Are You Being Served

2001 marks more than the official beginning of the 21st century. It marks a

year since the first of many dot-com flaws surfaced. All the major dot-coms

geared up for 1999-00 and most failed. Why? Because they embraced "Web

only"–a mistake that cost them, and their customers, dearly. E-tailers

put up Web stores and online customers flocked to the sites to eliminate their

shopping pain. But, when the orders didn’t come, the customers were begging

for service. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any. Customer service agents didn’t

have visibility on the online transactions–and when customers called the e-tailer’s

call center, they couldn’t get answers to basic questions, like "Did my

order ship?" and "When will I get my shipment?"

The major flaw: in the race to online success, everyone gambled on Web-only.

But the Web is just one more channel through which to sell and provide customer

service. A recent report by Jupiter Communications showed that only 37% of Web

ventures currently combine three or more customer service channels on their Web

sites. Those that do, have all the channels connected and synchronized into a

seamless customer service experience! Remember, if the channels aren’t in

sync, then they are working against each other–not with each other–and the

resulting damage done to the customer relationship may be irreparable.

Don’t just think about Web self-service. Your call center must evolve into

an interaction center so that your customer service agents will have full

visibility over Web transactions, as well as traditional service requests and

field service. Also, you have to simplify your "face" to the customer.

Customers now expect - no, demand - great service. To be able to deliver

world-class service, you have to ensure that Web interactions as well as direct,

phone and partner interactions are consistent.

Businesses face considerable challenges in integrating these interaction

channels, each with its distinct technology platforms, into a cohesive whole.

According to a recent survey by the Meta Group, about 60% of CRM project costs

go into integration. IT experts everywhere struggle with the need to make sense

of and maintain the various technology platforms and software components that

make up the foundation of how they communicate with, and manage and serve

customers.

Given the speed at which e-business is conducted, organizations can no longer

afford to spend too much time on long implementation cycles for CRM initiatives.

There are technologies and applications today in the form of a pre-packaged,

integrated suite from one vendor that can help an enterprise move toward

integrating and coordinating their business functions, infrastructure,

interaction channels and even external companies such as suppliers or

distributors. This option provides a very high degree of integration to ensure

consistent and easy access to customer data and a unified view of the customer

across the company.

An integrated CRM component within a complete e-business suite–built on a

single technology stack and designed to function together seamlessly addresses

all of the issues that come along with coping with disparate systems. Businesses

also enjoy lower integration, maintenance and upgrade costs. With critical

resources freed up, businesses can focus on the most important thing–meeting

and managing their customers’ needs well.

Lisa Arthur is a vice-president at Oracle Corp