Research Paper Management Volume : 3 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 | ISSN - 2249-555X

A Study of Crm - as a Strategic Tool Adopted by

Banks with Reference to Axis Bank in Thane City.

Keywords Globalization, Innovation, Competitive Advantage, Strategic tool & Customer, Experience.

Dr. Nishikant Jha Prof. (Mrs.) Shraddha Mayuresh Bhome

Research Supervisor, Shri JJTU, Rajasthan RESEARCH SCHOLAR, SHRI JJTU, RAJASTHAN

ABSTRACT
Today one of the approaches which are creating the buzz in the banking sector is Customer Relationship
Management. Indian Banks are realizing that the magical formula for attaining success in a competitive environment is to
focus on maintaining relationship with customers. The main purpose behind this study is to analyze whether banks are re-
ally implementing the whole concept and philosophy of CRM as a means of securing competitive advantage. The research
design in this study will consist of exploratory research whereby different aspects with regards to CRM in the banking sector
have been extracted from literature review and tested on a sample size of both employees and customers. These results
were discussed and analyzed so as to get an indication of how far CRM is strategically implanted to secure competitive
advantage. Based on the findings, a set of recommendations will be made so as to pinpoint how CRM can be used to
secure competitiveness.

INTRODUCTION TO CRM: 3. To understand the use of CRM in Axis Bank.

CRM is a managerial philosophy that seeks to build long term 4. To analyse the perception of customer on CRM as a tool
relationships with customers. CRM can be defined as the de- of Axis Bank.
velopment and maintenance of mutually beneficial long-term 5. To evaluate the service quality offered by Axis Bank
relationships with strategically significant customers. It is the 6. To offer pertinent suggestions based on the findings of
establishment, development, maintenance and optimisation the study.
of long term mutually valuable relationships between con-
sumers and the organisations. Successful customer relation- STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:
ship management focuses on understanding the needs and In the banking field a unique ‘Relationship’ exists between
desires of the customers and is achieved by placing these the customers and the bank. But because of various rea-
needs at the heart of the business by integrating them with sons and apprehensions like financial burdens, risk of failure,
the organisation’s strategy, people, technology and business marketing inertia etc., many banks are still following the tra-
processes. CRM identifies the present and future markets, ditional ways of marketing and only few banks are making
selects the markets to serve and identifies the progress of attempts to adapt CRM. It is with this background, the re-
existing and new services. searcher has made a modest attempt towards the idea that
CRM can be adapted uniformly in the banking industry for
CRM AS A STRATEGY: betterment of Banking Services. So there is a need to study
The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology the role of CRM in development and promotion of banking
and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of cus- sector through the sidelines of the practices, problems and
tomers and Customer relationship management is a broad impact of the CRM on banking sector all the time.
approach for creating, maintaining and expanding customer
relationships. CRM is the business strategy that aims to un- REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
derstand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of 1.) Chary & Ramesh, 2012: CRM is a sound business strategy
an organization’s current and potential customers. At the to identify the bank’s most profitable customers and pros-
heart of a perfect strategy is the creation of mutual value pects, and devotes time and attention to expanding account
for all parties involved in the business process. It is about relationship with those customers through individualized
creating a sustainable competitive advantage by being the marketing, reprising, discretionary decision making, and cus-
best at understanding, communicating, and delivering and tomised service through the various sales channels that the
developing existing customer relationships in addition to cre- bank uses. Any financial institution seeking to adopt a cus-
ating and keeping new customers. So the concept of product tomer relationship model should consider six key business
life cycle is giving way to the concept of customer life cycle requirements they are:
focusing on the development of products and services that
anticipate the future need of the existing customers and cre- 1. Create a customer-focused organisation and infrastructure.
ating additional services that extend existing customer rela- 2. Gaining accurate picture of customer categories.
tionships beyond transactions the value of those customers. 3. Assess the lifetime value of customers.
4. Maximise the profitability of each customer relationship.
CRM involves new and advance marketing strategies which not 5. Understand how to attract and keep the best customers.
only retain the existing customers but also acquire new customers 6. Maximise rate of return on marketing campaigns.
and also analyzes their efforts in terms of a strategic framework
and points out some of the deviations that have occurred in the 2.) Rangarajan, 2010; Shibu, 2011: CRM is developing into a
implementations. It has been invented as a unique technique ca- major element of corporate strategy for many organisations.
pable of remarkable changes in total output of companies. A greater focus on CRM is the only way the banking industry
can protect its market share and boost growth. With inten-
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY: sifying competition, declining market share, deregulations,
1. To examine the importance of CRM in banking sector. smarter and more demanding customers, there is competi-
2. To review the literature on the concept of CRM in Indian tion between the banks to attain a competitive advantage
Banks. over one another or for sustaining the survival in competition.

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 Research Paper Volume : 3 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 | ISSN - 2249-555X

3.) Panda 2003: CRM is fundamental to building a customer- Mostly all of the customers happy with the services like ATM
centric organisation. CRM is a key element that allows a bank and E-banking technology of the bank. Nearly 25% are hap-
to develop its customer base and sales capacity. The goal py with the loan process as the data collected was young
of CRM is to manage all aspects of customer interactions in population.
a manner that enables the organisation to maximise profit-
ability from every customer. The author described customer TABLE 3: TIME TO GET JOB DONE AT AXIS BANK
expectations are difficult to manage but are often the cause 0-10 MIN 27
of dissonance which results in loss of existing customer base. 10-20 MIN 09
So understanding of customer expectations with regard to 20-30 MIN 12
service delivery levels and product quality is essential for es- 30 AND MORE 02
tablishing a long term symbolic value relationship.

4.) Bose, (2002) described the customer relationship manage-

ment (CRM), essential and vital function of customer oriented
marketing is to gather and accumulate related information
about customers in order to provide effective services. CRM
involves attainment analysis and use of customer’s knowl-
edge in order to sell goods and services. Reasons for CRM
coming to existence are the changes and developments in
marketing environment and technology.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
Due to lack of time we were not able to collect large num- More than 50% customers are getting quick services from the
ber of data but still we were able to find suggestions which bank i.e. within 0-10 minutes once they reach to branch of
are going to help the bank to perform better. A sample of Axis Bank in Thane city.
around 100 customers and 20 employees of six branches of
Thane city of Maharashtra State were selected. With the help TABLE 4: BEHAVIOUR OF STAFF
of the questionnaire developed for both employees as well FRIENDLY 01
as customers were collected to analyze the level of customer CORDIAL 42
relationship maintained by the organization and the level of OK 07
customer satisfaction that the customer was able to get. The NOT GOOD 00
questionnaire is attached with the paper.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

TABLE 1: SATISFACTION WITH AXIS BANK SERVICES
YES 38
NO 12

84% customers are saying that the behaviour of the staff is

cordial during the visit and 14% says it is ok. There is no cus-
tomer against the behaviour of staff. These shows the cus-
tomers are getting good CRM from the bank.

TABLE 5: SATISFACTION FOR PROBLEM SOLVING ATTI-

TUDE OF BANK
As per the chart and table it is clearly assumed that more YES 40
than 70% of the customers are happy and satisfied with the NO 07
bank and its services. CAN NOT SAY 03
TABLE 2: BEST SERVICE PROVIDED BY AXIS BANK
ATM 50
DEBIT AND CREDIT CARD 34
LOAN PROCESS 11
E-BANKING TECHNOLOGY 50
SERVICES
MOBILE BANKING SERVICES 47

80% customers are happy with the problem solving tech-

nique of the bank. 6% do not want to disclose the fact and
14% are not happy and they are senior citizens mainly.

TABLE 6: IS CUSTOMER KING ACCORDING TO BANK?

YES 42
NO 08

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 Research Paper Volume : 3 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 | ISSN - 2249-555X

2. The customers sometimes have to wait a little long but

that is only during weekends when there are a huge num-
ber of customers. As the bank had made necessary help
desks for each of its services that are offered, there are
hardly any problems regarding the management of bank-
ing transactions
3. The study demonstrates that most of the customers have
positive perceptions pertaining to their Bank keeping
them up to date with the best ways of investing money
and they are of the opinion that the information provided
by their banks are up to their expectations. New commu-
nication and information technologies and self-service
94% Customers are happy with the bank and they interpret- systems provided by bank are creating some utilities of
ed customers are king as per bank. space and time which is valued by the consumers
4. The employees are trained how to deal with the custom-
CRM STRATEGIES AT AXIS BANK IN THANE CITY (FIND- ers and their problems and queries. Due to the emer-
INGS THROUGH EMPLOYEES OF THE BANK): gence of the concepts of CRM one thing that is quite
sure that employees of Axis bank are quite aware of their
1. Customer care department or centers: role.
The Axis bank customer care department is the department 5. Apart from technology, the changing demographic struc-
which handles all customer queries, suggestions, feedback ture of Indian population that shows a young working
and complaints if any. Customers can also find out all the population has created a demand for better services.
newly introduced financial products and services by calling
here. The Axis bank customer care centers are spread across The overall findings of this research reveal that the Axis Bank
the country in places like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Banga- has able to convince their customers on their CRM efforts.
lore, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune Various CRM initiates and dimensions measured in this study
etc. This department works in a 24x7 work environment so report favorable response. Still there is underperformance
that the customers can contact the bank at any time in case found in the bank in spite of technological developments.
of any problem. So, for proper application and implementation of CRM deep
research is required at Axis Bank.
2. Axis Bank Customer Care Phone Number:
The customer care numbers of Axis Bank can provide great CONCLUSION:
help to the users as they can enquire about their problems This study provides a step in understanding the existing CRM
from the customer care department. Also Axis Bank ensures strategies in Axis Bank at Thane. The findings indicate that
that there is availability of well qualified professionals in order there are several loop holes in the existing tactical CRM strat-
to satisfy customers and give appropriate solutions to their egies in Axis Bank. This study is an example of the knowl-
queries. edge that can be gained in understanding the effectiveness
of front end CRM strategies in the Indian banking sector from
3. Axis Bank Customer Care Toll Free Number: the customer perspective and further in-depth case study
The customer care toll free numbers of the Axis Bank for Lost analysis can be executed to give more on CRM strategies in
Credit Cards are: the Indian banking sector.

1-800-233-5577 This study shows that if organizations want to attain a sus-

1-800-209-5577 tainable competitive advantage through CRM, they should
1-800-103-5577 efficiently apply all the CRM resources to create CRM pro-
cess capabilities which are unique and cannot be copied by
This number remains a toll free number if contacted from other organizations. There is a direct relationship between
anywhere in India from a MTNL or a BSNL landline phone. perception and satisfaction, important. And employing CRM
may only strengthen the relationship between perceptions
4. NRI phone banking service: and up-buying and cross buying which is all in support of
NRI / Other customers can access services of phone banking introducing CRM in service sector.
from outside India by dialing +91 22 27648000.
Banks are realizing that CRM is the magic bullet that helps
5. Blocking of debit cards: financial institutions to build stronger and more profitable
For blocking of Debit cards or Prepaid cards, the 24 hour relationships. Hence Banks should focus on delivering to
emergency number is +91 22 67987700 customers by having a concise and precise ways of doing
things through effective CRM solutions rather than develop-
6. Axis Bank customer care SMS Service: ing product strategy.
One can also send them an SMS on their number 5676782 or
9717000002. The customer care executive of the bank would SUGGESTIONS:
either call you up or reply your query. 1) Front office executives should stop looking at custom-
ers for multiple product promotion and start focusing on
7. Axis Bank Customer Care e-mail Service: making the customers feels comfortable in terms of ser-
Contact customer.services@axisbank.com for Credit Card vice consumption.
Related issues Contact debit.card@axisbank.com for Debit 2) It is important for banks to handle the customers directly
Card Related queries Contact mobile.banking@axisbank. through their human resources rather than IVRS (record-
com for Mobile Banking queries Contact nricell@axisbank. ed voice) at the appropriate stage in the process.
com for NRI Related queries 3) The banks need to promote branch banking or branch
contact numbers.
FINDINGS FROM CUSTOMERS FEEDBACK: 4) Employ more relationship executives for catering the
1. Customers share positive views concerning bank trust- needs of the people visiting the banks.
worthiness and accuracy of banking solutions. Therefore, 5) Efforts should be made to redress the problem of the
it can be argued that customers trust their bank. Indeed, customer as early as possible.
trust is seen as a critical construct in a range of discipline
areas including CRM.

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Research Paper Volume : 3 | Issue : 5 | May 2013 | ISSN - 2249-555X

REFERENCE Anand, S (2008), Customer Relationship Management in Indian Banks, Journal of Professional Banker, Dec. 2008 pp 66-70. | | Bholanath
Dutta, CRM in Financial Services Marketing, Journal of Marketing Mastermind, Sept 2008. | | CRM in Banking Concepts and Cases, The ICFAI
University Press. Hyderabad. | | Customer Relationship Management – Emerging Concepts, Tools and Applications, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, pp. 3-25. | | Chary
T. Satya Narayana & Ramesh, R. (2012). Customer Relationship Management in Banking Sector- A Comparative Study, KKIMRC IJRHRM, 1 (2), 20-29. | | Parvatiyar,
A., & Sheth, J. N. (2001). Customer relationship management: Emerging practice, process and discipline. Journal of Economic and Social Research, 3 (2), 1-34. | |
Rangarajan. (2010). Effective Role of Customer Relationship Management in Banking Sector, Global Research Review, New Delhi. | | Shibu. N.S. (2011). Customer
Relationship Management and Banking Industry, Journal of Social Sciences, 36(17), 72-79. | | Shinde, Govind P, Prof Kuldeep bhalerao and Ms Manisha Dubey
:Customer relationship initiative in banking sector: a case of ICICI Bank | | www.dmnews.com/Datamonitor-suggests-orcle-SAP-likely-to-remainatop-CRM market/
article/98266. | | www.opensourcestrategic.com/ofbiz/index.php. |

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