NewsDude
09-15-2008, 04:40 PM
Customer relationship management (CRM) in name has been around for about 10-12 years. Yet the concept -- knowing your customers and delivering the level of service to them that is appropriate for their existing and future importance -- has long been at the heart of commerce.
CRM has become more valuable and efficient thanks to improving technologies and practices. Advanced software has given larger enterprises that personalized small business feel of customers, which boosted service and sales. These tools, which have become more affordable thanks to software as a service (SaaS) solutions, have enabled small/midsized businesses (SMBs) to gain big-firm insight into their buyers' behavior to help them stay competitive.
CRM has also become more challenging. The numbers of channels has been expanding, such as SMS and mobile web a.k.a. unified communications (UC). Customers are gaining more control of their interactions through online research. Many products and services have become commoditized, most notably travel.
And when the economy turns soft, as it appears to be doing in the US especially, lower prices and greater convenience necessitated by rising gas costs that are limiting travel often trump service and relationships in buying decisions.
To get the 360-degree picture of CRM we asked leading executives for their insights on key issues, which we would like to share with you.
Aperio CI
William J. "Duffy" Mich, Jr., Chairman and CEO
Traditionally, smaller companies would always say they could compete with larger firms by offering more responsive and personalized customer service. But as technology has improved, larger companies have been able to leverage advanced CRM tools that enable them to become faster and more efficient when dealing with customers.
While many CRM providers still focus on addressing enterprise needs, technology is just as important to SMBs; they just have fewer financial and human resources to commit to technology compared to their...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61846)
CRM has become more valuable and efficient thanks to improving technologies and practices. Advanced software has given larger enterprises that personalized small business feel of customers, which boosted service and sales. These tools, which have become more affordable thanks to software as a service (SaaS) solutions, have enabled small/midsized businesses (SMBs) to gain big-firm insight into their buyers' behavior to help them stay competitive.
CRM has also become more challenging. The numbers of channels has been expanding, such as SMS and mobile web a.k.a. unified communications (UC). Customers are gaining more control of their interactions through online research. Many products and services have become commoditized, most notably travel.
And when the economy turns soft, as it appears to be doing in the US especially, lower prices and greater convenience necessitated by rising gas costs that are limiting travel often trump service and relationships in buying decisions.
To get the 360-degree picture of CRM we asked leading executives for their insights on key issues, which we would like to share with you.
Aperio CI
William J. "Duffy" Mich, Jr., Chairman and CEO
Traditionally, smaller companies would always say they could compete with larger firms by offering more responsive and personalized customer service. But as technology has improved, larger companies have been able to leverage advanced CRM tools that enable them to become faster and more efficient when dealing with customers.
While many CRM providers still focus on addressing enterprise needs, technology is just as important to SMBs; they just have fewer financial and human resources to commit to technology compared to their...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61846)