Canons CRM's Success Soars

The Company
Canon is a leader in business equipment and information systems and a CRM success story. Its product line enables businesses and consumers to acquire and store information. Its regional headquarters are Canon U.S.A. in North and South America; Canon China in Asia outside Japan; Canon Europe in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; and Canon Australia in Oceania. Canon proposes solutions that enable customers to use complex networks. It achieves production engineering technologies and production equipment technologies with cost reductions.

Canon built a company that has become a leading digital imaging and networking company. It is a leader in personal and office printers, fax machines, copiers, and controllers. Canon products range from printers, image filing systems color and black and white copiers, facsimile machines, camcorders, semiconductor, broadcast, and optical equipment, flatbed scanners, cameras and lenses etc. The company is one of the most admired companies in America. It has managed to develop new technologies in order to improve the working environment as well as the products themselves.

Canon ranks in the top five with 26,528 U.S. patents. Canon Inc. gives approximately 10% of its sales to R&D each year. Its R&D divisions throughout the world are dedicated to developing products and solutions for customers worldwide. Canon emphasizes on quality and original technologies and is respected the world over. Canon products are assured of convenience, enjoyment, simplicity and peace of mind

Canon is a CRM success story that pursues innovation for a better tomorrow. By choosing Canon customers are supporting the company's environmental efforts. Their research and development centers engage in developing technologies that benefit the company as a whole. Canon is a registered trademark in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Canon and CRM
Due to a period of recession Canon faced a difficulty with the sale of copy machines, cameras, computers etc. It was unable to increase its sales and needed additional help. What was essential was a comprehensive customer database that could be made available to sales personnel, management etc. Achieving the transfer of individual sales to overall sales was not possible. Vital customer information was left unheeded and poorly managed as well. The affiliation of sales calls to customers as well could not be accomplished.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which is the methodologies, software, and Internet capabilities that help a company manage customer relationships in an efficient and organized manner. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, and the customer could access information, meet customer needs with the right products, know what products a customer had purchased etc. CRM uses technology and resources to get an insight into customer behavior. It enables the study of customer history. It allows a company to view its customer history, sales, purchase history.

Canon opted for the purchase and installation of a Siebel CRM package. Siebel provided Canon with a means by which it could meet the needs of each customer in a more personalized way and thereby increase its sales. The Call Center CRM strategy was implemented in the sales department, call centers etc. It adopted Siebel CRM to learn about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop a stronger relationship with them. They adopted the CRM process to bring together information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness etc.

The result was that information that was stored for a period of 15 years was used in an attempt to achieve customer satisfaction. Siebel CRM technology helped Canon in three main areas call center, sales and service. Due to the success of CRM Canon now has 2200 users involved in its implementation. As a result of this the company was able to increase its customer retention due to additional focus on the customer. Siebel CRM helped to improve the customer experience with better interactions. It also helped increase the communication between customers and companies.

Effective Siebel CRM managed to deliver personalized service to its customers. It provided the company with an informed response that gave them a complete profile of the customer, with information on its past and present dealings. It helped Canon to basically save time and prepare reports easily. It helped to make its work easier through the usage of automated task series. It enabled the organization to save its money through a reduction of its marketing and support expenses. It enabled the organization to assist the sales team and increase the sales team's performance. It increased the effectiveness of the organization and boosted team work very well.

Canons success as a pioneer in the field has worldwide recognition. There are several reasons why it has emerged as a CRM success story, an innovator and a leader. Its products cater to a vast audience ranging from the mediocre to small scale industries and it has endeavored to achieve success with the employment of high quality products.

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