Wells Fargo Bank’s Customer Relationship Management

Introduction

Most organizations have invested heavily in information technology (IT) assets to better interact with clients. Yet, measurable returns from the IT tools rarely occur from a narrow focus on these systems alone. The greater the knowledge about firms’ performance from combined technology and capabilities, the better the awareness of customer relationship management (CRM) influence (Paschen, Kietzmann and Kietzmann, 2019, p. 7). Ideally, CRM systems are vital tools for sales and marketing operations (John, 2018, p. 181).

At the core of these approaches are technologies to gather and manage information about clients and make data valuable during internal evaluations. The scope of this paper revolves around the concept of CRM systems and technological tools, such as artificial intelligence, that capture and integrate buyers’ information within an organization (Laudon and Laudon, 2020, p. 2). In this paper, the purpose is to examine the implementation of a new customer relationship management in Wells Fargo.

Selected Organization – Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is an American-based multinational organization that provides banking services. Operating in the banking industry, the company was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo in 1852. The entity is a diversified, community-based financial services corporation engaging in offering insurances, investments, mortgages, banking customers, and commercial finance. Wells Fargo operates through segments such as wholesale banking, wealth and investment management, community banking, and others (Wells Fargo, 2021a, para. 1). Normally, the wholesale banking segments avail financial solutions to companies across the United States and worldwide.

Wells Fargo is one of the most revered companies worldwide, operating competitively with various financial services. The organization’s market capitalization is about $162.7 billion, has a gross revenue of $57.74 billion, total assets amounting to $1.97 trillion, with more than 200000 employees (Wells Fargo, 2021a, para. 1). The company was chosen because of its strength to counter challenges using effective management approaches covered in my readings.

My research experience resonates with the organization’s management features, presenting an opportunity to explore the CRM concept further. With the company reporting regulatory issues and a coronavirus crisis that affected its operations, Wells Fargo shows remarkable progress towards an ending limit on its size. Along with the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is among the big four US Financial Institutions.

My Role in Wells Fargo

In Wells Fargo, a hypothetical role would be serving as a customer relationship manager. Key responsibilities in this organization involve building and maintaining printable interactions with prominent customers and overseeing relationships with clients. A CRM manager is in charge of resolving customer issues or complaints effectively and keeping buyers updated on the latest company commodities to boost sales. At the managerial level, the leader must constantly identify opportunities to grow the customer base and devise strategies to build robust relationships with clients. Wells Fargo utilizes CRM software through the cloud for the most effective services as well as streamlining efficiencies across the entity. Therefore, the position of CRM manager exposes someone to new implementations for the company’s success.

A New CRM System Benefits the Company

To understand the benefits that a new CRM system will bring to the company, it is paramount to note its current business environment. Wells Fargo is not an ordinary financial company as it has unusual social consciousness and high marks earnings from environmental records. The company’s operating margins are enviable, reaching over 40%, and it is the world’s most valued bank (Wells Fargo, 2021b, para. 1).

The firm uses the internet to create value that is inexistent on paperwork. Clients can now spend less time dealing with financial issues and save some to run their activities as the company made services easily accessible and fast. For instance, when money transfer takes minutes instead of hours, a real value is created for customers. Wells Fargo leadership knows that as technology is adopted, there is a need to change how businesses are run. Rather than operating on bankers’ hours, services are built around the customer and not internal banking processes.

Information technology makes clients’ life easier, and processes are streamlined to enhance users’ experiences. Today, the financial company is an innovation leader, using research approaches such as ethnographic studies, surveys, customer councils and insights to detect priorities (Zerbino et al., 2018, p. 4). Such changes present the company with the challenge of servicing diverse clients who are increasing with every bit of innovation. Integration of technologies has helped the company to manage employees’ relationships with customers, but this goes not mention the associated challenges along with the transitions (Dewnarain, Ramkissoon and Mavondo, 2019, p. 4).

For instance, the introduction of CRM in Wells Fargo to improve customer services may present clients’ disempowerments due to over-reliance on systems by staff. CRM is not a solution to all business functions as the risk of data security with centralized information is at stake. Wells Fargo cannot risk doing away with the CRM despite the related challenges. Instead, the best approach is to have a more advanced system for better experiences.

A new CRM system is needed for the business because the primary focus is serving customers satisfactorily, no matter the challenges encountered in the environment. In the commercial world, there are significant benefits to retaining existing clients and expanding the organization. Wells Fargo is in the midst of more global expansion; hence new CRM system will be crucial for improved transitions. With more opportunities for clients to conduct business with the company, there is a need to create multi-channel such as online or direct sales, franchises and involvement of agents. The more the network, the greater the need for a robust system to manage relationships with the customer base.

Furthermore, a new CRM system will benefit the company since it encompasses additional features for improved services. For example, workflow automation, third-party integration, customization, lead management, diverse client tracking, reporting and CRM analytics will be included as critical features (Adiyanto, 2019, p. 34). Most businesses offer traditional CRM programs, and in this case, Wells Fargo needs to change to integrate with more advanced innovations. The strategy will enable the company to rectify possible or existing customer service issues while facilitating the discovery of more clients. Improved responsiveness to the new changes and understanding among Wells Fargo’s workers will result in better servicing.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the New CRM System

At Wells Fargo, Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in the new CRM system to help the entity automate routine tasks. Typically, AI refers to innovative computer hardware and software compared to humans (Laudon and Laudon, 2020, p. 2). AI in the CRM system will deliver fast responses to clients and give accurate insights to sustain the company’s development. AI technology in the new CRM would take the form of bots- computer programs that enact conversations through textual or auditory approaches. Using bots to conduct automated services, and interactions with clients will enable eliminating some loads from service agents.

Chatbots facilitated by AI technology will give customers fast, accurate and reliable answers to service questions asked without the need to wait for human interventions.AI promises to enhance the human component in an organization through data ingestion and retrieval processes. Wells Fargo will use AI in the new CRM to segment clients, enhance retention, gain virtual assistants and simplify lead management. Businesses have used AI systems to boost decision-making processes, according to Laudon and Laudon (2020, p. 2). A good example is online support and process automation when a salesforce such as Einstein is integrated as AI-powered CRM.

A CRM business process that the use of AI will majorly impact personalization. AI system will create recognition of certain people and give individuals a personalized digital experience. The combination of AI and CRM systems would enable Wells Fargo to analyze information, automate its processes, and devise smart recommendations for actions. For that to happen, there will be a need for vast customer data stored at a place for a holistic perspective on every client. AI-driven CRM will be used by information technology (IT) or other workers, enabling excellent experiences (Laudon and Laudon, 2020, p. 28).

The company will benefit from smart CRM due to personalized marketing campaigns, improved lead generation, quick selling cycles, and fewer customer service expenditures. Clearly, AI systems in CRM will impact the personalization process through the availability of mobile content per real-time events, retargeting clients with algorithms, and embedment of powered chatbots. The company should make improvements such as building a strong data foundation to support the AI engine, designating the AI centers for more research on developments and partnering with vendors.

New CRM Technology Impacts on the Organization and Management

The dimensions of information systems (IS) are management, organizations and information technology, while the associated key elements are people, structure and cultures. Usually, IS supports the quality of organizational culture; for instance, there are benefits of vital information, output quality assurance, analysis and utilization of the human resource (Agrawal, 2019, p. 229). With CRM technology, there is information integration, sharing and well-facilitated relationships between customers and organization management. CRM system enables analysis of clients’ data and customization of responses.

In that way, its use is expected to boost a company’s ability to organize and manage the dimensions of key elements mentioned. The technology component of CRM entails front-line office applications that support the sales and marketing of services (Ranjbar and Rezaei, 2017, p.14). Notably, CRM Is not only a technology asset for a company’s marketing processes but also a functional client-driven system integrated into operations as well as management approaches (Laudon and Laudon, 2020, p. 7). The goal is to maximize relationships which encompasses establishing an interactive culture in the entire organization.

Recommended Stakeholders in the Implementation

Notably, the success of newly implemented CRM depends on acceptability for use by various company stakeholders. The latter varies depending on the application in question, but commonly involved people are top management, marketing managers, sales agents, call center staff, customer care and product managers. Each project participant will have his or her own expectations (Meng and Boyd, 2017, p. 721). For instance, Wells Fargo’s top management is in charge of enhancing customer experience, monitoring the cost of operations, and improving business reporting. The marketing manager will be expected to carry out effective campaigns, track market budgets, plan events, and monitor dealers’ performance. Without involving organization seniors, initiatives might fail because employees at lowers ranks need to be shown how to use CRM daily (Alokla et al., 2019, p. 189).

IT experts must be engaged to help understand the technical side of the software, and facilitate installations and problems solving when they occur. For better chances of success, all stakeholders must be engaged on the proper levels, and given the necessary support to deliver value and anticipated returns on investment (Meng and Boyd, 2017, p.721). Such obstacles can be countered by building an implementation team to foresee the possibilities of and design strategies to counter barriers.

Possible Reasons for Failure

A new CRM system’s success could be threatened by a lack of well-defined objectives, strategies, user adoption, and not effectively involving the management. An increased revenue should be the key driver of new CRM targets, and the return on income must create goals for the project that every person can understand. Examples of CRM objectives relating to return on revenue include increased client acquisition, reduced acquisition cost, improved tenure and high income per customer. once measurable targets ate set, the vision where Wells Fargo should become strategic after a successful implementation. Lack of good user adoption through communication and training might create a challenging task for supporters.

Conclusion

In summary, this paper has examined customer relationship management (CRM) implementation in Wells Fargo. Ultimately, CRM will improve customers’ overall experience and make work easier for employees by knowing how to serve clients. The system will enable better management of direct interactions from organization teams to customer services. Bottom-line, the new CRM will be expected to determine profitability, loyalty and success in Wells Fargo’s banking services. Effective implementation will not be achievable without integrating the right people, and this includes involving the executive leadership for committed collaboration between finance and customer service.

Reference List

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