All About People Power

EXACTLY right–that was Gayatri Bajaj’s clear objective
for customer relationships. When the spanking-new vice-president at
CustomerAsset.com was given the mantle of devising a strategy to ensure that the
processes offered were aligned just right with customers and their businesses,
she decided that a "holistic view of the business relationship with the
customer was the only means to achieving the required focus". Today, Bajaj
claims to have stumbled on the perfect recipe for the perfect CRM endeavor.
"To me, CRM represents an outside in customer perspective, rather than the
inside out thinking that businesses tend to follow".

There are others who have since walked the same route. Ever
since the concept of business has been in existence, the consumer has been the
pivotal focus of savvy sellers and businessmen alike. In essence, the concept of
customer relations is not a new one... it has been present in one form or the
other for years. But only in recent times has CRM been touted as the new
buzzword. In the last year alone, it has been given special impetus.

This is not without reason. Those who have been throguh the
grind estimate that the cost of getting a new customer is ten times’ that of
retaining an existing one. "With the ubiquity of the Internet, and with
e-emerging as the new buzzword, CRM has assumed a large proportion. In the
absence of a face-to-face contacts, it becomes imperative that businesses keep
track of their varied customers and the attached preferences," says one
voluble supporter or CRM.

Globally, according to a study conducted by META Group, the
CRM industry is expected to show 50% annual growth. Correspondingly, revenues
will increase from $13 billion in 2000 to $67 billion in 2004. A parallel study
by the Yankee Group predicts that the Web-based customer relationship market
will exceed $530 million in 2001-02.

Though many see the concept of e-CRM as an extension of call
centers, which form the basic tool of any CRM plans, opinions differ on the
strategies to be adopted. While call centers are traditionally voice enabled, e-CRM
embraces many of the other technologies available today–email, chat, video
conferencing, VoIP–giving customers a wide horizon of technologies to choose
from.

Vaibhav Tiwari, CEO of iSeva, says the choice of the
technology adopted can be the make-or-break differentiator. "The people,
processes and technology of an e-CRM contact center are built around the
philosophy of identifying the most valuable customers and building relationships
with them–this has the eventual impact of increasing sales. Then again, the
various forms of customer contact–phone, e-mail, chat and self-service–are
integrated tightly around the customer. A typical call center is built to handle
customer problems on the phone, often treated as a cost center."

Some others define CRM as "a well-articulated business
strategy"–comprising of a series of functionalities and technologies,
which allow companies to profitably manage customers requirements, provide a
personalized and well-differentiated customer attention as well as maintain a
life-long customer relationship.

Implementation of eCRM strategies requires addressing of
several issues, such as customer acquisition and retention, marketing and sales
aspects, all of which could turn out to be a veritable nightmare for the
e-manager to integrate and manage such disparate data.

"But the challenge does not end here. In fact, this is
only the beginning. As enterprises move from a product-centric to a
customer-centric logic, eCRM implementations become all the more strategic. The
challenge begins with the task of providing the right information at the right
time to the right people," says Prakash Gurbaxani, CEO of 24/7customer.com.
The other challenges lie in better understanding of the customer and his needs.
If you reach this understanding level, you can select the right technology, one
which is scalable and manageable."

According to studies conducted by leading market research
agencies, CRM is pretty high on the enterprise priorities list. Also, experts
say stumbling blocks begin with the lack of sufficient information, inadequate
customer inputs and inappropriate categorization. Ineffective marketing strategy
and poor management practices make up the whole jingbang.

So how do organizations put together such customer-related
data, especially when it means reams and reams of paper, most of it scattered
around? Enter the concept of marketing data intelligence (MDI). Through MDI,
data acquired during the customer engagement is mined to extract patterns,
behavioral traits and demography, among other things–which can be critical in
the developing appropriate marketing strategies. It combines data-driven
marketing with technology and information about customers, products and
transactional data, all aimed at improving decision-making and tactical
marketing.

Although there’s no standard approach or one-fits-all
mantra, companies usually organize their data on the basis of their business
model and the needs of the particular sector they cater to. Many companies are
segmented according to various regions, departments, channels and process, and
hence the need lies in effectively coordination and re-organization.

"Implementation of an e-CRM strategy in any organization
extends way beyond putting in the hottest CRM package," says iSeva’s
Tiwari. "A CRM strategy is incomplete unless it is reorganized around the
customer, for the customer is King."

Sandhya SM in Bangalore CIOL Bureau