Technology for relationship marketing:
Technologies can be regarded as our efficient and reliable friend. But technology, if inappropriately applied, it can effectively push a customer away. However, technology has come to stay. Companies are investing heavily in technologies associated with computing and communication-within their enterprises, between themselves and their customers, distribution channel, intermediaries and suppliers. Data warehouses are proliferating. Companies of all size strive for computerizing all their activities and thus making the process more uniform.
In this digital era, there are 11 C’s of relationship marketing that can come together simultaneously to create the value for the customers. These 11 Cs are.
Criteria for creating value for customers:
1. Customers 2. Categories of goods and services 3. Capabilities 4. Cost profitability and value of contact to cash process 5.Control 6.Collaboration and Integration 7.Customisation 8.Communication 9. Customer measurements. 10. Customer care; and charge of relationship 11.Chain of relationship.
These are explained below:
1. Customer:
Technology provides the computing and communication capabilities that help the relationship marketer decide on which customers to focus and facilities the interactions needed, both with the enterprise and with its customers and suppliers, to deliver customer value. Without technology, marketers would still be thinking in terms of serving the mass market or market segments. They would still be thinking in terms of serving the mass market or market segments. They would still be thinking in terms of broadcast, one-to –one communication. They would be thinking in terms of long production runs of standardized products, one size fitting all. With technology, the specific customers with whom the company wishes to do business can be identified and further evaluated for their worthiness to pave way for a long term relationship. If the data warehouse is built appropriately, the marketer should be able to ‘slice and dice’ the data a number of ways, so that even people who are not trained in technology can use it easily.
2. Categories of goods and services:
Technology can also help the company take two key strategic decisions; what categories and types of goods and services should we provide to our customers and should we ourselves produce the goods and services that customer want?
While taking decisions regarding scope of service, it is useful to understand the full range of value a customer perceives that he/she delivers directly from the company’s products. The tangible and intangible components are associated with physical goods. The intangible components may lend themselves to more real times. Customization and Personalization, the tangibles can be assembled with the tangibles by some one other than the manufacturer. Thus, some of the decisions the manufacturer must make may pertain to benefits that will be provided and by some company in the chain of relationships.
3. Capabilities:
Technology has vital roles to play in the advancement of a company’s capabilities. The implementation of technology itself comprises the heart of the relationship marketing. Computing, data warehousing, website or interactive voice response etc.
4. Cost, Profitability and Value:
Technology can help the company manage the costs of securing, serving and retaining customers by allowing marketers to understand, in real time, the revenues and cost associated with each other. This can obviously help the relationship marketer to control and focus the relationship.
Technology can also intercede and help manage the costs and value of the relationship, drawing upon previously developed “business rules”. Business rules incorporate decisions that a management makes to guide the administration of its business and interaction with customers.
5. Control of the contact to cash processes:
Whatever the role of technology, it must have a control function to ensure that value is indeed being created for customers and for the company, and that bills are sent and payment received on time. Most companies have invested heavily in information systems that have served well for company-driven marketing, from the firm to the market. Now, with the boundaries of the enterprise blurring, with customer framing the value that each want and initiating the purchase decision, dimensions of control are becoming very tactical and strategic.
Employees learning and growth measurements could include employee retention, employee skills, employee satisfaction and employee productivity. Business process measures are typically specific to the processes being measured. In each of these cases, technology has a role to play in providing the data needed by the relationship marketer in real time, or in near real time, to enable additional investigation or action. If there is customer retention problem or a share of customer problem, for example, technology can be operating in the background, unseen to the relationship marketer, gathering and evaluating data and providing the relationship marketer with exceptional reports.
6. Collaboration and Integration
When the customer is invited into the process that creates value for her, she is more likely to increase the level at which she is bonded to the company. The process which creates the value she seeks could be in any or in all process. Thus, the customer could work with a vendor to collaborate in areas such as product and service. Conceptualization, design, development, production to order, value bundling, distribution and service/support.
Technology can help customers collaborate with their suppliers to create mutual value. Electronic Data Interchange, in particular, has had significant impact on order –taking, shipping and invoicing processes, causing improved turnaround of orders, cash flow and structural bonding.
7. Customization
Customization should not be confused with personalization. Customization allows the company or the customer or both to develop a product, service or communication that reflects the value the customer wants. Personalization is the process that enables communication, product and service to bear the name of the customer, adding value to the customer as they position themselves with others. When personalization is combined with customization, people start reaching for their wallets.
8. Communication, Interaction and Positioning:
Mass marketing required mass –promotional vehicles such as TV, radio, news papers and outdoor media. In a Fragmented market, the promotion channels are much narrower and more highly targeted; including specialized magazines, advising on everything from park benches to ski chair lifts, etc that is broad casting first became “narrow casting” and has now become “Point casting”. When point casting is interactive and real time, it may be termed conversing just as a conversation between people. Conversing occurs at the initiation of either the customer or the company and can involve technology such as call centre, the internet or interactive voice response and others. Other forms of interactive communication has emerged, including interactive telephones-based communication, using the call centre, for so –called Telemarketing or Telesales, and communication over the internet that offers an opportunity to engage supplier ,called ‘web casting’
Technology can help the company to converse with individuals at a cost that reflects the value of the communication, and can discriminate among the purpose of different communication assigning the appropriate media to fulfill the each task.
Technology provides knowledge and insight to let the firm contact the customer at the right time i.e, when they are ready to buy- and use the media each customer prefers to reach him/her. Using ‘intelligent agent’- a software that can search for information, customers can even specify the information to be sent and then the agents can go on to the web to find the information wherever they have been programmed and send information as specified to each customer.
9. Customer Measurements:
Technology can assist the company to understand current and emerging customer issues while there is still time to address the problems without damaging the relationship. For example, measurements can be maintained on time liners of delivery, waiting time before customer calls are answered, and time to address customer complaints. All this can be done in the background, using technology to manage the information and provide management reports. Technology can also be used to track measurement such as customer profitability, share of customer expenditure and the customer’s state of mind , with research data logged into database. Once compensation is linked to customer measurements, such as these, this area will assume unprecedented importance and attention.
10. Customer Care:
Technology has a major role to play in providing customers with the attention they seek. The internet can be particularly cost effective in shifting cost structure from human operation.
11. Chain of Relationship:
A chain of relationship comprises the series of linkage between the end –customers and all the stake holders which contribute to the value they receive. These stake holders include suppliers, distribution channel intermediaries, employees, customers and others, such as investors and the board of directors. They are all to be forged into strong chains that will all ever increasing value to the end-customers relationship. The relationships the company forms with end-customers will be only remain as the weakest link in the chain. All efforts are needed to maintain and deepen the relationship with the end-customer.
Technology has a important role in the structural bonding among all the components of the chain of relationship. For years, companies have used independent and often proprietary solution-those that they develop themselves to achieve this bonding. They put this software and/or hardware on their customer’s premises to give them power to initiate paperless ordering.
