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WEB BASED CRM -- eCRM
Business today is undergoing a silent revolution of the most unimaginable of proportions. For the first time, businesses are recognizing the power of the INDIVIDUAL. Marketing is increasingly being done at an individual level by big and small business alike.
Why is this change happening?
What has suddenly caused business to look at the insignificant you and me?
The reasons are not too difficult to see.
For one, it is now well recognized that retaining an old customer is 70% easier than bringing in a new one because of ever-surmounting competition and an overfed market. As a consequence, business philosophy is rapidly moving away from a "share of the market" approach to a "share of the customer" concept.
In this world, cluttered with rival companies screaming to be heard by an increasingly choosy customer, the winner will be the one that knows how to "manage" its customers. A satisfied customer offers the unique opportunity to market to him repeatedly with an assortment of products or services.
The second and perhaps the most important reason is the rapid advances in technology that allow applications to be developed around the individual on a mass scale. "Mass-personalization" is no longer an oxymoron. The capacity to cater to individuals, personally and on a mass scale is the single most important driver of this silent revolution.
Ground rules for future business It is abundantly clear that the next battle turf will be "invisible". Companies will increasingly be servicing their domain - their existing clients - because competition will make the cost of new customer procurement prohibitive. The segmentation will take place around the customer - the most valued customer versus the modest customer.
This approach will call for tremendous skills in the sphere of Customer Relationship Management, popularly known as CRM. It is no wonder that CRM is being recognized as the hottest tool of the next business revolution.
This one-one approach is no longer a fad or a luxury - it has become urgently necessary.
While this awareness is dawning upon businesses - both online and offline - the sad part is that few know how to go about it or how to integrate this into their existing model.
How to initiate a CRM strategy
The foundation of an effective CRM strategy revolves around databases. Comprehensive, targeted and permission-based databases are priceless assets that form the engines of all CRM initiatives. These databases will help companies to direct their marketing efforts with pinpoint accuracy and with maximum effectiveness. It will help companies decide the "what", "when" and "to whom" of marketing campaigns.
Several companies have already realized this and are moving at breakneck speed to acquire and maintain customer profile and behavior through well-defined data mining tools.
Having recognized this, it is only too obvious that targeted databases will acquire exceptional significance by companies wishing to adopt a CRM strategy. Those who maintain them are sitting on priceless assets while those who don't will have to be content playing the peripheral role.
Databases must be procured from various touch points of the business. Touch points are various points at which customer interaction takes place.
For web-based businesses, touch points could include:
Various forms on the website.
POS (point of sale) data such as personal details and items ordered.
Web logs of returning customers.
Correspondence and email data.
For off-line businesses such as retail stores, it could be:
The check out counter - which is the POs here
Survey forms
Membership forms and loyalty forms
Call centers
SFA data (data captured by the sales force)
For businesses combining off-line and on-line processes, touch points would include data procured online as well as offline.
However, it must always be remembered that successful CRM depends on permission database marketing only. There are no two ways about it. Permission is essential to even begin thinking of developing relationships and hence increase the life time value of the customer. Obviously, you aren't going to develop relationships by forcing messages down people's throats.
To read about the importance of permission-based marketing, click here
Once you've got the data procurement strategy in place, you are in a position to tread on the CRM path with the development of a CRM plan.
To get a step-by-step approach on how to develop a CRM plan, read below....
Why do you need it ?
A well-defined CRM plan should be able to achieve the true goal of CRM - making contact with the right customer, at the right time with the right offer, in the right manner and at the right place.
Clearly a lot of variables you would say and you aren't wrong. But that is the level of customization and personalization that is to be expected out of any CRM strategy. Needless to say that if and when this is achieved it can lead to tremendous growth in the lifetime value of a customer and therefore the revenues of the company.
The best part is that complicated as it may sound, technology allows us to manage these variables effortlessly, thereby creating a tremendous level of personalization in interaction - a source of customer delight.
In the previous section, we have already understood the necessity of developing databases as the basis for successful CRM. We will now see how this is to be developed further through a step-by-step approach.
Step 1: Management and manipulation of the database through effective tools that allow database management by non-technical analysts. To read more on database management, click here
Step 2: Email management of all the interactions between the customer and company to present them in a form that is sequential, easy to understand and provides complete information. Details…
Step 3: Integration of the above two steps in such a manner so as to present an all-round view of the customer. In addition, this should also integrate the response of the individual to various marketing campaigns.
Step 4: Periodic generation of marketing campaigns to entire or selected portions of the database. This should include effortless campaign management as well as response tracking. Details...
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