Question

Introductuon about the topic " the effect of electronic commerce on customer relationship management"

And literature review about each of the following topics :

1-electronic commerce, 2-customer relationship management, 3-recognized risks and benefits , 4-website factors, 5-electronic commerce content strategy

Answer 1

1.)E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. The term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to the transactional processes for online shopping.

Types of e-commerce

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce refers to the electronic exchange of products, services or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. Examples include online directories and product and supply exchange websites that allow businesses to search for products, services and information and to initiate transactions through e-procurement interfaces

Business-to-consumer (B2C) is the retail part of e-commerce on the internet. It is when businesses sell products, services or information directly to consumers. The term was popular during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when online retailers and sellers of goods were a novelty.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) is a type of e-commerce in which consumers trade products, services and information with each other online. These transactions are generally conducted through a third party that provides an online platform on which the transactions are carried out.

Online auctions and classified advertisements are two examples of C2C platforms, with eBay and Craigslist being two of the most popular of these platforms. Because eBay is a business, this form of e-commerce could also be called C2B2C -- consumer-to-business-to-consumer.

Consumer-to-business (C2B) is a type of e-commerce in which consumers make their products and services available online for companies to bid on and purchase. This is the opposite of the traditional commerce model of B2C.

A popular example of a C2B platform is a market that sells royalty-free photographs, images, media and design elements, such as iStock. Another example would be a job board.

Business-to-administration (B2A) refers to transactions conducted online between companies and public administration or government bodies. Many branches of government are dependent on e-services or products in one way or another, especially when it comes to legal documents, registers, social security, fiscals and employment. Businesses can supply these electronically. B2A services have grown considerably in recent years as investments have been made in e-government capabilities.

Consumer-to-administration (C2A) refers to transactions conducted online between individual consumers and public administration or government bodies. The government rarely buys products or services from citizens, but individuals frequently use electronic means in the following areas:

• Education: disseminating information, distance learning/online lectures, etc.
• Social security: distributing information, making payments, etc.
• Taxes: filing tax returns, making payments, etc.
• Health: making appointments, providing information about illnesses, making health services payments, etc.

2.) A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system enhances a business’s ability to cultivate and nurture customer relationships. The system provides a unified approach to organizing customer information while also streamlining processes.

Traditionally, due to the customer focus, CRM has been used primarily as a sales and marketing tool. However, in recent years, certain CRMs have evolved to play a more central role, expanding beyond sales and marketing into almost every department.

CRMs that can be leveraged across business units are typically very robust and highly configurable. For example, Microsoft CRM is configurable to the point where it can provide “no-code” solutions to extremely complex scenarios. So while the primary function of a CRM is to manage customer relationships, modern CRMs that offer configurable platforms are now able to offer significantly more.

As a sales tool, the traditional purpose of CRM is to track customer information in order to help drive revenue. But with a more modern, robust CRM platform you can also reduce costs by aligning departments and streamlining processes; the net effect is higher profitability.

Modern CRM systems, however, provide significantly more. Here are just some of the features you may find in a more robust CRM:

• Sales Force Automation provides users an easy to follow process to navigate the sales cycle. Tracking customer interaction, analyzing sales forecasts, visualizing sales trends and automating business tasks are a few examples that help to maximize productivity.
• CRM platforms with Marketing Automation help to reduce repetitive tasks. With Marketing Automation, a potential customer might get an automated email or tweet after requesting information from the company website. Additionally, if a prospect expresses interest in a new product line, details of the prospects’ interest can inform the sales user to follow-up with a phone call.
• Mobile with Offline Access allows users the flexibility to utilize CRM regardless of their internet connectivity.
• Field Service Automation is another great feature which leverages the mobile capability. With the ability to locate a technician in real time, users can help route the next closest call, improving response time as well as increasing the number of daily calls serviced. Field users love that paperwork is eliminated, that complexity is reduced as the result of intelligent forms, and they have the ability to get a customer’s signature on a mobile device.

3.)Considering all the risk factors

Customer dissatisfaction

Companies and organizations should have a more awareness of their types of customers. For example, how managers can have an effective sale to irritable customers. What types of behaviors managers can have towards the customers who have not much stability and easily change their behavior from warm-tempered to cold-tempered. Not only a seller should be a lot of patience, but necessarily know the techniques of how to sell their goods to these types of people, and must be aware that the base of these people’s personality traits is fear. However, a successful marketer and seller should be armed with customers’ epistemology. What so far are effective in an effective selling is no more necessarily successful for enhancing the selling in the future

Weakness in IT and E-commerce

In implementing customer relationship management, that kinds of organizations are experienced in terms of IT that in implementing integrating technological systems have enough experiences . Having enough experiences in this context is one of keys to succeed in customer relationship management

Lack of customer-oriented culture

Customer is the main and primary factor in survival of an organization. Therefore, customer-oriented culture is the main factor in succeeding and surviving of an organization, as well. Customer-oriented culture is the prerequisite for gaining qualified information from the customers and creating and distributing the achieved knowledge from the customers and the origins of changeable ideas and improving the organization processes

Weakness in the relationship with the customers

The relationship with the customers is has a key role in customer satisfaction. Therefore, those who have direct interaction with customers should be chosen appropriately. It is necessary to pay attention to enough synergetic forces within different communication channels and their integration.Developing the suitable communication channels with customers is the key factor in customer relationship management success

Lack of consecrating enough funding for customer relationship management

One of the matters the senior managers should focus in an organization to customer relationship management can be the amounts of funding they consecrated to this matter. Because the lack of enough funding can lead to these project’s failure. As one of the experiments pointed out, applying customer relationship management project is a costly one and its implementation needs a funding equals to 60-130 million $

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

Enhances Better Customer Service

CRM systems provide businesses with numerous strategic advantages. One of such is the capability to add a personal touch to existing relationships between the business and the customers. It is possible to treat each client individually rather than as a group, by maintaining a repository on each customer’s profiles. This system allows each employee to understand the specific needs of their customers as well as their transaction file.

The organization can occasionally adjust the level of service offered to reflect the importance or status of the customer. Improved responsiveness and understanding among the business employees results in better customer service. This decreases customer agitation and builds on their loyalty to the business. Moreover, the company would benefit more by getting feedback over their products from esteemed customers.

The level of customer service offered is the key difference between businesses that lead the charts and those that are surprised with their faulty steps. Customer service efficiency is measured by comparing turnaround time for service issues raised by customers as well as the number of service errors recorded due to misinformation.

A good business should always follow – up with customers on the items they buy. This strategy enables a business to rectify possible problems even before they are logged as complaints.

Facilitates discovery of new customers

CRM systems are useful in identifying potential customers. They keep track of the profiles of the existing clientele and can use them to determine the people to target for maximum clientage returns.

New customers are an indication of future growth. However, a growing business utilizing CRM software should encounter a higher number of existing customers versus new prospects each week. Growth is only essential if the existing customers are maintained appropriately even with recruitment of new prospects.

Increases customer revenues

CRM data ensures effective co-ordination of marketing campaigns. It is possible to filter the data and ensure the promotions do not target those who have already purchased particular products. Businesses can also use the data to introduce loyalty programs that facilitate a higher customer retention ratio. No business enjoys selling a similar product to a customer who has just bought it recently. A CRM system coordinates customer data and ensures such conflicts do not arise.

Helps the sales team in closing deals faster

A CRM system helps in closing faster deals by facilitating quicker and more efficient responses to customer leads and information. Customers get more convinced to turn their inquiries into purchases once they are responded to promptly. Organizations that have successfully implemented a CRM system have observed a drastic decrease in turnaround time.

Enhances effective cross and up selling of products

Cross – selling involves offering complimentary products to customers based on their previous purchases. On the other hand, up – selling involves offering premium products to customers in the same category. With a CRM system, both cross and up – selling can be made possible within a few minutes of cross – checking available data.

Apart from facilitating quicker offers to customers, the two forms of selling helps staff in gaining a better understanding of their customer’s needs. With time, they can always anticipate related purchases from their customer.

Simplifies the sales and marketing processes

A CRM system facilitates development of better and effective communication channels. Technological integrations like websites and interactive voice response systems can make work easier for the sales representatives as well as the organization. Consequently, businesses with a CRM have a chance to provide their customers with various ways of communication. Such strategies ensure appropriate delivery of communication and quick response to inquiries and feedback from customers.

Makes call centers more efficient

Targeting clients with CRM software is much easier since employees have access to order histories and customer details. The software helps the organization’s workforce to know how to deal with each customer depending upon their recorded archives. Information from the software can be instantly accessed from any point within the organization.

CRM also increases the time the sales personnel spend with their existing customers each day. This benefit can be measured by determining the number of service calls made each day by the sales personnel. Alternatively, it could also be measured through the face – to – face contact made by the sales personnel with their existing customers.

Enhances customer loyalty

CRM software is useful in measuring customer loyalty in a less costly manner. In most cases, loyal customers become professional recommendations of the business and the services offered. Consequently, the business can promote their services to new prospects based on testimonials from loyal customers. Testimonials are often convincing more than presenting theoretical frameworks to your future prospects. With CRM, it could be difficult pulling out your loyal customers and making them feel appreciated for their esteemed support.

Builds up on effective internal communication

A CRM strategy is effective in building up effective communication within the company. Different departments can share customer data remotely, hence enhancing team work. Such a strategy is better than working individually with no links between the different business departments. It increases the business’s profitability since staff no longer have to move physically move while in search of critical customer data from other departments.

Facilitates optimized marketing

CRM enables a business understand the needs and behavior of their customers. This allows them to identify the correct time to market their products to customers. The software gives ideas about the most lucrative customer groups to sales representatives. Such information is useful in targeting certain prospects that are likely to profit the business. Optimized marketing utilizes the business resources meaningfully.

E-Commerce Content Marketing

• Start by picking one form of content. ...
• Build product or service guides for your customers. ...
• Create product or service videos to show your offerings. ...
• Offer information 'pamphlets' such as size charts and FAQ sheets. ...
• Share customer stories. ...
• Provide case studies that demonstrate how your product or service helps people.