Human Resources Involved în Customer Relatonship Management - BRD Group Societe General

1. Introduction

There is a close relation between Customer Relationship Management and Human Resources in every organization or enterprise, the same relation is available for BRD Societe General who in 2004 started a reorganization and expansion program, the aim of this program was to open 700 units and 70 branches by the end of 2007. Before presenting the BRD Groupe Societe General case I will explain the two concepts that make the subject of this project, Human Resources and Customer Relationship Management.

1.1. Definition of Customer Relationship Management:

Customer Relationship Management consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers. CRM software is used to support these processes; information about customers and customer interactions can be entered, stored and accessed by employees in different company departments. Typical CRM goals are to improve services provided to customers, and to use customer contact information for targeted marketing.

From the outside, customers interacting with a company perceive the business as a single entity, despite often interacting with a number of employees in different roles and departments. CRM is a combination of policies, processes, and strategies implemented by an organization to unify its customer interactions and provide a means to track customer information. It involves the use of technology in attracting new and profitable customers, while forming tighter bonds with existing ones.

1.2. Definition of Human Resources:

Human Resources is a term with which organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations and resource planning. The field draws upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Human resources has at least two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from political economy and economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of four factors of production. The more common usage within corporations and businesses refers to the individuals within the firm, and to the portion of the firm's organization that deals with hiring, firing, training, and other personnel issues. This article addresses both definitions.The objective of human resources is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner.

1.3. BRD Group Socite General

The example I have chosen in order to illustrate the involvement of human resources in customer relationship management is BRD-Groupe Societe General Romania. BRD-Groupe Societe General lounched in the 4th of October 2007 a new network development project called BRD Express. The inspiration of this project comes from the experience gained in the previous years by the Societe General Group but also by other european banks.

The project has defined a new banking agency conept in relation with its clients, natural persons, which has its fundation in the following three key charactristics:

• Closeness to the potential customer

• Simplicity

• The client’s comfort and the speed of operations

BRD has lunched the BRD Express project through the opening at the same time of 33 new units both in Bucharest and in the most important cities of the country.