E-CRM

CRM PROCESSES AND THEIR INTEGRATION

CRM
CRM involves all the aspects of interaction (including sales,
marketing and customer service) of an organization with its
customers.
Factors such as high cost of acquiring new customers, cut
throat competition, globalization and high customer churn rate
have led to e-CRM.
The e CRM or electronic customer relationship
management encompasses all the CRM functions with the use
of the net environment i.e., intranet, extranet and internet.
Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships
with customers making use of information technology (IT).

CRM vs e CRM

 Strengthening Relationship with Existing Customers This

means preparing a comprehensive view of the customer to
maximize his/her relationship with the company through up
selling and cross selling and at the same time, enhancing
profitability by identifying, attracting and retaining best
customers.
Using Customer Information to Provide Better Services
By using a customers information to better serve his or her
needs, customer time and frustration is saved.
Creating Customer Value and Loyalty Organizations can
build customer loyalty by personalizing and customizing their
products and services to meet customer requirements. The
software keeps track of the products/services that an online
visitor has browsed for which would enable organization to offer
customized products/services to the visitors.
Implementing Integrated CRM Solution Strategy A
reliable and convenient customer interaction requires an
integrated e CRM application development strategy. This
involves integration of software related to sales, marketing and
servicing functions.

Objectives

Attracting New Customers Involves the processes of

identifying and obtaining new customers. Lead generation, sales
promotions, marketing campaigns, and customer registration are
some of the services associated with customer acquisition.

Functions of CRM

Generating more Business from Existing Customers

Involves the processes of enhancing the value of customers to the
business. New product launches, account management, loyalty
marketing, affinity programs, and up-sells and cross-sells are
services associated with customer growth and development.

Retaining Profitable Customers About 80% of the

organizations business is derived from 20% of customers. Hence,
priority must be given to these customers and effort must be put to
retain these customers. Involves the processes of caring for
customers and maintaining long-term relationships. Technical
support, loyalty marketing, customer satisfaction assurance, and
collections and billing are some of the services associated with
customer retention.

E CRM Components
Cross selling and Up-Selling Software It should be able to identify prospective

customers and track their details and forward them to sales persons.
Direct Marketing and fulfilment Automating direct marketing is essential when
there is multiple marketing program across multiple channels. Fulfilment is to handle
customers request for information quickly and effectively. A good fulfilment package
provides timely reply to customers enquiry.
Customer Support and Service It consists of several activities like service
request management, customer surveys, account management. Customer service
essentially handles customer problems related to products and services. The software
helps in verification of customer status, tracking tasks, maintaining history etc.
Field Service Operations The field service software supports activities like
scheduling and sending service agent personnel, managing logistics and inventory.
Retention Management - An effective CRM application helps in distinguishing
customer based on years of association with the company and business given by each
customer. A DSS software helps in gathering customer data and helps in
understanding them.

E CRM Architecture
The architecture refers to the broad outline of the system design
including its hardware and software components. The
effectiveness of e CRM architecture can be analysed by giving
answers to the following questions:

Does the present e CRM merely automate the

organizations customer facing processes ?

Does the e CRM architecture enable identification

and targeting of most valuable customers ?

Does the architecture support real time customization

and personalization, based on customer demands ?

Is the e-CRM architecture consistent across all access

locations ?

E CRM Application
Categories
Customer Facing Applications
Customer Touching Applications
Customer Centric Intelligence Applications
Online Network Applications

CRM Applications Categories

Customer Facing
Applications
Customer Interaction Centers (CIC) It allows customers to
communicate and interact with a company in whatever way they
choosevoice, fax, e-mail, and Web interactivity(e.g., Web chat).
Providing well-trained customer service representatives who have
access to data such as customer history, purchases, and previous
contacts is one way to improve customer service.
Automated Response to E Mail (Autoresponder) Several
organizations offers autoresponders, which provides answers to
some frequently asked questions. Many companies do not provide
actual
answers
in
their
automatic
responses
but
only acknowledgment that a query has been received. Working of
Autoresponder
Sales Force Automation - Sales force automation (SFA)
applications support the selling efforts of a companys sales force,
helping sales people manage leads, prospects, and customers
through the sales process.

Field

Service

Automation

Field

service

automation

Customer Touching
Applications
Personalized Web Pages Many companies provide customers
with tools to create their own individual Webpages (e.g., MyYahoo!).
Companies can efficiently deliver customized information, such as product
information and warranty information, when the customer logs on to the
personalized page. Not only can a customer pull information from the
vendors site, but the vendor can also push information to the consumer.
In addition, these Web pages can record customer purchases and
preferences. Typical personalized Web pages include those for bank
accounts, stock portfolio accounts, credit card accounts, and so on. On
such sites, users can see their balances, records of all current and
historical transactions, and more.
Web Self Service The Web environment provides an opportunity
for customers to serve themselves. Known as Web self-service, this
strategy provides tools for users to execute activities previously done by
corporate customer service personnel. The best known and most
frequently used Web self-service systems are the package tracking
systems provided by FedEx and UPS. Self service tools generally used are:
Self Tracking
Customer self service through FAQs

Customer Centric
Applications
Analytical Tools to improve customer service.
Reporting - Reports can be simple lists or charts of data and
information or more complex analyses of CRM performance metrics.
Reports can be in one of two formsstandardized (predefined) or
query-based (ad hoc). Standardized reports, also called canned
reports, are generated from predefined templates and provide little in
the way of customization outside of reformatting. A query-based
report provides the end user (in this case a manager or analyst) with a
set of tools for constructing a query against which the report is run.
OLAP A data warehouse is a specialized (star schema or hierarchical)
structure that makes it easy to view and analyse measures from a
variety of dimensional perspectives. The technologies used to view and
analyze the data in a data warehouse are called online analytical
processing (OLAP). OLAP tools enable the end user to slice and dice
the measures by various dimensions (e.g., products, locations,
customers, and time) and to drill down to more detailed information
and drill up into aggregated or summary information.
Data Mining Data mining is analytic activity that involves sifting
through
an immense amount of data to discover hidden patterns. The process of

Online Networking
Applications
Forums
Chat rooms
Usenet groups
Blogs and Wikis
E mail newsletters
Discussion Lists

Barriers to customers
adopting e CRM

Implementation
strategies for e CRM
Developing Customer focus business Strategy Focus on
customer demands and providing various communication channels for
them.
Business functions evaluations Identifying non productive
departments and processes and therefore helps in cutting down costs.
Reconfiguring Work process flow Departmental roles and
responsibility changes from restructuring business functions will need
new work processes.
Technology choices Criteria for technology selections includes
scalability of software, compatibility of e CRM application with internet
and legacy systems, level of technical support, upgradable support and
security.
Training and Implementation Training of employee should occur
before new eCRM system has been implemented.

Challenges during
Implementation
Mismatch between a company and vendors software
Poor understanding of companys business processes
Implementation time duration
Rejection by the end users
ROI cant be directly measured

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