|
Editor's Note - 05.24.01
Hello WebSiteNotes Readers:Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a vital element of
eBusiness today. Offline, relationship management has proved its importance in the sales
sector. The importance of this business tactic is moving online.
A panel of CRM industry experts defined CRM in CRMguru.com as a "business strategy
that is used to select and manage customers to optimize long term value. CRM requires a
customer-centric business philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales,
and services processes. CRM applications can enable effective customer relationship
management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy and
culture."
Today's article discusses ways in which you can incorporate CRM into you site. Additional
resources on Customer Relationship Management can be found at:
crmguru.com
crmcommunity.com
destinationcrm.com
searchcrm.com
Best Wishes,
Stephanie Mitchell
and The WebSiteNotes Team
|
 What Can CRM Do for Your Business? |
by Paul Carney |
The focus of this article is
how CRM is being used by businesses like yours. From call center support to direct
marketing, CRM is poised to become a major part of the business landscape.
CRM Supports Current Call Center Operations
The CRM vendors have many products that assist the Customer Service Representative (CSR)
in their duties. The goal of these products is to give customers alternate channels of
communication with the business.
For instance, CRM products may incorporate a sophisticated email response system where any
incoming emails to a customer service email address (such as "info" or
"customerservice") will be processed through a specific set of business rules to
determine if an automated response can be immediately sent.
By doing this, the company may find that they can handle at least 50 percent of requests
using the automated email responses. These types of responses are best used for requests
for additional information, requests to have a forgotten password emailed to the customer
or for responses to an email that was sent by the marketing team.
In addition, the CRM product may incorporate chat or co-browsing functionality where a
live CSR can interact directly with a customer over the Internet. These are usually less
formal and are good for information distribution. They are usually not used for customer
issues like complaints or non-functioning products.
CRM Enhances Current Call Center Operations
There are two major enhancements that CRM products bring to the customer relationship
operations. Each of these improvements may take information from multiple corporate
resources in order to build a base profile from which the functionality can operate.
The first enhancement is the ability to queue or route customers based on their profile.
For instance, when a customer calls a company and enters their customer ID and the reason
they are calling (selected from those wonderful "phone menu" systems), the
system can route the customer to the group of representatives who are best able to meet
their needs.
The other enhancement is the compilation of a complete case history of the customer. This
collection of information is then run through a series of "knowledge management"
business rules that will help the CSR understand more about the customer's history with
the company. Since this information is rapidly presented to the CSR, it becomes a major
tool in the customer interaction. 
CRM as a Direct Marketing Tool
But even more exciting than having CRM support call center operations is the introduction
of CRM as a tool in the company's marketing workshop. If you have heard the term
permission-based marketing bantered around, then you have heard about the ways that
companies are increasing the ante in their interactions with customers.
Permission-Based Marketing is defined as the fact that a customer has given the company
some type of permission to make contact. In some cases, this can be linked to a customer
signing up to receive more information (sending in a postcard, requesting a brochure,
etc.). But in most cases on the Internet, this is indicated with a tiny checkbox at the
bottom of a form you have filled out on a web page.
Companies use all sorts of techniques to get the customer's permission. Sometimes the
checkbox is left unchecked, but the statement next to it reads, "I do not want to be
contacted", indicating an opt-out situation where the customer has to explicitly take
action to remain off the contact list. Other times the company will make further contacts
a condition of receiving free information from them, such as a report, with no opt-out
available.
Once the company has the customer's permission, it will then use the capabilities of its
CRM tools to do some "data mining" in order to extract intelligence from its
databases. These details can then be used to provide a web site with real-time
intelligence about the customer in order to produce a personalized marketing campaign.
The fact that the CRM tools can process the data quickly allows it to produce this
functionality in real-time. This means that the customer can be presented with products or
services that are dynamically packaged and pitched based on the customer's profile. In
some cases, these tools can also be used to pre-qualify prospective buyers based on their
interaction with the web pages they are presented -- and the person does not even know
they are being evaluated!
The CRM Integration Challenge
Of course, the big questions are: resources and integration. It takes a commitment of
resources (money, time and personnel) to acquire the right CRM package.
But the integration of the CRM tools into the company's existing resources (software,
databases, computer systems) will make or break the deal. Since an effective CRM package
needs to draw information from disparate resources in order to paint the whole picture, it
will not only depend on receiving quality information from these sources, but it must also
know how to interact with those sources. Integration requires people from both sides who
have the knowledge and experience of the tools and the company's current infrastructure.
Concept Review
CRM tools will become an important part of business operations. These tools allow
customers to interact with your company using additional channels that become available
through the Internet. In addition, companies can use these tools to build a stronger
relationship with their customers through comprehensive customer profiles, case histories
and knowledge management tools.
Paul Carney, Ishtot, Inc. |
| We at the Editorial Team
would like to thank all our readers for reading WebSiteNotes.
We hope you find this information useful.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Mitchell
WebSiteNotes Editor
|
|
| 3D PHPEd 2.96.1.2 (2.8
Mb) - Windows OS PHPEd is a php development environment for Win32. PHPEd can help
you write a PHP site and you can use it to debug your HTML file, Perl file, SQL file and
Javascript file. Just simply download php interpreter for win32 and extract contents to a
folder to start. |
| b.scan 1.0.1
(880 Kb) - Mac OS A smart file analyzer utility designed for Mac developers.
Analyze datafork of ANY file and interpret any portion of data. Display as hex, oct,
decimal or character. |
| Angel (179 Kb) -
Linux OS Angel is a simple yet useful tool to monitor the services on your network.
Technically speaking, it's a Perl program that runs every 'n' minutes (usually fired from
your cron) and calls different perl subprograms (referred as "plugins" from now
on) to do the actual testing. Angel will then generate an HTML table containing the status
of your network. |
Do you have a visitor database or a newsletter? iEntry is
interested in exploring partnership opportunities:
Business@iEntry.com |
|
