CRM practices adopted by Indian banks

Brief Literature Review

It is evident that the aggressive environment of contemporary competition requires organizations to ensure the satisfaction of its customers through extraordinary quality products and services.  Keeping in view the intense competition regarding economic services, it stands to reason that quality is the leveraging factor.  Banks are faced with immense challenges regarding the handling and management of service quality.  With this perspective, it is widely being accepted that relationship marketing has the potential of addressing the various value propositions and can enable the banks to add greater value for satisfying the needs of the customers (Roig et al., 2006).

Molina et al. (2007) argued that it is important to understand the customer’s perspective regarding relationships.  Customers bear no critical relationship with the organization as a whole.  Nevertheless, customer has certain attachments with the different individuals involved in the service organization (Aldlaigan and Buttle, 2005). Therefore, banks can successfully fulfill the requirements and the demands of his customers through the staff members interacting with such customers.  Kaynak and Harcar (2005) emphasize that customer’s interactions with the employees of the bank survey as the basis for evaluating the bank on the whole. Hence, characteristics of the employees like their amiability, skills, knowledge, conviviality and sensitivity serve as the basis for creating a positive opinion about the services provided by the employees of the organization (Bergeron, 2000).

Clearly, this is a relevant factor for emphasizing on planning and strategizing in the context of relationship management in order to address the aspirations of the customers.  It is imperative for the companies to understand the requirements and expectations of its customers and to do the very best for delivering maximum value to the targeted customers.  The most important question, therefore, is what system can be employed to provide maximum value to the customer? Ultimately, value is based on the perception of the customers regarding their dilemmas and personal judgments in the context of the products and services offered by the (Reynolds, 2002). Therefore, a retail bank can enhance the quality of its services by clearly understanding and appreciating the perceptions and values of the customers.  There is no doubt that determining the values of the customers in the context of service industry is not easy since these values are a multi-dimensional, intricate and intangible (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Parasuraman et al., 1991). Moreover, customers may consider financial services belonging to the group of risky services (Babakus et al., 2004).

The apprehensions of the customers regarding the safety of their money raise the question of financial safety. Thus, the researcher would like to keep this in perspective while determining the objective of the research which is to identify the basic intentions and values of consumers in the context of services provided by retail banks, particularly with regard to their responsible management of customer finances.  Their perspectives, outlooks, interactions, opinions and expectations would be considered for determining the money related objectives and values.