The document discusses requirements, definitions, and types of customer relationship management (CRM). It emphasizes understanding customers, viewing customers holistically across interactions, and using CRM for both operational and analytical purposes. CRM aims to create long-term customer relationships built on mutual trust that benefit both the customer and company.
13. How do you operate a CRM? How does it fit into your business?
14. Operational CRM Customers Call Centre Web Access E-Mail Usage Fax Direct Sales Refined Business Actions Dych é, J. 2002
15.
16.
17. Analytical CRM Refined Business Actions Process improve- ment Customer feedback Business intelligence Integrated Database ```` Analysis Information Business systems Billing Provisioning Accounts payable/ receivable Sales Call centre Dych é, J. 2002
All business people are also consumers, so if you are in a B2B marketplace, you should acknowledge the rules of the consumer marketplace. I would also argue that this includes the Data Protection Act, which does not currently apply to businesses!
When I was a salesman, my boss told me that people bought products or services from their ‘friends’. I have yet to meet a salesman that I could call a friend – not whilst they were trying to get my money, anyway! Trust is the basis for building loyalty which in turn will increase interaction – it is up to you to turn this interaction into profit. As a personal example – I am an Apple McIntosh user at home, but have to suffer PC’s at work. Think about the customer loyalty Apple has – most Apple users can be identified by two main attributes – they are fiercely loyal to the brand, and they are poor, because the loyalty costs so much! I have used Michael Porter’s value chain model to demonstrate the trust-focused value chain, culminating in ‘trust’ in a brand, product or service. It is no fluke that trust occupies the same space that ‘profit’ does in Porter’s model, indeed I could have extended it with another field to the right called profit. Being trustworthy is profitable.
The normal trust lifecycle curve shows that a customer will start in an untrusting state - they are unaware of the brand’s reputation. During the transaction, the customer will build a view of the company, trusting the relationship as they go. Over time, and [hopefully] with repeat transactions, this trust will be confirmed, and then maintained. Advocates, as we highlighted before, will reduce the time required to build trust, because if you trust the advocate who recommended the company to you, you will adopt some of that trust.