The Electronic Customer Relationship Management Marketing Essay

E-CRM emerges from the internet and web technology to facilitate the implementation of CRM, It focuses on internet or web based interaction between companies and their customers. Satisfaction is one of the most important consumer reactions in internet shopping, and its importance is reflected in the ability to help build up customer loyality, lead to repeat purchases and improves the company’s market share and profitability.

Emergence and need of e-crm in today’s competitive business enviournment

The shift from a product-focused business strategy to a customer-focused strategy has been a major transformation agent in companies recently. Anny companies have invested heavily in technologies enabling a customer focused relationship marketing strategy.Nowdays,customers are more demanding more knowledgeable, and require more attention.Incressingly,firms are shifting their focus to the customer, thus the rising importance to customer relation management.

CRM is a comprehensive business and marketing strategy that integrates techonology, process, and all business activities around the customer. With the rapid growth of electronic business and rise of internet based services, the internet has provided a platform to deliver CRM function on the web, hence a new concept is born :E-CRM(Electronic Customer relation management).E-CRM emerges from the internet and web techonologyto facilitate the implementation of Commit focuses on internet or web based interaction between companies and their customers, argue that the main driver for E-CRM adoption seems to be a commonly shared belief that it improves customer loyalty and retention through the enhancement of customer satisfaction, as customer satisfaction is one of the more immediate objectives of E-CRM.Satisfaction is one of the most important consumer reaction in internet shopping, its importance is reflected in the ability to help built up customer loyality,lead to repeat purchases to improve the company’s market share and profitability. Other aspects are as follows-

•The need to attract, acquire, leverageand retain customers is still of primary concern to most businesses.

•Revenue growth through customer acquisition and retention remains a major requirement for competing successfully. Several studies document that the average company losses half its customers every 5 years and that it cost five to ten times as much as to obtain a new customer as to keep its existing one.

•Customer power-It means greater customer choice and lower barrier to defection.

•This requires learning and tracking customer’s needs, behaviours and lifestyles this information is use to create specific value preposition of customer.

•E-CRMfacilitates the organizations to provide one to one services and also maintain transaction security of the customers

What E-CRM will mean for the company

By the mean of E-CRM cyber gurus will take charge of companies’ interaction with customer overall channels of communication include e-mail,phone,chat,live one to one interaction on the web, text based collaboration etc.We personalize and take each customer interaction as a mean of delight role of company as its brand plays in customer life. We also use customer interaction, as an opportunity to showcase company’s other goods and services that might be interest to customer.

What the company can expect in E-CRM solution package

•Call center-Company can expect a virtual yet call center, that is equipped to handle million of calls and millions of interactions with customers, over the web, in real time when the customer is visiting your site,phone,e-mail,text based chat etc.24/7hrs a day, seven days a week,365 days a year. A customer services survey is conducted every month which the customers fill out over the web to regularly guage, evaluate and improve our service.

•Campaign management: Regular interaction with customer along with recording of each and every interaction will give us insight into the needs, wants and product or service feedback from your client which we will leverage to develop successful campaign management deprtment.The essential difference being that we can help personalize the campaign to each customer.

•Customer interaction management: Call centre is not just a static unit interacting with the customer. Our Call center will take up issues of our customers to our respective departments in order to provide speedy response to the customer. We will interact with various departments to resolve any customer issue, provide more information or service.

Review of literature

Dine D Phan (2000): Fingerhut was second largest catalogue retailer in the U.S with the revenues nearing $2 billion. the retailers focused on customer -centric and segment-based business also include Business intelligence(BI)and CRM systems are playing a vital role for survival in the competitive enviournment.while Fingerhut companies experimenting to adopt various IT ‘s in their companies.the the company placed 200 analyst and 40 statisticians mined the database for insights that help to find out consumer shopping pattern andcredit behavior.Data mining and Business intelligence help Fingerhut to find out spot shopping patterns, bring product offerings to the right customers and emphasis to maintain customer relationship.

PR newswire (2005): Time Warner cable’s is a business class internet access products are used in the office enviournment it enhances the business productivity by enabling its employs to receive high-speed internet access when they are outside of the office.

Business wire (2007) : In this case CDc software’s solutions include enterprise requirements planning, manufacturing operations management, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, supply chain management, demand management, order management, warehouse and transportation management. They used E-commerce, human capital management and E-CRM as a complaint management and aged care solution s to create better quality of customer service.

Business Wire(2008):Utilities must carefully manage their customers both during and after smart meter deployment, particularly with regard to the introduction of time-of-use billing because the bill is the principal contact point a utility has with its customers, there must be a fundamental shift in the way utilities, manage data provides customer option.

Business Wire (2010): Island pacific continues to develop and deploy high value and innovative software solution that enables retailers to manage the entire scope of their operations and to understand, create, manage and fulfill consumer demand.

Benefits of e-CRM for Company

Personalized Experience: Each and every experience between the company and the customer is personalized. We know the person who is calling, what services or products the customer inquired about in previous interactions and what products or services may be of interest to the customer.

Multi Channel interaction: e-CRM will enable your Customer to communicate with your company through any available channel like phone, web, VOIP, email, text based collaboration, video etc.

Knowledge: Each and every interaction with the customer, over whatever channel is duly recorded and is available to all Service professionals whenever the customer initiates the interaction again. Our knowledge of the customer’s tastes, needs, requirements etc., enable us to bring to notice more of our goods and services, provide comparison of the same with competitors and help sell more of our goods and services.

One to one marketing: We use each customer interaction as an opportunity to reinforce brand loyalty and convert regular interaction into great experience for the customer.

Target Marketing: Customers get information about selective new products and services based on their previous buying pattern, profile, tastes, interests, etc.

Customer: Our customers will have any service available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Now if a customer wants to order something from our site, say at 2a.m., the customer is scrolling at our site and needs some assistance. Right Now, the customer does not have any choice other than to proceed to check out with the Cart. In most cases, due to lack of any help, customers dump the order at check out. On the contrary, when we manage your e-CRM initiative, the customer will have the following choices. An icon will be placed on the site for customer to engage in VOIP call, regular phone call, text based chat etc. The point is, We are engaged with your customer in the buying process and we can resolve any issues, assist the customer in any way required, pass on any information about your company’s product or service, right then and there, when the customer is browsing through pages at your site.

Prompt Service: Our Representatives are highly trained professionals to indelibly superior impression and image of your company to your customer through superior service, quick resolution of Customer issues and prompt response. This promotes brand loyalty and repeats business from existing customers and emphatically tries to convert potential inquirers of products and services into Customers. New Customers can be gained through web, campaigns, product promotions and marketing offers for specific product.

Different levels of ECRM

In defining the scope of eCRM, three different levels can be distinguished:

Foundational services:

This includes the minimum necessary services such as web site effectiveness and responsiveness as well as order fulfillment.

Customer-centered services:

These services include order tracking, product configuration and customization as well as security/trust.

Value-added services:

These are extra services such as online auctions and online training and education.

Self-services are becoming increasingly important in CRM activities. The rise of the Internet and eCRM has boosted the options for self-service activities. A critical success factor is the integration of such activities into traditional channels. For example -Ford’s plan to sell cars directly to customers via its Web Site, which provoked an outcry among its dealers network. CRM activities are mainly of two different types. Reactive service is where the customer has a problem and contacts the company. Proactive service is where the manager has decided not to wait for the customer to contact the firm, but to be aggressive a contact the customer himself in order to establish a dialogue and solve problems.

Applications of e-CRM

It includes an e-commerce sell-side platform, e-CRM communication infrastructure, and CRM applications. E-CRM applications include:

Content management

Product and pricing models

Support for customer service including technical support, problem resolution, and automated response agents

Marketing automation tools

Campaign management functions

Order placement, management, and execution tasks

Catalog and content management

Secure transportation of data between browsers and servers

Multilanguage support

Messaging and workflow applications

Web measurement tools

E-mail inbound/outbound support

With these components in place, e-CRM applications can provide managers and executives with real-time, online access to customer databases, along with Web-supported customer service.

Implementation of e-crm in Swedish bank

The customer relationship management (CRM) is essential and vital function of customer oriented marketing. Its functions include gathering and accumulating customer-related information in order to provide effective services. E-CRM is a combination of IT sector but also the key strategy to electronic commerce. E-CRM is a combination of software, hardware, application and management commitment. Aim of e-CRM system is to improve customer service, develop a relationship and retain valuable customers. E-CRM is a concern for many organizations especially banking sector. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the benefits e-CRM to customers and organization in banking industry. To justify the purpose two research questions have been addressed and on the basis literature review, a frame of reference was developed which helped us to answer the research questions and collect data. A qualitative research approach was used for this study. Empirical data was collected through in-depth interviews were conducted with two Swedish banks and a group of their customers. Our research indicates that Swedish banks are well aware of the benefits and applications of the e-CRM and use the system to maintain good relationships with their customers. Our research also indicates that with the implementation of e-CRM and the latest technologies. We have found that both the banks seem to have same description about the benefits of e-CRM. We found that both banks have maintained good relationships with customers due to the usage of e-CRM. Our finding indicates that with the implementation of e-CRM and the latest technologies banks have ensured full security for the transactions of their customer’s. E-CRM facilitates the organizations to provide one to one services and also maintain the transaction security of the customer.

Company handling the issues

Company name: Jet Airways

CRM (Customer Relationship Management), sometimes it is called customer management, customer value management, customer centricity, and customer-centric management. CRM has long been the buzzword for airlines aspiring to ‘one-to-one’ relationships with all customers, all of the time. Its underlying principles are well established too – those airlines that can effectively attract, serve and retain the best customers will see significant positive effects on their bottom line profitability. The deeper the relationship the airline holds with these customers, the more opportunities there will be for selling additional products and services. However, with the emergence of e-business and the ‘new economy’, the challenges of building strong customer relationships have become even greater.

Over the last few years numerous airlines have felt the chilling effects of increased ‘customer power’, as greater customer choice and lower barriers to defection have turned keeping customers into a battle that must be fought anew each day. Customer relationships are the key to airline business growth. Airlines must take absolute responsibility for a customer’s satisfaction throughout the “want-it-buy-it-and-use-it” experience. This requires learning and tracking customers’ needs, behaviors, and lifestyles and using this information to create a specific value proposition. This strategy is the path to consumer loyalty

Factsheet

Jet airways has flown over 596 million passengers .since the airlines inception in may1993 until and feb2006 during the financial year April 2004 march 2005,the airlines carried over 8 million passengers,20%of its revenue earning are derived from overseas sales ,thereby earning a considerable amount of foreign exchange for the country

Airline networks: jet airways has flies to 48 destination-43 destination with in India and 5 international destinations

Hubs: Mumbai the primary and maintained base hub Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, banglore, pune are jet airways secondary hubs

Flights: jet airways operate 320 flights daily to 48 destinations

Class of service

Business- “branded club premier”

Business-premier (long haul)

Economy

Online reservation

Jet airways electronic ticketing service offered on the website enables passenger to book ticket to any destination on the airline root network through the internet.

Jet airways set up call centers for international and domestic flights and services that operate 24*7 services.

Co hosted in SABRRE reservation can also make on all major computerized reservation system for example-ABACUS, AMADEUS, GALILEO, WORLDSPAN.

Web check in-Jet airways now with the help of new technology, offers its customer an attractive web check in facility on its domestic flights to improve the customer airport experience, promote customer convince and enables hassle free check in .it always available on flights on www.jetairways .com

Kiosk check in: Jet airways bring kiosk check in ,first in the Indian aviation .Now check in the way the world does jet airways new age kiosk the customer may print his or her boarding pass with a touch of screen.

City checks in-This is the facility available for the passengers traveling on jet domestic network with hand baggage only at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, banglore.

Same day return checks in-The facility is available throughout the network of station? cities connected by same day return flights provided both stations are connected online by the departure control system

Tele check in-Most station has Tele-checking facility for club “premier” passengers as well as jet privilege blue plus, gold,silver and platinum card members

Seat request-Premier and club premier pass angers are required indicate their seats preference at the time of reservation

Meal request-All jet airways passengers are requested to indicate their meal preference at the time of reservation.

Airport lounges-premier and club premier passengers and jet privilege members has a facility of waiting at airport lounges in certain airport. Passengers are offered cpomplementarory beverages and snacks.

Intertline-jetairways has interline agreements with 127 international airlines which allows passenger to use interline documents on Jet airways for their travel.jet airways also has interline agreement with 45 carriers for carriage of cargo to their destination.

Critical analysis

Nowadays companies more emphasized on technology for enabling a customer focused relationship marketing strategy.

The internet has provided a platform to deliver crm function on the web .It means collaboration of E+CRM .E denotes to electronic or internet linked crm.

E-crm is a driven factor to improve customer loyalty, Retention and focusing on customer satisfaction.

According to several studies average company loses are because they loses its half of customers after 5 years that it covers 5 to10times as much cost to obtain a new customer as to keep and existing one.

E-crm includes Call centres, campaign management, and customer interaction management. It also includes technological services like-voice over internet protocol.

Different E-CRM include foundational services, Customer centric services, Value added services

Different industries applying E-corm according to their need. For ex-Jet airways provides airline network, hubs, Flight schedules, online reservations, web-check in, Kiosk check in, city check in, same day return check in, Interline corm services through the mean of internet.

Banks are interconnected with their their ownsusidiries and other banks through the mean of internet and intranet for providing the better and safe service of money transfer.

Conclusion

E-crm is the combination of internet with crm means crm services also deliver on internet also. It helps to retain customer by reaching to his or her satisfaction level and helps company to fulfill its goal like company wants to increase frequency,recency,loyality and repeat purchase behavior of customer’s-crm have wide range of its applications include -content management, Multilanguage support, web measurement tools, marketing automation toolset-mail inbound/outbound support etc.