Keeping their existing customers intact and adding to that customer base is an imperative for banks. The definition of customer relations is broadening. When every new piece of customer data can reveal a new facet of a customer, information becomes a business opportunity. The more data, the merrier everyone is.
YES Bank was no exception. It managed customer relations via Excel sheets, something that the bank was beginning to regret. The problem was that it was a one-way information sharing system that restricted data flow from the customer to the company. "We had instances when we lost sales leads, or multi-interfaces to the same lead and re-assignment of leads. We just couldn't track older leads because there were multiple registrations and entry for tracking them," says a branch manager of YES Bank who prefers not to be named. Having a customer relationship management (CRM) solution was the need of the hour.
"While conceptualizing the CRM, I was not looking at a mature and stable CRM package because our retail business model itself was demand-based and hence very fluid. We wanted to start with a small framework-based model which changes with our business needs," says Suvanjay Kumar Sharma, VP (corporate strategy) & chief enterprise architect, YES Bank. "We wanted a flexible solution that would change in accordance to the dynamics of our business. What we wanted was a scalable CRM that could grow as we grew and not just any CRM solution," says Sharma. And from those priorities was born the concept of the Yes Bank Collaborative CRM (YCCRM). The system has two logical separation models: a pre-acquisition and a post-acquisition service cycle for customers," explains Sharma. It took six to eight months to develop and implement the solution in the first branch.
The customer information captured in the YCCRM is mapped to blog-like entries made by employees. These entries include ideas, suggestions, and perceptions of the sales representatives. The sales and product teams can then analyze this information and figure out related business opportunities. Such information can also be leveraged to customize existing products or conceive new products altogether.
Earlier, with Excel sheets, sales staff culled out details of customers by tabs in the form (name, company, account number, etcetera). But with YCCRM, they were provided with a template where they can fill details (other than the standard keywords) noted during their interaction with the customers. This meant they could personalize their dashboards. With the new CRM, sales reps can now upload or download scribbled information from their phones to the main CRM system.