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Advanced
How To Guide
Getting Close To Customers: Leapfrogging With eCRM
Introduction
Some
large companies are gaining significant competitive advantage by using Information
Technology (IT) and eBusiness to analyse and manage their relationship with each
customer. This trend is relevant to many larger Irish companies. While smaller
companies tend to rely on people, rather than computers, to track and manage their
customer relationships, this trend is still relevant to them because: - - Most
IT driven changes in large companies sooner or later are adapted by progressive
smaller companies, as relevant software packages suited to the needs and budgets
of SMEs are developed. Any SME planning an overall medium term eBusiness/IT strategy
thus needs to consider whether aspects of CRM are likely to be relevant to that
strategy.
- The
ability of large companies to provide a holistic approach to customers may partly
erode one of the competitive advantages enjoyed by SMEs, namely their ability
to provide a much more personalised service than their larger competitors.
TECHNICAL
NOTE
CRM is the three-letter acronym for Customer Relationship
Management. CRM packages are software tools that allow
the user to keep a record of all interactions with a
customer. Typical examples of these interactions are:
- Complaints
- Queries
- Requests
for Quotations
-
Instructions
-
And so on
As
the user is recording the interactions, the user can have access to all the customer
information that exists on the system. Information such as: -
Account Balance and Transaction History;
-
Order Status;
-
Shipping Status;
-
And static details such as name, address, phone, email etc.
The
level of information available is dependant on the level of functionality of the
CRM tool or the degree of integration with the company ERP package. [ERP packages
process accounts, sales order processing, stock movements, purchases and so on]The
CRM tool also has functionality:- To
assign actions [arising out of an interaction] to different users,
-
Keep a record and status on all actions that have been taken against a particular
transaction Ø Classify an interaction as being 'open' until all the desired
actions have been completed
The
strength of CRM is that any employee within the company
can access the interaction record at any time to review
the status and update it. The customer cannot catch
the employee, who has access to the CRM tool, unaware.
This gives the customer the ' VIP feeling' because the
customer feels that every employee in the company is
aware of the customer and the customer's issues.
CRM originally evolved from the recording and fixing
of complaints to the current level where packages are
now available on the Internet . In the latest eCRM generation,
the customer may record the complaint and could change
the customer's own static details using a web browser.
CRM systems also allow for proactive dealings with potential
and existing customer [e.g. quotes] and electronic mail-shots.
Records are kept of these interactions in the same way
as complaints and other 'reactive' interactions are
stored.
The normal operational transactions [such as sales order
processing, order picking, dispatch, invoicing and so
on] would not normally be stored on a CRM tool as this
functionality is readily available in ERP packages.
However, some of the Tier 1 CRM solutions have started
to store this type of information also. The most well
known CRM tool is provided by Siebel Systems.
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