Page 180 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Electronic-CRM

2. E-CRM is all of these initiatives working together to enable an organization to more Notes
effectively respond to its customers’ needs and to market to them on a one-to-one basis.
3. E-CRM is integration between the traditional CRM and e-Business application. This small
‘e’ should be a gigantic ‘E’ because this technology, when properly used, can have a
significant impact on industries and the structure of businesses. Essentially, the ‘e’ enables
an organization to extend its infrastructure to customers and partners in ways that offer
new opportunities to learn customer needs, add value, gain new economies, reach new
customers, and do all of this in real time.
4. E-CRM is all about strategy and therefore requires the direction and engagement of senior
management to be successful. Senior management must have a broad understanding of
the capabilities of these technologies and then translate them into specific opportunities
that leverage competitive advantage.
5. E-CRM is different from traditional concept of customer service. For example, the traditional
customer service concept works as follows:

(a) Customer has a problem with a product or service late in the evening.
(b) Customer has to wait till company offices open the next day. He is upset because he
cannot resolve the problem immediately.
(c) Next day when he contacts the company, the Customer Service Representative assists
the customer in resolving the complaint. Sometimes resolution of complaint can
take days, as the Customer Service Representative may not have the desired
information or necessary technical skills to resolve the problem. Customer is not
happy.

6. On the other hand, e-CRM is proactive and provides easily accessible data for real time
decision-making. e-CRM would tackle the above situation as follows:
(a) Customer has a problem with a product or service late in the evening.

(b) Customer does not have to wait till morning to have his problem resolved. He
visits company’s website for assistance and checks the Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs). He is able to resolve his problem. Customer is happy.

(c) In case, he is not able to resolve his problem, the customer clicks the “Help Now”
button and a Customer Support Representative.
(d) The Customer Support Rep accesses the knowledge base and conveys the desired
information to the customer to resolve his problem. Customer is happy.
(e) The details of the interaction are recorded in the customer history, so it is available
to any Customer Service Rep who has any interaction with the customer in future.
(f) Knowledge base is updated with relevant information from this interaction.
An email is automatically sent on behalf of the President of the company to the customer asking
him if he was satisfied with the resolution of the problem.
Determining what types of e-CRM tools to implement depends on how a company anticipates
customers’ needs. For example, a customer purchased something from the Web site and needs to
know how to return merchandise, will it be necessary to offer a customer service representative
to answer the question? Or with the use of the latest e-CRM technology to provide the customer
with an instant answer and save on the cost of having a person answers a simple question?
Automatic response technology is an example of an e-CRM tool that helps effectively and
efficiently communicates with customers and builds close relationships with them. By doing so,
a company gains customer loyalty.

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