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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT &

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

BIS3324

TITLE: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

IN T.K. MAXX

STUDENT NAME STUDENT NUMBER M00 M00 M00 M00 M00

MODULE TUTOR: MR. KELVIN

APRIL, 2014

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ABSTRACT

This report will look at the strategic use of information systems in Customer Relation

Management (CRM) within the company T.K Maxx. The goal is to show and

demonstrate the strategic use of IS in CRM at T.K Maxx and the effectiveness of it.

This has been done by examining evidence collected primarily (interview) and

secondarily sourced. A company like T.K Maxx is always determined to increase and

preserve a competitive advantage. In order for it to happen, it turns to information

systems where through the use of strategic use, decision-making and systems, it is

able to improve core capabilities and business procedures. As a group, we

interviewed a manager of T.K Maxx and in addition research studies about the

company. Based upon the interviews, we discovered that CRM was made in order for

the company to improve focus in its advertising and marketing efforts.

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the current trend of globalization there has been an increase in both the

competition in similar markets as well as advancement in the information made

available to consumers and the communication technology has directed companies

towards being focused on managing consumer relationships to ensure that the

organization would benefit in the form of revenues. This focus on consumer

relationship has turned Customer Relationship Management (CRM) into a strategy

plan that businesses need to have in place in order to be a success as well as it helps

keep the focus on the consumer needs through the integration of high levels of

customer service management in order to maximise the sales the organization

would make. Customer service management can also be defined as a strategic

approach in the form of being able to talk to consumers in order to collect data and

combine readily available information in order to create a bond with the consumer in

the hope of being able to create a loyal relationship that would ideally be

transformed into a long term relationship (Sin, L. et al. 2005). This need and urge that

companies have is what has led to the recent increase for Customer Relationship

Management to be common.

1.1 COMPANY’S PROFILE

T.K Maxx is part of the division TJX Europe, which is owned by the TJX Companies,

Inc, the leading off-price retailer in the USA and worldwide. It is the world’s leading

Off- Price clothing and home fashions with an annual turnover of nearly $26 billion,

which is precisely £15 billion (based of the ending year of February 2013). TJX Europe

became established in 1994 with now over 200 stores nationwide in the UK and

including Ireland, they also have stores based in Germany and Poland which totals

over 350 stores across the whole of Europe, also becoming very successful with their

e-commerce retail business which was established in 2009, in which they also plan to

develop a European website with European deliveries (Source: Official website T.J.X).

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TJX Europe believe that it a ‘growth vehicle’ for the TJX Companies, Inc and

continuously have opportunities across Europe and believe that their current

European markets alone could support roughly between 650 – 725 T.K. Maxx stores

in the UK & Ireland as a long term goal. This means expansion for them growing as a

business, but also huge opportunities for associates to come and be part of that

success story.

T.K Maxx is a retailing wonder and one of the fastest cultivating high street

stores in the UK today. It is an off-price retailer selling high street and designer labels

in Men’s, Women and Children’s wear, Gifts, Jewellery, Accessories and Home that

are up to 60% below the Recommended Retail Price (RRP). T.K Maxx takes an

exclusively flexible method to attainment. The buyers of T.K Maxx can buy anything

that they see fit for the stores and when a fantastic deal is spotted. Buying close to

need also allows T.K. Maxx to be smarter about. Reacting upon customer needs, by

selling what they want and when they want it. Each store precisely carries

approximately over 50,000 items in stock at one time and on average 10,000 new

items arriving each week, contemplating the fact they have over 4000 suppliers,

supplying all these merchandises. T.K.Maxx‘s company business model demonstrates

the skills and ability to sustain particularly brief guide times on procurement (buying

the merchandises and also in the same week, going ahead and distributed out to the

stores for sale all within the same week).

1.3 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:-

The three-letter acronym CRM to most people is known to be Customer Relationship

Management, others understood the acronym as Customer Relationship Marketing.

Customer Relationship Management(CRM) has a lot of definitions which all centre on

the relationship between an organisation and its customers. According to Buttle

(2009:28) “CRM is a business strategy that maximizes profitability, revenue and

customer satisfaction by organizing around customer segments, fostering behaviour

that satisfies customers and implementing customer centric processes”.

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This has to be operated off aligned with take full advantage of labour efficiency;

space and transport resources lacking cooperation supply chain flexibility.

The theory of CRM as well as be looking at the factors that:-

- Influence the implementation of CRM

- The identification of factors that prevent CRM from being implemented.

Strategic management is procedures it takes among companies to improve their

performance and encompasses either in term of customer relation or daily work

routine in long-term vision. Robson, W., (1996) describe that "strategic management

is a systematic approach to a major and increasingly important responsibility of

general management to position and relation to firm to its environment in a way

which will assure it continued success and make it secure from surprises". In

addition, it can also be classified as product, mission, and market choices in an

organization.

The levels of growing competition and the declining levels in customer loyalty has

caused there to be a rise in the concepts that tend to be based on the development

of relationships between the organization and the consumers. This want that

organizations have to please their consumers has brought about a change in the way

businesses perform their day to day activities such as switching from product based

methods of conducting business to consumer oriented methods and structures (Sin,

L. et al 2005). The drive for this change is the beginning of CRM which is supported

by data and communication technologies (Sin, L. et al 2005). Day and Van Den Bulte

(2002) define CRM as a” cross-functional process for achieving a continuing dialogue

with customers, across all their contact and access points, with personalized

treatment of the most valuable customers, to increase customer retention and the

effectiveness of marketing initiatives.”

Customer Relationship Management is the broad terminology that is used for all

business activities that includes every single stage from acquiring a new consumer to

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ensuring that the consumer will build a loyal bond towards the respective enterprise.

Customer Relationship Management is also referred to as the set of practices that

assists an organization to manage their relationships in an organized fashion.

Customer Relationship Management can also be defined as an communicating

process that helps in attaining the optimal balance between corporate investments

and the satisfaction of customer needs in order to generate the profits an

organization needs to stay up and running (Lawson-Body & Limayem, 2004).

Customer Relationship Management is fundamentally a two-stage process. The first

stage is to understand the basics of building customer focus. This means the

organization will face a shift from product orientation to customer orientation as

well as by defining the market approach from the outside of the business to the

inside instead of vice versa. The emphasis should be on consumer needs rather than

various product features. Organizations in the second stage push for the growth of

customer orientation by integrating CRM across the entire customer experience

chain this can be achieved by using current technology in order to achieve up to date

customer management as well as by constantly transforming the existing value

scheme to consumers (Rygielski, Wang, & Yen, 2002.)

1.3.1 CRM AND WHAT IT INVOLVES

CRM involves measuring both inputs (from the consumer and the organization)

based on the areas of marketing and sales and the various service costs incurred.

CRM also measures the outputs in terms of customer revenue, profit and value.

In order to achieve a successful CRM structure amongst consumers and organizations

it involves:-

- The implementation of computing systems that aid in obtaining the customer

knowledge

The essentials for a successful Strategic Customer Management approach:

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The essentials that drive the sales oriented organizations to a strategic customer

management approach are arranged around three key issues: (Rygielski, Wang, &

Yen, 2002.)

- Intelligence:- intelligence is about trying to level and enhance the consumer

knowledge as a method to add value to the consumer relationship and

experience overall. Frequent acquiring and updating of data about customer

needs, motivations and behaviour through the length of an existing

relationship as well as the application of customer knowledge in order to

incessantly progress performance through a process of learning from both the

successes and failures an organization faces.

- Interfaces:- interfaces can be used to redirect the sales assistants and their

efforts towards the management of information and the usage of interfaces

such as key accountant management and customer relationship management

interfaces which can impact the consumer value.

- Integration:- is based around the necessity for all the sectors and the company

approaches and processes to be directly proportional to ensure that the

outcome would be a highly appreciated finish for the customer. Integration is

also ensuring that the marketing and sales activities are in line so that a

common goal will be achieved. Since customer relationship management is

different from ordinary marketing initiatives there is a need for a substantial

amount of integration therefore the business needs to be open minded in

order to successfully implement customer relationship management in an

organization.

These three points form the basis for CRM which is considered as a necessity in the

competitive market which would aid the always evolving role of the sales assistants.

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CRM is all about being active as well as having and interactive relationship between

two elements the business and the customer. With the main aim and goal being the

ability to steadily predict and prepare for the needs change consumers will face with

having various targeted activities at various customer touch points.

There are four types of CRM namely Strategic, Operational, Analytical and

Collaborative.

• Strategic CRM:

Strategic CRM is focused upon the development of a customer-centric business

culture. This culture is dedicated to winning and keeping customers by creating and

delivering value better than competitors. The culture is reflected in leadership

behaviours, the design of formal systems of the company, and the myths and stories

that are created within the firm. In a customer-centric culture you would expect

resources to be allocated where they would best enhance customer value, reward

systems to promote employee behaviours that enhance customer satisfaction and

retention, and customer information to be collected, shared and applied across the

business. You would also expect to find the heroes of the business to be those who

deliver outstanding value or service to customers. Many businesses claim to be

customer-centric, customer-led, customer-focused or customer-oriented, but few

are. Indeed, there can be very few companies of any size that do not claim that they

are on a mission to satisfy customer requirements profitably.

• Operational CRM:

It deals with automation of customer-facing. This CRM uses technology to achieve its

goals. Software’s built to suit CRM purpose to aid the selling, marketing and service

function. Some major CRM operational applications are;

Marketing Automation: Marketing automation (MA) applies technology to

marketing processes. Campaign management modules allow marketers to use

customer-related data in order to develop, execute and evaluate targeted

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communications and offers. Customer targeting for campaigning purposes is,

in some cases, possible at the level of the individual customer, enabling

unique communications to be designed. In multichannel environments,

campaign management is particularly challenging. Some fashion retailers, for

example, have multiple transactional channels including free-standing stores,

department store concessions, e-tail websites, home shopping catalogues,

catalogue stores and perhaps even a television shopping channel. Some

customers may be unique to a single channel, but most will be multichannel

prospects, if they are not already customers of several channels. Integration of

communication and offer strategies and evaluation of performance requires a

substantial amount of technology-aided coordination across these channels.

Sales force automation: Sales-force automation (SFA) was the original form of

operational CRM. SFA systems are now widely adopted in business-to-

business environments and are seen as a competitive imperative that offers

competitive parity. SFA applies technology to the management of a company’s

selling activities. The selling process can be decomposed into a number of

stages, such as lead generation, lead qualification, needs identification,

development of specifications, proposal generation, proposal presentation,

handling objections and closing the sale. SFA software can be configured so

that it is modelled on the selling process of any industry or organization.

Automation of selling activities is often linked to efforts to improve and

standardize the selling process. This involves the implementation of a sales

methodology. Sales methodologies allow sales team members and

management to adopt a standardized view of the sales cycle and a common

language for discussion of sales issues.

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Service automation: Service automation allows companies to manage their

service operations, whether delivered through call centre, contact centre, web

or face-to-face. CRM software enables companies to handle and coordinate

their service related inbound and outbound communications across all

channels. Software vendors claim that this enables users to become more

efficient and effective by reducing service costs, improving service quality,

lifting productivity and increasing customer satisfaction. Service automation

differs significantly depending on the product being serviced. Consumer

products are normally serviced through retail outlets, the web or a call centre

as the point of first contact. These contact channels are often supported by

online scripting tools to help diagnose a problem on first contact. A number of

technologies are common in service automation. Call routing software can be

used to direct inbound calls to the most appropriate handler.

• Analytical CRM:

Analytical CRM is concerned with capturing, storing, extracting, integrating,

processing, interpreting, distributing, using and reporting customer-related data to

enhance both customer and company value. Analytical CRM builds on the foundation

of customer-related information. Customer-related data may be found in enterprise-

wide repositories: sales data (purchase history), financial data (payment history,

credit score), marketing data (campaign response, loyalty scheme data) and service

data.

• Collaborative CRM:

Collaborative CRM is the term used to describe the strategic and tactical alignment of

normally separate enterprises in the supply chain for the more profitable

identification, attraction, retention and development of customers. For example,

manufacturers of consumer goods and retailers can align their people, processes and

technologies to serve shoppers more efficiently and effectively. They employ

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practices such as co-marketing, category management, collaborative forecasting,

joint new product development and joint market research. Collaborative CRM uses

CRM technologies to communicate and transact across organizational boundaries.

Although traditional technologies such as surface mail, air mail, telephone and fax

enable this to happen, the term is usually applied to more recent technologies such

as electronic data interchange (EDI), portals, e-business, voice over internet protocol

(VoIP), conferencing, chat rooms, web forums and e-mail. These technologies allow

data and voice communication between companies and their business partners or

customers. Collaborative CRM enables separate organizations to align their efforts to

service customers more effectively. It allows valuable information to be shared along

the supply chain (Francis, 2009).

TK MAXX implements a method called Empathica. This method is a direct link to

customers and TK MAXX, customers are told by the associates to go online and give a

feedback about their shopping experience. The feedbacks are taken as a learning

curve to better the service they provide to their key customers. Another method

which is implemented by TK MAXX is called TK MAXX buying power. This method

allows them to focus on value and allows getting products at very affordable prices.

The mode of interaction used by CRM to communicate with their customer is called

Customer Insight day. They get 200 of their hardcore TK MAXX customers around

Europe and pulled them into a shopping environment based on their buying

experience.

TK MAXX makes use of strategic, operational and Analytic CRM. They use CRM

mainly with their ecommerce customers, in gaining information lifestyle, spending

power, demographical and geographical, age, buying pattern and fashion ability. The

finding they get from the existing customers allows them create a loyal scheme for

their online customers and allows them to market business to new customers. The

information gathered from the existing customers is being shared across the chain,

across Europe within senior management every quarter.

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1.3.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF CRM:-

Consumer focus and customer service are concepts that have been around for a

while. Customer Relationship Management can be seen as an evolution of existing

concepts that focus on customer relationship management rather than being known

as a revolution, as a result for every customer facing business/organization it is

strongly believed that consumer relationships should be the major focus area and

goal of every organization. Customer relationship management in Small Enterprises

are said to be embracing this approach as an important aspect within the business

strategy especially as the advanced technological applications represent

segmentations in the current market which in turn allows space for consumer groups

to be categorised under various profiles which can be used for target advertising

(Skaates & Seppanen, 2002). Given the current global market situations it’s becoming

a necessity for target advertising and focusing on consumers and their possible needs

as it would help these small enterprises to stand out. Since the capital that small and

medium size enterprises have doesn’t allow much freedom to promote themselves

much in order to acquire new consumers. Therefore, consumer retention and

allowing the consumers to acquire goods is a preferred means for generating income

compared to acquiring new consumers. Additionally, an unhappy consumer may

cause harm to the small/medium enterprises reputation and will also aid in making

the competitors much stronger through building a brand loyalty with the competitors

(Özgenera, S. and İraz,R. 2006)

Customer relationship management allows businesses to grow and embrace the

customer- centric approach which allows the business to increase the value that

every consumer represents to the organization. The whole concept of the customer

relationship management approach is based on the small enterprises ability to

enable communication amongst consumers and employees as well as demonstrating

consistent decision making abilities as well as providing high quality services yet

remain to be cost effective. This approach not only helps small sized enterprises to

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acquire new business but also allows them to retain these consumers as they

establish loyal bonds with the consumer as they feel that their needs are put first.

According to Ozgenera and Iraz they believe that customer relationship management

also allows more time for sales to be made as well as allows more time for

consumers to build a rapport with the sales staff which in turn can be used as a

method of marketing from the sales staffs end. The more the sales staff interacts

with the consumers the more information could be collected as to what consumers

like and want from businesses this information given out by the consumers could be

a valuable asset to the organization in the long run.

As consumers and businesses network frequently the businesses will have power

and will be able to take in and go through the amounts of information received in

from consumers. However, customer relationship management needs more than just

information and various communication technologies the consumer must be the

central point of the business/organization where the same values would be shared

(Ryals &Knox, 2001).

Business benefits of Customer Relationship Management and Effectiveness of

Customer Relationship Management:-

Customer relationship building is all about being able to manage the business and its

database of existing and prospective clients to create the success of an organization

(Gebert,H et al. 2003). In order to be operational every strategy must incorporate

and assimilate all consumer based areas ( every area of the organization which would

have or be affected by a consumer ) of the organization. This strategy should also

ensure that the way the consumer interacts, how or when the consumer interacts

does not affect the company negatively and that the company continues to maintain

a consistent method of contact with the consumer. If this is carried out accurately

the organization would be able to benefit from the close relationship as well as will

allow space to gather more information from consumers this close relationship will in

turn make it easy for the organizations consumer base to be built up easily. The close

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relationship will also allow the organization to be change specific areas which would

lead to increased levels of satisfaction in consumers which would lead to the

organization/ small business entity to have a competitive advantage edge over other

businesses which would also lead to high sales levels in the business (Gebert, H. et

al. 2003).

CRM works effectively if like all things it is done correctly such as ensuring that there

is a constant movement in the balance between marketing, sales and other service

related in terms of being up to date and immediately realising and responding to the

changes in the customer needs to ensure that the profits are maximised (Gebert, H.

et al. 2003).

1.3.3 Customer Relationship Management and Key Account Management:

Key account management and global account management have structures that

were established in businesses as a significant way of developing long-term

relationships with majority of their consumers and through the ability to meet the

consumers’ needs.

Key Accounting Management tends to be overstated it can be explained as the need

to overlap a central management system over a relatively dispersed sales force in an

organization this method has proven to be difficult to be implemented in small scale

organizations due to the low amounts of capital that can be invested in various

softwares. Service providers tend to believe that consumers want to be up to date on

every single process which is not necessarily the case for all consumers. Furthermore,

the value requirements of customers differ and this creates a differentiation

between the intrinsic value buyers that needs transactional selling, extrinsic value

buyers that needs consultative selling, and strategic value buyers, who need

enterprise selling. Many proponent of the application of relationship marketing

strategies through fundamental accounting management seem to overlook this

distinction. Additionally key customers have well defined perspective of the kind of

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relationships they want with their different suppliers. However, if the key account

management is carried out correctly in any enterprise regardless of the size of the

organization it will indicate specific consumer groups that are vital to the enterprise

in the sense that they bring a chunk of profits for the organization and if they lose

out on the groups of consumers it could possibly have a negative effect on the

organization (Kumar,V and Reinartz, W)

1.3.4 Customer relationship management and its contradictions:-

Customer relationship management is not a strategy that is implemented once and

then forgotten yet again it is not a series of strategies that need to be implemented

all at once. it is a case of “more is not necessarily better” in the setting of companies

and in most cases organizations with very effective customer relationship

management are generally very low tech in the terms of having customer

relationship aiding facilities. The plain ability to motivate staff could solely increase

the number of returning consumers to the enterprises as they would be willing to

help the consumers at any given time and would be open to having a friendly

conversation which would be a process of shedding and gaining information. A

balance between the technology used and the human capital would increase the

output greatly as fitting technology around the organizations setting isn’t all as it is

important to maintain a link between the processes of the business and the strategy

of the organization.

There are different situations which could all have a similar outcome for example the

company Rent-A-Car can be categorized as a large scale enterprise which could be

said to have helping tips for small and medium sized enterprises. The organization

has the highest level of college recruits in the whole of U.S yet they count on their

employees to use and to put into action their very own relationship strategy where

all the employees are worked through all the levels in the organization so they have a

better understanding of the services to provide the consumers even if they are

promoted through different levels in the organization. The fringe benefit the

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organization possesses has also contributed greatly to the retention of the

employees. The brand loyalty that has been created through the willingness of the

organization to change along with the different situations happening around the

business has also helped it grow and improve going to show that if a large scale

business can do with equal use of technology and human capital so can small scale

enterprises.

There is no fixed formula for the utilization of customer relationship management

and the technology it may use. The employees can take the front floor of the

organization while the technology runs the show away from the eyes of the

consumers. A record of exactly what was brought could be kept and analyzed to

monitor a change in trends and demands which would allow the enterprises to be

stocked up on the necessities. The floor staff can play an active role in collecting

regular consumers’ feedback and information to help increase mailing addresses

databases to keep the consumers up to date about the promotions and

improvements to the organization and the changes to customer services which

would change the services received by the consumer (Rigby, D et al 2003).

Technology and Customer Relationship Management software can facilitate a boost

in customer loyalty in numerous ways. It helps monitors customer defection and

retention levels and can indicate the level of customer satisfaction (Rigby, D et al

2003).

However, technology does not tender the solution. Various research has shown that

the key driver of customer loyalty is measured by the loyalty of the employees of

that organization. For instance, when Bain & company conducted an analysis of the

auto service business, it was discovered that the local garages accounted for the

highest customer loyalty because their rate of employee retention was the highest.

Though, most customers perceived that the technicians in the chain outlets have

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better equipment and training, they however preferred dealing with the local

technician from the garage because they have a good rapport with him.

The loyalty of customers hinges, on dedicated teams of exceptional employees who

exceed the expectations of customers, rather than just meeting them grudgingly.

If CEOs and managers expect their employees to cultivate stronger bonds with

profitable customers, they must have a clear understanding of what loyalty is

(Wise,S. and Bond, S, 2003). Loyalty facilitates profit making from the progress and

success of the organization’s partners, and not at their expense

Furthermore, customer loyalty can only be earned when managers and team-leads

and everyone within the organization place the well-being of their customers and

partners before theirs. This however should be attained without sacrificing financial

gain (Kristoffersen,L. and Singh,S. 2004)

In a downturn, managers must be able to convince their partners to remain with

them rather than switch. And this can only be achieved if the leaders have cultivated

relationships that are based on loyalty and not just revenue and the stock price; else

nothing will stop the partners or customers from abandoning them when slightest

opportunity arises (Rigby, D et al 2003).. So in order to attain the promise of

Customer relationship management profits, create a customer strategy, reposition

your company and processes to suit the strategy, and then choose the most suitable

CRM technology for your strategy and your processes.

1.4 How Effective CRM Can Lead To A Sustainable Competitive Advantage:

First I will like to define what CRM is:

CRM Simply means “[1] the principles, practices, and guidelines that an organization

follows when interacting with its customers. From the organization's point of view,

this entire relationship not only encompasses the direct interaction aspect, such as

sales and/or service related processes, but also in the forecasting and analysis of

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customer trends and behaviours, which ultimately serve to enhance the customer's

overall experience’’.

CRM [2] “is a strategy for managing all company’s interactions with current and

prospective customers. CRM enables your company to increase productivity, close

more business, and improve customer satisfaction and retention’’

“Sales team of Companies will use CRM to track and record each individual client -

who they are, their requirements, where they are in the sales process, plus recent

social media activity, notes from previous calls and records of email

conversations’’[3].

CRM Helps in the knowing where to structure and channel resources to meet

customers numerous wants, needs and tastes in order to increase sales, retain

customers and maximise sales leading to profit. It is very essential because

customers tend to change their taste and buying pattern most times so with the help

of CRM, The Company can easily foresee these changes and design their strategic

pattern to be completely flexible to satisfy the wants of their numerous customers.

CRM helps to find and engage with your customers and prospects wherever they are,

Reward customer loyalty and Ensure customers are treated fairly and issues are

resolved quickly

1.5 How T.K Maxx Utilizes CRM

T.K Maxx Uses CRM To: Provide improved strategic information to sales, finance,

marketing etc. This assists tremendously in targeting and channelling available

resources. It facilitates and maximises profit making because the company has a

detailed blueprint on customer culture. It helps gather quality informations about

Customers Behaviour, Shopping Lifestyle and Patterns, Find out basically what

appeals to the Customers at a certain point in time of the year, how much customers

are willing to spend on a certain commodity. Helps in the retaining of existing

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customers by relatively improving satisfaction level i.e. Offering Discounts to loyal

customers, Sales Promo and attract new customers.

As their mission statement implies ’‘To deliver an exciting, fresh and rapidly changing

assortment of brand-name merchandise at excellent values to our customers. We

define value as the combination of quality, fashion and price’’.

T.K Maxx raises the standard by finding out what consumers require and then

identify the best way in which it can satisfy these needs and wants. A unique

marketing strategy with clear objectives is vital to ensure effective promotional

activity. ’We really don’t want to boast but we do secretly think our concept is a little

bit unique, and that’s why our commitment is to bring our customers big labels at

small prices’’. By Having departments with dedicated staff always ensures customers

opinion and views are always received.

Methods which T.K Maxx Implements to Maximise Profit, Ensure Customer

Satisfaction & Stay Ahead Of Competitions:

Empathica which is a mystery shopper (physical feedback from customer, Is a direct

link to customers and T.K. Maxx. Customers have been told by associates to go online

and tell us about their shopping experience. Customer feedback is studied and taken

as a learning curve to better services provided to Key customers.

Second is T.K .Maxx Buying Power, It allows the company focus on value and get

products at very reasonable prices and give the service back to our customer. The

way this happens is our buyers are buying daily, they have an open cheque book that

allows them to purchase every day. They make purchases on CLOTHES THEY NEED

what that means is buyers buy on reaction. For Example: If it snows today, our

buyers will be out buying snow equipment.

1.6 Ways In Which CRM Helps In Reducing Operational Cost In Pursuit Of New

Customers And Loyalty Retention Of Existing Customers?

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CRM plays a vital role with our e-commerce customers in gaining information

lifestyle, spending power, buying pattern, age, demographical and geographical and

fashion ability. These findings generated from existing customers enable the

company create loyalty schemes for online customers (TK MAXX Newsletter) and

also the information gathered from existing customers (whatever findings derived

makes easy and is then advertised to new and potential customers via advertising

etc..

CRM Helps in the effective interaction with customers by getting feedback from

customers we are able to find out on what our stores are buying for customers and

identification and location of new stores. It also assists in gathering of information

about the different customers wardrobe tastes which in turn helps our buying team

to know what they need to buy to increase sales and ensure maximum profits.

“Our bright, modern stores, and our lean, no-frills way of working which help us to

pass amazing savings on to our customers. So, don’t expect string quartets or marble

waterfalls in our stores – just amazing fashion, brands, quality and value "[4].

CRM is based on the assumption that better customer knowledge makes for higher

profits. This is achieved through the Acquisition, creation, analysis and application of

customer data such as Personal data, transaction data and soft facts, e.g., interests

and hobbies. The data allow companies to customize customer contacts and product

offers, and thus achieve a higher service quality. Moreover, by using the data it

would be possible to discover new customer needs and requirement. Creating

additional value for customers also improves customer retention and loyalty” [5].

“We aim to have lots of choice and excitement for our broad range of shoppers, so

whether you’re young or old, classic, understated, eclectic or super-stylish, we want

you all to find something lovely, individual and special, all at a great price "[6].

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Information and details gathered from existing customers are being shared across

T.K Maxx Chain all over Europe (Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom and Poland)

within senior management every quarter where vital decisions and strategies are

made around improving our customer service and customer interaction. Customers

make their opinions known about what they like, what needs improvement and

things they do not like through. Sources of customer feedbacks include Red News

which is a newsletter with updated news, promos. Information for the e-commerce,

customers sign to ti the newsflash, first time customers going online can sign up for

the newsletter which is linked to the social media, Postcode Capture is done once a

year which assists to know the location of the various customers etc.. The senior

management accesses the opinion from different customers make amends and try to

make it into a positive effect and also help improve company customer database

(this can also be accessed for future purposes) examples: Customers complained of

high shipping charges when shopping online which was reviewed and reduced

drastically if purchases were over 100USD, U.S Charging for Bags, Customers did not

like the idea so charges on bags were cut.

1.7 CRM as an Aspect of Knowledge Management:

CRM is a customer-oriented approach and is one of the strong organizational

capabilities for knowledge and information management. Namely to have a

successful customer relationship management system, the customer data should be

obtained, saved and recorded to be changed to information and knowledge.

To have a successful customer relationship management system, the customer data

should be obtained, saved and recorded to be changed to information and

knowledge.

Customer knowledge, customer interaction, customer satisfaction and customer

value can be outlined as a sustainable competitive advantage to increase and

improve CRM performance to contribute in achieving organizational goals.

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Application of CRM help Organizations understand the benefits that are achieved

through continuous analysis of customer data. This information varies from providing

the hidden and unknown information related to customers to help in market analysis

and also assists provide the knowledge required about the customers to the business

executive and helps interact closely with customers.

1.8 Latest trends in CRM:-

Trend 1: Companies Strive To Be Experience Driven. In 2014 there is said to be a

predicted in increasing number of organizations that will be willing to adopt a more-

disciplined approach to customer experience transformation. Where it is said that

one can advance their organization's customer experience maturity levels by

following a four-phased path: repair, elevate, optimize, and differentiate.

Trend 2: Enterprises Will Embrace Tools That Create An Outside-In Perspective. To

make meaningful improvements, organizations must align their customer experience

ecosystems. That requires understanding customers' deep needs, viewing

interactions from the customer's perspective, and socializing customer insights.

Trend 3: More Organizations Will Become Digital Disruptors. Digital disruption occurs

any time a company uses digital tools or platforms to deliver better product

experiences to customers in less time and for less money.

Trend 4: The Mobile Mind Shift Will Force CRM to Evolve Quickly. Mobile CRM

solution support will continue to rapidly evolve, and every CRM vendor has a mobile

offering. However, assembling the components of an effective mobile CRM solution

to meet the precise use case for a specific type of mobile worker, or customer

interaction, requires navigating a complex set of technology, process and people

decisions.

Trend 5: Big Data Will Turn Into Customer Insight. There is a chance that more

organizations will have to ramp up their efforts to turn big data into business

insights. Statistics also show that most organizations don’t know where to start.

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Trend 6: Social Will Connect At All Stages Of The Customer Life Cycle. Social

technologies have changed the way businesses interact with their customers.

Trend 7: Rapid Adoption Of CRM SaaS (Software as a Service) Solutions Will

Continue. SaaS CRM deployments are here to stay, with over 70% of enterprises of

all sizes having deployed all or some CRM, or planning to deploy CRM as a SaaS

solution. It’s typically less expensive and in many cases it gives organizations the

much needed agility to quickly react to changing business pressures.

Trend 8: More Companies Will Aspire To Become Agile Enterprises. All companies

aspire to have a single, consolidated version of "the truth about customers," and

they continue to rely on structured processes, transactional systems, and packaged

apps to do this.

Trend 9: Marketing Leaders Will Put Customer Insights To Use. Most companies treat

marketing technology as a set of tools to buy and use rather than as a core

competency to exploit. Marketers gather a great amount of data that can yield

insights which can be leveraged across the organization

Trend 10: Enterprise Will Support Employees To Embrace New Technologies. In a

survey that was carried out the main problem with CRM technologies were the result

of what is described as "people issues," like slow user adoption and inadequate

attention paid to change management which would result in underutilized CRM

investments or failure of the CRM strategy.

2.0 - Strategic Environment of T.K Maxx

PESTLE analysis is in result a review of an organisation’s environmental power with

the principle of using this information is to guide strategic decision-making. The

theory is that if the organisation is able to check its present environment and

evaluate possible alterations, it will be better positioned than its competitors to act

in response to change. This analysis will be a practical tool to understanding the ‘big

picture’ of the environment in which T.K Maxx is functioning. Particularly this

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tool will be helpful for understanding risks related with the position, potential and

direction for T.K. Maxx.

PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and

Environmental; these six fundamentals shape a structure for evaluating a state and

can also be used to assess a strategy, position or even the focus of the company. The

external aspect, which affects T.K Maxx, will be dealt under the PESTLE analysis;

these issues have a great influence in this sector of the business:

-Political Factors: this is essentially showed the factors to what extent the

government gets involved in the economy. The policy of the government directly

affects T.K Maxx. T.K. Maxx is affected by the

• Tax Policies (such as Corporate Tax, Business Rates and National Insurance

Contributions).

• Trade Restrictions that the company is trading within hours and correctly by

the law.

• Political Stability, which is the condition that the UK government prevent and

stops the possibility of open revolution as the government is stable and leading

correctly, which keeps consumers happy and benefiting from the policies of the

government.

• Tariffs Restrictions, which fundamentally is a tax on the imported/exported

goods that boost the cost of the goods and consequently boosts the selling price in

the importing country.

-Economical Factors: these factors have major influences on how the business

functions and make choices. In T.K Maxx’s case these include:

• Income and Employment

• Government Regulations

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• Demand & Supply

• Recession

• Economic crash

All these influences has an effect on T.K Maxx, in which they have taken on board

and made sure that they are branded themselves to selling to everyone it being of

the lower all the way up to higher class of people. As a result, offering ranges of

product and services from Value to Premium prices (Gold Label clothing), hence

engaging to all sectors of the market.

-Sociological Factors: this includes the cultural and society aspects that must be

given importance by any business, importantly in T.K Maxx’s case. In this day and

age, most people in the UK are becoming stylish and passionate about fashionable

and in-season clothes, shoes and even accessories. T.K Maxx does their social

research studies and supply these fashionable clothes and accessories making sure it

is in-season, but most importantly that they are at affordable prices for their

customers, this for customers has an encouraging effect towards the quality product

of T.K Maxx.

-Technological Factors: this offers T.K Maxx a new way to communicate with

consumers/customers. Technology can cut costs and improve the quality of product

or the service. T.K Maxx have online shopping website, social media pages

(Facebook, Twitter), TV/Radio/Internet adverts, online survey competitions, gift

cards and T.K Maxx have recently started a trial on collection of deliveries, when you

order online in Birmingham (Click & Collect) which they plan to roll out if successful

(Source: T.K Maxx website). These are just many examples of technology, which are

used in T.K Maxx.

-Legal Factors: these factors can affect how T.K Maxx operates its cost and demand

for its products or services. The age restriction of employing someone who is 16

years old and above is a law as a business, T.K. Maxx has to follow. With the

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economy on a rise, there is now increase in the minimum wage and range of

employment law for employees (Student part time on 8 hours and a full time worker

40 hours) these are all current laws that has affected the company. Health & Safety,

Employment, Consumer laws is three of many legal factors that T.K Maxx has in

place.

-Environmental Factors: this includes environmental aspects such as weather,

climate or even the companies’ initial relations with the environment. In this case,

T.K Maxx tends to open up their stores where they think it was have a positive effect

on customers and the environment itself. Every T.K Maxx store also makes sure the

interior of their store is pleasant, tidy and spotless. They have cleaners that are

trained to make it clean and also learn how to get rid of waste by recycling, 94% of

their stores’ waste is now recycled and they are working on the next 6%. T.K Maxx

assess their environmental influence and enhancements through the Carbon Trust

and have reduced their Carbon Footprint by 24% since 2007. Also they have

increased fuel efficiency, which now with every litre of fuel, they now use to take

them 8% further than it did in 2009. (Source: T.K Maxx website, Environment page).

2.1 CONCLUSION OF PESTLE ANALYSIS

The result of the PESTLE analysis carried out on the large-scale surroundings of T.K

Maxx specifies extreme major effect for the company. It can be concluded that the

company T.K Maxx is expected to be practicable and expand quicker and better. This

retail sector is one of the most competitive in the business world so effectively the

marketing approach is necessary in order for T.K Maxx to be triumphant. Availability

of good customer service and promotional use of T.K Maxx shows the successful

marketing strategy of the company, providing an improved plan of how to market

products and improve the foundation with customers’.

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3.0 CRM at TK Maxx:-

Based on TK Maxx organization which was our selected company, strategic

management means how the organization point out every opportunities, threat,

strength, and weaknesses in the company and how they manage to overcome the

problems and seize chances by using classification of information. The company need

to highlight any procedures it takes and steps to get information about the client,

which we specified to customer relation management. Customer relation

management is the procedures to take in handling with TK Maxx's customer

interactions thus improve the effectiveness of the company's productivity. Customer

relation management in a company, specified to TK Maxx give the reflection of

customer itself, either the satisfaction or otherwise and how the company analyse

every detail they got from customer based on the information system they provide.

It is advantageous to keep the relationship between customers, which company itself

will get improvement through performance and service based on the information

from customer. A systematic strategy need to develop to the company to get the

information from customer.

Based on customer relation management, there are four ways in dealing with the

information. We had applied the information which we classify the information into

strategic, high potential, key operational and support.

The first classification which is strategic, are the most appropriate alternative in the

process of developing and getting information from customer. Strategic are the most

advantageous in performing information about customer relation to company, such

as, the entire organization in TK Maxx company will be affected if the strategic

implemented succeed. Strategic management in customer relation fundamentally

applied for long term purposes, on how to gain information about the company from

customers basically. This strategic management is a plan and they can be change

anytime if the process on developing the customer relation to TK Maxx for long term

has constraints and it depends on the time to the lead. Whereas, high potential

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information is the information based on customer relation that should be considered

as they information it gets might be highly potential in the immediate term and long

term conditions to the company. So, high potential information about customer

should not be overstated to get as many as company can to get information about

the customer to improve the productivity and performance at TK Maxx. In addition,

key operation information is what the company is currently used to gain the

customer relation information and support information, which is not only highly

potential but still have value in it.

In line with this, based on TK Maxx, the company uses every way to gain information

about customer relation. Every strategy to obtain relationship between the customer

and TK Maxx need to be plan and applied carefully. One of the way to obtain the

information that TK Maxx use is by contacting their frequent and regular customer by

using the postcode capture, to understand where customers are coming to get

insight about customer relation. Customer relation management that the company

used really gives to gather the information well and aligned with social media and

also the technology. Customer relation management allows TK Maxx to know the

information about customer's opinion on the shopping behaviour, age fashion ability,

and fashion lifestyle of the product in the company by gathering the information and

analyse the information for further action.

TK Maxx is selected after a few research made to select the best and appropriate

company in specific to customer relation management. We have selected TK Maxx

because TK Maxx provides good information to their customer. Customer is

enlightened with their product if they want to know. By TK Maxx takes priority to

customer satisfaction and they value their product by giving customer the best

quality product, in best price they can offer. In addition, if customers have any

feedback depending on the service and product, by clicking on their official website,

and they can email to the TK Maxx and TK Maxx guaranteed that they will reply all

the email only within 48 hours of working days. Customer can choose to give a call to

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senior manager store, or the head office to give their feedback and the staff will take

action to the feedback as possible as they can so that customers satisfactory

guaranteed. We choose TK Maxx also because of their relation with the customer,

where customer can go online and tell the company about their shopping experience

and TK Maxx will then take customer's feedback as a learning curve to better the

service and to improve their productivity that we provide to our key customers. TK

Maxx also allows the customer to focus on the value itself and allows them to get

products at very reasonable prices, and give the good service back to their customer.

Moreover, TK Maxx use "Cloth to the Need", which means they also provide the

product by season, to easy the customer to find their cloth and product. For

example, if the season is in winter, customer can find all products about winter like

equipment and cloth. This will make the work done for customer becomes easier,

and thus improves the performance and productivity of TK Maxx. TK Maxx gathers

information by from existing customers, which they have shared across the chain,

within Europe (Poland, Germany, Ireland, and United Kingdom) within senior

manager in every quarter where decisions are being made around together in

improving TK Maxx's customer service and customer interaction. Fundamentally,

customers will let TK Maxx know what they like and what they don't like and the

product that quiet no popular to customer service or by email, and the manager will

sit together and take action to give the best service and product and try to take the

information and make that into positive effect, and to help TK Maxx improve our

customer database. In addition, what makes TK Maxx become our choice is because

the value each customer they have and they give full commitment to their customer.

TK Maxx objective is to give value for each customer they have so that every

customer will get full satisfactory either on their product or the service TK Maxx

provide. Moreover, TK Maxx strive to get the best deals for their customer, by

collaborate with large name and company to give off- retail price to their customer.

TK Maxx also only will provide what customer wants to their product, by obtaining

the information from customer and each product in TK Maxx is in a very limited stock

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to give difference to their product. If the staff gather all the information and finds

that customer want to have any specific product to be inserted in TK Maxx, the

company will make their full effort to get the product will best price offer, for their

customer. as TK Maxx, the company have not set daily limitation and they will

continue on it until the company get to a stage where customers have got no more

comments or feedbacks to give to the company, which is never and after that, the

company will go and take a survey to another branch, which is almost in large

country and one more will be opening in Austria, to gather the information and apply

it to the new store and change the service they already have in their TK Maxx stores

to polish any lacking parts of their businesses.

Competencies, which there are two types, core competence and distinctive

competence is one of the most effective ways to determine whether the company

manage to systematize their branding experience to lean based on the learning of

the service and product they produce. This implementation refers to the

effectiveness of the staffs performance and the product they carry to the customer.

Based on TK Maxx core competence, the company will keep the services to the

customer in a prudent way, to keep the efficiency between the customer and their

company. Their value to the services and product will make sure the profit they will

get for TK Maxx. So in order to keep the profit increase, they value the customer first

and make sure that the product they put at their various stores is always hind on

demand. TK Maxx's services keep them away from their competitors and the strategy

they use to win customer's heart based on their various kind of product and other

internal activity. TK Maxx website online services, helps to keep the company stay

competitive, by using RRP for us is what we use in bargaining prices with TK Maxx

vendors in sense that, if the company buying off a vendor and the RRP is £200 their

buyers have been trained on the off price technique which involves lots of the

jigsaws of on ‘focus on value’ buying technique to get a far better price then the RRP,

taking into consideration that any product in store after 6 weeks goes into an

automatic markdown, and after that first markdown, 3 weeks goes into a second

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markdown which we called as clearance products. the key word here are B.F.Q.P that

stands for brand, fashion, quality, price, every letter in the B.F.Q.P is an allocated for

point which totals 16, the closer to the 16 point means it’s a great buy for the buyers,

to buy the product. Based on TK Maxx distinctive competence, they provide a

different way to attract the customer. for example, the company use the customer

relation management system which is key on top of that they have something called

"customer insight day", the day means that the company will pull together 200 of our

most regular and loyal customer of TK Maxx around Europe, and they pulled them

into a shopping environment based on their buying experience in TK Maxx., after

that, they will put them in TK Maxx shopping environment, to shop and by doing that

they will gather all the information about the present and previous shopping

experience. the type of info that TK Maxx gathered is the way they shop in individual

departments, what they are looking for, how they will prefer an ideal shopping

experience within TK Maxx environment, visual proposition of products and store,

lighting in store, the way they actually shop which for example is do they prefer

sections that has all blouses, or would they prefer to see blouses in all different

grand masters, and give information about the shopping pattern.

This report is on research to find any strategic use of information system, which is

more specifically to customer relation management. The group will manipulate their

research and what they understand from the learning material, and to give the

output from what they understand to the topic. We were divided into several part of

the topic and each member need to understand their part and they will do their part

to complete the whole research.

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SWOT Analysis of TK Maxx CRM System

Analysis of CRM in the context of Porter’s Five Forces.

2000 words.

S – Strength

W – Weaknesses

O – Oppurtunity

T – Threat

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitute products

Bargaining power of customer

Bargaining power of supplier

Intensity of competitive rivalry

We will analyze in terms of Porter’s Five Forces. First, we discuss about the CRM

context that involves threat of new entrants. Every industry that are in present over

the market will have their own threats, regardless of high industry profits or low

industry profits. Low industry profits are associated with strong suppliers, strong

buyers, and high opportunities of substitutes, intense rivalry and low entry barrier

whereas high industry profits is the opposite. An example of low industry profits is

soft drink companies. Threats of new entrants explains that if the barrier to enter the

same market is high, therefore there is a lower possibility of new entrants which will

be a threat for businesses, or vice versa. This can be further explain in terms of

strategic business environment. In strategic environment, there are a few factors

which are taken into considerations. These consists of a complex mixture of political,

economic, social, technical, environmental and legal environments. According to our

study, we have chosen TK Maxx, a clothing retail company shared across Europe as

our targeted company to involve in understanding of the strategic level of

businesses. In this industry, TK Maxx is categorized as low industry profits because

they have all the characteristics stated above. What makes it a challenge for TK Maxx

to overcome the threat of new entrants is that the strategic level decision on the

future of the company. Gathering information in the operational level tends to be

34

effective as TK Maxx study annually on the postcode capture of their customers to

help them gain information of where their customers are coming from. Besides that,

newsletter with promotions were widely distributed to their customers as a reward

of loyalty. Increasing customer loyalty will achieve product differentiation which

makes it difficult for newcomers to join the market share. In the logical sense, a new

company may be set up to compete TK Maxx in the industry but what makes TK

Maxx sustain their business and lower down the percentage of the threats are the

information gains from the customers.

Next, threat of substitute products is also one of the field to be analyze. A substitute

product can be produced in a different industry but it crucially satisfy the needs of

the same customer. Of course, the extent of the threats is varying. The extent to

which the price and quality of the substitute that can match the industry needs. On

top of that, the willingness of customers to switch is also a factor towards

substitution products. In TK Maxx, the top level organization explains that they

implement empathica to maximize profits, ensure customer satisfaction and stay

ahead of competitions from other rivals. The term empathica refers to a mystery

shopper. Empathica provides physical feedbacks from customers which directly links

to the customer and TK Maxx. What empathica does is that they are told to go online

and response to TK Maxx about their shopping experience. From the feedbacks of

the customers, TK Maxx takes it as a learning curve to better their service. Substitute

products can be less interesting as TK Maxx had made an initiative to see what the

rivals does and overcome the problem with a top level decision by the company. All

information gather will generate data if there is a threat coming from a rival

product, causing the top level organization to make a business changes to their

company.

Following up, bargaining is an act of negotiation which buyer of seller dispute the

price of a product. There are two factors that can be discussed, which is the

bargaining power of the seller and the bargaining power of the buyer. For suppliers,

35

if the prices paid for inputs are forced up, profits of the companies will be reduced.

Supplier makes themselves in a powerful position when they are only few suppliers.

On the other hand, powerful customers are able to exert pressure to reduce prices

and this bargaining act also reduces the profits of the company. TK Maxx explains

that Recommended Retail Price (RRPs) does helps them to stay competitive in

business environment. This is because they are an off price business. RRP is used in

bargaining prices with their vendors in the sense that, if they were to buy off a

vendor and the RRP is £200, their buyers have been trained on the off price

technique which involves a lot of jigsaws on “focus on value” buying technique to get

a better price compare to the RRP. There is also a consideration taken as any product

in store after 6 weeks goes into an automatic markdown, and later, 3 weeks after,

going into the clearance sale. The keywords being expressed here is the “BFQP”,

representing Brand, Fashion, Quality and Price. Every letter in the BFQP is allocated

with 4 points and totals up to be 16 points. The closer the points the buyer gets, the

greater the purchase it values for the buyer. For instance, if the customer goes to

Nike to look at a specific trainer, it is based on the scoring point system. The

minimum target of the system is 12 points which marks the minimum level of the

value of the product. If it does not reach the minimum, customer can just walk away.

Last but not least, intensity of competitive rivalry is also a factor being analyze in

Porter’s five forces. In the industry of clothing, TK Maxx provides varieties of

different branded goods with a lower retail prices. They are not outlet stores as they

work closely with many branded goods and sells as an off price business. They have

done it before and this is the major factor that allows TK Maxx to sustain their

business. TK Maxx encourages the involvement of their customers in promoting their

products. The key element of working closely with the customers are introducing a

new promotion called “mebyme”, which TK Maxx is the only retailer so far. This

promotion allows TK Maxx to use their customers in their adverts. TK Maxx claimed

that no one has ever done that before and that is what makes TK Maxx a very unique

store. Having all the above factors discussed, we come back into the strategic

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information environment of the customer’s loyalty. TK Maxx invested heavy into

CRM Solution to gather all the information of their customer behaviors and shopping

lifestyle. Threat on rivalry competition will be reduced because TK Maxx gains

customer loyalty which makes it difficult for other company to replace TK Maxx.

The strategic use of information systems in Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) System of TK Maxx are really crucial. This can be explained by using SWOT

Analysis, categorizing them into Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threat. As

far as the market is concern, CRM system is a system that helps business to maintain

customer’s data in three ways. The three ways are acquire, retain and extend. Our

case study company, TK Maxx explains that the implementation of CRM in their

business definitely helps to interact effectively with customers. CRM capabilities are

provided by information technology based information systems as a set of business

processes which enables the company to deal with vast numbers of customers. CRM

Systems also acts crucially in the strategic environment of information towards the

business by gathering information about their customer’s lifestyle and customer’s

wardrobe. This information will be studied wisely to help the buying team of TK Maxx

to know what the customers need to buy. Another thing is that CRM helps in

reducing operational cost in pursuit of new customers and loyalty retention of

existing customers.

TK Maxx explains in the interview that CRM is mainly used with the ecommerce

customers. In gaining information about their lifestyle, spending power, buying

pattern, age, demographical and geographical and fashion ability, those findings

were from existing customers to allow TK Maxx to introduce loyalty scheme for their

customers. The information gathered are also crucial in strategic business

environment as information can be turn into knowledge. To make it a clearer picture,

information gather depend solely on the market the company is attacking and this

information are the results of the findings of the specific company. The information

contains private and confidential details of the company itself. Based on all the

37

findings, strategic level employees can introduce strategies to help the company to

gain more profits and satisfy the customer needs. The operational level employees

will then implement the strategy towards the customers. As far as TK Maxx is

concern, they have their own company chain across Europe with Poland, Germany,

Ireland and UK involved. Informations gathered from customers are being shared

across the chain within senior management every quarter where decisions are being

made around improving their customer service and interactions. Senior management

will take the entire database of CRM data to help improve the flaw into a positive

effects.

When there are pros, there are cons too. The weaknesses of this CRM Solution are

limited. As a business, TK Maxx have not set no limitation daily and they continue on

it until they get to a stage where customers have got no more comments or

feedbacks. Unfortunately, this situation is very unlikely and to be exact, which is

never because nothing is perfect. For instance, in the stage where TK Maxx go in to

another country to open their new store, particularly in Austria, informations

gathered about Austria is actually based on polish part of businesses.

Another factor to be discussed in terms of SWOT analysis is oppurtunity. TK Maxx

allows the external environmental analysis to open certain new opportunities for

profit and growth. In this case, the arrival of CRM Solution. An unfulfilled customer

needs is an opportunity in a business. Strategic level management can see this as an

opportunity where they can obtain the data from CRM System. Customer’s feedback

might show that what they need but it was not fulfilled by other companies. In result

of that, strategic decisions can be made to fulfilled this range of customers. From

there, information being acquired, retaining new and existing customers and

extending the customers by involving them closely with the business by practicing

the “mebyme” promotion are being achieve.

Finally, in terms of threats, customer might have a shifts in taste away from the

products and services of the company. TK Maxx explains that this issue has also be

38

taken into consideration as CRM Solutions are still their key in interacting with

customers. On top of that, TK Maxx suggested that they also have something called

“customer insight day“. What it means is that they pull together 200 of their hard-

core TK Maxx around Europe. They pulled them into a shopping environment based

on their buying experience in TK Maxx to shop and from there, TK Maxx gathers their

info about the shopping experience. Info gathered such as the way they shop,

categorized by departments, lighting in the stores and visual proposition of the

products. All this information allows TK Maxx to prepare themselves of any threats

approaching as sustaining the business, comfort the customers and making a profit

as a company is the main objectives of their corporate strategy in business.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Business benefits of Customer Relationship Management and Effectiveness of

Customer Relationship Management:-

Customer relationship building is all about being able to manage the business and its

database of existing and prospective clients to create the success of an organization

(Gebert, H et al. 2003). In order to be operational every strategy must incorporate

and assimilate all consumer based areas (every area of the organization which would

have or be affected by a consumer) of the organization. This strategy should also

ensure that the way the consumer interacts, how or when the consumer interacts

does not affect the company negatively and that the company continues to maintain

a consistent method of contact with the consumer. If this is carried out accurately

the organization would be able to benefit from the close relationship as well as will

allow space to gather more information from consumers this close relationship will in

turn make it easy for the organizations consumer base to be built up easily. The close

relationship will also allow the organization to be change specific areas which would

lead to increased levels of satisfaction in consumers which would lead to the

organization/ small business entity to have a competitive advantage edge over other

39

businesses which would also lead to high sales levels in the business (Gebert, H. et

al. 2003).

CRM works effectively if like all things it is done correctly such as ensuring that there

is a constant movement in the balance between marketing, sales and other service

related in terms of being up to date and immediately realising and responding to the

changes in the customer needs to ensure that the profits are maximised (Gebert, H.

et al. 2003).

4.1 RECOMMENDATION

From the above analysis and conclusion I would like to suggest some

recommendations for the improvement of the T.K Maxx Company.

1. Full check of clothes and goods should be performed before sending the items to

the T.K Maxx stores to sell because they may be damaged or worn.

2. T.K Maxx stores are situated in the European countries and United States only. To

expand in its business and to provide good customers service it is recommended that

the stores of T.K Maxx should open in developing countries also.

To reduce the waiting time of customers in queue to pay for items T.K Maxx should

increase more staffs.

40

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