What CRM 2.0 Brings to the World of Business
The World Wide Web has proved to be the most preferred and the most often used communication instrument for both business and customers, and along this, the customer relationship management (CRM) concept is fast gaining prominence as a tool to bridge the gap of total customer satisfaction between a business and its customers. But somewhere along the line, this unidirectional tool has been the object of criticism because of the inherent weakness that it fails to advance the objective for which it was originally conceptualized for. This is the impetus for CRM 2.0.
CRM is mostly concerned with the programs, technologies, processes and systems that a company should have to be able to manage customer’s activities and improve its recorded metrics for use in customer acquisition, retention and even loyalty. In other words, the main focus is on a complete customer record on file which can be accessed by those in need of it.
The initial version of CRM is data and process driven. Rather than making the customers king, it drove the point that the business sales process which is being sold to the customer is the one that is king. Even marketing in the CRM concept is campaign driven. Send the customers emails, give him phone calls, and create a TV or a magazine ad. It is the campaigns that sent all these messages to targeted customers that appear to be at the core of the system. The entire technology and strategies that are associated with it seem aimed at making sure that the message heard by customers was the same message they were looking to hear. Even though customer input was solicited, it still was a single dimensional approach. The customer becomes the object of sale while the business is the object of purchasing decision, a very limited relationship.
It is a combined philosophy and business strategy. Exactly what it means to the different business organizations remains unclear to this day. But it is designed to engage customers in a collaborative dialogue leading to mutually beneficial value inside a transparent and trusted business environment. It becomes the business response to the clamor for customer’s ownership of the conversion, supported from all sides by technological platform, business processes, rules and social attributes.
• What this effectively means is that businesses have come to realize the validity of the rationalization that customers must have control over their business decisions which to some extent should influence the business decisions of the company, and now is trying to work out collaboration with customers. Instead of just having quality products and services, customers interact with businesses in order to come up with an even better product and services that is in direct response to customer’s needs and requirements.
But the kind of tools that are necessary to support the development and ultimately the implementation of this tool are being debated. There are many experts that are in the belief that majority of the current CRM vendors lack the necessary vision needed to come up with its tools and that even the tools available in the market right now lack the required capabilities for it.
• CRM 2.0 essentially means that businesses do more than just register customers concerns and complaints. It means that it should and must get in touch with the customer to engage his help in solving the problem. So, not only does the customer go out with problems resolved to his satisfaction, the business also puts in place processes, practices and technologies to that the same issue does not arise anymore. The proper channels are established to furnish customers access that they need in order to bring to the consciousness of the business whatever concerns might arise, before the customers go out and raise their complaints to their friends to the detriment of the company. The customer is given some opportunity to help address the issue and compensated should his proposal prove successful.
But while the advocates of this tool are fast growing, and the concept is gaining many converts daily, most businesses have been slow in embracing it. This could be attributed to the lack of clear definition and proper understanding of what it means and the repercussions it has to the business operations in its implementation. But as the CRM 2.0 concept becomes clearer and enabling solutions are developed and made readily available, business organizations and companies will need to consider this approach seriously relative to managing their customer’s experiences.