INTRODUCTION
The biggest management challenge in the new millennium of liberalization and globalization for a company is to serve and maintain good relations with the king, the customer. In the past, producers took their customers for granted because at that time the customers were not demanding nor did they have many alternative sources of supply or suppliers. Since he was a passive customer, the producer dictated the terms and had little commitment to the customer. But today there is a radical transformation. The changing business environment is characterized by economic liberalization, increased competition, consumer choice, the informed and demanding customer, more emphasis on quality and purchase value.
All these changes have caused today’s producer to move from traditional marketing to modern marketing. Modern marketing requires more than developing a product, pricing it, promoting it, and making it accessible to target customers. It requires building trust, a binding force and a value-added relationship with customers to win their hearts. New age marketing aims to win customers forever, where companies greet customers, create products that fit their needs, work hard to develop customers for life through the principles of satisfaction, approval and enthusiasm. the client’s.
WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
The process of developing a cooperative and collaborative relationship between buyers and sellers is called customer relationship management, or CRM for short.
CRM aims to focus all organizational activities towards creating and maintaining a customer. CRM is a new technique in marketing where the salesperson tries to develop a long-term collaborative relationship with customers to develop them as customers for life. CRM aims to get the customer up the loyalty ladder.
CUSTOMER FOCUS ON BANKING SERVICES
As intense competition becomes a way of doing business, it is the customer who makes the decision about the nature of the products and services offered in the market. Customers are becoming demanding, dominant and selective. In fact, customer perceptions and expectations have undergone a sea change, with the availability of banking services to customers at their doorsteps through the help of technology.
Customer service marketing aims at two important objectives: the prosperity of the bank and satisfied customers. Banks offer tangible services such as loan schemes, interest rates, and account types, and intangible services such as staff behavior and efficiency, speed of transactions, and environment. Banks may need to include customer focus or customer focus in their five areas of business, such as cash accessibility, asset security, money transfer, deferred payment, and financial advice.
There are four strategies available to customer relationship managers:
o To recover or save customers
o Attract new and potential customers
o To retain existing customers and
o To upsell or offer cross-services.
The future of the banking business depends to a large extent on the ability of banks to develop a close relationship with customers. To develop a close relationship with customers, the banking industry must focus on technology-oriented innovations that offer convenience to customers. Today, customers are offered ATM services, access to Internet and telephone banking services, and credit cards. These have elevated banking beyond the barriers of time and space.
MARKETING OF BANKING SERVICES
Marketing bank services means organizing the right activities and programs to deliver the right services to the right people in the right place, at the right time, at the right price, and with the right communication and promotion. Marketing of banking services encompasses the following unique features
o Intangibility: they cannot be seen or physically possessed, they can only be experienced.
o Inseparability: their production and consumption occur simultaneously.
o Variability: they are highly variable according to the merit of the clients.
o Expiration: they cannot be stored.
GLOBALIZED SCENARIO
“Change” is an ongoing process and the banking industry is no exception to this natural law. The change in the Indian banking industry is inevitable due to the implementation of the financial sector reforms and policies in the country. The main objective of the financial sector reforms is to promote an efficient, competitive and diversified financial system in the country. The Indian banking industry has undergone a tremendous transformation after the liberalization and globalization process started in 1991. These changes have forced the Indian banking industry to adjust the product mix to make the rapid changes in its process to remain competitive in the environment. globalized.
COMPETITION FROM FOREIGN BANKS AND NEW PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS
The entry of more and more foreign banks and new private sector banks, with a lean and agile structure, better technology, market orientation and cost-effective measures, have intensified competition in the Indian banking industry. Financial Institutions have also begun to enter the domain of banks. In recent years, the participation in the business of public sector banks has decreased considerably. Therefore, there is a dire need for the Indian banking industry to modify its marketing strategy to attract customers and resist stiff competition from foreign banks and new private sector banks.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE
The advent of technology both in regards to computers and communications has drastically altered the methodology of the banking business. In the banking sector, technology has opened up new perspectives and, in turn, has brought new possibilities to do the same job differently and in the most profitable way. Technology helps to have banking operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Telebanking, Internet banking and electronic banking have opened up new business potentials and opportunities that until now remained unexplored. All these technological advances can pave the way for home banking instead of branch banking.
INNOVATION
Another major force for change in the Indian banking sector is innovation. Banks today are innovative, proactive and offer first-class service to customers. They play a dynamic role not only as a finance provider but also as a finance department store. As a result of this, new products are emerging such as merchant banking, mutual funds, leasing, factoring, forfaiting, corporate advisory services, and venture capital. These innovative services can increase revenue with profitable measures.
DEVELOPING PERSONAL BANKING SKILLS
To meet the new challenges, banks must invent new ways to meet customer demands. To help bank staff get enough exposure to technology, suitable packages related to hardware and software applications should be provided in connection with their jobs. Also, a separate marketing wing can be created in each bank to market its banking services. They must be properly trained to keep up with the changing environment. To meet the challenges, the HR Department of banks must prepare proper manpower plans and strategies.
CONCLUSION
The recent trend of globalization and liberalization has posed serious problems for domestic banks. The entry of new foreign banks and private sector banks with their advanced knowledge base of banking automation and aggressive marketing strategies has pushed public sector banks into a bind. Potential clients have started to move towards foreign banks and private sector banks. To survive and succeed, banks must identify their marketing areas, develop adequate resources, convert these resources into healthy and efficient services, and distribute them effectively to satisfy multiple customer tastes.