The CRM leaders

Turkcell, Migros, Boyner, Yapı Kredi Bankası, Axa Oyak and others… These are the companies which have introduced the most successful examples of customer relations management (CRM) applications in Turkey and whose investments in technology have enabled them to record significant progress in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The managers of leading technology companies and consultants who are experts on CRM say that CRM is developing much healthier than before in Turkey with small but effective projects.

There have not been as many investments in CRM in Turkey as had been expected. Many companies did not know how to use the information they had collected. Investments made by some of them remained moribund, while others were only able to work with low capacity.

But in the last 1-2 years companies which have continued to pursue this subject in a determined manner have revitalized their CRM investments and transformed them from technological investments into a part of their customers’ daily lives. The beginning of this second era in CRM have brought out the best applications in Turkey. Companies such as Turkcell, Migros and Boyer have begun to come to the fore. We asked consultants and executives from companies which specialize in technology to identify the best companies in Turkey in terms of CRM. Based on the opinions and evaluations we received we made a list of the 15 companies with the best CRM applications. This list, which includes companies such as Turkcell, Boyner, Yap Kredi Bankası, Axa Oyak and Migros, also gives an idea of the stage Turkey has reached in CRM.

Turkcell leads the way
Turkcell gives great emphasis to its CRM strategies. It 'Journey to/with a customer' program raises customer satisfaction to it highest level. It is the only independently audited company in this field and everybody’s favourite. For this reason, it ranks first amongst the companies which implement CRM applications in Turkey.

Today Turkcell has a massive customer database consisting of 28,740,000 records. In 2002 the company took some important decisions, redefining its targets and priorities in the light of customer needs and expectations. Ever since that date, it has used CRM to better understand customers’ differing needs and to provide a differentiated service at every contact point.

A 360 degree view from Migros
When customers are asked why they prefer a particular retail outlet the list of reasons is usually headed by the proximity of the store, the quality of its products, product variety and reasonable prices. All retailers try to meet these needs. As a result, they now need to search for different ways to deal with a changing competitive environment. This was Migros’s original goal. Migros launched its loyalty program in 1998, which was when the Migros Club Card was introduced. The club now has 4.5 million active members. These customers account for 80 percent of Migros’s turnover.

Later, in order to get to know customers thoroughly Migros introduced a loyalty program called ‘360 Degree Customer View’. Today it is working on the segmentation of the data it has collected.
Banks in the global league.
Halil Gartner, who is one of the consultants at Gartner Türkiye, notes that in terms of retail banking and credit cards the performance of the leading large banks in Turkey is world class. Those banks which lead the way when it comes to investments in technology in Turkey are also more advanced than other companies when it comes to CRM. The leading companies in Turkey in terms of the best CRM applications include three banks. They are Yapı Kredi Bankası, Garantı Bankası and HSBC.

Hande D. Süzer
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