CASE STUDY (PLEASE ANSWER IT IN BRIEF)

Keeping Us Posted When one thinks of customer relations, it is not often that a governmentowned entity would come to mind. But this is precisely the case for Canada Post, a Canadian governmentowned mail delivery company with revenues of close to $8 billion in 2016. Canada Post has such a strong focus on customer relationship management (CRM) that it lists under its assets: Customer Relationships. Canada Post has earned plaudits from its business customers for helping them with their customer relationship management programs. It started working with Accenture in 1990 to build a CRM system that was focused more on customers and their needs than on technology. Canada Post has earned numerous awards for its CRM systems, including one from renowned research firm Gartner Inc. Canada Posts rise in the CRM world started in a very humbling place: a late 1990s government report that classified postal delivery as a sunshine industry. The Internet was becoming a significant factor in peoples lives just before the 21st century, and Canada Post had to learn to evolve. Given its position as a Crown corporation, Canada Post has to be very responsive to its ultimate owner: the Canadian taxpayer. In 2012, after many complaints, Canada Post introduced a new CRM system that responded better in handling complaints. And since most of the concern around Canada Post and its services has to do with prompt delivery of materials, the new CRM system featured improved tracking of packages and identifying root causes of problems. This CRM was also tied into an ombudsman process that ensured a neutral third party would assess any customer concerns relating to mail delivery. In order to truly understand the needs of its customers, Canada Post surveys tens of thousands of Canadian companies and citizens. It asks a few questions about how respondents feel about Canada Post, and then looks at the relative level of loyalty from that customer. This way, Canada Post can determine those customers that are negative and might be lost, and those that are more positive or loyal to Canada Post. This customer value assessment is vital to help Canada Post develop the necessary sales process in its CRM. Sales managers and sales representatives at Canada Post are then asked to look over the customer loyalty data to determine the customers that are in need of contact, help, and overall support. The goal is to strengthen relationships overall, be it damage control to further loyalty incentives, the overarching goal is to use the data to help make decisions. With any CRM system, Canada Post has to ensure it has the necessary IT solutions. Given that anyone living in Canada and any business operating in Canada is a potential customer, it becomes a significant challenge to manage the technological demands of that much data. Internal buyin has been essential for Canada Posts success with CRM systems. The company continually updates its employees on new processes and technologies that are to be used with the CRM system. Internal workshops, surveys of marketing management in Canada Post, and company retreats have all been used to ensure buyin for the iterations of CRM systems over the past 27 years. Since employees are key to the success of the threestage CRM process, it is vital that they are engaged and empowered to make decisions to keep the system running smoothly. Instead of simply relying on its internal CRM system success, Canada Post has been able to pass on this expertise to its business clients. Canada Post has created a series of case studies of companies that have used Canada Post to help in the development and enhancement of a customer relationship management system. The focus of Canada Posts case studies is on customers, data, and technology. Each case study provides a scenario of a company and then details the solutions that Canada Post was able to provide to the customer (mostly business) to meet the needs of its clients. While much of the focus is on direct mail, since Canada Post has a strong stake and expertise in this area, businesses of any size request access to the Canada Post CRM expertise simply by contacting the company. The scenario for you in this case is to assume that you are small business that is developing a new offering: you will offer a new service for students. You are thinking of developing an online sharing site where students can request assistance with, for example, homework, moving, and financial management. You are tasked with creating a CRM system for this company, using the services provided by Canada Post. You want to contact Canada Post, but first you want to put together the threestage CRM process that is in the written part of your textbook or M4M. You need to make sure your proposed CRM model has all of the necessary parts, to ensure that you wont have to contact Canada Post more than once.

MultipleChoice Questions

Q1. By putting together a system that incorporates marketing research, sales, and big data, Canada Post is creating what type of system?

a) Customer Database

b) Customer Relationship Management

c) Customer Value Management

d) Customer Relationship Marketing

Q2. If Canada Post had chosen to create an online listing of companies and customers, along with pertinent purchasing data, it would be engaging in what type of system?

a) Customer Database

b) Customer Relationship Management

c) Customer Value Management

d) Customer Relationship Marketing

Q3. In which stage of the CRM process would Canada Post be sitting down with its sales staff to go over data from focus groups and expert interviews?

a) Customer Database

b) Business Development

c) Marketing

d) Operations/IT

ShortAnswer Questions

Q1. In the M4M Video in Section 1.2, CRM is described as both a function and a philosophy. Describe how this applies to Canada Post in this case, and be sure to explain it based on the fundamental question behind CRM.

Q2. Show visually the threestage CRM process as described in the Canada Post case.

Q3. You have completed your threestage CRM system for your meeting with Canada Post. Present your ideas using a threeslide presentation in the space below.