Let us create a 3d Digital eBook for you! DigyCat.com
|
||
|
||
|
Customer Service Information | Let us create a 3d Digital eBook for you! DigyCat.com |
|
|
|
The History of CRM -- Moving Beyond the Customer Database
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those magnificent concepts that swept the business world in the 1990's with the promise of forever changing the way businesses small and large interacted with their customer bases. In the short term, however, it proved to be an unwieldy process that was better in theory than in practice for a variety of reasons. First among these was that it was simply so difficult and expensive to track and keep the high volume of records needed accurately and constantly update them. In the last several years, however, newer software systems and advanced tracking features have vastly improved CRM capabilities and the real promise of CRM is becoming a reality. As the price of newer, more customizable Internet solutions have hit the marketplace; competition has driven the prices down so that even relatively small businesses are reaping the benefits of some custom CRM programs. In the beginning? The 1980's saw the emergence of database marketing, which was simply a catch phrase to define the practice of setting up customer service groups to speak individually to all of a company's customers. In the case of larger, key clients it was a valuable tool for keeping the lines of communication open and tailoring service to the clients needs. In the case of smaller clients, however, it tended to provide repetitive, survey-like information that cluttered databases and didn't provide much insight. As companies began tracking database information, they realized that the bare bones were all that was needed in most cases: what they buy regularly, what they spend, what they do. Advances in the 1990's In the 1990's companies began to improve on Customer Relationship Management by making it more of a two-way street. Instead of simply gathering data for their own use, they began giving back to their customers not only in terms of the obvious goal of improved customer service, but in incentives, gifts and other perks for customer loyalty. This was the beginning of the now familiar frequent flyer programs, bonus points on credit cards and a host of other resources that are based on CRM tracking of customer activity and spending patterns. CRM was now being used as a way to increase sales passively as well as through active improvement of customer service. True CRM comes of age Real Customer Relationship Management as it's thought of today really began in earnest in the early years of this century. As software companies began releasing newer, more advanced solutions that were customizable across industries, it became feasible to really use the information in a dynamic way. Instead of feeding information into a static database for future reference, CRM became a way to continuously update understanding of customer needs and behavior. Branching of information, sub-folders, and custom tailored features enabled companies to break down information into smaller subsets so that they could evaluate not only concrete statistics, but information on the motivation and reactions of customers. The Internet provided a huge boon to the development of these huge databases by enabling offsite information storage. Where before companies had difficulty supporting the enormous amounts of information, the Internet provided new possibilities and CRM took off as providers began moving toward Internet solutions. With the increased fluidity of these programs came a less rigid relationship between sales, customer service and marketing. CRM enabled the development of new strategies for more cooperative work between these different divisions through shared information and understanding, leading to increased customer satisfaction from order to end product. Today, CRM is still utilized most frequently by companies that rely heavily on two distinct features: customer service or technology. The three sectors of business that rely most heavily on CRM -- and use it to great advantage -- are financial services, a variety of high tech corporations and the telecommunications industry. The financial services industry in particular tracks the level of client satisfaction and what customers are looking for in terms of changes and personalized features. They also track changes in investment habits and spending patterns as the economy shifts. Software specific to the industry can give financial service providers truly impressive feedback in these areas. Who's in the CRM game? About 50% of the CRM market is currently divided between five major players in the industry: PeopleSoft, Oracle, SAP, Siebel and relative newcomer Telemation, based on Linux and developed by an old standard, Database Solutions, Inc. The other half of the market falls to a variety of other players, although Microsoft's new emergence in the CRM market may cause a shift soon. Whether Microsoft can capture a share of the market remains to be seen. However, their brand-name familiarity may give them an edge with small businesses considering a first-time CRM package. PeopleSoft was founded in the mid-1980's by Ken Morris and Dave Duffield as a client-server based human resources application. In 1998, PeopleSoft had evolved into a purely Internet based system, PeopleSoft 8. There's no client software to maintain and it supports over 150 applications. PeopleSoft 8 is the brainchild of over 2,000 dedicated developers and $500 million in research and development. PeopleSoft branched out from their original human resources platform in the 1990's and now supports everything from customer service to supply chain management. Its user-friendly system required minimal training is relatively inexpensive to deploy. . One of PeopleSoft's major contributions to CRM was their detailed analytic program that identifies and ranks the importance of customers based on numerous criteria, including amount of purchase, cost of supplying them, and frequency of service. Oracle built a solid base of high-end customers in the late 1980's, then burst into national attention around 1990 when, under Tom Siebel, the company aggressively marketed a small-to-medium business CRM solution. Unfortunately they couldn't follow up themselves on the incredible sales they garnered and ran into a few years of real problems. Oracle landed on its feet after a restructuring and their own refocusing on customer needs and by the mid-1990's the company was once again a leader in CRM technologies. They continue to be one of the leaders in the enterprise marketplace with the Oracle Customer Data Management System. Telemation's CRM solution is flexible and user-friendly, with a toolkit that makes changing features and settings relatively easy. The system also provides a quick learning environment that newcomers will appreciate. Its uniqueness lies in that, although compatible with Windows, it was developed as a Linux program. Will Linux be the wave of the future? We don't know, but if it is, Telemation's ahead of the game. The last few years? In 2002, Oracle released their Global CRM in 90 Days package that promised quick implementation of CRM throughout company offices. Offered with the package was a set fee service for set-up and training for core business needs. . Also in 2002 (a stellar year for CRM), SAP America's mySAP began using a "middleware" hub that was capable of connecting SAP systems to externals and front and back office systems for a unified operation that links partners, employees, process and technologies in a closed-loop function. Siebel consistently based its business primarily on enterprise size businesses willing to invest millions in CRM systems, which worked for them to the tune of $2.1 billion in 2001. However, in 2002 and 2003 revenues slipped as several smaller CRM firms joined the fray as ASP's (Application Service Providers). These companies, including UpShot, NetSuite and SalesNet, offered businesses CRM-style tracking and data management without the high cost of traditional CRM start-up. In October of 2003, Siebel launched CRM OnDemand in collaboration with IBM. Their entry into the hosted, monthly CRM solution niche hit the marketplace with gale force. To some of the monthly ASP's it was a call to arms, to others it was a sign of Siebel's increasing confusion over brand identity and increasing loss of market share. In a stroke of genius, Siebel acquired UpShot a few months later to get them started and smooth their transition into the ASP market. It was a successful move. With Microsoft now in the game, it's too soon to tell what the results will be, but it seems likely that they may get some share of small businesses that tend to buy based on familiarity and usability. ASP's will continue to grow in popularity as well, especially with mid-sized businesses, so companies like NetSuite, SalesNet and Siebel's OnDemand will thrive. CRM on the web has come of age! This article on the "The History of CRM" reprinted with
permission. About the Author
MORE RESOURCES: Customer Service - Google News
Frustrated With Virtual Customer Service? Microsoft Tries to Help - Wall Street Journal (blog)
Bernthal, The Way It Oughta Be: Customer Service - KPLR 11
Alcatel-Lucent banks on customer service - Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine
Telcos pledge improved customer service, but regulation looms - iTWire
Customer Service satisfaction survey figures down in 2011 - Reno Gazette Journal
Microsoft and 24/7 Inc. team up to build a better automated customer service ... - BetaNews
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Consumer Power While most companies talk about consumer friendliness, customer centricity, customer relationship etc. more often than not they are mere lip service or jargons with little sincerity behind these grand sounding words. Make Sure You Get The Customer Perspective Businesses that fail, often forget to seek out the customer perspective. I have talked to some folks at businesses that were less than succesful, and when asked if they actively seek out customer comments, the answer invariably is no. Post Office, Incredible Lady Postmaster There are two Post Offices that I routinely visit. One is the office that delivers my mail and the other is frequently on the path of some daily errands. Sales Marketing: 10 High Impact Ways To Improve Your Customer Service If you want to last a long time in business and succeed, you must learn how to make your customers happy.You have to know who are your customers, what they want and keep in touch with them and their needs. A New Way To Handle Complaints, Or Is It? What a lot of money we have been wasting on dealing with customer complaints.Instead of dealing with them and attempting to satisfy the customer we should create a process that makes complaining so difficult then when customers complain they get such a huge negative experience and never receive any satisfaction. Transforming Disgruntled Customers into Your Biggest Advocates "I am writing to complain about the widget I bought from your site the other day."Sell anything and eventually you will be on the receiving end of a sentence like this. The 3 Rs of Customer Service What I am about to tell you may seem very obvious - you may even say DUH!!! but the fact is, - many company's forget the 3 R's of good customer service- Respect your Customer, Take Responsibility for Your Actions and Products and give your Customers a Full REFUND when it just isn't right. I promise you that if you follow these 3 simple rules you will never have to run after the same customer again!Respect the customer! Just about as plain as the nose on your face Right? Wrong!How many times have you been greeted in a less than courteous manner or worse yet- not at all!! Never lose the opportunity to make a great first impression- very rarely do you have a second chance to undo the damage done by that first encounter. The Death of the Loyal Customer One of my classes in management focused on the repeat customer. The course stressed the importance of the repeat customer to the financial welfare of the business. How to Transform Your Voicemail into an Effective Medium of Communication "Hi this is Randy. Leave me a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Raising The Bar For Online Magazine Subscription Services And Customer Service After years of flying below the radar in the magazine subscription service arena online, MagMall.com is gaining traction real fast. Debt Elimination Scam May people these days have a problem with mounting debt. The average person is well below the bad credit limit and is in desperate need to fix it. Responding to Complaints It's possible that in the course of your business dealings, you may (just may) have to deal with a complaint from a customer or client .. The death of customer servie The other day a reporter call to interview me on the "Death of Customer Service". My first reaction was to deny that charge and claim that customer service is very much alive and well. The History of CRM -- Moving Beyond the Customer Database Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those magnificent concepts that swept the business world in the 1990's with the promise of forever changing the way businesses small and large interacted with their customer bases. In the short term, however, it proved to be an unwieldy process that was better in theory than in practice for a variety of reasons. Improving Customer Service Improving customer service starts at the top - with us owners and managers. We need to be living pictures of how we want our staff to treat customers. The Nine Principles of Customer Service for the Travel Industry© If you want to learn how to get your clients to do your selling for you through excpetional customer service, read on. Learn customer service secrets from tourism professionals, apply them to your business and prosper. Top Ten Strategies for Delivering 5-Star Customer Service Customer satisfaction is valuable, but customer loyalty is priceless. In today's competitive world of business, it is becoming more and more important to deliver customer service that is unbeatable. More Customers - Watch those Little Things Two situations, two perfectly acceptable experiences, but in one case, an excitement about great service and in the other case, just OK.The LaptopI have a laptop which is under warranty - 5 working day turnaround they said when I rang them about a power problem. Invalid Excuses for Poor Business Results - The Weather Note to Kmart: It wasn't about the weatherIn the 1970s Kmart was the retailer to beat. No matter what happened, they seemed to turn profit. Losing Angry Customers This article offers five ways to help you deal with angry customers. While the goal of all businesses is to have only happy customers, we also have to be realistic and realize sometimes we are going to anger a customer.
|
|
Looking For Royalty Free Photos for your Website, Business or Advertising?
AusTrade Domain Is For Sale - $15,000 For Enquiries eMail Us © www.AusTrade.biz 2011 |
|
