Introduction
In the last few decades, customer relationship management (CRM) has been developed as competitive advantage strategy. In fact, as competition intensifies among all retailers, CRM has become one of the most effective strategies of maximizing their share of wallet. It is imperative to review the tenets of CRM strategies that retailers use to earn sustainable competitive advantage as more and more similar businesses spring every day.
Customer relationship management is the first step towards customer relationship and to expand the distribution channels that attract near markets. Reflectively, the concept revolves around a comprehensive review of ‘push and pull’ factors which determine functionality of a retail business to offer an alternative strong marketing tool in the quest for quality, reliability, and trust among clients.
A properly CRM is crucial in presenting brand knowledge, awareness, penetration strategy, and passing information to target audience. This analytical treatise attempts to explicitly review the application of CRM in three categories of retail formats. These categories are department store (Best Buy), specialty store (The Body Shop), and discount department store (Walmart).
Department Store (Best Buy)
Best Buy has employed the laggard activism strategy to not only capture the global market, but also leapfrog the dominant Amazon Company. The store operates on the Customer-to-Customer (C2C) platform and Business-to-Business (B2B) platforms. As a result, the Best Buy has penetrated the global market due to a balance in factors such as the Western business style, global business approach, and flexible organizational structure (Best Buy, par. 6).
In order to penetrate the expanding global market, Best Buy’s business platform was modified through introduction of services such as premium customer experience, compact support from the community, and low charges for loyal customer. For instance, the Customer-to-Customer platform adopted by Best Buy has created and successfully implemented the marketing strategy to ensure customer loyalty and market expansion.
The company’s product multi-branding as a positioning strategy has enabled it to survive competition. For instance, the online shopping is tailed to address the individual customer needs. Besides, the company has managed to balance the elements of intangibility, inseparability, and heterogeneity in the 4Ps of its market mix due to improved product visibility for each target customer segment (Rai 23).
The most notable CRM strategy adopted by the Best Buy is the contact management since it provides a decision support system to select the best market access on suitability, distribution structure, and integration of contact channels among the customers. The contact management system in the store takes the form of Debit card services, online support shopping, and a 24-hour call center to connect to their customers.
This system is constantly upgraded through value –added services. Keeping these channels restricted has helped the store to boost customer confidence in keeping their particulars safe. In order to guarantee safety, the Best Buy’s contact management system is built using standard operating procedures to promote consistency in processing customer data and all other channels.
The more the consistency, the more the information that can be shared amongst various channels creating more business resources to be used in customer service delivery. For instance, the Best Buy’s call center has been successful in addressing client concerns in a timely and professional way (Best Buy, par. 5).
The goal of these CRM strategies at the Best Buy is to concentrate on the local market through use of an open-system business model. The strategy was meant to take advantage of the challenge of ‘smallness’ as compared to other giant stores offering electronic products such as Sony. The store depends on the closed-system approach in execution of its business strategies.
Unlike other stores which developed a fixed entry strategy in the market that was characterized by overconfidence and inertia, the Best Buy was packaged as a humble and flexible online technological trading platform. As a result of the stable knowledge of the global market, Best Buy jumpstarted operations through a flexible and rational business decision processes. It is apparent that the Best Buy store has efficient knowledge and experience in uniqueness of products and services as part of its CRM strategies (Rai 29).
Specialty store (The Body Shop)
The Body Shop store is a shop that deals in beauty products such as skin care, hair care, lotions, make up, and community trade. The store currently offers online shopping to its consumers within admirable standards of online safety. Security and safety over the cyberspace has become such an important issue in determining consumer behavior.
The online business model of the store offers the Secure Online Shopping System (SOSS) to its customers. Secure online shopping system is a platform where consumers of the product are able to make orders on particular product and make payments using their credit cards (The Body Shop, par. 3).
The store has cleverly rolled out a traditional-online client interaction strategy as part of its customer relationship management. This element revolves around saving money by offering affordable products to customers who buy online. As a result, the Body Shop’s customers have better offers due to consistent and attractive discounts for online clients. The store has always aspired to provide quality products and services to customers. Besides, the company has a very active customer care team that is prompt in responding to requests and complaints from customers (Rai 13). As a market leader and the largest beauty shop in the US, the store has initiated several support services to customers and communities surrounding its branches.
The Body Shop store has made the shopping experience an easy task with its strategy of all-under-one-roof. A customer is in a position to literally find all types of beauty products within a single location. This saves on time besides allowing a customer to plan for a single shopping activity that covers for all his or her needs.
To support this mission, the store has one of the most attractive reward plans for its loyal customers in the form of shopping points that are redeemable, seasonal discounts, and annual rewards. Besides, the store does free delivery for purchases above certain amount. In addition, the store has special vouchers that target corporate organizations and private customers. The offers are in the form of price, quality, and quantity.
When information on attitude is verifiable, it is easy for a company to execute a well researched plan within allocated resources. The processed information is used by consumers in making the buying decision since SOSS provides consumers with the platform to locate products instantly on internet (The Body Shop, par. 5).
Discount Department Store (Walmart)
As one of the largest supermarkets in the US, the Walmart Supermarket has created a sustainable business through its dynamic style of management and strategic planning. The Walmart Supermarket operates on the business pillars such as persuasive merchandise, balanced business channels, uninterrupted business growth, and establishment of assessment in service delivery as part of its CRM strategies. These strategies are aimed at ensuring continuous expansion and customer satisfaction.
The vision supports the Business to Customer (B2C) strategy for sustainable business. As one of the largest supermarkets in Canada, the Walmart Supermarket has created a sustainable business through its dynamic style of management and strategic planning.
These strategies are aimed at ensuring continuous expansion and customer satisfaction. As reported in the 2013/2014 financial year preliminary report of the Walmart Supermarket, the company was in a position to instigate more than six thousand product brands that target different market segments (Walmart, par. 5).
As a market leader and the third largest supermarket brand in the US, the Walmart Supermarket has initiated several support services to customers and communities surrounding its branches. As indicated in the preliminary report for the 2013/2014 financial year, the supermarket initiated 25 different support services to the community.
Besides, the Walmart Supermarket has been in the forefront of promoting wellness through its healthy customer initiative. These initiatives have enabled the Walmart Supermarket to expand rapidly due to improved customer loyalty. Moreover, the Walmart Supermarket has managed to penetrate the traditional markets as the suppliers always perform the function of marketing the supermarket to potential customers (Walmart, par. 3).
In the Walmart Supermarket, the management is keen on ensuring that its suppliers meet the standards outlined in the suppliers’ code of conduct. This practice has a number of benefits for the organization. First, it ensures that the supermarket receives quality goods since the supply chain is monitored and managed at all levels. Also, vetting enables the Walmart Supermarket to comply with various regulatory requirements that ensures that the company and its clients are protected at legal and ethical levels (Rai 19).
Comparative analysis
Consumers are generally influenced by two factors: internal influences and external influences. Internal influences are personal feelings and thought that includes; self-concept, motivation, attitudes, emotions and perceptions. These factors generally influence perception, purchasing patterns, and attitude customers develop towards a product or a service offered by business (Rai 35).
Besides, these factors are directly linked to internal and external interacting social aspects that control the pattern of though and expressed feelings. The above stores have attractive CRM strategies which are unique to each business environment. These strategies are meant to improve business sustainability through competitive advantage assurance.
Comparatively, the Best Buy has the best CRM strategies such they are incorporated in the online and offline customer management. For instance, adoption of the hybrid system of management by the Best Buy was meant to ensure direct contact with customers within the shortest time possible.
The hybrid system is very successful in contact management and positive attitude reassurance (Rai 23). Attitude is the general evaluation that consumers engage in before deciding to purchase a particular product or service. Attitudes are direct personal experiences that are influenced by consumers’ personality, advertisement, family, and friends. On the other hand, the Body Shop boasts of a customized consumer relationship management since its line of business is specialized.
Despite being effective, the CRM strategies of the Body Shop are not diverse or flexible to different clients segments since its market is stratified. The CRM strategies of the Walmart store are the least effective when compared to the others. This is because its model of running the customer assurance strategies does not allow for the customer preference tracking process and live feedbacks.
Works Cited
Best Buy. About Us. 2014.
Rai, Alok. Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Cases, London, UK: Kogan Page, 2012. Print.
The Body Shop. About Us. 2014.
Walmart. About Us. 2014.