e-CRM and Online CRM Extend the Value of CRM

E-CRM is a customer relationship management system that is implemented electronically. In simpler terms, it means managing your relationships with customers using information technology.

Online CRM means using a Web based system to manage the customer relationships. A provider who provides CRM services for a monthly or other periodical fee owns the Web based system.

We will first look at CRM and then look at the features of e-CRM and online CRM.

What Do We Mean by CRM?

CRM is not yet defined in full detail. However, we can say that CRM means getting to know the customers closely enough to improve our products, marketing efforts and communications with customers.

Typically, customers do not constitute a single uniform group. Instead, there would be several customer segments with each segment having slightly different needs and preferences. By identifying the different segments and their particular requirements, we can do the following:

• Develop campaigns and campaign materials that work better with each customer segment
• Package our offers to make it meet the unique needs of a targeted segment, say, by offering mail order services to make it convenient for customers in remote locations
• Create a marketing setup that can reach particular customer segments most effectively
• Train salespersons on how to sell better to specific customer segments

CRM systems also help us manage lead generation and contacts management tasks better. While lead generation helps generate a steady flow of prospects, contacts management helps us track the prospects till they become customers.

Effective customer relations do not stop with sales. It goes on to after-sales support, resolution of complaints and even to new sales leads in the forms of cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. CRM systems would incorporate features like a trouble ticket feature that help us manage customer support requests and complaints in a systematic and time-bound manner.

Finally, CRM systems will have analytical features that would help us analyze customer interactions to generate reports of customer profiles and buying behavior. This kind of information is the basis for marketing planning and sales forecasts.

e-CRM and Online CRM

As mentioned at the beginning, e-CRM utilizes the power of information technology to improve the CRM processes. The following list illustrates some major tasks that can be improved by using information technology:

• Using a server-based central database for gathering all customer information, details of all contacts and responses, sales, support requests, complaints, survey responses and any other information is accumulated under each customer. This information can originate from anywhere in the organization and yet be available in the central database to all authorized persons, such as customer service representatives.
• Customized reports can be generated as computer databases allow extensive and varied querying. Reports are generated extremely quickly in response to the queries or at scheduled times, and provide continuing decision support information to managers.
• The quality of customer service can be enhanced as the service representatives can retrieve the customer record and see the current status of all pending issues, and also the past history. This improvement in quality also comes at lesser costs compared to earlier practices that typically involved searching around for relevant information.
• Contacts management can be systematized by recording all contacts and responses, and scheduling the system to remind the user to take certain actions on certain dates. No sales lead would be lost for lack of contact, and quality of contacts would also be improved owing to elimination of irritating multiple contacts by different persons.

Online CRM typically involves subscribing to a Web based CRM service provider. This has certain advantages over buying CRM software and installing it on your computer.

• Online CRM is less expensive as you don’t have to spend a heavy amount for buying the software outright
• Implementing the system is quicker as it will be done by experienced professionals providing the service. If you install it on your own computer, your IT staff will have to be trained to use it properly, a task that is often unsatisfactory
• You can avoid the need to hire expensive IT staff as the IT related aspects would be handled by the service provider on the Web

While e-CRM improves the CRM process, online CRM makes it affordable and easy to use.