingo provided the prescribed implementation and operations process is followed. By using customer’s database in customer relationship management, Castle Bingo can, 1. Increase customers 2. Retain customers 3. Launch marketing activities 4. Launch promotional activities 5. Improve customer relationships 6. Identify customers need 7. Satisfy customer’s needs and wants 8. Analyze customer behavior 9. Target best customers 10. Increase sales (Robert C. Blattberg, Byung-Do Kim, Scott A. Neslin, 2008) (10) Ethical and Legal Issues Involved for Castle Bingo in using the Customer Information they Store for Future Marketing Activity: Customer database if not used properly can creates some serious ethical and legal issues. So some important set of instructions should strongly be followed whenever customer data is used. Following are some points that must be followed when contacting customer and conducting research to collect data. Data collection must be done properly. Do not include fake data. Only report exact fact and figure. Do not force someone to give some information. Do not plagiarize or use copyright materials without permission Before you precede with the customers data towards planning process be sure, You have got exact data you needed about customers Your have used each possible source to get real information of customers Be sure you have designed the process of customer relationship management appropriately Be sure you have chosen a right mean to contact customer. (Conflict.lshtm.ac.uk 2012)(20) Conclusion: After discussing all major topics associated with customer database and customer relationship management, we are now in a situation to derive a conclusion. If we follow the proper way to implement and operate the customer database and customer relationship management and take care of the ethical and legal issue associated with the use of customer data, we can easily launch marketing and promotional activities for our organization. We can identify and then satisfy the need of our organizations customers. We also can target our best customers using customer database, we can identify, analyze and satisfy the needs of customers, understand the behavior of the customers, we can conduct marketing and promotional activities and we can enhance our relationships with existing customers. Recommendations for Castle Bingo: Marketing and promotional activities have always been proved to be useful and successful for each and every company. Especially, a dedicated marketing and promotional wing (Castle Bingo) of a company like Castle Leisure; it is also important and fruitful to device and then implements a strategy like customer relationship management strategy using a good customer database. And organize and use customer database in such a way which is useful to get desired results. Customers need identification is very important part of each and every business nowadays. So customer need identification technique must be used by Castle Bingo. Customers need identification can be best done through a state of the art customer database attached to a customer relationship management. Once we get to know what customers need from us then it becomes easy to satisfy our customer by offering required services. To enhance sale and market share is another major function of every marketing company. So Castle Bingo must use more strategies using customer database and customer relationship management system to enhance sales and market share. To manage, modify and enhance relationships with customers is also important strategy to increase business so Castle Bingo should enhance relationships using customer database and customer relationship management system. Identification of behavior of the customer towards a product can also be done using customer database and customer relationship management system. Bibliography 1. Jon Anton and Natalie L. Petouhoff (2001), Customer Relationship Management: The Bottom Line to Optimizing Your ROI (NetEffect Series), Prentice-Hall, Inc.,NJ, USA 2. Jon Anton and Natalie L. Petouhoff (2001), Customer Relationship Management: The Bottom Line to Optimizing Your ROI (NetEffect Series), Prentice-Hall, Inc.,NJ, USA 3. A Payne, P Frow - Journal of marketing (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, JSTOR 4. A Payne, P Frow - Journal of marketing (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, JSTOR 5. Conflict.lshtm.ac.uk (2012), Ethical issues in data collection, 19th December 2012, http://conflict.lshtm.ac.uk/page_13.htm#Ethical_Introduction 6. A Payne, P Frow - Journal of marketing (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, JSTOR 7. A Payne, P Frow - Journal of marketing (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, JSTOR 8. A Payne, P Frow - Journal of marketing (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, JSTOR 9. Robert C. Blattberg, Byung-Do Kim, Scott A. Neslin (2008), Database Marketing: Analyzing and Managing Customers, Springer, New York. 10. Robert C. Blattberg, Byung-Do Kim, Scott A. Neslin (2008), Database Marketing: Analyzing and Managing Customers, Springer, New York. 11. Gartner Says Worldwide Customer Relationship Management Market Grew 23 Percent in 2007 (Press release). Gartner, Inc. 2008-09-12. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=715308 Retrieved 2008-08-15. 12. DW Deaton, RG Gabriel (1997), Method and system for building a database for use with selective incentive marketing in response to customer shopping histories, US Patent 5,675,662, Google Patents 13. R Kahan (1998), Using database marketing techniques to enhance your one-to-one marketing initiatives, Journal of Consumer Marketing, www.emeraldinsight.com 14. RC Blattberg, BD Kim, SA Neslin (2008), Database marketing: analyzing and managing customers, www.books.google.com 15. F Buttle (2012), Customer Relationship Management, www.books.google.com 16. V Kumar (2010), Customer Relationship Management, Wiley Online Library 17. S Knox, A Payne, L Ryals, S Maklan, J Peppard (2012), Customer Relationship Management, www.books.google.com 18. M Berry, G Linoff (1999), Mastering data mining: The art and science of customer relationship management, www.dl.acm.org 19. Conflict.lshtm.ac.uk 2012, Ethical issues in data collection, 19th December 2012 http://conflict.lshtm.ac.uk/page_13.htm#Ethical_Introduction Read More