It's no more "business as usual". The Internet started a
revolution by creating new avenues for businesses, a new medium to touch an
overwhelming mass of potential customers, and thus fuelled a growing economy.
Now, it's time for the next revolution-and the one omnipotent entity that
promises to entirely transform the way business happened so far is the Net age
customer. A new-breed customer, an empowered and more demanding customer who
holds a tremendous amount of purchasing power over the seller. A customer, who
wants to receive instant, highquality, personalized service, from first contact
on, throughout the life of the relationship. One who demands the exact product
he wants, at the right time, at the right place and at the right price. For
businesses, this change means mounting product parity, eroding customer
loyalties, intense global competitive pressures, shorter product cycles and
shrinking margins.
With the cost efficiencies and the transparency bestowed by Internet-enabled
communications, the customer has augmented his expected experience to an order
of magnitude which is constrained only by his imagination. The impact of the
ubiquitous Web to this effect and the quality of resulting relationships cannot
be questioned. It is being felt already and every business has to accept it as a
fact. The question is how prepared you are to cope with this e-customer. Are you
ready to promise what you can deliver, and deliver what you promise? Deliver not
only products and services but also the whole new e-experience that customers
demand?
To get answers to such strategic issues, you may need to go back to basics
and examine some of the fundamental business premises. From examining the very
business drivers and the related leadership processes; to determining the brand
values that you would want to create for yourself. You may need to decide on the
structure and dynamics of the business enterprise, the business partners you
want to collaborate with and the engagement models. Also, to plan the media and
methods you may want to adopt to enable you to focus on delivering messages to
the right target constituent while maintaining transparency of the value chain.
And finally, from drawing a technology roadmap that can sustain the above
processes; to also evolving the essential business infrastructure.
The checkpoints for assessing your readiness to adopt and practice new
customer relationship paradigms may broadly be ascertained from the
organizational, technological and behavioral processes you follow. Further, the
key areas to examine for enablement should be responsiveness, flexibility and
collaboration.
Implementing CRM, like any other business solution, can be expected to drive
fundamental changes in attitude, business process and the IT infrastructure. The
difference, however, is that it is not as much an aftermath of the need for the
adoption of technology but more of a preceding imperative for attaining business
leadership. Thus, after assessing your readiness for providing the e-customer
experience, you may want to have your solution provider partner with you in
co-architecting the business transformation you have set to bring about.
Arun Maheshwari is CEO, TriVium India
Software