Customer Relationship Management in Bahrain Investment Banking Arena Essay

The chamfering industry has undergone general changes at heart the operating environs and this involves globalization of countenanceets and technological improvements. These two factors rich person influenced and encouraged innovative practices within the banking industry that has religious serviced to enhance its operational efficiency. The introduction of ATMs and e-banking facilities ar some of the major milestones in the banking industry that have revolutionized demarcation operations.The global food markets have increase the competitive environment of the banking industry that has created the need for change magnitude efficiency in operations and change magnitude customer satisfaction. Customers are the lifeblood of every organization and the banking business too depends on the acquisition and retention of consumers for its profitability. Customer kin solicitude forms a vital aspect of business strategy driving the alliances market shares and market leadership p osition.Customer relationship concern (CRM) has been defined as a business strategy that is a confederacy of a series of functions, skills, processes, and technologies which together allow companies to much than profitably come (acquire and retain) customers as tangible assets (Shanmugasundaram, 200898). It is viewed as an interactive process that creates a parallelism between corporate objectives and customer satisfaction to increase the profitability of the business. acquisition and retention of customers is one of the vital requirements of business and the effectiveness of strategies driven towards this last determines the success of business enterprises. The past few years have witnessed suppuration industriousness of CRM in sell banking and enthronization banking empyreans. The key objective dirty dog such initiatives is to ensure the delivery of superior customer service and to discharge the necessitate of consumers.such(prenominal) practices are effective in e nabling organizations to gibe the needs of the consumers and bring home the bacon improved work in comparison to differentwise players in the industry. Competitive advantage and business gains are driven by a proactive approach that foc recitations on consumer needs and expectations, provision of consistently high gear quality service, looking into consumer convenience and an effective follow up service to ensure consumer loyalty. A vital aspect of investment banking and any other fiscal serve is the changing consumer mindsets.Owing to the abundance of teaching easily accessible all over the Inter lolly the consumers today are more knowledgeable of the wide background of choices and alternatives available to them. The consumers are equipped with more knowledge link to the banking options available and hence their banking decisions are guided by their well- exploreed study. This fact h quondam(a)s true for all stinting sectors and business operations nevertheless forms a critical aspect of banking industries since it caters to a diverse subdivision of consumers. In nearly all business to business markets in which clients are as large as, or as in this case, often much larger than their suppliers, the latter must respond quickly to pressures from their clients to improve client guidance processes and systems (Foss & Stone, 2002 211).CRM in investing banking sector The short term objective of the merchandising department is to acquire customers while the long term objective translates to retaining the previous(a) customers through effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. Reaching and getting a new customer is one thing, keeping the relationship hefty and strong over a long period of time is the mark of the true marketing professional concerned with long term health of the organization (Dolak, 2009). The increasing competitive market makes it difficult to retain customers over a longer period of time owing to the constant inflow of new and substitute alternatives invading the shelf spaces at the local retail shop. This makes the task of CRM increasingly challenging and organizations adopt variant strategies to attract old customers back.Retention strategies often employ measures such as consumer behaviour look and yield surveys that enable the organizations to assess the needs and expectations of the consumer and enable them to serve better. Customers forever appreciate the personal touch that results in building strong relationships. The concluding today provides numerous effective communication channels that are world exampled to keep the customer happy. Web based customer relationship management has effectively unified all modes of communication web, email, chat, video, voice to serve and support the customers to enhance the total customer experience.Investment banking differs from other forms of banking in the role a few major clients play on the banks performance and productivity (Foss & Stone, 2002). This form of banking keisters a fixed client segment that drives the sales of investment products and function. The efficiency of the banking sector is determined by the types of products and services sold to customers in response to their investment needs and expectations. Customization of products and services are the key to deriving client satisfaction.Identification of the client segment is a vital factor in targeting and reaching out to the want client population and this process is driven by market research. The changing demographics and intense competitive pressures from global industry players have however make a significant impact on the business strategies of investment banks worldwide. The challenges set about by investment bankers lie in reaching out to target consumers and providing them with increased ease of banking services that serve to retain clients over a longer period of time.Moreover, the increasing demands of consumers and growing expectat ions have driven the banking sector to adopt applied science based innovative coats for happening consumer needs and expectations. Online banking services and mobile banking applications are some of the innovative means that are being used by investment bankers to reach out to their target consumers. Such applications have served to improve banking services and efficiencies in resolving customer queries and needs promptly through the click of the mouse button.The anytime and anywhere access to banking services have defined new trends in serving consumers. Online customization is one efficacious customer relationship management strategy adopted by e-business to total value and improve sales of their products and services using the Internet (Khosla et al. , 2003). Investment banking in Bahrain The banking sector in Bahrain is one of the key sectors influencing economic outgrowth and learning in the region. The contribution of the financial services and banking sector is min o nly to the oil and natural gas industry in the acres.The country has experienced an economic boom and an upward trend in economic growth and development over the past few decades on news report of globalisation influences and opening of trade channels. The banking sector has also opened to multinational corporations establishing their operations in the country to tap the growing number of high net worth individuals in the country. Despite the globalisation of banking operations and increased de-regulation of the financial services sector in the area the country continues to have a significant control and supervision over the regulatory environment.The commutation situate of Bahrain continues to be monitor and control the banking environment in the country. The modernization of banking services and strategic approaches made by investment bankers in other parts of the globe have not produced much impact in this region owing to the constraints applied by the existing cultural infl uence. The retail banking scenario in Bahrain is to a considerable extent driven by the ending of the country. The cultural impacts are in truthised in the conservative approach of consumers towards banking and investment. sundry(a) research studies have concluded that while the region is an emerging market for engineering applications and innovative practices, user attitudes have limited the scope of technology based business models in the banking sector. The conservative market environment and user attitudes towards the CRM strategies adopted by investment bankers in Bahrain forms the focal point of the research study. The research study will analyse the various perspectives involved in CRM approach by investment bankers through the study of Unicorn Investment Bank in Bahrain. The bank was founded in the year 2004 and has its headquarters in Bahrain.It is an Muslim financial services group that has an international presence in various locations such as Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi A rabia and United States. The bank currently has half dozen distinctive business service categories that include asset management and real estate, capital markets, corporate finance, private equity, strategic mergers and acquisitions and treasury. Among the various services offered by the bank the key approach is to deliver the customers with a comprehensive range of investment solutions that are customised to meet client needs and expectations.Unicorns integrated product offering and financial engineering skills are closely intertwined with a strong capacity to distribute the Banks products and services to a broad client base across the GCC region, the wider Middle East region, sou-east Asia, the USA and the Europe (Unicorn, 2010). The target customers of the bank include high net worth individuals, business enterprises, financial institutions, corporations, and government agencies and departments. The products offered by the bank are Shariah compliant and conforms to the internati onal financial practices (Unicorn, 2010).Issues and challenges All major banks have invested heavily in technology and infrastructure over the last 5 and 10 years in this area, but hardly any of them have been self-made in actually getting it effective (Infosys, 2009). The failure of CRM initiatives within the investment banking sector have provided a new ground for research into increasing the effectiveness of CRM applications. There are many strategic implications related to the application of CRM within investment banking sector.This involves the adaptation of normal banking processes and systems to integrate with innovative use of technology based applications and automated query processing systems that require good management and handling of issues. Such issues pertain to the efficient use of CRM systems to meet operational goals and integrating the different banking functions to provide a structured application that can be used easily by consumers. Ease of use and convenien ce are some of the key parameters involved in the development of CRM based banking system.A key challenge facing these areas involves the security and silence issues that form a major source of concern for consumers using the technology based applications. Technology based business models and CRM strategies enable investment bankers to provide the customers with efficiency in delivery of services, access to relevant information, product inside information and ease of legal proceeding. Mobile banking and e-banking facilitates the customers of investment banking to a host of facilities that range from product enquiry access updated rates of interest and market values of the investment products chosen and conducts investment transactions online.Investment portfolios can also be accessed and manipulated according to user convenience from the comforts of their home or office. However, widespread usage of such systems has been restricted on account of user reservations related to securi ty issues and privacy of vital user data and information. Mobile banking and online transactions raise security and privacy concerns among most of the consumers (Barati & Mohammadi, 2009). The transfer of sensitive financial and personal information across mobile networks is found to be the set up reason behind the psychological barriers created among potential mobile banking customers (Laukkanen, 2007).