Top 25 interview questions of Customer Relationship Management  

Top 25 interview questions of Customer Relationship Management

Q1) Explain what is CRM?

Answer :

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a strategy and practices that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.

Q2) Mention what are some of the challenges that an organization might have to face while incorporating CRM?

Answer :

Some of the challenges that organization has to face are

• Database cleansing to ensure that client information is in correct state
• Integrating with other systems , new or existing
• Sometimes system is more complicated and requires trainer to train external trainers
• Expecting the vendor to manage all elements of your project

Q3)What Are The Types Of Data Associated With Crm Projects?

Answer :

The types of data CRM projects collect:

1. Responses to campaigns.
2. Shipping and fulfillment dates.
3. Sales and purchase data.
4. Account information.
5. Web registration data.
6. Service and support records.
7. Demographic data.
8. Web sales data.

Q4) List out factors that can be an obstacle for CRM (Customer Relationship Management/ Manager) success to an organization?

Answer :

The obstacle for CRM success to an organization include

• Absence of a clear transitional process
• The main focus is on product sale and geographical segmentation of market
• Key performance measurements are not tracked
• Weak functional organization of a company
• Lack of response to customers feedback and recommendations
• Introducing other technology without implementing the necessary framework

Q5) What Are The Advantages Of Crm ?

Answer :

Using CRM, a business can:

1. Provide better customer service.
2. Increase customer revenues.
3. Discover new customers.
4. Cross sell/Up Sell products more effectively.
5. Help sales staff close deals faster.
6. Make call centers more efficient.
7. Simplify marketing and sales processes.

Q6) Explain how CRM can be helpful in handling emails from customers?

Answer :

CRM can be helpful in

• Sorting emails from customers by workflow-enabled email processing capabilities
• Automatically route emails to appropriate users based on workflow rules
• Manage multiple attachments in emails
• Sending replies to customer automatically
• Associating emails with respective customers and incidents

Q7) What is the difference between CRM and ERP?

Answer :

CRM combines sales, contact, marketing, management and customer support. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning; it standardizes and streamline business processes across services, sales, finance, HR management, etc.

Q8) How can the marketing campaign along with CRM convert leads into sales?

Answer :

Here are a few things that you need to bear in mind to convert leads into business:

i.) Categorize your customer data so that you can create a marketing plan according to the product and service.
ii.) Compare different campaigns based on the results and workflow.
iii.) Measure the performance of each campaign so that it can be customized and you can stay ahead of the competition.
iv.) Analyze the successful and not successful campaign. This will give you the scope for improvement.
v.) Know how many campaigns have resulted in sales, you will know which campaign gave you a new opportunity.
vi.) Execute, monitor and manage the campaign on multiple channels.

Q9) What are the benefits of using CRM?

Answer:

Here are some of the important advantages of CRM:

i.) Stores vast information in an organized way, properly categorized for future reference.

ii.) Task tracking: Lets you fix appointments and alerts you about the upcoming task. Allows synchronization of data with calendars for timely reminders.

iii.) Efficient management of employees' performance, progress assisting you with recognizing training needs.

iv.) Selling opportunities: With information about customer's likes and preferences you get more selling opportunity.

v.) Helps in analyzing data:It can prepare automatic reports which saves a lot of time.

vi.) Improves efficiency of teams: Stored information can be easily accessed by different teams. Each team can get valuable information improving its efficiency and productivity.

vii.) Improves customer service: Information about customers buying habits, preferences, and history allows you to easily find solutions to the customer's problems. Check the database for potential issues and providing a solution helps in improving customer experience.

viii.) Customer retention:Better customer service implies improved customer retention

The analytical CRM helps you in analyzing the data and generating various kind of reports which assist in making the futuristic decisions for your customers in terms of the product and services both.

The system also helps you in managing the performance of your employees efficiently and identifying their training needs.

Q10) Mention some technical benefits of incorporating CRM into an organization?

Answer :

The benefits of incorporating CRM into an organization includes

• Manage customer contact information
• Measure success of campaigns
• Organize customer interactions in a central location
• Track organization trends
• Help to understand customer preferences, habits and actions
• Managing customer service requests
• Weaken expense and business risk

Q11) Why should a company use CRM?

Answer :

CRM is a tool which helps in analyzing the interactions with your customers. It helps to make your business more efficient and increases the productivity of employees. Here are a few reasons why you need CRM for your business.
i.) Effective reporting :CRM helps you to understand the activity of every executive. This will help you to identify if there are any loopholes in your processes or any sales executive needs help.
ii.) Helps to grow business: CRM helps to identify new product requirement in the market. It can be used by the employees to cross sell and up sell.
iii.) Ensures best sales practice: CRM helps you to provide consistently high quality service to the customers.
iv.) Helps to understand customers better: CRM captures information about customer's behavior, their likes, and dislikes, preferences, and needs.
v.) Reduces workload and overhead costs: Most of the work is automated which reduces the administrative overhead cost and the work is performed faster.

Q12) Mention different types of CRM?

Answer :

CRM types are classified into three categories

• Operational CRM
• Analytical CRM
• Collaborative CRM

Q13) What do you understand by On-premise CRM and Cloud CRM?

Answer:

On - premise CRM is the case where the CRM application is hosted and run by the systems within the company.
In Cloud CRM, the software and data are both hosted on Cloud. They are outside the organization.

The main advantages of Cloud CRM are:

i) Faster deployment – The technical expertise lies with someone else and you get the system working for yourself very quickly.

ii) No efforts and expenses on software updates – All the activities are taken care of automatically by the vendor.

iii) Easier to add more users – You can start from the minimal number of users and scale up as the business grows and requirement increases.

iv) No effect of location and device - Online information means that everyone has the same information.

v) Better collaboration among teams – Teams at different locations can easily collaborate, share information and work together.

Q14) How do you know the buyer's persona?

Answer:

The buyer's persona helps you to target the desired customers, make product improvement and helps to understand the real needs and concerns of the customers. It also helps you to create content that you can be used towards your prospects.

In order to know your buyer's persona you need to keep in mind the following:

i.) Identity your buyers: Use demographics such as their age, gender, etc.
ii.) Know what they need: Try to understand the challenges they are facing and how your product or service help them.
iii.) Identify what is important to them: When selecting a leader what do the buyer looks for- expert advice, technology leaders, etc.
iv.) Identify their source of information.
v.) What are their goals for making the purchase decision?: It can be price, support, service etc.

Q15) Mention what are the most important modules in CRM?

Answer :

The most important modules in CRM include:

• Marketing
• Inventory
• Sales
• Service Desk

Q16) How can a CRM help in managing customer emails?

Answer:

CRM can be pretty helpful in managing the emails from customers. It can:

i.) Sort the emails from customers.
ii.) Automatically send an email to right destination with set rules.
iii.) Send auto replies.
iv.) Correlate the emails, incidences and customers.
v.) Manage emails with multiple attachments.

Q17) Is it possible to integrate CRM with social networking sites?

Answer :

Yes, you can integrate CRM with social networking sites. It focusses on using social media to enhance customer engagement.

Q18) In order to utilize your CRM optimally, what things would you recommend?

Answer:

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to utilize your CRM optimally:

i.) Check and review your data: Make sure your data is accurate and up to date. Eliminate unwanted information.

ii.) Understand your customer's preference: See how they interact with you. Customers can contact on chat or a phone call or use social media platforms. Know their preferences. This will make it easy for you to interact with the customers at a personal level.

iii.) Personalized service: Personalized emails can improve your click through rate if you are sending it at the correct timing.

iv.) Ensure you have well trained customer representatives: Make sure they listen to the customer's questions properly and provide the best solution.

Q19) Mention what are some popular CRM software?

Answer :

Some top popular CRM software are

• SAP CRM
• sales force
• oracleCRM on Demand
• On Contact
• Sage Act
• Prophet
• AIM CRM
• Relenta
• Webasyst
• Sugar CRM

Q20) what are the skills required for a CRM professional?

Answer:

CRM professional need to have managerial skills, people skills, creative skills and process focused knowledge to work effectively. Some other required key skills are:

i.) Excellent communication skills.
ii.) Analytical skills.
iii.) Technical skills.
iv.) Customer Service.
v.) Organization skills.
vi.) Interpersonal skills.

Q21) Are there any disadvantages of using CRM?

Answer:

CRM helps to keep a track of customer information. It has a lot of advantages but there can be a few disadvantages, if the system is not paid sufficient attention to. They are:
i.) Transition from manual to automatic processes may be cumbersome.
ii.) Keeping the backup of information becomes expensive.
iii.) In large companies, you need to have specialized training for employees. Training for managers differs from the training provided to the regular staff as there are specialized functions for managers. Training can take up a few days and rolling out schedules at times is difficult for large companies.
iv.) If the CRM application is not stable, sometimes it can result in loss of data and retrieving records becomes difficult.

Q22) How will you improve your CRM strategy using Social Media?

Answer :

Customer relationship management is high priority for most of the companies but most of them are leaving behind social media. By using social media CRM tools you can provide a better experience to your customers.

Q23) Here are a few ways through which you can improve your CRM strategy with social media:

Answer :

i.) Keep an open eye on your customer's journey and try to know the engagement metrics which helps to build a long-term relationship. Connect with your customers at each step of the journey. Connect so they remember your brand.

ii.) Do not neglect the negative comments.A CRM strategy needs to understand the buyer's journey at all stages.

iii.) Have a powerful Social CRM tool that allows your brand to get all the information about the customers and the conversation history every time you reply to a complaint.

iv.) Look for keywords and hashtags which will help you get more potential customers who you might not have come across while using traditional sales funnel.

v.) Keep a consistent brand experience across all your social channels. Make sure you maintain your brand voice on all the channels.

 Q24) What Is Business Process Management Bpm?

Answer :

Business Process Management or BPM, is the practice of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of any organization by automating the organization's business processes. BPM used to be also know as Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Many companies have business processes that are unique to its business model. Since these processes tend to evolve over time as the business reacts to market conditions, the BPM solution you choose must be easily adaptable to the new conditions and requirements and continue to be a perfect fit for the company. In order to use BPM effectively, organizations must stop focusing exclusively on data and data management, and adopt a process-oriented approach that makes no distinction between work done by a human and a computer.
The idea of BPM is to bring processes, people and information together. Dynamic infrastructure requires separation of flows, business rules and services. Identifying the business processes is relatively easy. Breaking down the barriers between business areas, and finding owners for the processes is difficult. BPM not only involves managing business processes within the enterprise but also involves real-time integration of the processes of a company with those of its suppliers, business partners, and customers.
BPM involves looking at automation horizontally instead of vertically. Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is essential for measurement of BPM impact.

Q25) What are the main features of Analytical CRM?

Answer:

The main features of Analytical CRM are as follows:
i.) Customer Acquisition and retention are the main functions of Analytical CRM.
ii.) The data gathered from different channels is analyzed in a structured manner.
iii.) It analyzes the key performance indicators and improves the effectiveness of CRM system.
iv.) It helps to improve quality of support and also sets a channelized process in Sales and Marketing.