VISAKHAPATNAM: An interactive session with David V. Lee who pioneers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the US, organised by the Institute of Development and Planning Studies (IDPS) here on Monday provided some insight into the practice.

The CRM Initiative from the Vertical Marketing Inc., of which Mr. Lee is president, was a strategy used to learn more about customer's needs and behaviour in order to develop stronger relationship with them. It would help the organisation to use the technology and human resources to gain an insight into the behaviour of customers and their values.

Better service

It would also help the organisation to provide better customer service, sell products more effectively, help the sales staff close the deal quickly, simplify the marketing and sales processes, discover new customers and increase customer revenue. During his presentation, Mr. Lee said that a study made in the US revealed that the net profit of an organisation would double if the percentage of the customers lost was reduced from 20 to 15. The return on investment strategy included better control over management, marketing and information. According to him, an organisation should be able to recover investment in the first year by following CRM and keep on increasing returns then on.

Chairman of IDPS and former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, M. Gopalakrishna Reddy presided. Chief project co-ordinator of IDPS, R.V. Rama Rao, spoke.

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