A Study on CRM Practices for Public sector Insurance Companies

Organizations pursue a CRM strategy for thepurpose of increasing business performance and value. However, firms face a multitude of organizational challengesassociated with this endeavor. To reduce their riskof failure, it is suggested that firms undertake a deep analysisof organizational readiness prior to committing to aCRM initiative. Insurance sector is no exception to this fact. There is an increased need to concentrate on the variouschallenges thrown open by the public insurance firms inimplementing CRM. Many insurance firms have investedinto customer driven CRM but research indicates varyingoutcomes (Schmith 2004). While it is clear that there aresignificant issues involved in the CRM implementation andsuccess and environment faced by the public sector. It isclear that business should have an easier time in applyingCRM systems is the strategic value for public sector. Withcustomers demanding more service and accessibility fromadministrators, public sector CRM software technologieshave to offer best solutions for achieving process and costobjectives (Souder 2001). With results which go far beyondimproved service delivery and include sustained cost reductions,increased customer knowledge and better employeemorale, CRM software implementation and post productenvironments offer great upside value. Although there arematerial differences in public sector use of CRM strategy,they share at least one glaring similarity – they have muchto gain from proven CRM software technology. As businessmethods cross over in the public sector, many governmentbodies are investigating how they can adopt and adapt variousCRM models (Bleyer 2003). There is a need to understandthe similarities and differences in public sector CRMto foster shared knowledge, business processes and planningfunctions to integrate disparate technologies and softwareplatforms and then, of course, the organizational cultureto support knowledge sharing (Peters 1997). For theReetha DineshAssociate Professor,Placement Officer & Head-MDP-MBA Department,MOP Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai, India,e-mail: dinesh.reetha@gmail.compublic sector, there are clearly identified CRM processeswhich have resulted in increased profits and improvedefficiency. These have focused on sales, marketing and customerservice activities, which often operate along fundamentallydifferent lines in various public sector insurancecompanies. Thus the present research paper makes an attemptto explore how public sector CRM methods can beadopted and subsequently adapted.