Microsoft Customer Relationship Management Crm Enables Its Clients To X Plan

Microsoft Customer Relationship Management CRM enables its clients to X plan

Microsoft announced that, based in the Netherlands, the world’s leading forklift truck manufacturer Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Europe BV company (MCFE) in the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, was excellent Gartner CRM Customer Service Award. Gartner HP [...]]]> Microsoft Customer Relationship Management Crm Enables Its Clients To X Plan

Microsoft Customer Relationship Management CRM enables its clients to X plan

Microsoft announced that, based in the Netherlands, the world’s leading forklift truck manufacturer Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Europe BV company (MCFE) in the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, was excellent Gartner CRM Customer Service Award. Gartner HP pavilion dv9000 Battery, and 1 to 1 Media award to set this strategy, technology and implementation in one of the best companies and their customers and businesses with exceptional customer experience to acknowledge the value.

MCFE company’s main manufacturing forklift trucks and related parts, the main business processes including sales and distribution, order entry, processes, and IT technical support and dealer communication. Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment, the company realized a simplified order entry and processing, information technology support requests and dealer communications in the business applications customized to shorten the time from 35 days to 10 days, to save development costs by up to 60%, and order processing speed from 5 minutes up to 90 seconds.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM general manager Brad Wilson said: “Companies need a faster speed, lower cost to achieve the basic business applications. MCFE on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the innovative use of popular Gartner and 1 to 1 Media recognition, we this honor. This case demonstrates how our customers discover the value of their existing Microsoft products, and provides easy design, easy to administer, and easier to customers to use business solutions. “

In addition MCFE, the world, many companies are using xRM (Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a flexible application development framework), accelerating business-critical application development and deployment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the xRM application framework is a intuitive, model-driven business application framework, to speed up enterprise application development. xRM can take advantage of all the Microsoft application platform capabilities, or through internal deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM-managed to achieve in the cloud level and accelerate enterprise application development and delivery.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM through the Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SQL Server with, companies can make use of the common IT infrastructure and skills to create powerful business solutions. The following is part of the customer success stories:

? Arbor Day Foundation, the U.S. non-profit organization designed for the holding of 15 charities, fund-raising activities, donor management and advocacy relationship management applications. The Foundation estimates xRM can help save three times to help Dell Inspiron 6000 Battery application development time, so that it can work better for the partners and sponsors to respond to and interaction.

? U.S. financial service companies use xRM CAPTRUST financial advisers to design, including retirement plan sponsors online trust management tools, including more than 20 business applications. The company also established a financial advisor portal, built faster than any other self-developed system to be twice as fast.

? American Marketing Corporation Comag Marketing Group relationship management applications over 40 had increased, and plans to increase the application of another paragraph 80. By using Microsoft’s technical specifications, the company significantly reduces the cost of managing all these applications.

? Finland maker Ensto XRM-based design company several applications, including supplier relationship management and quality relationship management solutions. With xRM, Ensto various solutions can save 138 thousand U.S. dollars.

? Melbourne Business School, designed a few months for the management of future students, alumni, donors who, visiting lecturers and other staff relationship management system, thus the processing speed of 50%, 节省 half the cost.

? New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development (MED) developed a system of reporting tools, including consumer services, energy security and intelligence applications and donor information management system, including a number of relationship management solutions. With the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM business management solution, the framework to help the sector substantially reduce development costs and accelerate the development and provision of other new custom-type applications.

? North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety developed a number of reviews on alcohol and lottery license applications, which will increase the efficiency of 80%, and the new application process to shorten the time from 5 days to 1 day.

? Microsoft product releases and security services team (PRSS) Acer Aspire 1410 battery a number of Microsoft product launch relationship management solutions to improve the efficiency of product release and regulations 98% and 94% accelerated time to market.

? North America’s leading luxury cruise operator Travel Dynamics International has designed a reservation and ticketing relationship management system which will improve the efficiency of 400%, and sales increased by 10%.

? U.S. financial services company ValMark several securities companies across multiple sectors develop custom solutions, including the international reputation of ValMark Back Office Support System (VBOSS) policy relationship management solutions. VBOSS will increase 89% customer satisfaction, while improving employee productivity.

Arbor Day Foundation, IT director Mike Ashley, said: “With xRM, we have the entire application from development to launch in just 30 days. Very smoothly. We estimated that it may take 3 months or more to complete expansion of the old system . “

Ascentium Corporation Managing Partner Mark Barrett, said: “Every business customers have different problems and challenges to be addressed. With xRM, the shortest we could one day be able to create specialized applications, but no longer need to take several months . we can help customers quickly achieve their business objectives and enhance our position as the value of its business partners. “

1. Questions such customer does with mode from Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the example reflects the benefit of Microsoft business management solutions sector commitment, dedicated to helping the Company under their business development needs, Tong Guo Fujitsu Lifebook T4020 Battery operational applications Linghuo strategic use their full potential to achieve their own goals vision.

Related Customer Relationship Management Articles

                              CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

GUIDED BY: Dr.JELSY JOSEPH

DIRECTOR, DEPT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES &RESEARCH,

KARPAGAM UNIVERSITY,COIMBATORE

INTRODUCTION:

   No organization is secure today unless its every action is processed through the customer’s eyes. Today’s businesses are facing fierce and too aggressive competition while operating in both domestic and global markets. Traditional marketing methods have failed to deliver results in [...]]]> CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

                              CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

GUIDED BY: Dr.JELSY JOSEPH

DIRECTOR, DEPT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES &RESEARCH,

KARPAGAM UNIVERSITY,COIMBATORE

INTRODUCTION:

   No organization is secure today unless its every action is processed through the customer’s eyes. Today’s businesses are facing fierce and too aggressive competition while operating in both domestic and global markets. Traditional marketing methods have failed to deliver results in recent times. Customer Relationship Management is the establishment, development, maintenance and optimisation of long-term mutually valuable relationships between consumers and organisations. The focus of relationship marketing is on developing long-term relationships and improving corporate performance through customer loyalty and customer retention.

Types/variations of CRM

There are several different approaches to CRM, with different software packages focusing on different aspects. In general,Customer Service, Campaign Management and Sales Force Automation (SFA) form the core of the systematic

Operational CRM

Operational CRM provides support to “front office” business processes, e.g. to sales marketing and service staff. Interactions with customers are generally stored in customers’ contact histories, and staff can retrieve customer information as necessary.

The contact history provides staff members with immediate access to important information on the customer (products owned, prior support calls etc.), eliminating the need to individually obtain this information directly from the customer. Reaching to the customer at right time at right place is preferable.

Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:

Managing campaigns Enterprise Marketing Automation Sales Force Automation Sales Management  SysteM

Analytical CRM

Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:

Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns Designing and executing campaigns, e.g. customer acquisition, cross-selling up-selling, addon-selling Analyzing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and services (e.g. pricing, product development) Management information system (e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis)

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining and other techniques to produce useful results for decision-making. It is at the analytical stage that the importance of fully integrated CRM software becomes most apparent. Logically speaking, the more information that the analytical software has available for analysis, the better its predictions and recommendations will be.

Sales Intelligence CRM

Sales Intelligence CRM is similar to Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct sales tool. Features include alerts sent to sales staff regarding:

Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities Customer drift Sales performance Customer trends Customer margins Customer alignment

Campaign Management

Campaign management combines elements of Operational and Analytical CRM. Campaign management functions include:

Target groups formed from the client base according to selected criteria Sending campaign-related material (e.g. on special offers) to selected recipients using various channels (e.g. e-mail, telephone, SMS, post) Tracking, storing, and analyzing campaign statistics, including tracking responses and analyzing trends

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM covers aspects of a company’s dealings with customers that are handled by various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and marketing. Staff members from different departments can share information collected when interacting with customers. For example, feedback received by customer support agents can provide other staff members with information on the services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM’s ultimate goal is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality of services provided by the company. CRM also plays a role of data distributor within customers, producers and partners. Producers can use CRM information to develop products or find new market. CRM facilitates communication between customers, suppliers and partner by using new information system such email, link and data bank.

Consumer Relationship CRM

Consumer Relationship System (CRS) covers aspects of a company’s dealing with customers handled by the Consumer Affairs and Customer Relations contact centers within a company. Representatives handle in-bound contact from anonymous consumers and customers. Early warnings can be issued regarding product issues (e.g. item recalls) and current consumer sentiment can be tracked .

Benefits of CRM

The benefits of customer relationship management are abounding. It allows organizations not only to retain customers, but enables more effective marketing, creates intelligent opportunities for cross selling and opens up the possibility of rapid introduction of new brands and products. To be able to deliver these benefits, organizations must be able to customize their product offering, optimize price, integrate products and services and deliver the service as promised and demanded by the customer base. Keeping the customer happy is obviously one way of ensuring that they stay with organization. However, by maintaining an overall relationship with customer, companies are able to unlock potential of their customer base and maximize contribution to their business. Based on successful CRM implementations, the following benefits seem reasonable:

Increased sales volume: Increased sales result from spending more time with customers and gathering more and more information about their preferences about the products and services. Increased margin: Increased margin resulting from knowing customers better, and providing a value product on discounting prices. Improved customer satisfaction ratings: Customer will be more satisfied if he finds the company to be more responsive and better in touch with their specific needs. Decreased marketing administrative costs: Since the company has specified its target segment customers, it knows their needs better so it is not wasting unnecessary time and money which result into decreased marketing costs.

CUSTOMER Strategy

Several CRM software packages are available, and they vary in their approach to CRM. However, as mentioned above, CRM is not just a technology but rather a comprehensive, customer-centric approach to an organization’s philosophy of dealing with its customers. This includes policies and processes, front-of-house customer service  employee training, marketing, systems and information management. Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation considerations stretch beyond technology toward the broader organizational requirements.

The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers’ needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives can support the development of marketing strategy by developing the organization’s knowledge in areas such as identifying customer segments, improving customer retention , improving product offerings (by better understanding customer needs), and by identifying the organization’s most profitable customer

CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity, and scope. Some companies consider a CRM strategy only to focus on the management of a team of salespeople. However, other CRM strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization. Many commercial CRM software packages provide features that serve the sales, marketing, event management, project management, and finance industries.

From this perspective, CRM has for some time been seen to play an important role in many sales process engineering effort.

Implementation issues

Many CRM project “failures” are also related to data quality and availability . Data cleaning is a major issue. If a company’s CRM strategy is to track life-cycle revenues, costs, margins, and interactions between individual customers, this must be reflected in all business processes. Data must be extracted from multiple sources (e.g., departmental/divisional databases such as sales, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, finance, service etc.), which requires an integrated, comprehensive system in place with well-defined structures and high data quality. Data from other systems can be transferred to CRM systems using appropriate interfaces.

Because of the company-wide size and scope of many CRM implementations, significant pre-planning is essential for smooth roll-out. This pre-planning involves a technical evaluation of the data available and the technology employed in existing systems. This evaluation is critical to determine the level of effort needed to integrate this data.

Equally critical is the human aspect of the implementation. A successful implementation requires an understanding of the expectations and needs of the stakeholders involved. An executive sponsor should also be obtained to provide high-level management representation of the CRM project.

An effective tool for identifying technical and human factors before beginning a CRM project is a pre-implementation checklist. A checklist can help ensure any potential problems are identified early in the process.

 The Future of CRM

            With the increased penetration of CRM philosophies in organizations and the concomitant rise in spending on people and products to implement them, it is clear we will see improvements in how companies work to establish long-term relationships with their customers.  However, there is a big difference between spending money on these people and products and making it all work: implementation of CRM practices is still far short of ideal.  Everyone has his or her own stories about poor customer service and e-mails sent to companies without hearing a response. Despite several years of experience, Web-based companies still did not fulfill many Christmas orders in 2000 and customers continue to have difficulties returning unwanted or defective products.  More companies are recognizing the importance of creating databases and getting creative at capturing customer information.  Real-time analyses of customer behavior on the Web for better customer selection and targeting (e.g., Net Perceptions) which permits companies to anticipate what customers are likely to buy.  Companies will learn how to develop better communities around their brands giving customers more incentives to identify themselves with those brands and exhibit higher levels of loyalty.

   One way that some companies are developing an improved focus on CRM is through the establishment or consideration of splitting the marketing manager job into two parts: one for acquisition and one for retention.  The kinds of skills that are need for the two tasks are quite different.  People skilled in acquisition have experience in the usual tactical aspects of marketing: advertising, sales, etc.  However, the skills for retention can be quite different as the job requires a better understanding of the underpinnings of satisfaction and loyalty for the particular product category.  In addition, time being a critical scarce resource makes it difficult to do an excellent job on both acquisition and retention.  As a result, some companies have appointed a chief customer officer (CCO) whose job focuses only on customer interactions. 

          CEM, Customer Experience Management. .  Marketing managers for frequently-purchased products like toothpaste are not as likely to find CRM investments paying out to the extent they will for, say, computer servers given the differences in difficulties of reaching customers and the profit margins of the respective products.  However, even companies in the former areas are using the Web to attempt to differentiate their brands from the myriad others appearing in supermarkets and discount stores.  This is some evidence that there are perhaps few companies that cannot benefit from the CRM structure provided in this paper.

Conclusion

Customer relationship management does not enable a quick win. It is a long-term approach that has to be adopted at a strategic level. Whilst the value of customer relationship management has been identified by organizations, they are yet to look at the bigger picture and understand all of associated benefits that would enable their business strategies to be successful. Those responsible for delivery are perhaps the most informed about these strategic benefits yet the transformation is long-drawn-out process. The competencies required to deliver these customer benefits are: to deliver on its service promise, integrate products and service channels effectively, customize products & service and their respective prices, create opportunities for cross selling and delivery mechanisms for the onward promotion of these products and services and reduce the gestation period to market by allowing quick and effective introduction of new products and services.

Related Customer Relationship Management Articles

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Introduction:

In today’s competitive markets, customers are demanding an altogether different kind of relationship with producers and suppliers than the customers of transactional marketing era. The customers are more value conscious and if they do not find value for their money, they have no qualms in shifting their loyalties; undoubtedly this is [...]]]> CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Introduction:

In today’s competitive markets, customers are demanding an altogether different kind of relationship with producers and suppliers than the customers of transactional marketing era. The customers are more value conscious and if they do not find value for their money, they have no qualms in shifting their loyalties; undoubtedly this is the golden era for the customers, but for companies, survival has never been so easy. The companies have to strive hard and should win customer’s confidence which is possible only when companies keep delivering value to customers.             As customers consistently are in search of value, they are also interested in helping companies create value for which the companies need information. The new age customers also want to share problems they are facing, and inform companies the kind of product or service they are looking for. They also want companies to share every bit of information they have, which helps in developing a close bond between the customer and the company.

Developing, maintaining, and sustaining the close bond between the customer and company is known as customer relationship. Companies across the horizon, to enrich the bond of customer relationship, are using the new database technologies that enable the management to know all about customers and offer customers a platform to interact with the company. Today, customers and companies share information, which has helped the company to revive their relationship with customers and manage the customer relationship.

Evolution of CRM:

The focus of transactional marketing approach is on individual transaction and does not concern continuous relationship with customers. The framework of transactional marketing does not contain a strategic long-term perspective. It centres around tentative adjustment process as regards performing marketing functions. Customers are viewed as outsiders to the business.

            Under transactional approach customer’s expectations, satisfaction, multiple influences on their decision – making process etc., are not given due significance. Very little attention is paid to customer services and customer commitments. The thrust of transactional marketing is on gaining more and more new customers rather than retaining existing customers.

In contrast to the transactional marketing approach, the relationship marketing focuses on continuous multiple transactions rather than isolated individual transactions. The relationship marketing approach considers customers as insiders to the business and aims to build a long-term and never-ending relationship with them. The focus of relationship marketing approach centres around developing hard core loyal customers with the idea of retaining them forever. A high degree of customer contact, commitment and services are maintained.

The relationship marketing approach has gradually taken the shape of Customer Relationship Management. Relationship marketing has a narrow focus on the customers and only on the marketing functions of the organization concerned. On the other hand, Customer Relationship Management focuses more widely on customers and on the entire functions connected with value creation and delivery chain of the organization concerned. Organizations have preferred the usage of the term Customer Relationship Management rather than relationship marketing.

The Customer Relationship Management in general is operationally defined by authors as “a management process of acquiring customers by understanding their requirements, retaining customers by fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations and attracting new customers through customer specific strategic marketing approaches. The process invites total commitment on the part of the entire organization in evolving and implementing relationship strategies that would be rewarding to all concerned.”

CRM BUSINESS CYCLE:  The CRM Business Cycle are:

Acquisition and Retaining Understand and Differentiate Develop and Customize Interact and Deliver

Acquisition and Retaining

            Acquisition is a vital stage in building customer relationship.  For the purpose of customer acquisition, an organization is likely to focus its attention the suspects, enquiries, lapsed customers, former customers, competitor’s customers’ referrals, and the existing buyers.  From these the organizations need to acquire customers and prospective customers and retain valuable customers.

Understand and Differentiate

            Organizations cannot have a relationship with customers unless they understand them…what they value, what types of service are important to them, how and when they like to interact and what they want to buy.  True understanding is based on a combination of detailed analysis and interaction. To understand the customers the various activities required are:

Profiling to understand demographics, purchase patterns and channel preference. Segmentation to identify logical unique groups of customers that tend to look alike and behave in a similar fashion.  While the promise of one-one marketing sounds good, we have not seen many organizations that have mastered the art of treating each customer uniquely.  Identification of actionable segments is a practical place to start. Primary research to capture needs and attitudes. Customer valuation to understand profitability, as well as lifetime value or long-term potential.  Value may also be based on the customer’s ability or inclination to refer other profitable customers.

            Customer need to see that the company is tailoring service and communications based on what they have learnt independently and on what the customers have told to them.

Develop and Customize

            In the product world of yesterday, companies developed products and services and expected customers to buy them.  In a customer-focused world, product and channel development has to follow the customer’s lead.  Organizations are increasingly developing products and services and even new channels based on customer needs and service expectations.

Interact and Deliver

            Interaction is also a critical component of a successful CRM initiative.  It is important to remember that interaction doesn’t just occur through marketing and sales channels and media; customers interact in many different ways with many different areas of the organization, including distribution and shipping, customer service and online.

            With access to information and appropriate training, organizations will be prepared to steadily increase the value they deliver to customers.

CRM Technology

            The application of technology is the most exciting, fastest growing and changing the way customers get information about products and services.  Technology includes all the equipment, software, and communication links that organizations use to enable or improve their processes.  The mostly used tools are

Sales Force Automation

            These systems help in automating and optimizing sales processes to shorten the sales cycle and increases sales productivity.  They enable the company to track and manage all qualified leads, contacts and opportunities throughout the sales cycle including customer support.  They improve the effectiveness of marketing communications programmes for generating quality leads as well as greater accuracy in sales forecasting.  The internet can be used by the company in imparting proper training to its sales force.  In depth product information, specialized databases of solutions, sales force support queries, and a set of internal information on the internet can improve the productivity of the sales force.

Call Centers

            Call Center helps in automating the operations of inbound and outbound calls generated between company and its customers.  These solutions integrate the voice switch of automated telephone systems with an agent host software allowing for automatic call routing to agents, auto display of relevant customer data, predictive dialing, self-service Interactive Voice Response systems, etc.  These Systems are useful in high volume segments like banking, telecom and hospitality industries.  Today, more innovative channels of interacting with customers are emerging as a result of new technology, such as global telephone based call centers and the internet.  Companies are now focusing to offer solutions that leverage the internet in building comprehensive CRM systems allowing them to handle customer interactions in all forms.

Data Warehousing

            A data warehouse is an implementation of an informational database used to store shareable data that originates in an operational database-of-record and in external market data sources.  It is typically a subject database that allows users to tap into a company’s vast store of operational data to track and respond to business trends and facilitates forecasting and planning efforts.

Data Mining and OLAP

            Data mining involves specialized software tools that allow users to sift through large amounts of data to uncover data content relationships and build models to predict customer behavior.  Data mining uses well-established statistical and machine learning techniques to build models that predict customer behavior.

            OLAP (Online Analytical Processing), also known as multi-dimensional data analysis, offers advanced capabilities in querying and analyzing the information in a data warehouse.  In some CRM initiatives, OLAP plays a major role in the secondary analysis that takes place after initial customer segmentation has occurred. For example, in CRM – based campaign management systems, OLAP is an excellent tool for analyzing the success or failure of the promotional campaigns.

Decision Support and Reporting Tools

            Web enabled reporting tools and executive information systems are used to deploy the business information that has been discovered.  This enhanced customer knowledge is distributed to executive decision-makers as well as to the operational customer contact points.  Applications equipped with some of the same sophisticated modeling routines developed in the data-mining phase are applied to individual contacts in real time.

Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS)

            The main benefit of EPOS and retail scanner systems is the amount of timely and accurate information they deliver.  Advances in the technology have significantly aided the scope for data analysis. In addition to the original scanner-related data on sales rate, stock level, stock turn, price and margin, retailers now have information about the demographics, socio- economic and lifestyle characteristics of consumers.

Benefits of CRM:

The following are the befits of customer relationship management

Generation of more and more loyal customers. Expansion of customer base. Reduction in advertisement and other sales promotional expenses. Benefiting customer selectivity approach. Increase in the number of profitable customers. Easy introduction of new products. Easy business expansion possibilities. Increase in customer partnering, etc.

      Apart from the above mentioned business benefits, the customers are also benefited in terms of improved service quality, personalized care, reduction of customer stress, increased value of money, customer empowerment.

Conclusion:

      In today’s highly competitive business world, CRM is becoming the ultimate solution for both, customers as well as organizations. A good CRM system may adopt many tools to enable the various processes, viz., marketing campaign building, sales tracking, incentive compensation and customer delivery. Each of these processes requires number of programs or technologies to provide a solution. Companies need to develop a consistent scalable technology platform that is supportable across delivery channels, and management must train people at all levels of the organization to understand the new technologies and incorporate a customer-centric approach to every customer’s interactions.

REFERENCES

Greenberg -  CRM at the Speed of Light-TataMcGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd.,New Delhi. Peeru Mohamed H ; Sagadevan A – Customer Relationship Management – A Step by Step Approach, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_Relationship_Management – 47k www.crminfoline.com/ – 18k

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a growing phenomenon in worldwide business today. From the original ideas of outsourcing the data center and having third parties manage the software (the ASP movement of the turn of the century) to true SaaS today, the tsunami of outsourced IT and new methods of accessing business [...]]]> Top Reasons for Popularity of Hosted CRM

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a growing phenomenon in worldwide business today. From the original ideas of outsourcing the data center and having third parties manage the software (the ASP movement of the turn of the century) to true SaaS today, the tsunami of outsourced IT and new methods of accessing business software solutions has created a multi-billion dollar market.

But first we will define the terms we are using. Consider the following industry definitions:

• On-Premise

– Software developed internally or purchased as a user license

– An up-front capital expense

– Software that runs entirely within the hardware systems of its owner or licensee

– The consumer is responsible for the management of the software installed

– Customers may be on many different releases of the software

• Hosted software/ On Demand Software

– Licensed software for which the supporting infrastructure and application support is outsourced to a third party

– Single tenant software

– The consumer may configure the software, but the technical infrastructure that hosts the software and its management is outsourced

The business reasons for the very high adoption rates of SaaS, as stated by industry analysts, include:

• More rapid access to state-of-the-art technology

• Shift in focus to core business management, rather than disproportionate attention on the    computer environment

• More rapid time-to-production

• Improved security, performance, and availability

• Reliable access to data, anywhere, anytime

• Greater ability to scale as business needs change lower cost of business solution ownership

• Predictability of costs over time

• Avoidance of technology lock-in

• Increased risk mitigation with better support for compliance

Top Reasons for Popularity of On Demand CRM’s are:

Freedom of Choice – True Platform Flexibility

Most growing businesses eventually migrate to an inhouse CRM system to satisfy the need for sophisticated, end-to-end process integration. Hosted CRM’s today provides the capability to seamlessly move to an on-site CRM system giving the user platform flexibility

Deployment in Days

With Hosted CRM solutions there’s nothing to install, so you can get started without calling your IT department or waiting for a consultant’s help. In fact, you and your entire team can be up and running on the CRM in a matter of days.

Affordable

With hosted CRM solutions, one low price gets you everything you need—your CRM application, support, training, backups, updates, and more—without large, upfront software and hardware investments or a dedicated system administrator. Your CRM costs scale according to your

organization’s growth.

Ease-of-Use

Everything from the user interface to workflows to accounts and order information reporting has been developed for ease of use. Plus, because these solutions integrate seamlessly with leading mailing solutions like Microsoft Outlook, you can conveniently use powerful CRM features from within the Outlook interface

Easily Customizable (no programming required)

Today hosted CRM solutions easily adapt to the way you work by letting you define your own processes. You can define specific workflows unique to your business, describe your own fields, profile key attributes and create your own screens, tabs, lists and views—without having to do any programming.

Critical Customer Information Access to Mobile Workforce

Real-time data at your fingertips anytime and anywhere with wireless connectivity and enhanced support for PDA devices using Pocket PC operating systems. PDA users can access a full range of functions both online and off, including the ability to view reports, update contacts and sales opportunities, qualify leads, track customer issues, and manager tasks and calendars. Anytime synchronization with your central CRM system translates into higher productivity and reduced costs.

Built-In Workflows

Keep everyone on the same page with CRM workflows that allow your entire team to follow identical processes. With hosted CRM software’s, you can see exactly where each sale or project is and when it’s expected to be complete.

Anytime, Anywhere Access

Hosted CRM solutions provides 24-hour secured access anywhere in the world. No matter where your employees are, they’ve got complete access to the data they need most. Plus, with wireless device support, your salespeople can access prospect information on their handheld PDAs.

Seamless Off-the-Shelf Integration

View customer account payables and receivables, order information, and more! Hosted CRM offers seamless integration to all of your accounting activities, presenting a true 360-degree view of your customers, and empowering your staff to provide enhanced service.

Sage India is one of the most popular companies for Hosted CRM in India. To know more about Sage Hosted CRM you can visit http://www.sagesoftware.co.in/Customer-Relationship-Management-Crm-ERP-Payroll-Software-Company-India-SageCRM.com.aspx

Customer Care Services

Customer Care Service (also known as Client Service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

Or

Customer care is a customer service that seeks to acquire new customers, provide superior customer satisfaction, and build customer loyalty.

Its [...]]]> Customer Care Services, Offshore Customer Care, Outsourcing Customer Relationship Management, Outsource Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customer Care Services

Customer Care Service (also known as Client Service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

Or

Customer care is a customer service that seeks to acquire new customers, provide superior customer satisfaction, and build customer loyalty.

Its importance varies by product, industry and customer. As an example, an expert customerght require less pre-purchase service (i.e., advice) than a novice. In many cases, customer service is more important if the purchase relates to a “service” as opposed to a “product”.

Offshore Outsourcing Customer Care service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites.

With the deregulation of telecommunications services, consumers now have more choice in selecting a service provider. When ordering a new service or maintaining an existing service, consumers must take into account the following three key factors: the quality of the service, the price of the service, and the customer service of the service provider. The first two factors are relatively objective and usually easy to control. Customer service dissatisfaction is the most important key factor when a consumer decides to change service providers.

A customer care system is a customer service system that helps telecommunications service providers acquire and retain loyal customers. The customer care system provides many means for service providers to achieve these goals with the help of technology.

Customer care includes tech support, billing inquiries, shipping statuses to good old-fashioned feedback methods. Web users, especially those who pay money for a service online, often require tech support, and they want it fast. Customers who order products need to be able to track their goodies as they progress along the delivery route, and some just like to provide feedback to the company or service from which they made their ordered. Customer care can literally make or break your business’s online endeavors.

Keywords :

Customer Care Services, Offshore Customer care, Outsourcing Customer Relationship Management, Outsource Customer Satisfaction Survey, Inbound Phone Support, Live Chat Support, Technical Support Services, Answering Services, India, USA, UK, Australia, France, Russia, Spain, Germany

Source By

Team Yantrambpo

http://customer-care-services.yantrambpo.com/

As the old saying goes, the customer is always right. Whilst most business owners will undoubtedly be able to regale tales of difficult customers who would assert their authority as the paying consumer, the age old adage is more to do with the principle of pulling out all the stops to keep a [...]]]> Effective Customer Relationship Management

As the old saying goes, the customer is always right. Whilst most business owners will undoubtedly be able to regale tales of difficult customers who would assert their authority as the paying consumer, the age old adage is more to do with the principle of pulling out all the stops to keep a customer happy.

Without customers a business wouldn’t be able to exist. All the technology, marketing campaigns and meticulously modelled company infrastructure is of no use at all if there is nobody at the front-end who is actually interested in buying the company’s products or services. Central to the growth of any business is its ability to draw in new customers. But equally important, if not more so, is its ability to hold on to existing customers.

Having a solid client base removes a lot of the pressure of having to constantly target new customers, which can be a very costly and time consuming exercise; though one that shouldn’t be neglected. However, at the very core of any successful business will be a loyal, dedicated customer base that will help to ensure the short and long term profitability of the organisation. Of course, for those who are new to the world of business, learning the tricks of the trade and how to effectively use the latest technology may take a little bit of time to perfect.

Cross-selling, for example, is a commonly used marketing method that is employed by countless companies. Essentially, this involves targeting existing customers with additional products or services that are relevant to their current requirements, which requires a detailed record of each customer’s purchasing history.

Up-selling can also be a very effective sales technique, whereby a customer is encouraged to purchase add-ons or upgrades at the point of sale. This is where having the right knowledge and tools can add real value to a marketing department.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help companies to make better informed marketing decisions, as well as create shorter and more effective sales cycles. But ultimately it facilitates more efficient customer service and support, so that a business can easily respond to changing requirements and react quicker to further sales opportunities that may arise.

Ultimately, CRM software can help to create a more customer-focussed ethos within a business and is one of the many simple but effective tools that can help improve sales, whilst ensuring a loyal and happy core customer base is in place.

Learn how customer relationship software can simplify integration with customer data through Dynamics CRM Online from Microsoft Small Business Center.

While the world is undergoing rapid transformation with regards to collaboration, social interaction and Web 2.0, CRM still remains the most important aspect of any growing organization and the foundation of successful customer interaction remains the same. CRM is not just an application or a [...]]]> How CRM can help an organization to get to the next level?

While the world is undergoing rapid transformation with regards to collaboration, social interaction and Web 2.0, CRM still remains the most important aspect of any growing organization and the foundation of successful customer interaction remains the same. CRM is not just an application or a package but it’s a set of processes within the organization which has to be combined and integrated closely with communication methodologies and customer focused knowledge base to server the one thing important to any growing organization: its customers.

A good CRM process is about understanding preferences of your customers and leads, so you can:

-          Provide just in time services and support to your customers so that you are way above your competitors

-          Improve your sales, customer and ordering interaction processes.

-          Reduce customer frustration by being proactive in anticipating his needs and queries rather than repeatedly asking for same information.

-          Improving customer relationships to have repeat customers by keeping customer service, sales and marketing information with regards to him on fingertips

A properly installed and implemented CRM system can contribute many benefits to your organization but four major area stands out where there is going to definite improvement on an immediate basis by deployment of a right CRM system

Prospects to Sales Closer Cycle

The more information you have with regards to a lead, the more advantageous your position will be over your competitors to close sales. A major wealth management company** in India using Sage CRM has made a 10 stage process from a lead to sales closure activity workflow with tracking in each stage as to the lead turning into cold and capturing of data. The managers always know which relationship manager is working on which prospect and always have the pipeline with various stages. All levels of management have escalations with regards to particular actions like a particular prospect not contacted even while he is in stage 9 for more than 2 days. Without making it complicated for sales person who would rather work on “making sales happen” than entering data, the work flow makes sales process automated and every relationship manager has the task cut out as to what the next step is going to be in each stage. According to Kumar Siddhartha, CEO of Greytrix which implemented the Sage CRM in the organization, “Sage CRM sales workflow system not only gives powerful post analytics capabilities but acts as a sales assistant to help the company automate sales tasks – allowing the managers to spend more time focusing on strategic sales issues and new sales closers and increasing their closer rates substantially.”

Just in Time Customer Service

Customer satisfaction is a critical success factor for all businesses. The right system allows your team to take a proactive approach to customer service. With up-to date customer information at their fingertips, your employees can resolve customer issues more quickly and successfully. A major IT software product** company is utilizing the power of Sage CRM by using Sage CRM’s self service portal to log on cases over web and SMS/Email gateway to immediately inform them of status updates. The implementation carried over within 4 months by Greytrix included data migration from older system and Sage CRM is serving as the “knowledge hub” where all critical documents and updates/patches of software are stored on a real time basis for their distributors. The turnaround time and manpower energy saved with such a system in place for your customers where you proactively give support to the customer and inform them of their status.

Better Forecasting and Decision Making

A well designed CRM system provides comprehensive views of customer across all major touch points including marketing campaign and sales activity. Sales forecasting and Sales Targets can be aligned within the organization to give better decision making power to top management. At lower levels, the decision making comes with better coordination and collaboration with different teams because of collation of the customer data at a single repository. A prime example for this kind of collaboration can be seen in an implementation of Sage CRM at Engineering Project organization** which is into waterproofing projects where sales people know the status of the projects and invoices done by operations and financial teams because of the integration with the ERP software and it helps them make informed decision at their end while pitching new sales to the customers. According to Thomas Abraham, MD of Sage Software India “The seamless integration between ERP and CRM system is a must have requirement for all major Engineering and Project Companies (EPC) who are also customer centric firms. Sage CRM and Sage Accpac ERP has an out of the box integrated systems where both CRM and ERP is equally powerful and a compromised system along with the complete benefits of end to end integration from a single vendor”.

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Greater Organizational efficiency

With an integrated CRM system, you can gain immediate access to your organization’s critical customer information. A good CRM system also creates internal efficiencies by. One of the mobile distribution company** is utilizing Sage CRM to track purchase of mobile Sim cards and its activiation in CRM along with customer complaints through call center operations. The entire sales, cases, and financial data for that customer is at a finger tips of the entire organization. Each of the departments has a pre defined automated workflow processes which tends to reduce human error and decrease process time which in turn is providing consistency throughout the entire organization. Jitendra Somani, COO of Greytrix who is implementing the software informs that replacing the archaic system with a powerful CRM system has helped the organization by reducing customer interaction by more than 50%.

In conclusion, CRM is a combination of a good software and process which will help you increase efficiency and customer satisfaction at your organization. There is a number of CRM software in the market which can help you achieve your goals. Sage Software has ACT!, Sage CRM and Saleslogix, which is meant for different set of customers according to their needs.

** For more information on companies mentioned in the article and how it is changing their approach towards customers contact Greytrix at kumar@greytrix.com or contact Sage Software at www.sagesoftware.co.in

Related CRM Definition Articles

For the past ten years the role of maximizing lifetime value of customers has dramatically changed with the implementation and utilization of CRM. Generic CRM solutions have failed, and core issues of leveraging technology to improve internal processes and ultimately the bottom line, are still at the forefront of the [...]]]> Customer Relationship Management Leader Larry Caretsky Profiled

For the past ten years the role of maximizing lifetime value of customers has dramatically changed with the implementation and utilization of CRM. Generic CRM solutions have failed, and core issues of leveraging technology to improve internal processes and ultimately the bottom line, are still at the forefront of the CRM efficacy discussion. Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence Corporation, a leading CRM provider, is the software executive profiled in The Software Professional Journal by manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler. The entire feature can be read at http://www.softwareprofessionalpeople.com/article1.htm.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allow businesses to capture, track, and manage vital customer information. The explosive growth of CRM technology has attracted numerous companies, however the industry has been plagued by vendors offering overly complex solutions to solve basic business problems. “This has resulted in a low adoption rate and failed customer expectations” says Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence Corporation. “The concern of most businesses today is not the lack of technology, but rather how they can leverage technology to improve their internal processes and ultimately their bottom line.”

Caretsky’s company has been providing software solutions to growing businesses for seventeen years and has witnessed all the trends in CRM. With this vast experience, Caretsky discovered long ago that rapidly deployable, cost effective solutions were the only way for customers to quickly and affordably reap the benefits of their investment.

Few CRM firms have taken the unique approach to meeting the key objectives businesses by streamlining internal business processes, improving sales processes, and delighting customers. Caretsky refers to this proven implementation methodology as S.T.E.P., the System Technology Execution Process. S.T.E.P begins with the fundamental knowledge that most customers must first deal with the problem of data capture, data consolidation and data management. Typically, vital customer data is spread throughout the organization in contact managers, back office systems and spreadsheets. Employees spend a significant amount of time trying to determine where or who in the organization has the information they need to address customer inquiries. The inability to gain access to a complete customer profile only serves to rob people of precious time that should be spent selling to or servicing customers. Management is clearly aware of this and they realize that in order to become a more efficient sales and service organization they must get the right information in the hands of the right people at the right time.

“Many companies are entering the CRM market with generic solutions designed under a one-size fits all approach,” says Caretsky. “Their business model is to try and sell the same solution to as many companies as possible regardless of the industry their in. This may have worked ten years ago, but it won’t today. You simply cannot expect to sell your solution to a bank then walk across the street and sell it to an insurance company. You have to respect the complexity of their businesses and be prepared to understand and address their unique business requirements.”

Commence has taken a unique approach to meeting these objectives beginning with the fundamental knowledge that most small to mid-size manufacturers and distributors must first address the problem of data capture, data consolidation and data sharing. The issue they face is that vital customer information is spread throughout their organization in contact managers, back office systems and excel spreadsheets and is often difficult to attain. Employees spend a significant amount of time trying to determine where or who in the organization has the information they need to address customer inquiries. This robs sales and service people of precious time during their day.

Commence offers lean industrial companies complete “Freedom Of Choice” to select the solutions and platform that best meets the business requirements of manufacturers and distributors. The comprehensive CRM Industrial application suite is available for use on premise or on-demand as a hosted service. Industrial leaders often build departmental lean CRM solutions with the award winning Commence Lean Industrial CRM Framework. These choices are why so many industrial companies choose Commence as the solution for managing customer relationships. All Commence Industrial solutions support mobile or wireless connectivity and integration to back-office accounting and ERP systems.

In an age when the platitude “The customer is always right” has morphed into the more alarming maxim “An unhappy customer can blog about it”, Customer Relationship Management would seem to be getting a new spin. The reasoning goes like this: the internet has forever changed our world and [...]]]> Customer Relationship Management: Everything Old is New Again

In an age when the platitude “The customer is always right” has morphed into the more alarming maxim “An unhappy customer can blog about it”, Customer Relationship Management would seem to be getting a new spin. The reasoning goes like this: the internet has forever changed our world and we must change the way we do business as a result. We must treat the marketplace as a conversation, we must speak in an authentic voice, engage the customer as a partner. We must listen to the customer and give him what he genuinely wants, and not just what we have to sell. The alarm has been sounded – our customers can talk to each other, we can’t hide behind our corporate firewalls.

These are all valid points. It can’t be denied that the Internet has changed our world forever. The interesting thing is, the idea of the marketplace as a one-way conversation, where you can hide from your customer after you sell them a bad product, is a very modern one. It can be argued that on some level, the Internet is taking us back to an earlier time, where news travelled fast, where everybody knew everybody else’s business, and the marketplace was in fact where you went for conversation, as well as a colorful rug, and perhaps some exotic spices. The Internet has made the world a smaller place, and small is the new big.

What has changed is the way the conversation takes place, and the speed with which the news, good or bad, travels. Today’s customers, for better or worse, have a lot of options available to them. You can’t ship it today? Click – I’ll find someone who can. You don’t have it in blue? Click – I’ll find someone who does. Likewise, if today’s customer is curious about what other people think about what you have to sell, another few clicks will usually lead him to a review or a forum where other consumers can speak freely and volubly about every aspect of your product and service. The challenge is to build customer loyalty and brand awareness in a marketplace full of itchy mouse fingers.

But let’s suppose none of this is news to you. You’ve read The Cluetrain Manifesto. You know about the social customer. Frankly, you don’t believe in some vast conspiracy on the part of American business to swindle and defraud the consumer. Quality and value win the day, always have, always will, whether the consumer gets to the marketplace by camel or Firefox. The fact of the matter is, you engage in conversations, real conversations, with your customers every day. You know that you are not invisible, and no business can survive for long that doesn’t listen to its customers. You know that Customer Relationship Management is not just about getting new customers, it’s about keeping the old ones. What you are looking for is new and better ways to tend the delicate flower of customer loyalty while aggressively cultivating new ground. Consumers want more transparency; you want to give it to them without compromising confidentiality. If news travels fast, then information sharing needs to be instantaneous. This not only gives everyone in your organization a complete, up-to-date view of all customer interactions, it empowers your employees to deal knowledgeably with your customers, leading to a high quality customer experience.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has kept pace with the demands of the new (old) marketplace, and is absolutely indispensable no matter how large or small your organization is. There are Web-based applications that can be accessed on-demand through the internet; there are also applications that can be implemented on-site. These might be standalone applications, or you might want them to integrate with existing back-office applications. Either way, CRM software has many benefits, from thorough contact management to sophisticated forecasting and reporting. Come to work every day and see a list of activities that you can prioritize. Analyze and organize your sales opportunities. Manage each prospect through a sales cycle. Quickly resolve customer questions, issues and requests with advanced tracking and resolution tools. CRM software can expand your reach and improve your communication with your company’s lifeblood – the customer.

At ACI we are experts on the Sage ACT! and CRM Saleslogix product line. If you need help selecting a CRM solution, email me at solutions@ACIconsulting.com or visit us at www.ACIconsulting.com. I’ll put our team to work on it!

Find More Customer Relationship Manager Articles

E-CRM

     eCRM Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers making use of Information Technology (IT).

The essence of CRM

The exact meaning of CRM is still subject of heavy discussions. However, the overall goal can be seen as effectively managing [...]]]> E-CRM

E-CRM

     eCRM Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers making use of Information Technology (IT).

The essence of CRM

The exact meaning of CRM is still subject of heavy discussions. However, the overall goal can be seen as effectively managing differentiated relationships with all customers and communicating with them on an individual basis. Underlying thought is that companies realize that they can supercharge profits by acknowledging that different groups of customers vary widely in their behavior, desires, and responsiveness to marketing.

eCRM

As the internet is becoming more and more important in business life, many companies consider it as an opportunity to reduce customer-service costs, tighten customer relationships and most important, further personalize marketing messages and enable mass customization. Together with the creation of Sales Force Automation (SFA), where electronic methods where used to gather data and analyze customer information, the trend of the upcoming Internet can be seen as the foundation of what we know as eCRM today. We can define eCRM as activities to manage customer relationships by using the Internet, web browsers or other electronic touch points. The challenge hereby is to offer communication and information on the right topic, in the right amount, and at the right time that fits the customer’s specific needs.

Channels through which companies can communicate with its customers, are growing by the day, and as a result, getting their time and attention has turned into a major challenge. One of the reasons eCRM is so popular nowadays is that digital channels can create unique and positive experiences – not just transactions – for customers. An extreme, but ever growing in popularism, example of the creation of experiences in order to establish customer service is the use of Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life. Through this so-called vCRM, companies are able to create synergies between virtual and physical channels and reaching a very wide consumer base. However, given the newness of the technology, most companies are still struggling to identify effective entries in Virtual Worlds. Its highly interactive character, which allows companies to respond directly to any customer’s requests or problems, is another feature of eCRM that helps companies establish and sustain long-term customer relationships.

Furthermore, Information Technology has helped companies to even further differentiate between customers and address a personal message or service. Some examples of tools used in eCRM:

Personalized Web Pages where customers are recognized and their preferences are shows. Customized products or services (Dell).

CRM programs should be directed towards customer value that competitors cannot match. However, in a world where almost every company is connected to the Internet, eCRM has become a requirement for survival, not just a competitive advantage.

Different levels of eCRM

In defining the scope of eCRM, three different levels can be distinguished:

Foundational services:

This includes the minimum necessary services such as web site effectiveness and responsiveness as well as order fulfillment.

Customer-centered services:

These services include order tracking, product configuration and customization as well as security/trust.

Value-added services:

These are extra services such as online auctions and online training and education.
Self-services are becoming increasingly important in CRM activities. The rise of the Internet and eCRM has boosted the options for self-service activities. A critical success factor is the integration of such activities into traditional channels. An example was Ford’s plan to sell cars directly to customers via its Web Site, which provoked an outcry among its dealers network. CRM activities are mainly of two different types. Reactive service is where the customer has a problem and contacts the company. Proactive service is where the manager has decided not to wait for the customer to contact the firm, but to be aggressive a contact the customer himself in order to establish a dialogue and solve problems.

From Relationship Marketing to Customer Relationship Marketing

The concept of relationship marketing was first coined by Berry in 1983. He considered it to consist of attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships within organizations. In the years that followed, companies were engaging more and more in a meaningful dialogue with individual customers. In doing so, new organizational forms as well as technologies were used, eventually resulting in what we know as Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM). The main difference between RM and CRM is that the first does not acknowledge the use of technology, where the latter uses Information Technology (IT) in implementing RM strategies.

Mobile CRM

One subset of Electronic CRM is Mobile CRM (mCRM). This is defined as “services that aim at nurturing customer relationships, acquiring or maintaining customers, support marketing, sales or services processes, and use wireless networks as the medium of delivery to the customers. However, since communications is the central aspect of customer relations activities, many opt for the following definition of mCRM: “communication, either one-way or interactive, which is related to sales, marketing and customer service activities conducted through mobile medium for the purpose of building and maintaining customer relationships between a company and its customer(s).

eCRM allows customers to access company services from more and more places, since the Internet access points are increasing by the day. mCRM however, takes this one step further and allows customers or managers to access the systems for instance from a mobile phone or PDA with internet access, resulting in high flexibility. An example of a company that implemented mCRM is Finnair, who made it possible for their customers to check in for their flights by SMS. Since mCRM is not able to provide a complete range of customer relationship activities it should be integrated in the complete CRM system

Implementing and integrating CRM solutions

Several CRM software packages consist that can help companies in deploying CRM activities. Besides choosing one of these packages, companies can also choose to design and build their own solutions. In order to implement CRM in an effective way, one needs to consider to following factors:

Create a customer-based culture in the organization. Adopt customer-based managers to assess satisfaction. Develop an end-to-end process to serve customers. Recommend questions to be asked to help a customer solve a problem. Track all aspects of selling to customers, as well as prospects.

Furthermore, CRM solutions are more effective once they are being implemented in other information systems used by the company. Examples are Transaction Processing System (TPS) to process data real-time, which can than be send to the sales and finance departments in order to recalculate inventory and financial position quick and accurate. Once this information is transferred back to the CRM software and services it could prevent customers from placing an order in the belief that an item is in stock while it is not.

Front-Line Usage

In the near future, the most dramatic changes in technology and operations will be seen by people who are using CRM systems to service and sell to customers and prospects as part of their regular jobs. Today, knowledge-workers are already using personalized CRM portals for quick access to information resources and customized applications that easily present data. Front-line workers have access to a variety of CRM tools to assist them in making real-time decisions based on the automated, yet specific, recommendations generated by the collective information within the system.

Conclusion

Today, CRM systems often present information in terms of maps, charts and graphs that are generated by report writers and visual profiling programs. Tomorrow, there will be voice-activated and speech-feedback tools, as well as other more elaborate visual aids using 3-D and CAD-style graphics. Armed with their own calculators and self-help systems, front-line workers will be able to quickly find answers to assist customers in their purchase decisions. The use of knowledge databases and artificial intelligence (AI) will make a comeback to allow the front line to focus on assessing the problem and quickly communicating a solution.

.C.Pavithira
M.Phil Scholar
 Department of Commerce,
Periyar University, Salem-11