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In today's scenario, most of the institutions want to compete with others. To compete with other institutions, some institutions are getting autonomous status, some of them are trying to get ISO Certification, others are looking for accreditation status,
deemed university status, and some others are tied-up with multi-national companies (MNCs), and so on. The institutions, which are not ready to compete, will surely become as "Void and Vanish".

It is essential that academic institutions have to concentrate about some strategies, techniques, or methods by which they can become "Brand Building". And one such strategy is CRM. CRM strategy for an academic institution should lead to employment rather than merely giving education. At present, academic institutions are eager to maintain a long-term relationship with the students rather than a relation which is related only to their course duration.

Customer relationship management is all about satisfying and retaining the customer by providing the perquisites he/she desires for. The relations that are maintained are a kind of trust that the institutions provide to its customers (students) and fulfill them. Educational institutions are also among those profit-making institutions which are attaining the path of CRM. Academic institutions are themselves not different from any other organizations. They are themselves profit-making firms who impart education for money and try to grow as any other organization. Whether they are government-owned or self-financed private institutions; almost all educational institutions are profit-making organizations. Such organizations focus on CRM not only to impart state-of-the-art education to their students, but also have to maintain relations with their working staff, administrators, companies, vendors and with their primary customers - students. CRM plays an increasingly important role in maintaining such relationships in these organizations.

Why Implement a CRM Business Strategy in Higher Education

Because higher education is far enough behind the commercial sector to gain from the CRM and assume customer-centric approaches. Teaching departments and offices work as separate entities in many colleges and universities today. Faced with divisional boundaries, it is often very difficult for these different institutional functions to focus on their customers in a coordinated fashion. By providing a common platform for customer communication and interaction, CRM applications are designed to increase the effectiveness of staff members who interact with customers or prospects.

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Narinder Tanwar is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at B. S. Anangpuria Institute of Technology & Management (B.S.A.I.T.M.), Faridabad.