It is now a proven fact that companies that are customer focused not only stay longer in the race, but are also the more profitable ones. Online travel industry also follows the same pattern. A report by Forrester Research states that most of the frequent travelers in the US are already online. This number is around 71% now. With such a high market penetration, it is therefore quite expected that the growth opportunities are fewer. The report states that by 2011 the industry may have another 10% people under its fold, getting the total estimated percentage to 81%.
Having said this, it is obvious for the players of the online travel segment to ensure that there customers remain loyal and do not move to another player. It is here that the customer centric companies like JetBlue score over their competitors. It may be noted that despite all odds like raising costs and stiff competition, the company has managed to rank highest in customer satisfaction levels. Eye For Travel reports:
"During a presentation earlier on this year Vicky Stennes, VP Inflight Experience, JetBlue said “we built JetBlue as a customer service company – not just an airline. We desire to be compared to other best-in-class service companies, such as retail organizations like Neiman Marcus, and “experience” companies like Walt Disney”.
In one of the rare events in the industry three councils have come together to integrate their standalone CRM systems into one. This is being done just so that the three collectively may be able to meet the stringent government requirements. The three councils in question are Pendle Borough Council, Melton Borough Council and Scottish Borders Council. Though they are single minded about the reason for coming together, their perceived end benefits are quite different from one another.
Melton Borough Council wants to do this to enable the effective integration of a housing project it is currently undertaking. Scottish Borders Council wants to be a part of this just so that it can put its environmental health facilities online. This will enable the residents to have a fast and effective way to advise the council on environmental and health issues. And lastly Pendle Borough Council wishes to enable document retrieval for local residents in need of information on a specific property in the area. This they plan to achieve by integrating back office systems with front offices systems. Mikrofax reports:
“Sharon Perks, head of customer services at Melton Borough Council said the software would enable the council to "upload data into our back office systems without the need for multiple levels of input and decreasing the number of manual checks we carry out, which will save both time and money".
Today the buzz word in the CRM world seems to be ‘Behavioral Targeting’. The term literally means targeting first time prospects and converting them into customers using typical behavioral indicators. However more often than not ‘Remarketing’ and ‘Behavioral Targeting’ are terms that are being used more or less like synonyms. However one should understand that remarketing is a type of behavioral marketing. Remarketing on the other hand uses the information that you have about your existing customer and uses it to sell him something else as well.
It is therefore extremely importance to know what your end objective is and then progress with the relevant strategy. Behavioral marketing is being seen as being able to satisfying many strategic goals however the end objective has to be spelled out very clearly to the team in order to ensure that every one out there is progressing in the same direction. Clickz.com reports:
“If your goal is to fully leverage your existing customers, you should first institute a comprehensive CRM (define) program that includes regular e-mail communications and promotions. The mailings' flavor and scheduling will vary greatly, depending on your industry, customers, and buying cycles, but a permission-based e-mail program that draws on past buying behaviors is a critical component of a smart behavioral approach.”
Online gambling has reached newer heights in the UK. Just to give one an idea, over three fourths of the internet users in the UK today indulge in online gambling. However the service provided by these sites is far from satisfactory. This was revealed by Talisma, a customer service specialist that carried out an independent audit of the services provided by the top 100 popular gambling websites in the country. The audit was carried out in August 2006 with the representatives of Talisma posing as customers.
What they found out is an eye opener considering that the UK has over 29 million internet users out of which 76% users gamble online in varying degrees. They found that the sites were insensitive to the need of the customers to communicate through email and web chat. Even when calls were made to the site nearly 16% were not answered. Even if the customer was able to get through to the site, the customer relationship management desk was unable to access the necessary information to solve enquires. Online Casinos reports:
With customers now encouraged to interact with gambling sites using more cost effective communication methods such as email and online chat, the audit also analysed how good the sites were at supporting these new channels. When tested, 80 percent of the websites had disparate and unintegrated systems supporting different communication channels…”
-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Here’s the perfect example to show that organizational red tape, aka corporate governance policies, is stepping on the brakes and preventing the CRM factor from taking off. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Barometer survey of 100 executives in topnotch companies revealed that although more than 70 percent of them felt that customer data was potentially valuable, only 43 percent felt that they had put this data to effective use.
A whopping 74 percent said that the main impediment to harnessing customer data positively was “competing corporate policies,” while only 35 percent referred to technology factors. At least 75 percent cited data mining as the most important aspect in realizing the value of data, 70 percent stressed on the capability of IT systems in delivering data assets, 66 percent said that real-time information and the integration of data and business processes was critical, and only 54 percent said that key issues were the data strategy and governance structure followed.
Remember the need to wow your customers? Well, you’d better start by putting that data on them to good use!
-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Service oriented architecture (SOA) will be high on the priority list of leading CRM vendors, says a new report from research firm Gartner. SOA offers more flexibility for customers who wish to integrate new applications into existing systems, which is why Siebel, SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce.com are working on providing the underlying infrastructure. According to Gartner, the goal is the same for the four companies, but the paths they are taking are different.
- Microsoft will use its current platform to release its hosted solution, Titan CRM sometime in the middle of next year.
- Siebel, which is a part of Oracle, will use its upcoming Fusion applications to build a native SOA.
- SAP hopes to come out with an SOA-enabled business services solution in CRM 2006 and also develop “built for SOA” applications for mySAP CRM.
- Salesforce.com is banking on its Web 2.0 platform with a customizable API.
Even with the major CRM industry players joining the SOA bandwagon, Gartner predicts a very slow adoption of the technology by users. Though larger enterprises may take to the new solutions quickly, others who are comfortable with existing systems may not be willing to go through the upheaval and cost that comes with new implementations, says John Radcliffe, research vice president at Gartner.
If you were looking to invest in a good CRM solution for your organization, what are the issues under consideration? “CRM Market Size and Forecast, 2006 To 2010,” a report from Forrester Research, outlines the factors you must deliberate on before taking a decision:
- The bigger fish are going on a swallowing spree – Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft and Siebel, M2MHolding’s takeover of Onyx Software – these are two major consolidation examples in the CRM industry.
- Hosted solutions and the appearance of Salesforce.com and RightNow Technologies at the forefront of the CRM pack are driving other leaders in the industry to add web-based solutions to their portfolio of products.
- A CRM investment should be able to enhance the way companies interact with customers and optimize customer processes.
- Organizations should focus on upgrades that promise the best value for money.
- Once the vendor has been chosen, companies should stipulate that existing CRM infrastructure be optimized.