Today's customer is empowered by information and choice. This presents new challenges to companies, who in their quest to acquire, retain and service customers are adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in a big way, and changing their business approach from being `Product-centric' to `Customer-centric'. The role of CRM is to provide a wide range of touch-points through which a customer can interact with the company. The objective of this paper is to explore the efficiency and effectiveness of CRM in the financial services sector (with a special emphasis on call centers), which calls for more personalized service than ever before.

The economic reforms initiated about 15 years ago by the Government of India, has changed the landscape of several sectors of the Indian economy. Financial services sector like banking, insurance, stock markets are no exception. Developments arising from a combination of technological advancements and a liberalized market place has increased the competition, resulting in blurring of traditional roles and boundaries in the value chain and emphasis on shareholder value creation. The process of liberalization and globalization has opened up of the markets to global competition. While on one hand competition has become acute with the entry of several new players, on the other hand the customer demographics have undergone sea-change. Today's customer is more demanding, in all aspects, be it quality, price or convenience. The customer is truly empowered by information and choice. There is choice, not only of the products and services but also of the place and time of purchase and mode of payment. These developments present new challenges to companies in their quest to acquire, retain and serve customers. To meet these new challenges, companies are rapidly embracing the philosophy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and changing their business approach from being `product centric' to `customer centric'. The `call center' concept as one of the tools to implement CRM is being widely accepted by companies, which is evidenced in the boom of `call centers' and BPO business.

The objective of this paper is to explore the efficiency and effectiveness of call center agents in handling sales-oriented customer queries. This research focuses on the so-called sun-rise industries of India—banks, insurance companies and financial institutions.

CRM in Financial Services Sector: An Investigation into Call Center Service Levels, service customers, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Product-centric, Customer-centric, financial services sector, economic reforms, shareholder value, business approach, efficiency and effectiveness.