Whereas the current Knowledge Management System (KMS) is playing an important role in the customer-centric business environment, there is a lack of a simple and comprehensive framework to combine traditional Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functions with management and application of customer-related knowledge, especially in context marketing decisions. The KMS manages organizational knowledge in the following ways for example in the process of creating, organizing, disseminating and applying knowledge to enhance organizationally performance and create value while traditional CRM focuses on transactional communicate to manage customer interactions. Real CRM is only possible by integrating them together with the KMS to create a knowledge-based CRM process that allows companies to assess key business indicators such as customer satisfaction, customer profitability, or customer’s loyalty to support their business decisions. This system will help marketers solve the demand of customer based on the marketing staff’s understanding of the customer, not on the generalization of the characteristics of customers.

💞CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)💞

CRM is a technology for managing customer knowledge to better understand and serve them. It places the customer at the center of an organization which can consider as an umbrella concept. CRM is also concerned with coordinating customer relations across all business functions, points of interaction, and audiences although customer service is an important component of CRM.

💞KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)💞

KM is the management of the corporate knowledge and information assets of the company. The purpose is to provide this knowledge to as many company employees and their business processes as possible to encourage better and more consistent decision-making. Companies can take advantage of the capabilities of analytical CRM systems and work with them to make truly customer-centric business decisions by integrating operational CRM data with the knowledge of the entire enterprise. For example, companies can proactively provide products and services that meet the needs of a given customer based on the products that the customer has purchased, or dynamically personalize content based on the profile of web visitors to increase the purchase rate, or provide personal representatives for the highest value to customers who understand their history or preference.

💞KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES NEEDED FOR CRM💞

In order to implement knowledge-enabled CRM processes, companies need to provide and support several categories of KM capabilities through the deployment and integration of currently available technologies. The capabilities are primarily intranet and extranet based.

FIGURE 1

The functional framework shown in Figure 1 is designed around the enterprise knowledge portal. Using the portal architecture allows for a common interface to knowledge from different knowledge sources such as documents, applications, and data warehouses. This functional framework is designed to accelerate the penetration of KM within an organization, because users who are most likely to be familiar with the concept of portals by using Internet portals like Yahoo will expect the interface components of the architecture to provide similar functionality for KM in enterprise-wide document collections for example search engines and automated document summarization.

At a high level, the framework can be explained as comprised of two parts. First, it is designed to leverage existing knowledge and to enable the creation of new knowledge through a continuous learning process denoted by the knowledge learning loops. And second, the rectangular labeled boxes denote the KM capabilities and a few currently available techniques or technologies that can provide them.

FIGURE 2

💞ARCHITECTURE FOR KM-BASED CRM SYSTEMS💞

CRM projects usually fail because they force the business unit to make a lot of changes quickly, and the final application often fails to better serve customers. They also cannot integrate different data sources or provide the right information to the right people at the right time. Therefore, CRM applications should not only have the ability to collect and provide relevant information in a timely manner, but also provide tools to analyze and share information in a meaningful way and allow managers to take prompt action. KMS deals with such problems, especially identifying and creating knowledge elements from various sources, codifying, storing and disseminating knowledge, and using the knowledge in problem-solving. Therefore, we believe that the CRM system based on KM will accurately provide the various functions required by the CRM system to manage the lasting partnership with valuable customers effectively. We envision a KM-based CRM system with components that help to easily collect and absorb customer-related information as well as organizational processes and industry practices.

We propose a customer-centric CRM system architecture as shown in Figure 2. This architecture combines traditional KM functions with the CRM activities required for a successful CRM program.

💗The proposed architecture consists of four main parts:💗

⭐Advantages of integrating KM with CRM⭐

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💟Improved productivity💟

When answering the customer requests in CRM, the workers of a firm will access the company information and answers to commonly asked questions directly from the knowledge management system. This may be helping the corporate to reduce the time is taken to research for information, discussing with other employees, and also switching among the applications while the customer is waiting.

💟Enhanced effectiveness💟

It is important to constantly track how advantageous is knowledge management has been used in solving customer's problems and questions from emails and calls. This may also help you to track the productivity and effectiveness of the front-end workers. Next, the overall management system of the company will be more smoothly.

💟Reduces redundant tasks💟

The CRM systems can be continuously updated with information learned during each interaction. Thus, solutions to repetitive issues that can be stored as valuable reckoners in the company’s knowledge base. As the company had reduced its extra work, it will then increase their product management.

💟Improved Customer Satisfaction💟

Customers that visit a company’s website can search through its knowledge management system. Next, go through the company’s online FAQs which may help them narrow down their problems to an appropriate response and thus help the customer to solve their problems. Thus, the company will be also more understanding of customer needs and wants and tend to improve their customer satisfaction.

💟Consistency💟

Have a centralized repository of knowledge will help in making sure the consistency of the information. When the content is distributed throughout the organization, multiple documents covering the same topics can exist in multiple places. This can actually lead to confusion when information in one location is updated. This will probably result in poor customer experience due to outdated and inconsistent information. KM will ensure a central knowledge management repository through which customers can benefit from accurate and consistent information.

🌟Conclusion🌟

In today’s rapid development of modern society, carrying out quality customer service will be a huge challenge, which is the reason that an increasing number of organizations are utilizing knowledge management to empower employees and also, optimize their workforce. By implementing knowledge management as a key element of customer service strategy, firms may obtain hugely benefits of advancing the speed, consistency, accuracy, and agility of the service delivery.

The application of CRM is to understand the importance of effective care for the customer. Understanding the use of CRM in customer management processes proved that CRM helps the company to have typical services for its customers, providing interactive relationships and personalized that can provide credibility and security in relation to it. To support the development of its organizational activities, the company should develop a technological tool that meets its needs.

CRM should act as a business strategy that focused on understanding the needs of potential and current customers. Thus, it should be designed to increase the profitability and customer satisfaction of those who use the goods and services marketed by the company. Each customer is unique, thus, all the communication is two-way and individual. In the company, the dialogue is developed bilaterally and customers are treated in different ways.

In conclusion, a successful company is needed to have knowledge management to support the CRM system to develop strategies of relationship with the customer. Some actions are suggested to maximize the use of the CRM tool for the strategic management of the company's organizational knowledge management including the deployment of Business Intelligence so as to make better use of the data and facilitate the generation of information and knowledge. Thus, could enable the use of the resource stored in the system. Next, the company also should conduct training that focused on activities geared to the generation of new knowledge and sharing of knowledge between employees of the company.