The Internet is already being used to great advantage in CRM. It is indeed an ideal medium for effective customer contact and customer care/service in several businesses. Many companies in these businesses thrive by opting for the Net in handling customer relations and providing service to the customers.
Forming “Virtual Customer Communities”:
Today, customers everywhere are forming self-servicing, tight –knit virtual communities. Internet chat rooms a part of this process. The chat rooms are easy to start, join and participate. And they accommodate people with different personalities. These virtual communities exercise a powerful influence on the market in respect of several products. The power becomes all the more significant in view of the speed with which they can be mobilized. Words spread fast on the Internet. Marketers can form their own virtual communities as a part of their CRM programmes.
Impact of the Internet:
Communicating well online is becoming more important than communicating well over the telephone. That may sounds like a contrived exaggeration but consider the transitory nature of the phone call and the permanence of an e-mail.
Whether a company grants a refund to a customer based on a misunderstanding over the phone has to do with company policy and the relative status of the particular customer, than with the actual content of the call.
On the other hand, email stands as testimony to the words that were exchanged. An email can be saved by both sides, without worrying about the legality of recording a telephone call. “Some calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes” is very different from “All Calls can and will be recorded, tabulated, indexed and stored in case of disputes”. Email however can much more become part of customer’s ‘permanent record’ along with invoices and packing lists.
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