Do the mangers in supermarkets in United Kingdom believe in CRM role increasing sales volume?

Chapter #1:           Introduction

1.1      Introduction

Either the organization is profit oriented or non profit organization, each has to achieve its goals and objectives, and to achieve these goals and objectives the organizations have their strategies and resources and the management design, plan, monitor and lead the employees to achieve their goals and objectives in effective way (Gundersen et al., 2010). So many organizations now a days are offering their products and services in the same organizational business sector and all of them are trying their best to achieve organizational objectives and trying to make customers and putting their best efforts and effective strategies for the customers attraction so that the customers buy their products and services. There are many different factors and key successive factors those can play their role for the success of an organization and organizations taken into their consideration those all factors while making their strategies and policies so that organizations can achieve organizational objectives by reducing the resource wastages and by saving cost. CRM department has the employees those have the special skills and necessary knowledge and ways to deal with the customers to convince then offer them the best solution by identifying their needs and wants and then offer them the best option to retain that client with the organization loyal (Helgesen, 2011). The CRM department also play effective role because the CRM department employees have such communication skills to convince the clients and handle the angry clients in tough situation to handle them politely and offer them the best option to cool down them and those angry customers become loyal again these tricks are always played by the CRM department (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012).  Now a days the profit oriented organizations have the CRM department in the organizations to support the customers and to create loyalty and satisfaction among the customers to retain them and to bring more clients from the market because it is CRM department responsibility to support the clients in effective way and to solve their problems in effective way and in this way the clients are also very happy if they found that there is someone there in the organization to support them, to listen their complaints and to compensate them regarding their problems and offer them the best solution and in this way the customers become happy and they come again to buy the products and services from the organization and in this way the volume of sales become high and as the profit is directly related with the sales volume so when the sales volume is high then the profit will be high and then the organization will grow ultimately. CRM department has so many features and one main feature of this department is to create loyalty and satisfaction among the clients at maximum level through different ways which includes the complaint handling, by offering them the best option of solution as per their problem nature and one main important factor is that the CRM department can also identify and recognize the clients and customer’s requirement which we called expectations and when the CRM department come to know about the requirement of the customers (Kim, 2010). CRM now a day playing its effective role in the business organizations and the organizations are availing the opportunity of competitive advantages and making money and making the growth and sustaining the growth as well. The CRM workers are putting their efforts for the well being of organization and the organizations are doing at their best efforts to facilitate the clients regarding the low price products and services at reasonable amount and with high quality (Oliver, 2009). The main purpose of the CRM department is to facilitate the business operations in such a way that the client become happy and the resource wastage stop or reduced at a significant level and the employee’s attitude and productive level always become high and ultimately the customer become happy and the organization can increase the sales volume up to a certain level (Looy, 2010). CRM department basically play its multidimensional role for the development of business strategies just to remain happy the clients with the organizations and the CRM department bring the happiness for the stakeholders and ultimately when the customers are happy means the organization is making growth because with the increase in the sales volume will automatically increase in the profit margins (Parasuraman et al., 2010). CRM department coordinate with all other departments like with finance department, marketing and research and development department, human resource department to achieve the organizational objectives for the growth and for achieving long term and short term objectives of the organizations (Reichheld and Kenny, 2007). CRM department is responsible and this is the main objective of this department is to manage the customers for the betterment of customers while keeping in mind the main objective or the organizations and then by achieving those aims and objectives the organization play its role for the both of them, the main objective of the organization always remain to earn the profit at maximum level by reducing the risk factors and by making maximum market share from the market by advertisement and by offering the best products and services to the organization and then creating happiness and loyalty among them for long term relationships with them, so that they come again and again and buy the products from the market and the organizations can earn more and more profit.

1.2      Problem

Changes every day in the lives specially change in the client’s behaviour and in the attitude of the employees have impact on the buying decisions and these all factors have their impact on the sales of organizations. So this is the main problem for the organizations to identify the customer’s needs and wants because the identification of the client’s problems, their complaints and offering them the suitable solutions and offer them the solutions on time and on the best price as per their buying power are the main issues and by considering these factors the organizations can create the loyalty among them for achieving its goals and objectives and on the basis of these goals and objectives the organizations can increase the sales volume by increasing the frequency of the client’s buying and by retaining them and in this way the organizations can enhance the sales volume (Reichheld and Sasser, 2006). Every day new organizations are entering in the market and those are offering the same quality and cheap prices for the same products in the market and all the organizations have the same objectives and goals to become market leader by offering the best solution for the customer’s problems and caring them in all ways and supporting them (Su, 2010). There are so many factors those can increase the sales volume in an organization which includes the quality of the products, price of the products, warranty and guarantee of the products and services and some time the offers and the value added services also enhance the sales volume and one more important thing is the promises or commitments of the organizations made by the management at the time of promotion or marketing must be fulfilled by the management to retain the people and to bring loyalty among the employees and among the clients as well, similarly the contribution of employees is also have its own importance (Schlesinger & Heskett, 2007). Through effective CRM department strategies and policies in time the customers can be retained with little extra care and by keeping them inform and by providing them the best services and by keeping them aware about the changes and by keeping in touch with them, the CRM department can also play its role in the increasing sales volume and can build the long relationships with the clients by their efforts. When all the organizations in the same sector are offering the same products and services with high quality and lower prices then there is a difference of business strategies and the procedures and handling the clients and taking care of them, the organizations those have been adopted the CRM department with all of its functionalities and are fulfilling the main demands of the CRM department, those organizations are achieving their targets because when the CRM department is completely in function then the CRM department is in fully working and fully functioning then the organization can achieve the goals and objectives positively. And if the CRM department is existing in the organization but is not functioning fully then it is very hard for the organizations to achieve the expectations from the CRM department (Wang et al., 2011). The CRM department has the responsibilities of marketing, identification of client’s requirement, manufacturing of the products as per client’s needs and wants, handling the angry clients efficiently and remain in touch with the clients for asking them about the feedback and review the whole process of keeping customers always with the organization loyal and creating loyalty and happiness among them. Now a day it is not easy to find out the client’s problems and to handle them regarding their problems but only the CRM department can play it role in creating happiness and loyalty among the clients if the CRM is functioning fully and have the skilled and necessary equipments and all other technologies and they are well trained, in this way the solution is available (Yeung et al., 2011). The research and development department works very closely with the CRM department and the CRM department basically initiate the policy and design the strategy for the research and development department, the CRM department keep the records of the clients and take their views and opinions for making the products as per their needs and requirements so that they always remain happy and happiness leads to the loyalty ultimately and the organizations can achieve their goals and objectives positively. The market share has been divided among the customers because there are so many organizations in the same sectors and they all are offering their products and services in the same sector and the competition among the organizations become so high and due to this tough situation of high competition among the organizations it is not easy for the organizations to enhance their sales volume effectively (Zeithaml et al., 2010). CRM department in the ASDA superstore is doing its work very efficiently and effectively and by keeping all the necessary elements (factors) into its considerations and then designing the customer handling, treating, and offering them and facilitating them all the strategies which are related with all these outcomes effectively. CRM department can play its role in solving the problem of the organizations and can play its role in increasing the sales volume so that the business organizations can earn more money from the customers and can achieve more market share and can build long and strong relationships with the customers (Williams Fine, 2010). All the organizations knows that the to increase the sales volume it is necessary for the organizations to capture market share at high level number and then attracting the clients at maximum number and then offer them the best option of the solutions then the organizations can also earn more money. And in the era of high competition and due to advance technology and dye to latest and high technology the procedures have been reduced the cost of manufacturing and these procedures have also impact on the client’s buying process and their behaviour as well. So it is very complicated now a day to understand the actual problem of the customers and to handle them because they have already the solution offered by other organizations and to increase the market share it is very hard now a day for the business organizations (Wilson, 2010). The sales is directly proportional to the loyalty of the clients and whereas the loyalty is directly linked with the services and products quality and availability and with the satisfaction of the clients, the satisfaction come only in one way that after consuming the products and services the clients become happy then in this way the client become happy and this happiness leads them to the loyalty and they come again towards the organization to buy it again and they also told other people about their experience.

1.3      Research Question

Do the mangers in supermarkets in United Kingdom believe in CRM role increasing sales volume?

1.4      Aims and Objectives

Basically the main objective of this research is to find out the influence of the customer relationship management role in increasing the sales volume in super markets. All the supermarkets have their goals and objectives to earn more profit by maximizing their sales volume and the sales volume can be enhanced only in one way if the market share from the target market can be maximized and this depends on the CRM departmental activities and their strategies to earn more money from the market.

In order to achieve the main objective of this research the researcher has been divided the main aims of the research into small objectives and in this way it will be more convenient for the research to conduct the research and to achieve the aim of the research. All the objectives are given below here.

1.5      Objectives

The researcher has been divided the main aim of this research into different related small targets called them as objectives and all those have been designed by keeping in mind the main purpose of the research. Basically the researcher wants to know the role of customer relationship management in increasing the sales volume in the supermarkets in United Kingdom.

The researcher will find out the relationship between the CRM department and its effectiveness in the super markets in United Kingdom.

The importance of this department along with all other important factors with the point view of customers and the management will also be find out and the customers feedback importance and all other related factors will also be find out in this research.

Advantages and disadvantages of the customer relationship management will also be discussed and will find out to know the exact role of this department in achieving organizational objectives.

The factors those can play their important and vital role in maximizing the market share from the targeted market will also be disclosed, because eth customer relationship management will include them for achieving organizational objectives.

The importance of the customers and customer care and employees and their skills and importance of customer relationship management department will also be discussed and will find out the positive role and the expected impact of the CRM department in retaining the clients and capturing new clients from the target market will be find out.

All the challenges and main issues in the selected organizations while implementation CRM policies will be find out and for their effectiveness the recommendations will be made by the researcher.

1.6      Research Questions

The researcher has been designed the following research questions to find out the above stated all the objectives to find out the main aim of this research and the researcher has been used all the skills and competencies while designing these questions. The researcher has been divided the questions in two main categories, one for the management and second for the customers.

What is meant by the CRM department in the super markets and what is its role and duties?

What are the main features of customer relationship management department and what is its contribution in achieving organizational objectives?

What are the main objectives of ASDA super stores?

Why ASDA has situated the customer relationship management department and what are the expectations of management from the customer relationship management department?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the customer relationship management in this supermarket?

How the CRM department can play its role in achieving organizational goals?

In which way the CRM department can be useful for the management and for the clients as well?

How the CRM department can play its role in bringing loyalty among the employees and the customers at ASDA?

What are the main problems with the policies and strategies of the CRM department in the selected supermarket and how to minimize them effectively?

Which factors are necessary for the management to taken into their considerations for achieving the CRM departmental objectives which is ultimately to create satisfaction for increasing the sales volume?

1.7      Ethical considerations, Reliability and Validity

First of all the researcher will take the permission from the ASDA management to conduct the research in the CRM department and to conduct the interview from the CRM management and supervisors and will observe the shopping and while the CRM employee will help the customers and will also distribute the questionnaires among the customers to find out the facts and to gather primary data. Secondly the researcher will not share the primary or secondary data with any colleagues, class fellow and will not disclose the personal information of any employee or customer to anyone and will keep the strategies and policies secret as well. The researcher will not steal the data from anyone and will not include his own perception or opinion in the data, and will conduct the research as by following the ethical procedures and rules. The researcher will not use the old (10 years old) data as secondary data in this research and will not use this research for another academic achievement.

1.8      Limitation

The researcher has the following limitations associated with this research.

Shortage of time

Limited resources (finance)

No past research conducting experience

Only one case study has been selected to conduct the research.

All the limitations have been discussed above the researcher has no background of conducting research and has no such skills and competencies to conduct this research, all the expenditures the researcher will pay from his personal budget.

1.9      Scope of Research

In the supermarkets the customer relationship management department is playing its role for the success of these organizations where this department has been implemented with full functions. The organizations can also take advantage of this research and those can also increase their sales volume by using the recommendations and by establishing the customer relationship management effectively in their organizations. After this research the selected organization will also come to know its challenges and problem faced by them and in the light of the positive recommendations the organization will act upon them and will modify the strategies and policies and will also make the alignments and will also watch the recommendations for more advantages of the customer relationship management positively for increasing the sales volume. The supermarkets in the United Kingdom can also be benefited from this research because the researcher will find out all other factors those can have their influence in creating the positive and productive attitude among the employees and among the customers for creating loyalty and satisfaction for achieving organizational goals and objectives. This research will lead other researchers to find out the other hidden truth and other factors those can participate in increasing volume of sales and the profitability for the supermarkets in United Kingdom.

Chapter # 2:          Literature Review

2.1      Introduction

In this chapter the researcher has been explain the secondary data against and in the favour of the CRM that CRM can increase the sales volume in an organization, and has been discussed the different features of the CRM department those can collectively increase the sales volume in an organization. The researcher has been explained the review of literature and in the end with the help of conceptual frame of reference it has been proved that the CRM activities are helpful for an organization in the United kingdom to increase the sales volume because the CRM department has the features and if the organizations adopt this department with full fledge way then those organizations can be benefited from this opportunity in best way. The researcher has been discussed all the features in detail and all the links in detail and very clearly, the researcher has been discussed in detail all the features, relationships among different variables those support the CRM activities and play role in creating loyalty among the employees, better environment at work placement, better services and offer expected services and products to the customers as well for increasing the frequency of sales and their visits as well.

2.2      Customer Relationship Management Department and its responsibilities

Due to poor quality of services and due to poor services and unexpected results of products and services the business organization lose about 30% of the customers which is a big lose for them and the competitors can achieve this advantage only by having CRM department in the operation  (Looy, 2010). The business organizations can create loyalty and happiness among the clients to retain them loyal with the organization and to maximize the market share just by paying their attentions directly for the betterment and for the welfare of its employees and clients rather than to pay focus on the CRM department, this budget amount can be spent by these organizations on the product designing and on offering low price in the market for attaining maximum market share from the target market (Oliver, 2009). Buttle, (2011) stated that the organizations can also reduce the price and increase the quality of services and quality of products and offer the customers at reasonable price rather than to pay attention towards customer relationship management. All the organizations in a sectors have their mission and vision statement and these organizations have their objectives and strive to achieve them effectively, the main objective of all organizations is to achieve the financial objectives means to earn more money and money can be earned in a way that if the number of employees are maximum means the market share is maximum and secondly if the employees are loyal to achieve the organizational objectives and third factors is that if the clients are happy and loyal with the organizations then in such a way the client will come again to buy the products and services and the organizations can increase the sales volume and can make more profit (Gundersen et al., 2010). In the United Kingdom at the ASDA supermarkets the CRM department is in operation and doing its work effectively and this department is playing its role for the success of this organizations. According to the Antony & Antony, (2007) that CRM department is very essential for any organization because in these days it is very important to create strong and long term relationships with the clients for achieving both kind of objectives and without this department no one organization can achieve the main objectives. To build strong and profitable relationship with the clients the organizations need to establish CRM department which is the key success in an organization (Bhote, 2011). According to the Bowen and Lawler, (2010) that the organizations can only achieve organizational objectives if they have strong relationship with their clients and paying their full attention on their clients, the angry client never come again to buy and happy clients always create the opportunities for the organizations.

Source: Author

It is very clear from the above picture that the customer relationship management is responsible for the following task. It is the only department that can leads the organizations towards the success and this department can only retain and can capture more clients from the market and this department have the features to attract the clients, so obviously this department is very essential for success (Choi and Chu, 2010). Sales workflow management and sales measurement (targets achievement), and client’s database management (feedback, taking their views and opinions), product database management, keeping product knowledge, customer tracking, client’s history, call centre support 24/7. Marketing campaigns, advertisement, marketing management, event handling and leading marketing force these functions have been done by the CRM department (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). It is very important for the business organizations specially in the retail sector the organizations must have to full fill the clients need and offer them the best opportunity to buy and this is only possible when these organizations have CRM department and effective CRM strategies in operations  (Dimitriades, 2012). There is a strong relationship between the CRM policies and procedures and in its strategies and the organizational sales, if the strategies are effective then the organizations can lead the market and it is CRM departmental responsibilities to create loyalty among the clients as well as among the employees so that employee can understand the client’s expectations and then gave them the best option or range of solution (Everett, 2007). But some scholars are not agree with the effectiveness of customer relationship management department and its features they have stated that instead of spending a huge amount for the establishment of CRM department the organizations can pay their attention for the employees and for the client’s welfare and in this way the organizations can achieve their goals and objectives successfully (Farber and Wycoff, 2011). It is not only the customer relationship management department that can consider the key successive factors into the consideration but the other department in the organizations can also perform the same duties to oblige their clients and can create the loyalty among the employees and among all the employees and in this way the organizations can save the money as well and this money can be used to offer the clients best prices as compared to its competitors and by using the competitive advantages the client will attracted by the low price offers and the organizations can achieve the organizational objectives in easy way  (Flyvbjerg, 2011). Client’s retaining is not an easy job and this job can only be done by the skilled and well trained people and except the customer relationship management representative it is not possible, because there are so many reasons, first of all the CRM department first of all develop and design the customer oriented policies and other departments cannot do this job then as per the requirement and opportunity available in the market the CRM department make analysis on the gather data and pass to the other departments and after approval budget the organizations redesign, or manufacture new products for sale and make it sure that the products and services are easily available to the potential clients  (Getty & Thompson, 2011). So this is not an easy job to attract new or to retain the old clients this is not a psychological process there are so many factors involve in this theory to retain the old clients (Gonzalez et al., 2009). According to the Williams, (2010) that the 80% of the clients do not bother to register their complaints against the poor services and the remaining 20% of the customers take care about the complaints and they only go through the long procedures and only 5% among them become satisfy because it is not easy for the organizations to pay attention on the complaints because the employees do not have skills and competencies and effective communication system to handle client’s complaints so instead of handling their complaints the organizations must offer them the price discounts and value added services for creating loyalty among them.

Customer relationship management is the responsible for creating the effective and best relation among the organization and the clients, because it is very clear and CRM managers have believe in that only loyal customers and the loyal employees can lead the organizations to achieve their goals and objectives and there are so many other responsibilities of CRM department which is the handling of angry clients in proper way and to compensate them as per their requirement and creating happiness among angry clients and providing them quick services and also creating loyalty among the skill people and providing them the latest skills and technologies and equipping them with the latest tools so that they can perform their duties in attracting new clients from the market and retaining old clients by knowing their priorities in effective way for achieving organizational objectives (Helgesen, 2011). Whereas Kim, (2010) has been stated that the spinal cord of any business is the customer relationship management department and now a day without CRM departmental support the organizations could not meet the client’s requirements and when there is no clients then there is no any business. According to the Zeithaml et al., (2010) that the functionality of the CRM department is not an easy task and the organizations while allocating the proper trainings, equipping customers with latest technology and with competitor’s product knowledge are not easy tasks so the organizations can achieve the targets of the organizations just by putting their efforts on the employee’s welfare and in this way the employees will devote their attention in achieving organizational objectives. But some other scholars Wang et al., (2011) have been stated that CRM can play its role positively for achieving organizational objectives by paying its attention on the product designing, its packing and on the quality of services and quality of product as well.

2.3      Loyalty and Satisfaction among the Customers and its effects

There is a deep and direct link between the activities of skilled and professional employees and the satisfaction, loyalty of the clients and similarly there is direct and deep link between the loyal and satisfied clients and organizational sales volume and there is a direct relationship between sales volume and the growth of an organization and sustain growth of an organization. According to the Wang et al., (2011) that it is very important for the organizations specially in the retail sector to create loyalty among the customers for achieving organizational objectives and the loyalty can only be created if the organizations can successfully create the satisfaction among the clients and this satisfaction only can be created when the loyal employee from customer services management handle the clients and provide him the necessary information and suitable product that can be according to his or her expectations.

Source:            Author

In the above figure it has been shown that how the customer relationship management can play its effective role in increasing the profitability in the organizations by creating the loyalty among the customers with the important role of customer relationship management. According to the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) that there are so many factors which involve the value added services and features like guarantee, competitor’s advantages like low price, better quality of products and services, prompt response, after sales free services, money back guarantee, size and volume can play their important role in creating satisfaction among the clients and the loyalty has direct impact in increasing the profitability of the organization. Similarly the Flyvbjerg, (2011) has been stated that Loyal customers always bring new business for the organizations by telling and sharing their bad and good past experiences with their friends and family members so in this case the organizations can also attract the market share by creating loyalty among the clients and this is only possible when the customer relationship management has the skilled and highly trained officers equip with the necessary authority and other resources. According to the Gundersen et al., (2010) that the customer relationship management department can play its role in creating the loyalty among the clients by its skilled workers, the CRM department has the competencies and necessary resources to create the loyalty among its supervisors and those skilled supervisors can create among the clients by using their productive attitude, good and suitable behaviour with patience and by offering quick services and suitable products to them. But according to the Choi and Chu, (2010) that the loyalty and the satisfaction among the clients can be created through marketing force, without having the customer relationship management department in the organizations the satisfaction and loyalty can be created and the cost can be saved as well and that cost can be used to create more happiness among the employees and clients for their benefits and welfare. According to the  Oliver, (2009) that it is the main responsibility and duty of the employees of customer relationship management department in an organization to provide and treat the clients in such a way that the clients become happy and they feel proud of them by serving the client and by helping them with smiles whereas  Parasuraman et al., (2010) supported this statement by saying that positive and good attitude, and this loyalty has a direct relationship with the company success, because the satisfaction always come after utilizing the services or products and if the product has full fill the client’s needs that means there was no any difference between their expectations then the client will become so happy and when they will become happy then they will again and again come to buy the product from the same organizations, and if the organizations treat them as a loyal customers and offer them discounts, gifts and free of cost services and always welcome them and remain in touch with them and provide them money back guarantees and other discounts like buy one get one as free then the customers will come again and again to buy from the same organization and in this way the sales volume of the organization will be raised and the organizations will be able to earn more profits (Looy, 2010). According to the Antony & Antony, (2007) that price and quality are both key successive factors for the success of an organization and without the SRM department, this statement was supported by the  Bhote, (2011) by saying that through research and development department price and quality can be set as according to the target market needs and  according to the Bowen and Lawler, (2010) that supported the above statement by saying that the business organizations must focus on the welfare of employees and on the quality and price of the products and services rather than to create loyalty among the clients the organizations must focus on the quality and price. According to the Looy, (2010) that the main issue with the business organizations is to find out the exact way to understand the needs and wants of the clients in the target market to offer them the best alternatives as solution, and the Oliver, (2009) has been stated that there is only one department that can reduced this tough situation and take all the responsibility of understanding client’s expectations in cheap and effective way, and Reichheld and Kenny, (2007) have been stated that this department can also create happiness among them as well that ultimately will increase the number of clients in market.

Source: Author

As the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) have been stated that the organizations can create satisfaction and loyalty among the employees by considering their welfare, attractive salaries, bonuses, increments and promotions and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as per their performance for creating loyalty and satisfaction among the clients through their attitude and high level of quality of services to them and the Schlesinger & Heskett, (2007) have been stated that it is very necessary for the CRM department to create the loyalty and satisfaction among the clients for achieving organizational objectives and through many factors the department can play its role in creating and enhancing the satisfaction and happiness among them because the Wang et al., (2011) have been stated that as a result of all this effort the loyalty will be created among all of them similarly through the lowest price but high quality can also bring new clients and angry clients can also be attracted by this way, but the Yeung et al., (2011) have been stated that maximizing the market share effectively can be possible in one way that is customer care.

2.4      Complaints Handling and CRM

According to the Kandampully & Suhartanto, (2012) when the client buy the product then on the behalf of the experience after utilizing that one the clients either become so happy or become so angry, whereas the Kim, (2010) has been stated that he or she become angry if they did not get the value against their money which they have been paid to the company for buying that product or services and they become sad and become angry and tell the people around them about their bad experience and the other people will also not come to buy and in this way when no client then no business, but on the other hand Looy, (2010) has been stated that if the client become happy after using that product and product features proved the values for which the client paid the money then in this way the client will become so happy and the client will let other people about the successful experience and in this way more people will be attracted and will become cause in increment of sales and profitability for the organization (Oliver, 2009). One major portion of angry clients about 90% can become happy and they can be loyal with the company if the appropriate person deal them and compensate them and bear their attitude just for good future and these people become strong loyal if the person handle them with positive and lovely attitude (Oliver, 2009). In order to create the loyalty and happiness for increasing market share and for achieving financial objectives it is necessary to remove the problems and complaints of clients and the CRM supervisors and other staff can handle them in positive way by using their communication skills and their attitude and they compensate them as well just to make them happy (Looy, 2010). With the help of the CRM department skilled and competent workers those can play their important role for the betterment and for the growth of organization at their best level the business organizations can increase the sales volume by just paying their attention and with lovely attitude and behaviour they can handle the angry clients and with special authorities they can convert the angriness in the happiness and in this way the organizations can be benefited and this on only can be done by the attention of customer relationship management department successfully (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). According to the Kim, (2010) that the angry clients can be handled by the only skilled and well communication skills person and the only customer relationship management department has the same skilled worker which main aim is to increase the market share at any cost and which this department strive. According to the Parasuraman et al., (2010) that the organizations can handle the client’s complaints and in this way the satisfaction and the loyalty of the clients can be increased and this would become the cause of achieving organizational objectives in efficient and effective way the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) have been stated that there are so many benefits are linked with the customer’s satisfaction as well the first one is that the happy customers always brings new clients into the market for buying products and they share their participation in achieving organizational objectives in positive way secondly the satisfied clients always increase the business and it affect the brand image as well. According to the Reichheld and Kenny, (2007) that the customer relationship management is the most effective department that can handle the angry clients and can perform its obligations in achieving organization’s objectives by increasing market share and by bringing new clients as well, whereas this statement has been supported by the Zeithaml et al., (2010) by saying that it is the customer relationship management duty to handle the clients and their problems to create loyalty and satisfaction among them similarly the Kandampully & Suhartanto, (2012) have been stated that customer relationship management is the responsible to give training to its employees about the customer handling and provide them the knowledge about the products and the services and all information about the competitors knowledge so that they can easily solve the client’s problems by making comparisons and the CRM can play it role positively for the betterment. Kim, (2010) has been stated that to handle the complaint the employees need authorities and special skills to understand the client’s requirement and CRM department cannot afford such amount to spend on one employee and this is not been possible for the higher management to delegate maximum authorities to the employees because some time to create happiness among clients the employees may need to pay them the amount and give them free of cost the services that’s why the higher management always afraid to delegate the authorities to the employees and for such kind of decisions the employees need to take permissions and first they need to brought the matter into higher management and it take to much longer and the customers become unhappy (Looy, 2010). Handling angry customers are not an easy task for the customer relationship management department because it is not easy to read out client’ face (Oliver, 2009). But some scholars have been stated that with the suitable skills and latest technology usage and help and with the effective systems now a day the employees at the CRM department can also solve the client’s problems in efficient way (Parasuraman et al., 2010).  

2.5      Quality and Price of Products and Services and CRM

Low price and high quality are the very common sense that these both are the competitive advantages and as well as these both factors are the main key successive factors for making sales and for making market share at maximum level  (Bhote, 2011). According to the Antony & Antony, (2007) that there are so many features of the products and the departments are common those can trigger the sales of the organization at the peak and quality of the product and services is one of them. According to the Gonzalez et al., (2009) have been stated that quality always refers to the quick response that means the efficiency of the staff members and quickness of the staff members to response a job or to accomplish a task quickly is called the quality and quality also means the accuracy and the honour of the promises made by the management during the campaign period or made at the time of selling the products or services, here the Bowen and Lawler, (2010) have been supported this statement by saying that the only customer relationship management department has the capacity and policies to first of all find out the expectations of the clients this statement was supported by the Antony & Antony, (2007) by saying that the customer relationship officers in the organizations do their effective jobs as accord to their perception offer them the best quality of the services and offer them the good quality of both services and products and some of the customers always asking about the good quality, because Bowen and Lawler, (2010) have been stated that these people are called quality conscious and they do not care about the money and if the money is taken as competitive advantages in the market then the more customer will come to buy the products from the organization.  People do not bother the quality due to world economic recession now a day people are striving for hand to mouth and they do not take care about the quality and they just want to overcome their problems and looking for the cheap price items for themselves and they prefer to choose the products available in the market at cheap price (Bowen and Lawler, 2010). Quality of the products and the services basically depends on the training, skills and knowledge of the employees those are dealing with the customers and those are providing solutions to the customers those can also provide the better quality of services whereas the research and development department can play effectively in bringing the quality among the products and services the Buttle, (2010) has been stated that department is responsible for making research in the target market to find out the potential clients and ask them about their needs and wants and then this department pass this information after making necessary analysis to produce or to design and develop the product in that particular shape and after designing and manufacturing the other departments sale that one in the market, the Choi and Chu, (2010) have been stated that after using that one people come to know that if there is not any difference between the offered values and quality of the product and services then the people rely on the organization otherwise people do not come to buy again and will not make trust on the organization, so it is recommended that quality always bring trust among the clients (Bitran and Hoech, 2005). According to the Antony & Antony, (2007) that the quality can be created by the CRM department because the CRM department has the employees those have the better attitude, verbal and non verbal and good gestures and communication skills and these skills and competencies are very necessary for identifying and for problem solving techniques for the clients when they are not happy and to bring happiness among them and they become the success at testimonials for the organizations (Bhote, 2011). But according to the Bowen and Lawler, (2010) that it is true that the clients can be attracted through the quality of products and services and can be retained through lower price offering but the marketing and sales force department can achieve these tasks and the organizations can identify the client’s requirements in better way by creating loyalty among the workers rather than in the clients, but  Bitran and Hoech, (2005) are not satisfied with this statement and they have stated that the clients can leave the organizations at a minimal mistake whereas the employees need the job security so the organizations must play their role for the betterment of their employees and provide them the facilities and take care of them in all ways in this way the loyalty among the employees will be increases and the employees will achieve the objectives at every cost. Whereas Choi and Chu, (2010) have been stated that the product or services quality can be created and can be delivered to the clients in better way by the customer relationship officer and other staff could not treat the client as the customer relationship officer can treat them, because Dimitriades, (2012) have been stated that the customer relationship management is responsible to create the skills and competencies among the workers to handle the clients and it started from the identification of their expectations and their priorities and then offer them products and services as per their needs. According to the Farber and Wycoff, (2011) that customer relationship department has the ability to deliver the quality of services and products to the clients as per the values of the products because values are such kind of characteristics of the unique product those can attract the clients to buy them. Getty & Thompson, (2011) both have been stated that the quality and the price are the such factors those can play their role for retaining the clients and for attracting new clients form the target markets so as Gonzalez et al., (2009) have been stated that the organizations must keep in their mind that quality and the lower prices can play important role in increasing sales volume.

2.6      Skilled Employees of CRM and Sales

According to the Helgesen, (2011) that to achieve the organizational objectives the customer relationship management is responsible to design the policy in a systematic way that is start from the identifying of customer’s problems and in order to find out their main issues and best solution of their problems and issues. This statement has been supports by the Looy, (2010) he stated that it is customer relationship management responsibility to equip the workers in such a way that they can identify the client’s needs and provide them necessary solutions. Oliver, (2009) has been stated that the skilled workers have the necessary abilities and knowledge to handle clients and can create the loyalty among them, and this only can be done by the customer relationship management team because this department has the necessary requirements and update knowledge to train the people and equip them with necessary tools and authorities for creating loyalty and satisfaction among the clients (Parasuraman et al., 2010). Some scholars are not in the favour of customers relationship management and they believe in that CR department is not useful for the business organizations and the organizations can be benefited from the employees loyalty and that loyalty can be created by the business organizations if the organizations reward them with handsome payments and other facilities for which they strive and in this way the goals will be achieved by their efforts and they will create the loyalty among people and sales volume can be raised (Reichheld and Kenny, 2007). This statement was supported by the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) by saying that the CRM departmental workers can create satisfaction among the clients and the workers can perform in better way if the organizations consider for their welfare and offer them handsome and attractive salary packages and consider their efforts and recognize them as well (Schlesinger & Heskett, 2007). According to the Su, (2010) that it is the manager’s duty to understand the requirement of the workers and then provide them necessary feedback, resources and trainings as per requirement of the market by keeping the all other factors and current situation of the market, then in this way the employees can perform in better situation, similarly the Wang et al., (2011) have been stated that now a day with the change in the environment and in the culture and in trends the people requirement is also changing day by day with speed and this is not been possible for the worker or marketing or sales department to modify the products or to handle the clients for creating loyalty and satisfaction among them this statement was supported by the Su, (2010) by saying that this is only the CRM department responsibility to watch and keep an eye on more than one angles.  

2.7      Conceptual Framework of Literature Review

ASDA Long term and Short term financial objectives (Based on the Sales Volume and growth)

Skilled workers identification needs and wants of clients, offering them quality of products and Services, communication with clients to solve their problems and taking their feedback and opinion, to identify their priorities and review the design, product, placement and promotion as per needs and wants.

Source:            Author

In the above frame of reference the researcher came to know that the customer relationship management is more concerned about the client’s satisfaction and creating the long term relationship between the clients and the organization, this department is responsible for creating the happiness by identifying their needs and communicating their desires with the manufacturing department and then offering them the expected items of high quality and after that conducting the surveys to get the client’s opinion and feedback for more improvements in the quality and in the products features and attracting new clients from the targeted market and increasing the sales volume and in this way achieving organizational objectives.

Chapter # 3: Research Methodology

3.1      Introduction

The researcher has been explained the research methods that has been used by him to conduct this research and all other tools and procedures that were adopted by the researcher to conduct this research in details, more the researcher has been explained the sample size and their ages and their ganders as well and also describe the questions and the respondents have been also described. All the methods and techniques which have been adopted by the researcher have been discussed here in this section.

3.2      Research Objectives

Main objectives of this research was to identify the role of CRM department in increasing the sales in retail sector in United Kingdom and the researcher has chose the ASDA supermarket as case study due to some causes which have been discussed in detail in the below in the sub section, the researcher has been divided the objectives into small chunks to carried out the research. Main objectives are given below for which the researcher has conducted this research.

To find out the importance and characteristics or attributes of the customer relationship management department and its benefits to the selected organization and its role in increasing the sales volume in the selected superstore in United Kingdom

To know exactly the policies and procedures and believes of the organizational management in the policies and practices `of customer relationship management at the selected organization and its expected benefits to the organization and flow of work (procedure)

To disclose the believe of customers about the customer relationship management while dealing with the clients and while handling their complaints and while giving them feedback and recording and maintaining their personal records to understand their priorities and keep in touch with them for future purpose and keep them in inform about promotions or sales to attract them or to retain them with the supermarket

To know about the issues and problems or challenges to this department while setting its objectives and while implementing those practices in exercise at the selected organization for achieving organizational objective

To know about the key successive factors those can be considered while designing the customer relationship management strategies those are very helpful in creating the loyalty, satisfaction and happiness among the clients because these factors must be known to the researcher for making positive suggestions and recommendations for the organization.

In order to understand the relationships between different factors with the customer relationship management department and its practices and collectively their link with the organizational growth and increase in the sales volume and market share.

According to the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) that organizational expansion, increase in sales volume, increase in market share always are the result of the CRM departmental strategies.

3.3      Research Method

In order to conduct the research in a fruitful way while as according to the research limitations and for valid and reliable outcomes of the research, the researcher always adopt or use effective and efficient research method that composed of different steps in sequence and leads them towards success (Bhote, 2011). According to the Getty & Thompson, (2011) that there are so qualitative and quantitative  research methods and it depends on the research nature and the objectives of the research and limitations of the research that which one is most appropriate and useful for the researcher to adopt to conduct the research and to find out the objectives of the research. A research method is basically the set of rules and step wise systematically way to lead to conduct the research adopted by the researcher to find out the research objectives and goals by remaining in limits and by following code of conduct as well (Antony & Antony, 2007). The researcher will use both of the methods to find out the research objectives.

3.3.1   Qualitative Research Method

Qualitative research methods are adopted by the researchers to find out the causes and to find out the motivation similarly in order to look deeply inside the quantitative research the qualitative methods are most important because in this method the researcher first of all set the objectives as per the concerned problem and then design the hypothesis and then conduct the quantitative research to find out the reality (Helgesen, 2011). The researcher in this way select few cases and different questions are asked by the group of people and structured or semi structured interviews is also arranged by the researchers (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). No any statistical data is involved in this research method the problem and the reasons and motivations are investigated and in the end the outcomes are called as understandings those can be used while making some kind of decisions because in this way conclusion could not be made by the researchers (Kim, 2010).

3.3.2   Quantitative Research Method

In this way of research the researchers play with data and measure the data and gather the data from the range of samples, first of all the researcher select the population and then select the sample size on the basis of the different characteristics of the individuals (Looy, 2010). Different techniques are used by the researchers to find out the views and opinions of the samples and then the gathered data is always used by the researchers to make statistical analysis and in different forms the statistical data is presented by the researchers to make some kind of conclusions and recommendations (Oliver, 2009). The researcher used the secondary data as backbone and as reference to support their conclusions and then made recommendations. Te outcome of the quantitative data is used by the companies and businessmen to take advantages. Surveys, questionnaires and interviews are used called structured methods to find out the primary data (Parasuraman et al., 2010).

3.4      Case Study

In order to achieve rich data from the research and valid data the researcher must chose case study tool to conduct the research (Bowen and Lawler, 2010). In order to save the time and the other resources the best method to conduct the valid and reliable research is the selection of a case study and the researcher when they have limitations with reference to the time and financial then the best way is to conduct the research by using case study (Antony & Antony, 2007). In order to achieve the valid results from the research especially when the researcher has no research conducting experience and in order to save the time and money the researchers must use case study as tool to conduct the research which is effective and efficient way (Bhote, 2011). In this way the data gathered is of high validity because a large number of participants take part in research and different people gave their views and opinions that make it sure the validity and reliability of the data (Farber and Wycoff, 2011). The researcher has been selected the ASDA supermarket as case study tool to conduct this research and to find out the facts and figures and the main reason is that the customer relationship management at the selected organization is working effectively and the organization has established this department as a spinal cord of the organization.

3.5      Data Source

The researcher will collect the secondary and primary data by valid and reliable means, and in this way the researcher will use secondary data as a background to support the theories and to find out the conclusions. The researcher will collect primary and secondary data in this way that the validity and reliability of data remains good, the organizations rely on validity of data. The researcher will collect the data by using following sources.

3.5.1   Primary Data Source

In this research the researcher will choose the samples by using a random technique and will chose the key person in the selected superstore and will conduct interviews and then questionnaires will be distributed among the samples to find out the real facts and figures. The researcher will design the questionnaire by using special skills and techniques and by considering the main aims and objectives of this research and will include close ended, open ended, bipolar and rating questions in the questionnaires and simple questions will be asked from the management to find out the importance and the duties and responsibilities of the customer relationship management department in the selected organization.

3.5.1.1          Questionnaires

To gather the primary data from the samples or respondents the researcher will distribute the questionnaires among the selected clients and will select the people on random basis. According to the Antony & Antony, (2007) that according to the nature and the main objectives of the research the researcher must use the close ended and rating questions in the questionnaires and the questionnaires must be designed as per the research objectives and the researcher must keep in mind the 7 c’s of communication because the questions must be easy and understandable for the respondents. Similarly the Bowen and Lawler, (2010) has been stated that questionnaires is a valid and reliable technique to get valid and to the point information from the respondents and in this way the researchers can obtained their main aims and objectives in easy and systematic way. According to the Gonzalez et al., (2009) that the questionnaires are the best techniques to gather primary valid and reliable data from the samples and in this way the researchers can get maximum advantage of validity and reliability of the data because large number of people respond to the questionnaires and their biasness chances are low and opinions and views make the data validity and reliability. Gundersen et al., (2010) have been stated that the researchers must include 20 questions of different kinds like close ended and open ended questions rating questions and other questions to get the appropriate results. In order to achieve valid results and to conduct the research in well manners and to save the cost and other resources the researchers must use the questionnaires to conduct the research (Helgesen, 2011).

3.5.1.2          Interviews

The researchers must conduct the structured and unstructured interviews with the key person like managers, other staff members and supervisors to find out the actual nature of the problem and to get the primary data (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). It is very important for the researchers to conduct the interviews to gather the primary data with the staff members because in this way the researchers will gather valid data (Kim, 2010). According to the Looy, (2010) that the effective interviews are not easy because it is very difficult to collect primary data from the interviews because everyone has its own views and opinions and the researchers needs more professional skills and competencies to design the interviews and to design the questions to find out the real fact and figures from the respondents. For conducting an interview the researchers have to follow the rules to get valid and appropriate results, according to the Reichheld and Sasser, (2006) that the researchers must start the interviews by taking permission from the organizational management and then inform the key person and then negotiate the purpose of the interview and set the time of interview, before conducting the interview the researchers must have the questionnaires and note the answers on the paper in written form (Oliver, 2009). First of all the researchers must designed the questions and then after recording the answers they must make analysis and for making conclusions the researcher must use those answers answers by using statistical techniques and procedures. Some scholars are not in the favour of interviews like Parasuraman et al., (2010) have been stated that it is not an easy task to gather information from the interview because it is also very hard to assess the responsible person in an organization to conduct interview from that particular person and to get proper answers. But some scholars are in the favour of interview techniques like Reichheld and Kenny, (2007) they have been stated that interviews are the best technique to gather valid primary data from the management and the researchers must include more than five members because in this way a variety of answers will be collected and the researcher can select the most appropriate and they have chance to get real facts and figures. There are less chances of gathering wrong information from the team members of customer relationship management because these people have all kind of information related with their roles and responsibilities (Schlesinger & Heskett, 2007).

3.5.2   Secondary Data Source

The researcher can gather the secondary data and valid and reliable secondary data by using electronic sources because there are some advantages of using electronic sources first of all easily available and secondly the cheaper as compared to other sources (Gundersen et al., 2010). The researchers must collect the secondary data maximum 10 years old because in this way they can gather fresh researches and valid data can be obtained in this way  (Helgesen, 2011). The researcher has used the ASDA website, electronic source like books, journals and articles and magazines and also read out the books, journals and magazines related with the importance of customer relationship management and on the sales volume and on the topic of role of CRM department in enhancing the sales and growth of an organization.

3.6      Sample Size

It is very important for the researchers to identify the samples before to start the research for gathering primary data (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). While choosing the sample size and the respondents the researchers must use both techniques like qualitative and quantitative and similarly for valid and reliable results they must include males and females as respondents because both come to supermarkets for shopping and both are social responsible (Kim, 2010). Some researchers Reichheld and Kenny, (2007) have been stated that the maximum age should not be more than 60 years and minimum must not be less than 19 years old to gat valid and reliable primary data from the respondents. According to the Parasuraman et al., (2010) that there are three main different methods to select the sample size firs of all is the random technique, because in this way all the population members have the same chance to include in the sample and secondly there are so many ways to get the random numbers and this is easy and simple way to select the samples. There is no bias in the result when the researchers use this technique and this is most favourite technique when there is large number of population. So the researcher has decided to select the samples by using random method. The researcher will select 100 clients as sample and will distribute the questionnaires among them.

Sr. #	Male	Female	Total
1	50	–	50
2	–	50	50
Total	50	50	100

Some scholars like Gundersen et al., (2010) have been stated that the researchers must distribute the questionnaires among the respondents and their age must be in between 19 to 60 and both men and women must be included in order to get valid primary data.

Chapter # 4:          Findings and Analysis

4.1      Introduction

ASDA is the basically British supermarket chain in United Kingdom, which is owned by the American people. ASDA supermarket is the chain that is providing and offering its services in retail food, merchandising of cloths, stationary, kitchen stuff, backer stuff, toys, and toiletry stuff, in mobile network and in the financial sector as well. ASDA has the basically subsidiary of the Wal-Mart company, and the Wall-Mart is the largest organization in the World. Customer relationship management department is working from the very first day at the ASDA and this department is playing its effective role in the success of organization. At the ASDA the customer relationship management department is responsible for creating loyalty and happiness among the clients at its best level and all the CRM departmental employees are highly qualifies and they have devoted themselves for the ASDA team and they have agreed to achieve organizational aims and objectives in efficient way and the departmental management has been delegated necessary authorities to them to solve client’s problem at their first priority, this department has the client’s data base as well and through internet the CRM department team remains always in contact with the clients and get their feedback and their opinion through different and time to time online surveys and by asking them trough telephone calls and through postages as well. The researcher has been selected the samples by using random technique and all their attributes and age range and number of respondents are given below in the following table.

Serial #	Respondent’s age groups	Gender	Total Number of Respondents
0	Minimum-Maximum	Male	Female
1	19-26	8	8	16
2	27-34	7	7	14
3	35-42	13	13	26
4	43-50	13	13	26
5	51-60	9	9	18
		50	50	100

4.2      Interviews

As the researcher has been designed the questions for the management of the selected superstore to disclose the real facts and figures and the researcher has designed all the questions by keeping the aims and objectives of the research and semi structure interviews were conducted by the researcher and all those questions with their answers are given below.

Q1:      What are the main responsibilities of customer relationship management at ASDA?

Answer:

The customer relationship management is responsible for the following tasks.

Attract new clients from the target market

Building strong and profitable relations with the potential clients

Offering them the best solution of their problems in efficient way

To retain the old client by creating happiness, satisfaction and loyalty among them and by offering the values in the products and offering them high quality of products and services

To equip the skilled workers with latest technology and procedures

To develop the effective strategies and policies for the business operations effectively implementing them in the business operations

To recognize the client’s priorities and requirements and then to pass that information to the manufacturing department for delivering them to the clients and then taking feedback from them to review and amending them for good feedback and for creating loyalty among clients.

Customer relationship management department is responsible for finding out the challenges to this department and finding out their best solution.

Q2:      What are the main problems and challenges to the customer relationship management department?

Answer:

The respondents have been responded that following are the problems faced by the CRM department at ASDA supermarket.

As due to rapid change in the technology and advancement in the procedures and technologies that change the client’s needs and requirement, it is a big problem for the CRM representative to understand the client’s needs and wants.

As there is high competition in the market so it needs more intelligence to find out competitor’s strategies and policies to compete with them.

In order t increase the sales volume/ revenue generation is not easy

To communicate with the other department while remaining in the allocated resources it is not easy to get their requirement and to respond them in time.

To create the satisfaction and loyalty among the workers and to assess their requirements is not an easy task.

Allocation of the resources to the workers at the right time and to create effective strategies linked with the strategies is not an easy task for the CRM department and due to ineffective strategies of online purchasing and handling client’s complaints it is not possible to reduce the time to make compensations and to offer them best solution.

Q3:      Is there any relationship exist between sales volume and the customer relationship management strategies and policies?

Answer:

Yes there is a deep and direct and indirect relationship between the sales volume and the customer relationship management policies and its practices because the customers are always deal by the CRM representatives and the customer relationship management interact with them just to find out their expectations and their expectations can be judged by having the very good and effective skills and competencies and after that if the products are available then delivering them and taking their feedback for more improvements and after that if the required items are not available then passing those information to the concerned department for review and amending those products. In this way when the client’s will receive the products and services as per their expectations then it will create happiness among them, in this way there are two benefits, first of all the happy clients or satisfied clients will tell the others that they are happy and then after that it will increase the frequency of the visits of the clients and in this way the sales volume will be increased. So it is very clear that the customer relationship management department has impact on the sales volume due to its efforts and its responsibilities and in this way the organization will be benefited. The customer relationship management is playing its effective and efficient role in managing contacts the clients, and updating their feedback and maintaining their contacts and their views and opinion. There is a close relationship between the sales and the customer relationship management department. The customer relationship management find out the competitive advantages for the organization and set the strategies and policies as per their circumstances to achieve the competitive advantages for increasing the sales and for earning maximum profitability.

Q4:      What is flow work of Customer relationship management department at ASDA

Answer:

The respondents have been responded and the researcher have been discussed the work flow of CRM department at the ASDA and the researcher has been represent that work flow in the pictorial form which is given below.

Source:            Author

In the above diagram the researcher has been tried to show the flow of the work as showed in the above diagram that at the ASDA the main responsibility of the customer relationship management is research and development and then as per gathered data pass that specific information to the relevant department and then after that it is the manufacturing and design department to manufacture that product and services as per client’s requirements. In order to assess their requirement the customer relationship management department needs high skills and competencies to find out their requirements and in order to create loyalty to increase the volume of sales and to build the strong relationship with clients for earning more profit that is the main and final objectives of the organization. The customer relationship management department also remained the responsible for the happiness of the clients by offering them the suitable services and product with the expected quality and price, and the customer relationship management must gather and record the client’s information and create data base for them and with the passage of time assess their priorities and design the effective marketing strategies and policies to achieve organizational objectives.

Q5:      Do you believe in the effective and important role of customer relationship management for the growth and in achieving organizational objectives?

Answer:

All the respondents have been replied that they have believe in the customer relationship management department’s strategies and policies because they have believe in the operations and effectiveness of customer relationship management department’s role for achieving organizational objectives in efficiently and effectively. There are so many reasons that the customer relationship management is the most effective department and is playing its role for the growth of the organization and those reasons are as follows.

The customer relationship management department supervisors are responsible for creating and making interactions with the clients directly and when the client’s needs their attention or they need their help they need their attention to solve their problem and help them the clients can contact with them directly without any hesitation and as the customer relationship management employees have skills and competencies to understand the client’s problems and their requirements they help them and respond them quickly just to create loyalty, happiness and satisfaction among them. The customer relationship management is responsible for the handling of problems and complaints efficiently by offering them the best solution at priority because if the clients are happy then they will bring new clients from the target market. The customer relationship management is also responsible to create loyalty among the employees because the CRM manager and higher management has the believe in that the loyal employees can also play their effective role in achieving organization’s objectives because the loyal employees can play their role effectively because the employees dedicate themselves for organizational objectives positively by taking into consideration their welfare and rewards and incentive programs. Customer relationship management is responsible for assessing the resources and allocating those resources to the concerned and right people and control the resource wastage. Customer relationship management first of all assess the required job descriptions and roles and required skills and competencies for achieving agreed objectives and then design the development plans for the employees and provide them the necessary and required skills and competencies and set the standards to measure their performance and time to time measure their performance for efficiency and gave them proper feedback as well. Then the customer relationship management review the skills and trainings and with the change in technology update the skilled workers information, knowledge and improve their competencies for achieving organizational agreed objectives. The customer relationship management department also make necessary and important decisions and involve all other relevant workers in the process of decision making for creating loyalty among them. Before designing and developing policies and strategies for the business organization the customer relationship department assess those factors those contribute their role in creating happiness, loyalty and satisfaction among the clients and then by considering those factors into their minds they design the effective and efficient strategies and policies for achieving organizational objectives.

4.3      Questionnaires

The researcher has designed the following question to gather the primary data from the respondents and as in the previous chapter the researcher has been described in details about the samples and their attributes in detail. The researcher has been designed all the questions by keeping in mind all the factors and the main aims and objectives of the research and also by keeping the principles of communications and 7 c’s of the marketing communication and according to the available resources for achieving organizational objectives. Each question has its own purpose and reason that describe the validity and reliability and the researcher has been linked the theories with the questions. The researcher has been used the pie and bar charts to show the relevant relationships among the different variables and factors and their connection in creating loyalty and increasing sales volume and in building relationship with the clients by the customer relationship management. All the questions those were included in the questionnaire are given as follows.

Q:        What is the main purpose of your visit at ASDA?

Response:       

Reasons	For Shopping	Visits	Some other reasons	Total
Yes	90	10	0	100
No		0	00
Total	90	10	00	100

The researcher has made this question to know exactly the purpose of the respondents at ASDA. And the researcher came to know about the main purpose of the visit of client is the shopping and some of people come to ASDA for visit might be with their friends or family members and no anybody come for the some other reasons. According to the scholars Antony & Antony, (2007) that when there are clients there is business and if there is no client means there is no business.

As in the above both charts in has been shown that the maximum number of people about 90% come to ASDA for shopping purpose whereas 0% of the people come for other reasons. So from this response the researcher come to know that 90% of the people just come for the shopping which is a huge number of people and the visitors may just come with their family members or with their friends, whereas the 0% of the people come for other reasons which includes to check the price, for killing their time and for jobs or may be for looking the offers. 90% is large amount of people and if the customer relationship management can create the loyalty among these people then in this way the organizational sales volume can be boost up. And the remaining 10% those come their family members and friends are also come for the shopping purpose, so one thing is clear here that majority come for shopping and this is an opportunity for the ASDA CRM department to provide them necessary requirements at their best level.  

Q:        Are you regular customer at ASDA or this is your first visit?

Answer:

Answer	Yes	No	Total
Female	45	5	50
Male	44	6	50
Total	89	11	100

The researcher has designed this question to understand that the loyalty or satisfaction of the clients and want to understand the people that either they are first time here or they are regular clients, because there are so many factors those can play their role in bringing people here like their residences, the opening or closing time of ASDA  and the most appropriate for them those come in evening time or in weekend only so it is very important to ask them about their reasons to visit ASDA and the result shows in the following pie and bar charts. People buy from the superstore for buying their general purpose items and they also buy the services so it is important that the products and services must be in their ease of access (Bhote, 2011).    

The chart shows that the 89% of the people come to ASDA for shopping on regular basis and only 11% people are here for their first time. 89% means that these people are loyal or there may be some other factors that are why these people are here and rest of them may be moved in this area and ASDA is more convenient for them, in the next question the researcher has asked them about the motivational factors.

Q:        What are the motivational factors that you come at ASDA for shopping?

            Please tick the appropriate factor

Answer:

Motivational Factors	Female	Male	Total
Happy and satisfaction	13	15	28
Due to reference
Loyal	18	14	32
Convenient
Products quality	15	19	34
Near their residents	4	2	6
Total	50	50	100

The researcher has made that above question in order to understand the motivational factors and main reasons of their shopping from the ASDA supermarket. Some scholars have been stated that customer relationship management can create loyalty by offering low price but high quality of products and services to the clients and in this way they can increase the market share (Buttle, 2010). Because this is very important for the researcher to identify those factors and reasons that attract the clients towards the ASDA supermarket and to find out the other factors those are motivational factors so that ASDA must consider them while designing the policies and strategies for the clients. People always go again to buy the products and services to overcome their problems and if they become happy they tell others and if the products did not satisfy them they become angry and next time they will find out the substitute (Bowen and Lawler, 2010). Whereas Bitran and Hoech, (2005) have been stated that people buy from the superstore due to quality of product and lower prices, some people are price and some are quality conscious, the quality conscious never think about the price but the price conscious always concerned about the price and they have the saving habit and they do not care about the quality because they know that the high quality products and services always cost them at high prices.

From the above chart is has been cleared that the maximum people buy from the ASDA due to the loyalty and their ratio is the 32%, this percentage shows that the people among the 90% those come for shopping at ASDA and among them only 32% are loyal with the ASDA it means that customer relationship management at ASDA need more hard work because the 32% not a good percentage. And to maximize this ratio the customer relationship management need more improvements in its policies and strategies. 34% of the people buy from the superstore due to its high quality and these people are quality conscious and they do not bother the prices and they just buy due to quality of the products and quality always come because of the values and honouring the promises with the clients. There are only 6% people those come for shopping because they are living near the ASDA and they do not have much time to go other departments and ASDA location is convenient to them.

Q:        Are you happy with the policies and strategies of the ASDA superstore?

Answer:

Answers	Females	Males	Total
Yes	38	30	68
No	12	20	32
Total	50	50	100

According to the Farber and Wycoff, (2011) that the effective strategies and policies always bring happiness among the clients and the employees and this happiness always leads them towards loyalty and loyalty is the key of success for the organizations for both clients and employees. As the tables shows that majority of the people have been respond that they are happy and the minority of the respondents replied that they are not happy, here one thing is very important that the minority of the people are not negligible and their views and opinions must be strictly consider by the customer relationship management for positive response.

From the above diagrams (bar chart and pie chart) the researcher came to know that the 68% of the people like the CRM policies and strategies because they are happy and those strategies and policies are in their favour, whereas the rest of the people are not happy and they do not like the CRM recent strategies and policies and 32% of the respondents in not negligible and the management must consider them and must review the policies for creating strong and trusty relationship with them.

Q:        What do you think about the CRM role in organizational success?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	44	47	91
No	06	03	09
Total	50	50	100

As the above table shows that the majority of the people have believe in the role of customer relationship management for the success of organization. The people have the awareness of customer relationship management department and its effectiveness and they know that this department is for the mutual benefits of organization and customers (Gonzalez et al., 2009).

69% of the respondents have responded that the CRM department can play its role effectively in obtaining organizational objectives, whereas the remaining 31% respondents have not believed in the CRM efforts. This response showed that the 31% of the people did not have knowledge about the CRM department and its effectiveness in the super stores. The main purpose of this question was to know about the importance and effectiveness of this department in the superstores. The customer relationship management department is responsible for tackling customer’s problems and providing them necessary solution as per demands and create the loyalty among the customers for obtaining organizational objectives, and it is also CRM department to convey their importance message to the customers for its effectiveness (Gundersen et al., 2008).

Q:        Did customer relationship management representative ever have asked you about your expectations regarding quality and price?

Respondents	Yes	No	Total
Male	46	4	50
Female	48	2	50
Total	94	6	100

Answer:

Most of the respondents responded that yes the CRM representative asked them about their expectations regarding quality of products and quality of services and prices. Some customers are price conscious and some quality conscious, this question was designed by the researcher to know about the interest of customers towards the quality of products and services and the result showed that a significant percentage 92% of the customers are quality conscious and remaining may be price conscious. According to Bowen and Lawler, (2009) most of the customers prefer the quality and then price. Here is the same situation that people first check the quality and then price and make their decision on the basis of quality and price.

The charts showed that the 94% of the people have believe in the effectiveness and positive role of customer relationship management department and only 6% do not have believe in its effectiveness. It is good that majority of the people have believes in the CRM departmental effectiveness and in this way the CRM department can achieve its objectives.

Q:        Are you registered at ASDA website and did you ever receive the pamphlets and email for promotions and advertisement?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	42	48	90
No	8	2	10
Total	50	50	100

The above table shows that the majority of the people are registered with the website and they have received the advertisement and promotional emails from the customer relationship management department as well. The organizations must use effective media channels for products and offer’s promotions (Bhote, 2011). From this question the researcher came to know that most of the people use internet and they are receiving promotional emails and the CRM department can also use maximum advantage of this opportunity. By using the latest and advance technology the organization can reduce the cost effectively and the quality of the products and services and in this way the organizations can achieve the competitive advantages (Bowen and Lawler, 2010).

It has been cleared that 90% of the people are receiving the promotional emails and they are registered with the ASDA online as well and in this way the CRM department can take maximum advantage of this opportunity the remaining 10% of the respondents must be taken into consideration and the organization must register them with the online services in this way they both can be benefited.

Q:        Which one the most suitable media for marketing?

Answer:         

Answer	Internet	Radio	Door to door campaign	Television	Local Newspapers	Total
Female	27	3	5	8	7	50
Male	25	2	3	11	9	50
Total	52	5	8	19	16	100

The researcher wants to know the effective media channel to start the marketing campaigns for creating awareness among the clients. It is very necessary for the organizations to deliver the marketing message to the potential customers through effective media channels (Bitran and Hoech, 2005).

As in the above pie chart and in the bar chart it is clear that the majority of the people 52% like the internet whereas 19% of the respondents respond that television is the best and effective media channel to advertise the marketing messages, whereas 16% of the respondents have been responded that news papers are effective way for advertisement, 8% responded that door to door campaign is the best way and only 5% have been responded that radio is the effective way to advertise the marketing campaign.

Q:        Do you believe in customer relationship management representative’s efforts for dealing with you while solving your problems?

Answer:

Answer	Yes	No	Total
Female	39	11	50
Male	41	9	50
Total	80	20	100

The CRM department representatives can create long term and strong relationship among the clients through their skills and competencies (Choi and Chu, 2010). The researcher came to know that majority of the respondents responded that they believe in the CRM efforts only 20 people do not believe in CRM efforts.

The above charts shows that the 80% of the people are in the favour of the CRM departmental efforts and this is because of their past experience and only 20% of the people do not have believe in the CRM departmental efforts. The 80% is the majority and very clear majority that have past experience with the attitude and dealing of CRM department and that’s why they have responded that CRM representative are effective and their efforts are positive, the 20% is not negligible and their experience is not good.

Q:        Do you believe that lower price and high quality will bring satisfaction and CRM department can offer?

Answer:

Answers	Female	Male	Total
Yes	50	0	50
No	50	0	50
Total	100	0	100

As the scholars have been stated that CRM department can also consider the lower prices and higher quality to create loyalty and satisfaction among the clients for achieving organizational objectives (Everett, 2007). The table and charts have been shown that 100% of the respondents have been stated that low price and high quality always bring satisfaction among them and no one has responded against the question. It means that customer relationship management can create loyalty satisfaction among clients by offering them low price products with high quality of products. And while making strategies and policies must include these factors.

Q:        Do you believe that CRM employees are playing their role in identifying your expectations and their attitude and behaviour is good?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	35	15	50
No	42	8	50
Total	77	23	100

The researcher found out that the majority of the people responded that CRM department at ASDA is playing its role effectively in identifying their expectations and workers attitude and behaviour are good and they are satisfied.

The 23% respondents have been responded that they are not happy with the CRM departmental worker’s attitude and they do not believe that CRM department is not playing its role in identifying their expectations. The majority like 77% have been responded that the CRM department is successfully identifying their expectations and worker’s attitude and behaviour is so nice and they are happy.

Q:        Do you believe that workers are continuously updated your database for identifying your priorities and remain in touch with you and collect your feedback and your suggestions and opinions to redesign the products and improving the products and services and this create your satisfaction and loyalty?

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	42	47	89
No	8	3	11
Total	50	50	100

The researcher found that 89% of the respondents have believe in the CRM workers are updating their data base and identifying their priorities and taking properly their feedback and their views and opinions and passing this information to the manufacturing department to improve the weaknesses and redesigning the products as per their requirements for creating loyalty and satisfaction among them. Only 11% of the people do not have believe in the CRM workers abilities and their this efforts and they responded that they do not believe in that they are not putting their efforts for identifying their needs and wants and do not taken their opinion and feedback to redesign products as per their needs and wants. 11% is not negligible ratio.

Q:        Tick the appropriate factors those can play their role in creating satisfaction and loyalty for increasing market share and sales volume?

Answer:         

Factors	Female	Male	Total
Quality of Products	35	48	83
Response	45	47	92
Lower Prices	50	50	100
Best solution	46	48	94
Product range	48	48	96
Ingredients and Promises	49	49	98

Customer relationship management must consider the factors that can create loyalty and satisfaction and happiness among their clients to increase the sales volume those can be include quality, lower price, best solution, product full range under one roof, promises and ingredients (Gonzalez et al., 2009). The 83% respondents have been responded that quality is count as a key successive factor in creating happiness and loyalty among the clients, 92% are agree that quick response can be used as key successive factor in creating loyalty and satisfaction among them, similarly 100% respondents responded that lower price can create happiness and satisfaction and loyalty among them and 94% best solution, 96% vote to the product full range and 98% have responded that promises and ingredients also those factors those can create happiness, loyalty and satisfaction among them and in this way the organizations can increase the sales volume.

Q:        Do you believe that ASDA is offering lower prices, better quality, best solutions, range of products, honouring promises and quick response in creating loyalty and satisfaction?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	46	45	91
No	4	5	9
Total	50	50	100

91% of the respondents have been responded that the organization is offering them all the necessary requirements to create loyalty and satisfaction among them only 9% which is a minor ratio these people are not satisfied with the above given statement and they do not believe in that organization is not offering them the quality of products, quick response, best solution, is not fulfilling its promises and range of products to create loyalty and happiness and satisfaction among them.

Q:        Do you believe that happy and angry clients both make references for the organizations?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	48	44	92
No	2	6	8
	50	50	100

It is human being nature that they share their experiences and clients also share their satisfaction and good and bad experience with family members, colleagues and friends, in this way happy clients always recommend to buy products and angry people also share their bad experiences with others (Gundersen et al., 2010). So the 92% of the respondents have responded that yes they share their experiences with others, only 8% have responded that they do not share their experiences because these people do not like to mix with others and they do not like to share their personals with others and they want to live alone.

Q:        Have you made quality and price comparisons among the same products from different superstores?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Males	Total
Yes	45	5	50
No	48	2	50
Total	93	7	100

Some people are price and some are quality conscious and they make comparisons before buying products (Helgesen, 2011). In this research the 93% responded that they made comparisons and off curse they will prefer to buy lower prices products and only 7% do not care about price and quality comparisons.

Q:        Have you ever registered complaint to customer relationship management about product and did they solve your problem?

Answer:

Answer	Female	Male	Total
Yes	43	7	50
No	41	9	50
Total	84	16	80

The customer relationship management has the skilled workers and competent employees those can handle their problems and offer them best solutions for creating loyalty and satisfaction among them (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2012). The charts showed that 84% of the people responded that they have registered the complaints about faulty or inappropriate products and CRM department has responded them and solve their problems. Remaining 16% responded that they never registered the complaints it means that they might be never receive the faulty or inappropriate products or they do not know the procedure to register the complaints or they do not have time to register. But they also come to buy from the ASDA supermarket because they are happy.

Q:        Do you believe that following factors should be considered by the CM department in creating loyalty and happiness for increasing sales volume and did the ASDA CRM team is also considering them for increasing sales volume?

Answer:

Variables	Answer
Behaviour	90
Low cost	100
Size of Product	95
Client’s feedback	90
High quality	100
Feedback	90
Solution	90
Availability	100
Attitude	95
Quickness	100
Promises	100
Ease of access	90
Characteristics	100
Expectation’s identification	100
Compensation	90
Offers	90
Guarantees and warrantees	90

The respondents have been responded that all the above stated factors or variables are very important for them and majority of the people like 100% have been responded that quickness, promises, lower cost and high quality are the factors those can be used by the customer relationship management to create loyalty and satisfaction among the clients. Whereas 95% of the respondents have been responded that size and attitude must be considered by the customer relationship management to create loyalty and satisfaction among the clients for increasing sales volume and achieving organizational objectives, 90% of the respondents have been replied that customer relationship management employee’s behaviour, client’s feedback, best solution, compensations, offers, warranty and guarantees and ease of access also play their role in creating loyalty and satisfaction among the clients for increasing sales volume.

Chapter # 5:          Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1      Introduction

The researcher has been discussed in details the conclusions and the positive recommendations for the selected organization in detail and the researcher has been discussed the associated constraints and limitations and has been clearly defined the ways to reduce them, all the details are given as under.

5.2      Conclusion and Limitations and recommendations

5.2.1   Conclusion

The researcher has the time and budget shortage and the researcher has spent the money from own sources and other resources were provided by the ASDA management and by selecting the one case study and by choosing the questionnaires and interviews techniques times was saved and for more validity and reliability the researcher has followed the ethical considerations. The researcher has made these conclusions as per the respondents responses and the researcher has been used the secondary data as a support. First of all the management at the superstore have been disclosed so many facts and realities for the customer relationship management and they have been told that customer relationship management has the positive impact on all the objectives positively, this department can play its role and is playing its role very positively in increasing organizational sales and in sustaining growth, but the speed is slow just because of the strategies and policies. They have responded that the customer relationship management department is facing a lot of issues and problems while designing and implementing its strategies in the organizations and main cause is the resource allocation which means that the allocated budget is low. For more improvements in the efficiency of the customer relationship management the higher management must allocate them the resources as per their needs and wants because allocation of resources at the right time has importance (Choi and Chu, 2010). It has been clear from the very first question that the 90% which shows that the maximum number of people come for shopping purpose and remaining 10% people come with family members and with friends. It means that the majority of the people come for buying products which also shows their interest and there will be some reasons, whereas the 10% showed that they come with family member’s means that they also come for shopping. The researcher came to know that the maximum clients are regular customers and few of them are new clients. the researcher has made the conclusion that the 32% of the people are loyal with the superstore and 28% of the people are satisfied and 34% are the client those buy the products and services due to high quality, these are the people those do not care about the prices but the people those are satisfied they are conscious about the price as well. So the opportunity is there and the customer relationship management has the opportunity in this way. The organizations can consider the quality and low price as key successive factors in creating loyalty among the clients and in this way loyalty will lead the clients towards more buying and hence the sales volume will be increased (Dimitriades, 2012). Majority of the people are happy with the recent policies and strategies but the other people those are not happy and their percentage is 32% which is a great percentage and the CRM department could not neglect them. Some scholars have been stated that the strategies and policies are the set of rules and regulations followed by the organizations to handle and behave and interact with the clients (Flyvbjerg, 2011). Majority of the people have believes in the CRM department only 6% do not have believe in CRM departmental effectiveness. The CRM department must consider the promotion of CRM departmental effectiveness among the clients because in this way people will contact with CRM department to solve their problems and to register their complaints. Most of the clients have been responded that internet is the effective way to advertise the messages regarding promotions and offers.

Majority of the respondents have been responded that they have believe in CRM positive efforts and CM can play role in creating loyalty and happiness among them only 20% of the people are not agree with the CRM department efforts positively. The researcher has been concluded that majority 100% of the clients wants products and services at lower prices but at high quality.

Majority of the people are happy with CRM department worker’s attitude and behaviours and they are satisfied with by the CRM role in identifying in their expectations positively. CRM first identify client’s expectations and then can offer them expected products to create loyalty that will leads them towards more sales (Flyvbjerg, 2011). Most of the respondents have believe that CRM is taking feedback and their opinions for improving and redesigning the products to create loyalty and satisfaction for increasing sales volume. All the clients wants best quality, lower price, best solution of their problems, full range of products under one roof, promises and ingredients are those factors those can create happiness, loyalty and satisfaction among them. Majority of the people made comparisons of same products from the different providers about price and quality and prefer to buy lower price and high quality of products.

5.2.2   Recommendations

1.         The customer relationship management at ASDA must review its policies and strategies and must increase the target market and must reduce the risk factor by producing and offering products range and must offer the products at lower price as compared to its competitors.

2.         Customer relationship management can also attract the visitors towards buying products but organizational management must review the budget policy and must allocate more budgets to the customer relationship management.

3.         The customer relationship management need more resources and they need advance technology and procedures to make their strategies and policies more effective in attaining organizational objectives. Proper and timely allocated resources are necessary for expected outcomes (Gonzalez et al., 2009).

4.         CRM department need strategies and policies to attract the visitors and must handle them and can advertise and marketing for those people in effective way, there must be price comparisons for them, by handing over them the pamphlets and by taking their details and creating their database and sending them the offers and value added offers as well to grab such people in this way the market share can be increased. These are the basically effective policies of an organization to attract customer and to create happiness among them (Getty & Thompson, 2011).

5.         Customer relationship management department should also pay its full attention towards the quality and the price as well because if the department pay its attention on the low price as compared to the competitors then maximum share can be increased that will automatically increase the sales volume and the organization will be in position to earn more money.

6.         The customer relationship management needs to adopt latest technology and follow the latest procedures to increase the quality of products and to reduce the cost.

The higher management must review the customer relationship management strategies and policies and must amend them as per the client’s views and opinions and the organization can get the client’s views and their opinions by conducting online or offline surveys and by taking their feedback for achieving organizational objectives.

7.         It is very important that people have the awareness about the CRM department and in this way they can create happiness and loyalty among the customers (Antony & Antony, 2007). So the CRM department must pay its attention on creating awareness among the clients because it is first step towards the success.

8.         The CRM department must adopt internet and website and must adopt the online media channel for marketing and other media channels as well to promote the products and offers and discounts and sales for attracting new clients from the market. Due to effective media channels the organizations can attract new markets and can retain the old clients as well and in both ways the sales volume will be increased (Buttle, 2010).

9.         The CRM department must pay the attention on the skills and training and must review the resources and authorities and behaviour of the representatives to create loyalty, happiness’s by providing them the suitable solutions of their problems and CRM department must measure the worker’s performance and must review their personal development plans and update their knowledge and equip them with latest skills and competencies. It is necessary for the business organizations to measure employee’s performance and gave them feedback and provides them trainings and updates their knowledge for positive output (Dimitriades, 2012). The customer relationship management must consider low price and high quality while designing and offering the products and services as compared to its competitors because 100% clients need low price bust high quality of products and services. Farber and Wycoff, (2011) have been stated that organizations can increase sales volume by offering low price and at high quality products in the market.

10.       The CRM department must review the strategy and policy and must pay attention on taking client’s feedback and updating their data base that will be helpful for identifying their expectation and offering them suitable products to create loyalty and satisfaction to increase market share and sales volume. Identification of client’s priorities and their feedback can be useful in creating loyalty and satisfaction among them and for increasing sales volume (Getty & Thompson, 2011).

5.3      Further Research Areas

The researcher has disclosed so many areas those need to be taken by the other researchers into their considerations and they must conduct research on them for the better outcomes and in this way the business organizations can gain maximum benefits from them which involves the carbon emission impact on CRM activities.

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