Relationship management
The society of Human Resource Management is a professional association that aims at serving the professional development needs of human resource professionals. The body also aims towards achieving better workplaces through stepped up legislative recommendations and the development of the organization standards (Su, Wright and Ulrich, 2018). It ensures that workers in the firm are highly competent to help in the overall productivity of the firm. According to the SHRM, competencies are individual characteristics like skills and abilities, knowledge, self-image, traits, mindsets and ways of thinking. These characteristics help to achieve the desired results when used with the appropriate roles. The SHREM’s competency model for HR professionals consists of various competencies such as consultation, communication relationship management, Human resource expertise, Global and cultural effectiveness, Ethical practice, critical evaluation and business acumen. In this research paper, we shall focus on relationship management as one of the competency models for HR professionals. The paper will address the various types of relationship management in an organization and how they contribute to the firm’s productivity. It will also explain how an organization can strengthen the identified relationships, the role of SHRM in relationship management and the problems encountered in relationship management.
Relationship management is a business strategy used by organizations to achieve and maintain an ongoing level of engagement with their audience. According to research conducted by Baran and Galka (2016), the main aim of relationship management is to establish a partnership between a firm and its main patron. It includes strategies that help to establish client support for the business and its products, and increase brand loyalty. When building relationships, a company may hire a relationship manager to oversee the whole process of relationship building or merge this role with another marketing or human resource role. Relationship management in an organization include customer relationship management, that is between the organization and its customers, business relationship management, that is between the organization and other organizations and employee relationship management, that is between the organization management and its workers.
- Customer relationship management
The use of CRM begun during the mid-1990s in the technology of information dealer and consultant community. CRM transitioned from business practices like marketing relationships to the rise in highlighting on better consumer maintenance by managing customer relationships in the most effective and efficient ways. Bhat and Darzi (2016) describe CRM as a planned way of using information, procedures, expertise, and the organization staff that have the role of managing the relationship that the company has with its consumers. CRM enables firms to manage customer relationships most effectively and efficiently. The main focus of CRM is to exploit and leverage interactions with the customers to ensure customers are fully satisfied, enhance customer profitability, and also long-term relationships with the company consumers. Customer Relationship Management is assumed a portion of marketing effort, provision of service to customers, and also a procedure employed by firms to gain competitive advantage and build longer and productive relationships with the consumers. Buttle and Maklan (2019) research identified CRM as a mixture of people, procedures, and technology that aims at understanding a firm’s consumers. The research further identifies the concept as a unified tactic used to help establish the right relationships in an organization by concentrating on retaining buyers and the improvement of relationships. CRM is known to be a crucial technological contribution to most firms in the current society. Most firms are using CRM to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and also gain a competitive advantage in the market. CRM plays a central role in all customer-related activities because of the increase in business applications that are conducted online and the rise in the urge to vend and help consumers using websites. Buttle and Maklan (2019) suggest a model that can be used in the process of choosing CRM products and assessment of sellers.
Importance of CRM to the organization
CRM system is significant since customers contribute heavily to the success of the business. Improved customer experience builds loyalty and good relationships with the consumers thus, the growth of the business. Having a well and organized CRM strategy will enable organizations to make data-driven decisions. The informed decisions made are due to the proper understanding of the information provided. The availability of CRM enables the company to have an easy entree to data points in an easy way that can easily be understood and construed by users. CRM implementation helps to establish and control consumer leads. CRM can greatly affect the efficiency of the sales process. With a CRM strategy in place, the firm can easily anticipate customer needs. CRM allows the company to have easy access to data concerning the customer purchase and service contact history (Soltani et al., 2018). The firm can also include customer voice into the Customer Relationship Management system to improve understanding of company customers. Information obtained about customers is vital since it allows the firm to anticipate the needs of the customer and come up with an idea that will help take care and satisfy the customer needs. Implementing CRM enables a firm to improve products and services because of the feedback received from the customers. Collection of consumer response data and including it to the implemented Customer Relationship Management enables firms to understand the expectations of consumers concerning the product and services offered to the customers.
CRM technologies are used by organizations to support relationship launch, maintain and terminate activities, and execute the right steps required to obtain information that support the activities of the firm. The technologies are used as an operative and concerted tools that help to manage the relationship between customers and the company. CRM technologies meaningfully progress organizational knowledge about their customers and learn how to satisfy them. They help in the development of long-term relationships with the customers and their linking competences. CRM software help to improve the overall company returns due to customer retention, revenue growth, better customer information and insights, cost reduction, and improved employee output. With the CRM system, the company can easily generate sales and encourage teamwork among the employees. For instance, cloud technology allows the firm to stay informed and have easy access to the company browser. CRM systems allow the company staff to have easy access to company activities from wherever they are working, allowing them to track and follow up their sales leads, without duplication of efforts.
CRM allows organizations to gain more know more about their customer, enables them to satisfy their needs. It can also be used to upsurge to the company sales and profits. Organizations should implement the CRM system in a hustle-free way with the right strategies to benefit from its implementation. Without the right strategy, organizations can experience higher losses. They should also establish new features in the future to match with the changing technology and its objectives.
- Business relationship management
Business relationship management includes the competencies such as knowledge, skills and behavior that facilitate a productive relationship between an organization and its business partners. It includes relationships with vendors, suppliers and distributors. BRM is an approach used to define and support inter-business activities that are related to business networking. This type of relationship management focuses on the realization of business value through accountable business partners.
Importance of business relationship management
Most organizations highly depend on external and internal service functions to achieve certain strategic goals and to operate a sustainable and stable business. To gain business value, organization functions as the HR, IT and finance need to work closely and partner with other businesses rather than working on a low level. Business relationship management encourages strategic partnering where all the business functions work towards achieving goals with a shared responsibility to deliver business value. The relationship helps in the stimulation, surfacing and shaping f business demand for provider competences. It facilitates the achievement of business value by enabling businesses to capture, optimize and recognize demand. Having the right relationship with other businesses facilitates the effective relationship between the suppliers, distributors and the business. Collaborating across support functions facilitates service optimization as an investment with efficient and effective use of all human resources.
BRM ensures that an organization has the right capabilities to the right value to its business and business partners, it plays an important role in shaping demand and realizing the value of the business. Business relationship management helps to develop trust, congeal rules and expectation and establish boundaries in business (Hassan et al., 2015). BRM helps in dispute relation, in case of any arising disputes between two business firms. This is possible because of the available rules and regulations that govern various business organizations. Business relationship management helps in contract negotiations allowing firms to come to a fair agreement. With the right relationship between a business and its suppliers and distributors, the firm will be able to acquire quality supplies at a reduced price and build a strong and long-term relationship with the suppliers. This helps to increase profits and productivity for both parties. Having the right relationships with distributors facilitates delivery of the right customer products at the right place and within the right time. It ensures raw material reach the firm on time, thus reducing delays in the production process.
- Employee relationship management
Employee relationship management is when an organization manages the relation between employees of its organization. It is a process used by organizations to efficiently and effectively manage all the interactions with employees to achieve the organization goals. Organizations use this strategy to manage interactions with their team. The relation can be between the employees or employees and employers. The human resource function has the responsibility of training managers on ways of effectively developing and maintaining the right relationships with the organization workers. The function is also responsible for assessing and measuring the relationships to identify everything that is on track.
Importance of employee relationship management
Having the right employee relationship help to streamline communication in the organization. It enables managers to communicate with employees by updating them on important company matters, acknowledge their victories, and share customer stories. Managers can streamline communication in the organization using the employee relationship management software. With this software, the managers can start a one- on- one chart or group charts between works and also allow social functions like comments and likes. Having a good relationship enables the management to give employees a platform where they can share their ideas and thoughts about matters of the company (Amechi and Long, 2015). This strategy makes employees believe that their efforts are regarded, thus enhancing their determination to perform better and work toward increasing company productivity. Maintaining god employee relationship enables a firm to retain top employees and reduce turnover. When managers show gratitude and appreciation to their workers, they get inspired and keep up with the good work. Giving public praise to employees helps to inspire then leading to the development of a culture of appreciation. Showing appreciation is a way of retaining top employees and reducing the rate of turnover.
An organization that maintains good employee relationship helps in strengthening of the company culture. Employee relationship management software plays an important role in reinforcing the commitment to the company. The software enables the employees to achieve the set job roles and develop effective communication channels. The relationship helps to focus on employee performance, growth and development leading to healthy competition among employees. Good relationships with among employees facilitate revenue growth of the organization. When employees are appreciated, have the right working conditions, they get motivated to work harder to achieve the company goals. The right employee relationship in helps to ease operations in the organization. The employees also become well conversant with the company policies because, with lower turnover rate, the management can retain employees in the organization for a longer time, leading to the acquisition of a wider range of knowledge in company policies, processes and practices.
How organizations strengthen relationships.
Customers play an important role in the success of the business. Organizations, therefore, focus on strengthening relationships with the customers to help achieve the set goals. The management uses various ways to make their bond with customers stronger. For instance, the organization exceeds the customer’s expectation in a positive way. Each customer can also be given individual treatment-it is important to call them by their names, keep order history and also go to the extra mile. The organization can also spare customers’ time and lead customers through their waiting time through estimating the wait time, speeding up the conversation with quick responses and communicating to the customers in every step of the way. It is also important for the organization to handle well all the negative feedback from the customers, and act as required by the customers.
Organization’s employees ensure continuous operation in the organization. The organization, therefore, aims at strengthening the right employee relationship in ways like; promoting dialogue and communication to help eradicate unnecessary stress and confusion among workers. Communicating with employees helps to set clear organizational goals and expectations (Soltani et al., 2018). The organization can also provide a way in which workers can express their grievances and solve any arising conflict. Making employees feel valuable by recognizing high achievers, thanking them so that they can feel motivated. Employees can be offered with mentorship programs and career development to help employees to further develop skills that will bring value to the organization. The management needs to also inspire and reward in various ways to increase their morale towards work thus increased the productivity of the firm.
Having the right relationships with other businesses is key to the success of the business. An organization can develop long-lasting relation in ways like developing mutual respect whereby the organizations can join a chamber, professional group online community which help to develop groups. Sharing and supporting other businesses through difficulty, change and challenge is an aspect that helps to develop relationships. an organization can also be authentic by accepting who they are and how others are. The organization can identify other organizations with which they feel a natural connection and ease of communication. A long-lasting relationship can also be created when organizations share their experiences, ideas, points of view and also be willing to learn more about the other organization’s professional history and experience. Organizations can also plan something fun to do with other companies. For instance, they can organize community events, art, music, meetups and entertainment to help learn more about the other organization.
Role of SHRM in relationship management
SHRM can play a vital role in building strong relationships. They conduct activities that allow organizations to treat customers and other businesses well, and employees to work with each other and the managers in the right way. According to Su et al., (2018), the roles of SHRM in relationship management include; building cross-functional teams which allow employees from different departments to come together combine their skills and knowledge to achieve the goals of the organization. The SHRM also encourages social interactions to ensure employees don’t remain strangers to each other. The association also helps in the formations of rules and regulations on how businesses, customers and workers should conduct themselves. These rules help to ensure proper conduct and fairness in all activities that take place in the organization. For relations to form and remain long term, there should be continuous communication between the employees, management and customers. SHRM, therefore, ensures every organization has the right communication tools to facilitate the sharing of information with each other in the entire chain.
SHRM conducts surveys to understand how organization employees and customers feel. By doing this, the organization will know the customers who are not satisfied and come up with ways of satisfying all their needs. It also allows the management to know employees who are not comfortable with their job roles and their work environment. By doing the survey, both the workers and customers will feel that the management genuinely cares about their needs and requirement, thus building trust, loyalty and strengthen the overall relationship.
Conclusion and recommendations
According to the Society of Human Resource Management’s competence model for human resource professionals, relationship management is among the various competencies that play an important role in the productivity of the firm. Relationship management is a business strategy used by organizations to achieve and maintain an ongoing level of engagement with their audience. The main aim of relationship management is to establish a partnership between a firm and its main patron. It can be divided into customer relationship management, employee relationship management and business relationship management. SHRM plays an important role in relationship management. For instance, it helps to ensure transparency and formulation of rules and policies that are used reference and making important decisions. Organizations should strive to maintain the right relationships with employees, customers and other businesses to increase productivity and growth.
References
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Baran, R. J., & Galka, R. J. (2016). Customer Relationship Management: the foundation of contemporary marketing strategy. Taylor & Francis.
Bhat, S. A., & Darzi, M. A. (2016). Customer relationship management. International Journal of Bank Marketing.
Buttle, F., & Maklan, S. (2019). Customer relationship management: concepts and technologies. Routledge.
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Hassan, R. S., Nawaz, A., Lashari, M. N., & Zafar, F. (2015). Effect of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23(1), 563-567.
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