Research On CRM Of China Unicom

After the reorganization and realignment of China Telecom industry, the competition has been shifted from comparative quality in the usage of network resource to differentiated quality of customer services. This is a new challenge for all of the service carriers in terms of content, execution, quality, operation management and service quality awareness etc. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become the effective way for companies to enhance their core business competition. And CUSTOMER has become the most valuable resource for these telecom companies.This thesis will concentrate on China Unicom's competition environment and thus, by applying the theory of CRM, analyze the existing CRM problems. In short, the CRM solutions are not simply an assembly process with the installation of hardware and information system, but the improvement on management vision and on going service reformation. This thesis pointed out the importance of creating an "Ultimate Customer Satisfaction" corporate culture, of necessary overhaul of the understanding of operation management among all associates, and of setting up a platform to service the major customers which is the main findings of this thesis. 1. The competition environmentAfter the re-organization and realignment of China telecom industry, the telecom industry is consisted of China Telecom, China Netcom, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Satcom, China Railcom (the six major players) and other 4000 Service Providers. In the past years, the market share has been changed enormously. China Mobile has become the No 1 player in the market. China Unicom declined to No 4 player. And the two wire-line giants are preparing to enter the wireless market. And the preparation is at the last stage. In 2004, China will allow foreign investors to have as much as 49% stake of Chinese mobile network service. For China Unicom, the competition is becoming increasingly challenging.How will China Unicom provide a better service with current network resource, how to keep its own market share or even win more? To answer these questions, CRM is the right way. With CRM: 1) can setup a higher entry barrier for other carriers; 2) to keep the current customers, to improve the customer satisfaction and loyalty; 3) to know customers, to understand customer, to increase the customer value; 4) to increase the income and profit.2. China Unicom current CRM and the problemsChina Unicom is the 3rd GSM and 2nd CDMA carrier in the world. From the financial data comparison among China Telecom, China Mobil and China Unicom, China Unicom is the best performer on income increase rate, EBITDA increase rate and reference increase rate. The quantity of customers has been increased largely, but most of them are sub prime customers. Most of the high-end customers are tightly held by China Mobile. Obviously, when the market share reaches a certain level, the next question China Unicom will face is how to keep the market share and how to increase ARPU. No matter for C net or for G net, how to fully use the existing resource and how to keep the existing customers and attract new customers, will be raised sooner or later. Service innovation is the soul of China Unicom. China Unicom has many plans to improve the service, but in fact, the effects are not so obvious. This might be because the "Customer Satisfaction" concept and the corresponding operation flow are not established yet.3. The theoretical analysis on China Unicom CRM problemsAbout the CRM concept, different companies have different understanding and explanation. The relative general definition is given by CRM expert Wang, GuangYu.Through CRM, in general, companies can improve service, increase efficiency, reduce cost, enlarge sales, and keep existing customers.From the theories of Customer Lifetime Value and Pareto law, China Unicom did not effectively segment customers, did not provide differential service for the high-end customers, did not make most customers feel satisfied. From the theories of customer relationship lif...