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How To Guide
Getting Close To Customers: Leapfrogging With eCRM
Overcoming Real and Imagined Barriers to eCRM
Becoming customer-centric does not happen overnight.
It requires moving the supply chain from a "push"
to a "pull" that is, shifting from producing
and distributing products according to internal forecasts
to building and delivering to meet actual customer demand
in a profitable manner. This shift requires thinking
of the "supply chain" as the "demand
chain".
The challenges to manufacturers are significant but
unavoidable. The good news is that many barriers to
change are more perceived than real. Take, for example,
the lack of a common payment system in Europe and lack
of common rules governing financial institutions. If
a company wants to set up accounts with the same bank
in each EU country, it may need as many as 900 signatures.
Some say this will prevent the Internet from facilitating
the free flow of goods and services across country lines.
But EU countries have already adopted significant legislative
changes designed to facilitate both the single European
Market and eBusiness. Over the last few years, Ireland
has implemented substantial legislative changes in order
to facilitate this and further regulatory reforms are
in the pipeline. Much of this legislation is concerned
with data protection.
If you have any doubts about the potential impact of
eCRM on business, consider the irish airline industry.
Few people now walk into a travel agent to buy Ryanair
tickets. Given the choice of paying a travel agents
booking fee, most customers voted with their fingers.
Such is the success of the Ryanair model that Aer Lingus
has also developed a website to sell their tickets online.
With all the airlines cutting or eliminating travel
agents commissions, that trend seems set to continue.
The one barrier to eCRM that is very real and very big
is complacency. Manufacturers are at risk of losing
the game if they cannot change their mindset and take
advantage of new tools and technologies to become more
customer-oriented. Companies often still believe that
if you make a good product, people will buy it. If they
continue to focus only on the design and manufacture
of products, they will miss important opportunities
to learn more about what their customers really want
and to provide the profitable after-sale services that
customers increasingly need and demand. If, on the other
hand, they are willing to view their operations more
broadly by adopting eCRM technologies to get closer
to customers, they can strengthen their customer interactions,
grow, and prosper. In the case of Zomax
Ireland, for example, it was customers that drove
the company to embrace eCRM and other technologies
and this is likely to be the experience of
many Irish businesses over the coming years.
The arguments manufacturers typically make for skimping
on customer retention practices and capabilities like
eCRM are rapidly weakening. The challenge now is to
use technology to lead the next revolution by leveraging
the online loyalty and creating sustainable business
models.
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