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Home / Features & Articles / iWorld by Sharad Agarwal

iWorld by Sharad Agarwal

e-CRM : The small ‘e’ is actually a ‘BiggiE’

In today’s world of business and technology we are constantly barraged with a never ending series of acronyms; a relative recent addition is eCRM. Like many of its predecessors, eCRM which stands for electronic customer relationship management allows you to manage your business through remote control. A web based e-CRM application helps you to ‘Acquire, Service and Retain’ your clients through a few clicks.

CRM, customer relationship management, is a concept that evolved from sales automation; sales automation evolved into customer asset management and then into CRM. Since this terminology tends to be the invention of the industry, it takes on many features and there is no universally accepted definition. Most practitioners would agree that CRM implies an organizational focus on the customer with an emphasis on building a long-term relationship with the customer; therein lies the meaning of relationship management. After this point, definitions start to differ as people try to integrate technology into the equation. It is generally agreed however that the applicable technologies are those that impact the processes that touch prospects and customers. So this would include marketing, sales, customer service (call center), and field service related activities. Thus, the industry provides an array of technology-based capabilities that address the operational needs of these functions; typically these tools are positioned as automation.

A commitment to true CRM implies the ability to analyze customer data and to use a combination of financial and customer based metrics for decision-making. These are database (data warehouse) and analytic type capabilities that are not unique to CRM; back office applications such as ERP and MRP require the same types of tools. Although some CRM vendors bundle these capabilities into their packages, this aspect of CRM tends to get overshadowed by the other capabilities; this is unfortunate because the decision support element of this technology is an essential component for success.

Lastly, there is the small e in eCRM that seems to get attached to everything in the CRM space. The e stands for electronic or web based technology and architecture. In reality, this little e should be a gigantic E because this technology, when properly used, can have a significant impact on industries and the structure of businesses. Essentially, the e enables an organization to extend its infrastructure to customers and partners in ways that offer new opportunities to learn customer needs, add value, gain new economies, reach new customers, and do all of this in real time. Given these capabilities, one begins to comprehend the power of this technology to transform the competitive landscape.

History has demonstrated that leveraging these capabilities is certainly not automatic and definitely disruptive from a change management standpoint. The reality is that eCRM is all about strategy and therefore requires the direction and engagement of senior management to be successful. Senior management must have a broad understanding of the capabilities of these technologies and then translate them into specific opportunities that leverage competitive advantage. As this description suggests, eCRM is far too important to the future of the organization to approach these decisions as being solely a technology or operational purchase. To be successful means to make sense of eCRM from a strategic, operational, and technological perspective. Those who have done this have reaped substantial benefits while those who have treated these decisions as technology or cost based decisions have found themselves to be a victim of lost opportunity.

eCRM can help answer the following questions:

How many prospecting telephone calls do your sales reps make each day?
Does everyone who communicates with a customer know what their coworkers said to them or did for them?
Is all customer information kept in one area or program for easy customer service reference?
Do you have several databases of information that you need access to benefit sales?
Are you able to manage the top 20% of accounts that give you 80% or your revenue?
Do you know how many customer service issues each customer has had and why?
Do you know which customers consume most of your CSR Rep’s time?
Are you able to access all the programs you need to from one PC screen?
What is your revenue per sales representative?
What are your win, loss and no-decision rates?
What’s your lead turnaround time?
How many sales calls are completed per rep?
What’s the average amount of time required to complete each selling step?
How many calls are required to close an opportunity?
What are the numbers of existing customer contacts and repeat business orders?
What’s the average order size and order frequency?
How do you rate your marketing or lead generation program effectiveness?
What are the win-rate comparisons for different prospect types?
What’s the sales representative success conversion rates for each sell cycle step?
What are the success rates and profitability comparisons for individual products?
What are the profitability comparisons for orders from different channels?
Can you do Mail Merge or email broadcasts to your customer base?
Do you have critical customer data on PC's that could be lost or taken and should be on one database?

If the answers to the above questions are vital for your business, you need to hire a professional internet company to implement e-CRM for you.

For more information, contact: Sharad Agarwal, CEO, Cyber Gear LLC.