Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group
There has been a lot of hype around the introduction of the concept of Customer Relationship Management CRM, an improved data base of information on customers and towards providing better care for customers, satisfying their needs and ensuring that they are more likely to do business with the company again. One side effect of the publicity around the concept is that customer expectations of good service are rising, and delivering to the higher levels of expectation becomes increasingly more difficult. Gartner Group analysts have referred to the present situation as the phoney CRM war.
What is CRM, and how is it defined? One could define CRM as the mastering of all marketing, campaign management, sales and service functions through the use of technology to provide an holistic approach to customer needs and thereby fully satisfy them more effectively and more efficiently. However, the gap in the total customer satisfaction equation can be bigger than a CRM tool can deliver. This is rapidly being addressed in the next generation of CRM applications, referred to as e-CRM which are applications of e-business concepts to CRM processes, and are designed to provide the scalability and flexibility demanded by e-business, through the use of e-technology. The ability to handle both the high volumes and data intensity associated with enterprise use and the high transaction rates and random usage peaks associated with Internet use are essential qualities that distinguish e-CRM from client/server solutions.
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