MA allows marketers to respond instantly to opportunities, even if not part of a plan. MA functionality enables companies to engage in real-time marketing, responding immediately to an identified opportunity. For example when a female customer buys baby clothes from a catalogue for the first time, marketers can send an automated offer inviting the customer to join a mother-and-baby club which offers additional customer benefits to new mothers. Improved Marketing Intelligence. MA's embedded reporting and analytics functionality provides valuable management insights into markets, customers, campaigns, events and so on, leading to both enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. Improved Customer Experience. Customers receive personalized, relevant communications and offers at appropriate times. MA means less Spam, from the customer's perspective. Improved Customer Engagement. Customers develop a stronger sense of emotional and behavioural identification with the firm when they experience offers and communications that are based on deep understanding of their needs and preferences. Software Applications for Marketing Automation MA applications offer a range of functionality, which can be grouped into applications that support marketing campaigns, those that support digital and online marketing, and those that support strategic and broader marketing management matters, as listed in Table 9.1. The table lists both macro-MA solutions that offer a wide range of functionality, and micro-MA solutions that offer a narrow range of functionality. The macro-solutions, such as Integrated Marketing Management, deliver much of the functionality present in the micro-solutions. We will now describe this functionality in more detail: first, we will review the functionality for campaign management; second, we will report on functionality for online and digital marketing; then we will turn to functionality for strategic and other marketing issues. Table showing Functionality offered by MA software Marketing campaigns Digital and online marketing Strategic and other marketing Campaign management Online marketing Integrated marketing management Direct mail campaign Marketing performance Content management management management Email campaign management Keyword marketing Marketing resource management Event-based marketing Search engine optimization Loyalty management 201 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Trigger marketing Social media marketing Partner marketing Marketing optimization Digital analytics Telemarketing Market segmentation Lead generation Customer segmentation and selection Product life cycle management Assist management Document management Marketing analytics Workflow development Campaigning Campaign Management Campaign Management can be defined as follows: Campaign Management is the technology-enabled application of data-driven strategies to select customers or prospects for customized communications and offers that vary at every stage of the customer lifecycle and buyer readiness. Campaign management automates the processes involved in planning, implementing, measuring and learning from communication programmes targeted at prospects or customers. Campaigns may be used to raise awareness, influence emotions or motivate behaviours such as buying a product or visiting a website. The key elements of campaign management software are workflow, segmentation and targeting, personalization, execution, measurement, modelling and reporting. Direct MailCampaign Management Direct Mail Campaign Managementis a specific form of campaign management in which the communication medium is direct mail. About 75 per cent of direct mail targets consumer audiences, the balance being sent to business audiences. In most developed markets, direct mail volumes have been stabilizing or declining as marketers opt for digital media. Direct mail has many applications including lead generation, lead nurturing, building awareness, sales, customer service, customer retention, database building or reputation enhancement. Important contributors to direct mail success are list quality, the creative execution, the offer 202 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
and the timing. Making the right offer to the right person at the right time in a creatively compelling way will produce greater success. Automated processes can help deliver all these outcomes. A high-quality list that is clean and contemporary, a creative execution that catches the eye and promotes action, an offer that is determined by the list member's propensity-to-buy and that is personalized will achieve greater success that the conventional mass mail-outs that have been marketing's tradition. Email Campaign Management Email campaign management is a specific form of campaign management in which the communication medium is email. Email is cheap, easy to use and ubiquitous. Over 90 per cent of Internet users have one or more email addresses. Email marketing is a massive industry. In the USA alone, Forrester Research estimates that spending on email marketing is showing compound growth of 10 per cent a year, to reach $2.5 billion in 2016. Legitimate email marketing is tainted by the widespread use of email Spam; that is, unsolicited bulk email. Up to 50 per cent of email messages are Spam. Event-Based Marketing Event-Based Marketing (also called Event Marketing) occurs when an event triggers a communication or offer. Event-based campaigns are usually initiated by customer behaviours or contextual conditions. Here are some examples of customer behaviours (events) that trigger marketing responses: A customer who uses a credit card less than six times in a three-month period receives an invitation to participate in a frequency reward programme designed to encourage repeated use. A bank customer who deposits $50,000 or more into a savings account receives an offer of investment advice from a licensed financial planner. Trigger Marketing Trigger Marketingis the practice of responding to some event in a way that is designed to achieve some marketing goal such as make a sale, identify a cross-sell opportunity, prevent negative word-of-mouth or promote positive word-of-mouth. The event triggers the response. As noted in the previous section on event-based marketing, the triggers are usually customer behaviours or contextual conditions. Trigger marketing software can be trained to identify events, and either to send an automated response such as an email, digitally personalized direct mail piece or text message, or to feed the information through to a sales person or customer service agent for follow-up. Trigger marketing ensures that the communication is relevant to the recipient, because it is a contextualised response to a customer event. Marketing Optimization Marketing Optimization software allows you to select an overall goal, such as sales or profit margin maximization, and specify all of the constraints of your marketing campaign 203 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
strategy, such as budget, customer contact policy (e.g. no more than three offers per customer per year), channels available (e.g. direct mail, email, branch, mobile, call centre), minimal cell size per offer (e.g. target customer segment size of at least 250 persons), product-specific volume requirements (e.g. must sell 10,000 Gizmos this quarter), customer segments' propensities-to-buy different products, and channel constraints (e.g. call centre can only make 200 outbound calls per week) to name but a few. The software then determines which customers should get which offer through which channel to ensure your campaign objectives are met. In short, marketing optimization enables marketers to extract the best return - however defined - from their campaign dollar whilst taking account of a range of constraints such as budgets, customer segments, propensities-to-buy, contact policies, channel availability and channel capacity. Telemarketing Telemarketing can be defined as follows: Telemarketing is the use of the telephone to identify and qualify prospects, and to sell and service the needs of customers. Telemarketing takes two forms: inbound (calls from customers) and outbound (calls to customers). Some call centres perform a blended function with agents both making and receiving calls. Telemarketing is widely employed in both B2C and B2B environments, but can be subject to legislative control due to its intrusive nature. For example, both the USA and Australia operate a Do Not Call register on which telephone account holders can list their numbers. With a few exceptions - charities, political organizations, and research firms - marketers are not allowed to call listed numbers, and penalties apply. Lead Generation Lead generation is an important objective of marketing campaigns, particularly in business to-business contexts. Sales people challenged to grow the numbers of customers served need to be presented with high-quality leads for follow-up. Marketers can deploy email, direct mail and telemarketing campaigns, events, seminars, webinars and other tactics to generate theleads. Online and Digital Marketing Online marketing Online marketing can be defined as follows: Online marketing is the process of creating value by building and maintaining online customer relationships. Online marketing is also known as Internet marketing. There are many online marketing practices that grow in number year-on-year. Online marketing applications enable users to 204 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
perform a wide range of online activities designed to generate and monetize website and mobile traffic. Users can do the following: develop and manage online content, create a social media presence in platforms like Facebook and YouTube, establish a blog, create an engaging online customer experience, develop and promote apps, obtain search engine listings, perform search engine optimization, implement keyword marketing, generate customer reviews, obtain and verify customer information, customize web pages (known as dynamic web pages) and site visitor communications, run online advertising campaigns using the likes of Google AdWords, manage pay-per-click programmes, operate or join affiliate marketing programmes, run mobile and email campaigns, and perform web analytics. Content Management Content Managementapplications allow marketers to manage digital content throughout its lifecycle, including creation, editing, approval, storage, publishing, versioning (updating) and deletion. Marketers deploy content in many different environments, including advertising. Corporate website, blogs, social media, user manuals and print materials for example. Content management systems, of which there are hundreds, offer marketers a number of benefits: conformance of content with brand values, consistency of appearance and messaging across all customer touch points, asset security, reduced duplication of effort in content creation, streamlined production and approval processes, better control of versioning and updates thereby ensuring content is always current, and creation of content in appropriate formats, for example HTML for Web applications. Consumers rely increasingly on digital content to inform their buying decision, and it is therefore critical that marketers maintain the quality of that content. Keyword Marketing Keyword Marketing is the practice of generating website traffic from Internet users who have entered keywords (search terms) into search engines such as Google and AOL. A company that is interested in improving its complaint management processes might use the keywords 'complaint-handling' and 'ISO10002' to search the Web for useful information. The keywords will lead to millions of listings. Marketers generally want their website to appear on the first or second page of listings. Keyword marketing software applications enable companies to feature early in these listings. Some keyword marketing involves purchasing advertising space, typically banners and text links, on the search results page. The other major form of keyword marketing is search engine optimization (SEO), which aims to get unpaid listings on the early search results pages. Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization can be defined as follows: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the quantity and quality of website traffic generated by search engines. 205 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Whereas companies can pay for their web page to appear on the first page of a listing generated by a browser's keyword search, SEO aims to get high organic (unpaid or free) visibility. Higher ranking results that appear earlier in the listings are more visible and therefore generate more click-through visitors. SEO aims to get web pages listed on the first or second pages. The major search engines use web crawlers, also known as web spiders or web robots, to browse the World Wide Web methodically. Crawlers such as Google's Googlebot visit websites, read the site's text, images and Meta tags, and visit linked sites, reading content and Meta tags there too. The crawler dumps all the data into a central depository, where they are indexed. The crawler returns to the sites to check for any changed information at periods that are determined by the search engine's management. Unlike visible content, Meta tags provide information about who created the page, the freshness of its content, what the page is about and the keywords that describe the page's content. A website's position on a results page is determined by that search engine's ranking algorithm. Algorithms are formulae composed of a set of weighted criteria - Google's algorithm considers over 200 variables. These criteria are periodically reviewed. Each search engine has its own algorithm that is a trade secret. Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketingcan be defined as follows: Social media marketing is the practice of using social media for customer management purposes. Social media are a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content'.¹4 Social media include collaborative communities (Wikipedia), blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter), content-sharing communities (YouTube) and social networking communities (Facebook). Social media users create, share, discuss and modify user-generated content using Web-based and mobile technologies. Major social media platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Wikipedia and LinkedIn. The social media landscape changes at a remarkable pace. A few years ago Myspace was a major social media platform. As this is written, Myspace has about 35 million users and is in decline, whereas Facebook claims over 1 billion users, or 1/7th of the world's population. Social media are disruptive technologies that are responsible for significant and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals. Marketers no longer control brand-related communication. Communication is now multilateral, not unilateral. Consumers use social media to communicate with each other and organizations, and organizations in turn are beginning to use social media to help them initiate, nurture, maintain and monetize relationships with customers. Digital analytics 206 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Digital analytics explore data generated by customer behaviour in interactive channels including online mobile and social media. Web analytics, a major component of digital analytics, focuses on the behaviour of website visitors. Web analytics report audience size, where the visitors come from (referrals) and what they do on the website. Routine reports generally detail Web traffic data, but may also include performance data from campaigns and events that involve the website, for example the number of click-through from a web-link inserted in a campaign email. Two main technologies collect website data: log file analysis and page-tagging. Strategic and other marketing management Integrated marketing management Integrated marketing management (IMM) applications offer wide-ranging functionality to support large organizations with 50 or more marketing practitioners. The main role of IMM solutions is to help marketers align their analysis, planning, implementation and control activities so that they can become more effective, efficient and accountable. According to Gartner Inc. IMM includes: The marketing strategy, process automation and technologies required to integrate people, processes, campaigns, channels, resources and technologies across the marketing ecosystem. IMM supports closed-loop marketing by integrating operational, executional and analytical marketing processes. IMM functionality includes campaign management, lead management, marketing resource management, analytics and much more. Marketing Performance Management Marketing Performance Management (MPM) software enables companies to measure their marketing performance though analysis and reports and improve outcomes over time through closed-loop marketing. Gartner Inc. describes MPM as encompassing the technologies and services that support marketing's ability to gain access to insights, analyse data, make predictions, and optimize marketing programmes, campaigns and resources. At the foundational level, MPM includes a data repository, business intelligence tools and analytical workbenches. At the strategic level, MPM provides role-based access to information and KPIs through dashboards, visualization, point-and-click analysis, modelling, simulation and optimization. Essentially, MPM helps management assess the effectiveness and the efficiency of marketing strategies and tactics. Senior management is progressively demanding that marketers be accountable for their expenditure, and MPM helps marketers meet that expectation. MPM is routinely built into most MA applications. Marketing Resource Management 207 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Marketing Resource Managementapplications consist of a range of automated tools that enable marketers to manage their marketing processes and assets more effectively, and to work at greater speed and with improved control. According to Gartner Inc. MRM: Applications enable strategic planning and budgeting, programme management, creative development and distribution, content management, media planning and execution, event coordination, and resource measurement. MRM toolkits therefore include modules that help CRM practitioners do the following: Plan and budget marketing activities and programmes. Create and develop marketing programmes and content. Collect and manage digital content and knowledge. Fulfil and distribute marketing assets, content and collateral. Measure, analyse and optimize marketing resources (MRM analytics). Loyalty management Customer loyalty is a goal of many CRM programmes. The availability of loyalty management applications is a direct response to this need. Loyalty, or frequency, programmes are important to several constituencies the business that operates the programme, the member who collects and redeems credits and the channel partner who transacts with the member. Many loyalty programmes are very simple, particularly when the brand owner has a single retail site, hands a rewards card to the customer and stamps the card when a purchase is made - 'Buy five cups of coffee, get the next one free'. However, there are other programmes that are operationally and technologically complex. Customer loyalty management process map shows how a best practice for promoting customer loyalty through customer service would be modelled by customer relationship management software. The CRM software helps firms identify high-value customers for preferential treatment. 208 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Figure 12.2showing Customer loyalty management process map Partner Marketing Partner Marketingsolutions enable companies to coordinate and work collaboratively with channel partners and others. Many companies market and sell to and through channel members such as travel agents or value-added resellers, or service end-users through specialist partners such as third-party contact centres. Partner marketing solutions allow companies to synchronize the planning and execution of local, regional or global marketing activities by providing partners with controlled access to brand and marketing resources through a portal. Partner marketing solutions are used to manage processes such as partner qualification, recruitment, on-boarding, development of joint business plans and objectives, cooperative advertising and promotions, lead management, co-branding of collateral and point-of-sale materials, measuring partner performance, partner training and support, administration of marketing funds and specialist partner incentive schemes. Microsoft Canada, for example, describes the value of partnering with this message to their partners: 'your goals: Increase profitability. Decrease business costs. Our goal: To provide the resources to reach yours.' Market Segmentation Market Segmentations the practice of partitioning markets into homogenous subsets so that each subset can be addressed as a unique marketing opportunity. MA, when supported by customer-specific data and analytics, can mean that each customer is treated as a unique segment. Customer Segmentation and Selection Customer Segmentation and Selection is the practice of partitioning customers into homogenous subsets so that each subset can be addressed as a unique marketing audience. The smallest customer segment is the individual customer. Some CRM strategies are focused on understanding, servicing and retaining individual customers; others focus on very large 209 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
clusters of customers. Historically, segmentation by marketers has been very intuitive. When customer segmentation is performed from a CRM perspective, it is much more data based. Both consumers and organizational customers can be grouped into clusters based on a wide range of user attributes and usage attributes. In the data-driven world of CRM, marketers often need to use statistical processes to help them identify clusters of customers. Among the widely employed statistical processes are cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID). Product Lifecycle Management Products, like people, have lifecycles. The product lifecycle traces the phases of a product's life from initial development and market introduction to withdrawal. Product lifecycle management (PLM) applications help marketers manage lifecycle stages effectively and profitably. PLM applications aim to accelerate time-to-market, ensure that development and engineering processes are optimal and lift the probability of the product being successful. PLM software solutions facilitate collaborative intra- and extra-enterprise engineering, product development, and improved management of projects, product portfolios, documents and quality. PLM applications can provide a single source of all product-related information to use in the innovation, design, engineering, feasibility, launch, market development and market withdrawal processes. Asset Management Asset Management enables companies to identify, manage, track and control the assets that customers purchase, license, use, install or download. Assets can be tangible, intangible or blended, as shown in the following examples. The pallet hire company, CHEP, uses asset management to track where its tangible assets - pallets are in their network, whether at customer sites, depots or in transit, and to ensure that customers are only billed for the periods when the pallets are in use by that customer, Beam Inc. uses asset management to track the use of its intangible asset - the Jim Beam brand - by other manufacturers. Dolby Laboratories uses asset management to track the licensed use of its blended tangible and intangible assets - manufacturing processes and technologies - by other companies that want to exploit Dolby's audio, image and voice capabilities. Document Management Companies generate and use many documents in their marketing activities. These include brochures, product specifications, price lists and competitive comparisons. Document management software allows companies to manage these documents, keep them current and ensure that they are available to marketing people when needed. Typically, these documents are held in a central repository and made available to users in their browsers. Document management software applications generally deliver similar functionality to content management applications. 210 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Marketing Analytics Marketing Analyticsis the application of mathematical and statistical processes to marketing problems. Marketing analytics can be used to describe, explore and explain. A descriptive application of marketing analytics would involve the depiction of some marketing phenomenon such as a customer group, sales territory, market segment, and campaign or product category. Descriptive applications focus on who, what, where and when. Some descriptive analyses are cross-sectional and others longitudinal. A cross-sectional analysis involves description at a single point in time. Longitudinal analysis involves repeated data collection about the same variables over time, so that you can get a better sense of change. Workflow Development Workflow Development software is useful for designing marketing-related processes, such as the campaigning process, event-based marketing process or the marketing planning process. 12.4 SERVICE AUTOMATION The term, service automation (SA), can be defined as follows: Service automation is the application of computerized technologies to support service staff and management in the achievement of their work-related objectives. Companies deliver customer service across multiple channels - face-to-face, over the phone, via email, mail, SMS, multimedia messaging (MMS), social media, web chat or fax, through the corporate website and automated self-service channels. In a connected world, however, it is not only companies that deliver customer service; other customers who report their product experiences in social media and on company websites are also providing service to potential or current customers. Some companies are trying to harness this type of customer to- customer, or peer-to-peer, customer service for corporate ends. Customer service departments are responsible for managing inbound call centre operations, complaint handling and resolution, order entry and processing, providing field sales support, managing outbound call centre operations and acting as liaison to other departments. It is in these and related activities that SA is deployed. Service automation is used in four major contexts: contact centres, call centres, at the help desk and in field service. Contact Centres are configured to communicate with customers across multiple channels including voice telephony, the Web, mail, email, SMS, multimedia messaging, instant messaging, web chat, social media and fax. 211 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Call Centres are generally dedicated to voice telephony communications, whether through a public switched telephone network, cell-phone network or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Help Desks are usually associated with IT environments where assistance is offered to IT users. SA applications such as case management, job management and service level management are used in this setting. Help-desk solutions often comply with, and support, third-party standards such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and the ITSM (Information Technology Service Management)' reference model. Field Service is widespread in both B2C and B2B environments. Service engineers for white goods such as dishwashers and washing machines, or brown goods such as televisions and Wi-Fi, visit consumers' homes to install, maintain or repair products. Benefits from Service Automation Service automation has an important role to play in allowing companies to deliver excellent customer service. SA can deliver several benefits, including the following: Enhanced Service Effectiveness. Service requests can be completed more quickly to the customer's satisfaction by ensuring that requests are handled at the first point of contact or routed to the right service engineer or customer service agent, who is able to draw on an up- to-date knowledge base to resolve the issue. Enhanced Service Efficiency. Costs are taken out of service delivery when customers use self-service instead of interacting with an agent. High levels of first contact resolution mean that companies only deal once with a customer issue. Right first time means reduced levels of rework. Greater Service Agent Productivity. Call and contact centre management systems ensure that the optimal number of agents is scheduled and that their time is used productively. Skills- based routing ensures that service enquiries are routed to the most appropriate available agent. Field service applications ensure that workload is equitably and optimally distributed. Better Agent Work Experience. Agents have the right tools to do their jobs well, leading to more enjoyable work experience. Improved Customer Experience. Agents have full visibility into the customer history and service requests and can therefore ensure that service delivery is appropriate to customer 212 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
status or agreed service levels and satisfies the customer. Customers experience more consistent service as business rules are followed and service standards are implemented. Customers who prefer to self-serve online can do so. Improved Customer Engagement. Rather than sending or receiving one-way communications, customer contact centres are now repositioning themselves as customer engagement centres, particularly if they participate in a lot of interactive communications with customers in social media. Improved Customer Retention. Higher quality service and better customer experience means that customers are less likely to churn to alternative suppliers. Service quality drives customer retention. Software Applications for Service Service automation applications offer a range of functionality, as listed in Table 10.1. Note that different SA vendors use the terms issue, case, incident, trouble ticket and service request synonymously to describe the different customer problems that service agents are called on to fix. Table below lists both macro-SA solutions that offer a wide range of functionality, and micro-SA solutions that offer a narrow range of functionality. The macro solutions, such as case management and customer communications management, deliver much of the functionality present in the micro-solutions. Table showing Functionality offered by service automation software Activity Management Inbound Communication Scheduling Management Agent Management Interactive Response Scripting Case Assignment Invoicing Service Analytics Case Management Job Management Service Level Management Contract Management Knowledge Base Self- Spare Parts Management Service Customer Communications Mapping And Driving Voice Biometrics Management Directions Customer Self Service Outbound Communications Web Collaboration 213 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Management Email Response Management Predictive Dialling Workflow Development Escalation Queuing And Routing Activity Management enables service staff to review their workload, to-do list and priorities as directed by their manager or scheduler, to coordinate activities with other service staff, and to report back on progress, results and issue resolution. Some applications allow activities to be updated in real time by dispatchers and routed to the technician, so that work can be reprioritized. Alerts can be set so that appointments are not missed, or to notify agents and their managers that issues are unresolved, or service levels are about to be, or have been, violated. Agent Managements a high priority for call and contact centre managers. Managers want to employ the lowest head-count compatible with the desired level of customer service. Too few agents and customers will be dissatisfied with wait-times; too many agents and payroll costs will be unnecessarily high. Customers and managers both want issues to be resolved quickly by agents. Technologies that contribute to this outcome include queuing, scripting and knowledge management. Customer Self-Service (CSS) is an attractive option for companies because it transfers the responsibility and cost for service to the customer. Oracle reports that self-service provides significant savings in staffing costs. For simple customer transactions such as notifying changes to contact details, companies that offer self-service deflect a significant number of contact centre calls to the web. Email Response Management Systems (ERMS) are an increasingly important part of the service automation landscape. Email is widely used for both inter-personal and inter- company communications. According to the Radicati Group there were over 4.1 billion email accounts in 2014 with the number expected to rise to 5.2 billion by 2018. Email remains the most common communication channel used by businesses. Business email volumes are growing at 7 per cent per annum, and by 2018, over 139 billion emails will be sent each day. Consumer email traffic, however, is slowing down. While there is a growing number of consumer email accounts and users, many consumers are opting for other forms of communication such as social networking sites, instant messaging and SMS/text messaging. Escalation ensures that issues get escalated according to internally determined rules. Higher levels of authority typically have greater discretion to resolve issues. For example, a front line customer service agent might be required to escalate to higher levels of management issues that have a potentially high cost or reputational consequence. 214 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Inbound Communications (or call) management (ICM) applications are widely deployed in contact (or call) centre contexts. The technology allows companies to receive, acknowledge, route, queue and distribute incoming communications from any channel - voice telephony, email, chat, instant message, SMS, fax, social media, web form- to agents in any location including contact centre, in the field or at home. A unified queue, issue/content recognition, intelligent routing and knowledge-base integration allow agents to deliver a consistent customer experience and to respond effectively to service requests whatever the communication channel. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) uses voice or touch-tone keypad input from callers to guide them through a tiered menu structure to the information they require as quickly as possible. Invoicing is a useful application for service technicians who are called to site to provide out of-warranty service. Having completed the job to the customer's satisfaction, and captured the customer's signature electronically, the invoice can be raised on the spot, thereby accelerating cash flow. Billing functionality is often integrated into other service automation applications such as case management and job management. Job Management applications offer a range of functionality that is useful to service managers and technicians when planning and performing field service repairs, preventive maintenance, meter readings, inspections, installations, upgrades and other service tasks. Functionality ranges over cost estimation, quotation generation, creation of trouble tickets, job planning, project management, travel time and distance calculation, GPS mapping, job clustering (to reduce travel time), calendaring, scheduling, spare parts management, job progress tracking, invoicing, service level management, technician despatch, time management and product configuration. Jobs are associated with accounts, contacts, contracts or opportunities so that technicians can have access to all relevant customer information on site. Knowledge-Base Self-Serviceenables customers to search a database for answers to their service queries. The database may consist of FAQs, articles and videos produced by the company, and content generated by customers or acquired from third parties. In addition, a 'call-me' web-chat button or telephone number can be offered customers who can't find the answer they seek in the knowledge base. A knowledge-base manager is sometimes assigned to ensure that externally provided content is not malicious or inappropriate. Companies make this information available through a portal, thereby reducing their cost per-service request. Agents in contact centres can also make use of the same knowledge base by inserting links into emailed or texted responses to customer enquiries. Solutions that provide Mapping and Driving Directions are very useful for service engineers who need to visit customers' homes or business premises. Taking into account theengineer's point-of-origin, service locations, job priorities, service level agreements and 215 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
other variables, mapping solutions can minimize travel times and distances to ensure that service tasks are performed optimally. Outbound Communications Managementsoftware applications are used in a service environment to acknowledge service requests, make and confirm service appointments, advice on the progress of a service task, invoice for out-of-warranty service and follow-up after service to ensure that the customer is satisfied. Customer preferences can be considered when selecting the communication medium, be that telephone, email or SMS. Preferences may be different for the initial scheduling of an appointment (email) and for subsequent changes (text message). Predictive Dialling is a telephony technology widely used in contact and call centres. It automatically dials groups of telephone numbers, and then passes calls to available agents once the call is connected. The technology quickly terminates calls that are met with no answer, busy signals, answering machines or disconnected numbers while predicting when an agent will be available to take the next call. Predictive diallers measure the number of available agents, available lines, average handling time and other factors to adjust outbound calls accordingly. Queuing and routing applications allow issues to be routed to agents with particular expertise and positioned in that agent's queue according to some rule. Universal queuing aggregates all inbound contacts into a single queue regardless of reception channel - voice, email, chat and social media - and applies a common routing rule. This delivers a fairer and more consistent customer experience. Without universal queuing, service performance is likely to vary between channels. Routing is usually determined by case assignment rules (see above) and position in the queue is determined by customer value or some other metric. The objective of queuing and routing is to ensure that every service issue is presented to the most appropriate agent for handling and resolution. Scheduling involves planning and organizing a service technician's activity plan for a day, week or other period. A technician's schedule contains details on the customer, location, time, product and issue. Some scheduling applications take into account a range of considerations to ensure that the right technician is sent to service the customer. These include travel time and distance, technician availability, technician skills, customer access hours, service level agreement, availability of spare parts and the technician's hourly rates of pay. Optimization engines allow schedules to be changed as new service tickets are created, priorities change and technicians or parts become (un)available. Optimization reduces service costs whilst maintaining service performance levels. Scheduled tasks can be released in batches for days or weeks or drip-fed to technicians for the coming few hours. Scripting enables customer service agents to converse intelligently with customers to diagnose and resolve problems, co-creating good customer experience and complying with regulatory requirements, even though they may be untrained as technicians. Scripts are 216 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
essentially linked screens that the agent talks through with the customer. The 'right script' depends on the purpose of the call. When a customer calls to report a service problem it is critical that the script identifies the caller, clarifies the issue, assesses the significance of the issue (e.g. an electrical appliance malfunction might have life-threatening consequences) and establishes what the customer wants to achieve. In a service encounter, it may be inappropriate to include screens of script that have a selling objective. However, if the service issue is resolved at first contact, up-sell or cross-sell is likely to be more acceptable and productive. Scripts should be designed so that they flex dynamically according to customer response. Inflexible scripts generally deliver poor customer experience. Well-designed scripts deliver customer satisfaction, ensure compliance with any regulatory environment and enhance agent productivity. Scripts reduce agent training costs and time. Scripts are also used in outbound call centre contexts. Service Analytics provide managers with information on how effectively and efficiently customer service generally, and individual agents or technicians specifically, are operating, and how satisfied customers are with the service they receive. Service Level Management (SLM) applications allow managers to establish, monitor and control the level of service that is offered to customers, and technicians to deliver the level of service agreed. A service level agreement is a contractual commitment between a service provider and customer that specifies the mutual responsibilities of both parties with respect to the services that will be provided and the standards at which they will be performed. Service levels can be agreed for a number of variables including availability (the percentage of time that the service is available over an agreed time period), usage (the number of service users that can be served simultaneously) and responsiveness. Spare Parts Managementis an important application for field technicians. They can see what parts they have with them on the road, check the inventory levels held by other technicians and at regional and central warehouses, order new parts, transfer parts from colleagues, manage excess and defective parts, and check on the progress of orders, thereby ensuring that when they turn up at a job they are properly equipped. Managers can use this application to ensure that appropriate levels of parts inventory are maintained, and customers are billed correctly. Too few parts and jobs cannot be completed; too many and inventory costs are unnecessarily high. Voice Biometrics or voice recognition has become a reliable technology for authenticating a person's identity. Voice biometrics verifies identity by comparing a person's voice with their voiceprint, a previously recorded representation of their voice. Voice recognition can be used as a standalone authentication protocol but is more commonly deployed as an additional security layer, especially for organizations targeted by fraudsters - banks, insurance companies and healthcare providers. It provides stronger authentication than a knowledge- based approach by verifying people for who they are, as opposed to what they know, such as a PIN or mother's maiden name. Voice biometrics means customers do not need to answer a 217 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
set of personal security questions at the start of contact with a call or contact centre. From management's perspective, if voice recognition saves an average of 20 seconds of the agent's time per call there is the prospect of a significant lift in agent productivity, and an improvement in customer experience. Web Collaboration is a collective term for the online, social and software tools that enable customers and customer service agents to interact in real time to solve customer problems. These technologies include instant messaging (web chat), web-conferencing, co-browsing of web pages and file-sharing (calendars, to-do lists, videos, documents, presentations and other files). Web collaboration allows the agent to help the customer to resolve the issue in real time. Customer service agents can collaborate with a number of customers simultaneously or can prioritize based on customer value or some other metric. Transcripts of the chat can be retained and attached to the customer file. Web collaboration is often used as an escalation option for customers who cannot find a solution to their issue through a self-service portal. Web collaboration may reduce online abandonment rates, increase problem resolution and customer satisfaction, and provide up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Workflow Development software is useful for designing service-related processes, such as problem diagnosis and issue escalation. Workflow for field service operations will define how service requests are validated, how service tickets are issued, how tickets are allocated, how problems will be diagnosed, how parts will be ordered, how problems will be fixed, how customers will be invoiced and so on. 12.5SUMMARY SFA enables salespeople and sales managers to become more effective or efficient in the pursuit of their objectives. The modern, information-enabled marketer can run thousands of highly targeted campaigns based on complex data mining and predictive analytics. Service automation has an important role to play in allowing companies to deliver excellent customer service. Workflow Development software is useful for designing service-related processes, such as problem diagnosis and issue escalation. Service Level Management (SLM) applications allow managers to establish, monitor and control the level of service that is offered to customers, and technicians to deliver the level of service agreed. Queuing and routing applications allow issues to be routed to agents with particular expertise and positioned in that agent's queue according to some rule. Universal queuing aggregates all inbound contacts into a single queue regardless of reception channel - voice, email, chat and social media - and applies a common routing rule. 218 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) uses voice or touch-tone keypad input from callers to guide them through a tiered menu structure to the information they require as quickly as possible. Customer Self-Service (CSS) is an attractive option for companies because it transfers the responsibility and cost for service to the customer. 12.6KEYWORDS Sales Force Automation is the application of computerized technologies to support salespeople and sales management in the achievement of their work-related objectives. Marketing Automation is the application of computerized technologies to support marketers and marketing management in the achievement of their work-related objectives. Service Automationis the application of computerized technologies to support service staff and management in the achievement of their work-related objectives. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) uses voice or touch-tone keypad input from callers to guide them through a tiered menu structure to the information they require as quickly as possible. 12.7LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. What is Sales Force Automation? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. What is Market Automation? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3. What is Service Automation? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 12.8UNIT END QUESTIONS 219 A. Descriptive Questions CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Short Questions 1. Describe sales Force Automation 2. Write in detail about Market force Automation 3. Explain the Service Force Automation 4. Explain the uses of Market force Automation 5. Describe the Major procedure involved in service force automation Long Questions 1. Explain the important uses of sales force Automation. 2. What is MFA? Explain the process Involved it 3. Explain SFA Software Functionality? 4. What are the benefits of Marketing Automation? 5. Explain software applications for Marketing Automation? 6. What are the benefits of Service Automation? 7. Explain software applications for Service Automation? B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. __ is the art of dealing with customer response and feedback via numerous communication channels available. a. Customer Response Management b. Customer Relationship Management c. Customer Relationship Marketing d. Sales Relationship Management 2. ___ is a kind of speech production application. It translates standard language text into speech. (Pick the right option) a. Voice Speech Recognition b. Hosted FAQ services c. Text-to-Speech d. IVR applications 3.__ ___ is a telecommunication tool that effectively routes and distributes incoming calls in an even way to a specific group of people. a. An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) b. Reactive response 220 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
c. Active Response d. deactivated response 4. ___ is a technology that computerizes interactions with telephone callers. a. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) b. Interactive voice call c. voice call d. Activated voice call 5. In_____________ large companies use old and new media to their advantage by selling merchandise or the rights of the product. a. Technological convergence b. Social Convergence c. Economic Convergence d. None of the above. Answers 1 - a, 2 – c, 3 - a, 4 – a, 5 –c 12.9 REFERENCES Reference Books • Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Approach to Marketing by Mukherjee K • Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies by Francis Buttle and Stan Maklan • Customer Relationship Management by S Sheel Rani • Data Mining Techniques: For Marketing, Sales and Customer Relationship Management” by Gordon S Linoff and Michael J ABerry • Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools by V Kumar and Werner Reinartz Text Book References • Day, G.S. (1986). Analysis for strategic market decisions. St Paul, MN: West Publishing. 4 Cokins, G. (1996). Activity-based cost management: making it work. New York: McGraw-Hill. 221 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
• Gupta, S. and Lehmann, D.R. (2005). Managing customers as investments: the strategic value of customers in the long run. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. • Gupta, S. and Lehmann, D.R. (2005). Managing customers as investments: the strategic value of customers in the long run. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. • Rust, R.T., Lemon, K.N. and Narayandas, D. (2005). Customer equity management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. • Saunders, J. (1994). Cluster analysis. In G.J. Hooley and M.K. Hussey (eds). Quantitative methods in marketing. London: Dryden Press, pp. 13-28. Websites • https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/en/experiential-marketing/ • https://study.com/academy/lesson/experiential-marketing-definition-strategies- example.html 222 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
UNIT 13- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR CRM STRUCTURE 13.0 Learning Objectives 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Internal Marketing– Efforts and Need 13.3 Strategy for Internal Marketing 13.4 Internal Marketing Best Practices 13.5 Employee Relationship Management 13.6 Employee Relationship Management Software 13.7Summary 13.8 Keywords 13.9 Learning Activity 13.10 Unit End Questions 13.11 References 13.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to: Understand the concept of Internal Marketing State the need of Internal Marketing Describe the best practices of internal marketing What is Employee Relationship Management? Describe Employee Relationship Management Software 13.1INTRODUCTION The role of service employees is indeed relevant for the success of any service organization, especially those that process people and internal marketing can help firms to deliver service excellence. Even though it is not a new concept, since it was first mentioned in the literature more than 30 years ago, confusion still exist on what exactly internal marketing (IM) is. Internal marketing is the promotion of a company’s objectives, products and services to employees within the organization. The purpose is to increase employee engagement with the company’s goals and fostering brand advocacy. 223 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Employee relationship management constitutes an emerging trend of managing human resource by building and maintaining individualized and mutually valuable relationship with employees based on information technology. Employees are the major assets of an organization. It is very essential that the employees perform together as a collective unit and contribute equally towards the realization of common goal. However, given the early and still emerging state, there is little knowledge and agreement regarding ERM. Hence here the paper attempts to clarify the concept and derive research implications. The technological and strategic of ERM are discussed based on the Customer Relationship Management. As a result, a first general outline of an interesting concept is presented. Based on outline, the major implications for further theoretical and empirical evaluation of ERM are derived to propose directions for future research. Employee relationship management has focused on enabling to collaborate on typical managerial tasks with their employers. By engaging inputs from both sides of the employment relationship, ERM platforms aim to align the interests of both parties, worker and employer, and inform day-to-day business functions under a streamlined workflow. 13.2 INTERNAL MARKETING – EFFORTS AND NEED Employees who are enthusiastic about their company and its offerings are likely to share that enthusiasm with their social networks. As a result, internal marketing can be an effective part of external branding and marketing efforts. However, internal marketing can only go so far since an employee’s attitude toward the organization is affected by every element of that individual’s experience working for the business. Keeping employees happy and engaged is important to external marketing efforts as well. Internal marketing operates on the idea that customer opinions of a company are based on their experiences with the business, not just with the products. By treating employees as “internal customers\", internal marketing helps employees align with the company’s vision and operations. In turn, they provide their customers with a consistent and valuable experience. Internal marketing campaigns are often lead by a company’s human resources department, which is responsible for distributing information and providing training on the company’s objectives and strategies. Common Internal Marketing efforts include: Ensuring that all employees know that their contributions are essential to the company’s success. Educating all employees about the company’s products and services. Reinforcing the concept that customers are, when all is said and done, the source of employees’ salaries. Providing adequate salaries and benefits, plus a pleasant work environment. 224 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Encouraging employee input on corporate policies, management and operation – including criticism. Acting on employee suggestions that have merit and publicly acknowledging the value of the input. Confirming that the corporate mandate and objectives are clearly described and disseminated throughout the organization. Providing opportunities for advancement, professional development and promotion. Ensuring that the corporate culture is consistent with work-life balance. Fostering communication and collaboration among employees through various methods from formalized settings and to casual areas for gathering, such as lounges. NEED FOR INTERNAL MARKETING Internal marketing involves promoting your organization’s mission, objectives, purpose, culture, products and services, and brand to your own employees. Occasionally referred to as “employee marketing,” the purpose of internal marketing is to “sell” your business to your employees, so they are more engaged, brand-aware, and knowledgeable about your organization. Like other forms of marketing and advertising, internal marketing is a necessity. It’s hard for employees to care about their work if they don’t understand the value of your organization — and it’s no secret that disengaged and disconnected employees can be costly. A lack of internal marketing could also hurt your hiring and recruitment efforts, making it difficult to find employees and retain talent, which, in turn, can lead to more disengagement and negatively impact your bottom line. That being said, it’s never too late to develop and execute an effective internal marketing strategy for your organization. As long as you approach it thoughtfully and deliberately, you, your employees, and your business can still benefit from internal marketing. Examplesof Internal Marketing There are countless opportunities to put internal marketing into action at your organization. You may have implemented a strategy or shared internal marketing materials without even realizing it. Common avenues and channels for internal marketing include: Social media profiles, company website, and other online activities. Job listings and promotion opportunities. Company benefits, perks, and work-life balance initiatives. Training, learning, and development sessions. Internal communications, including emails, instant messages, and phone calls. 225 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Workshops, brainstorming sessions, and meetings. Employee performance reviews, feedback opportunities, and spotlights. Company, project, and product branding and marketing. Company news, updates, milestones, and achievements. This is by no means an exhaustive list; don’t be afraid to try new things to find what works for your organization. Creativity is your friend and just might be the competitive edge you need to reap the full benefits of internal marketing. Benefits of Internal Marketing Internal marketing can benefit both your employees and your organization as a whole. Some of its major advantages include: Employee Engagement: Internal marketing can keep employees informed about and supportive of your company. If their jobs have a purpose and they feel like they’re a valued part of your organization, they’re more likely to be enthusiastic about and devoted to their work. Company Culture: Since it allows you to communicate your mission and values, internal marketing can help develop and strengthen your company’s culture. Having engaged employees can further solidify culture, making your organization a more positive and enjoyable place to work. Brand Awareness: Not only does internal marketing help with developing your organization’s brand, but it also boosts brand awareness among employees. This helps employees become brand advocates who publicize your company (both for customers and potential employees) outside of the workplace. As long as your messaging is consistent, this can also help with your external marketing efforts. Staff Empowerment: With increased brand awareness, your employees are better equipped to do their work. This is especially true for staff members who work with clients, allowing them to improve the experience customers have with your business. Recruitment and Hiring: Internal marketing can also support your hiring efforts, making it easier to market job openings and recruit talented employees. With more engaged employees and strong company culture, your organization will gain a positive reputation, making it a desirable workplace for more applicants. Retention: What’s more, this also can help you retain employees, both new and old. It’s believed that increased employee engagement reduces turnover, allowing you to keep the best workers on your team for the benefit of your business. Internal marketing is too important for your business to ignore or neglect. However, it’s crucial to go about it properly for your internal marketing efforts to be effective. 226 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
The Keys to Effective Internal Marketing To enjoy these benefits, you have to build an effective internal marketing strategy. Like any other marketing initiative, internal marketing requires time, attention, and care if you want your efforts to be successful. The key components of any internal marketing include: A clear strategy for your business as a whole. Specific operational goals that support your strategy. An open and trusting relationship with employees. Honest, clear, and frequent internal communication. A high-quality employee experience, from beginning to end. 13.3 STRATEGY FOR INTERNAL MARKETING With these internal marketing foundations in mind, here’s how you can build and implement a strategy that works well for your business: Cultivate a Great Marketing Team Before anything else, you need to cultivate a great marketing team at your organization. Internal marketing is just as important as external marketing, and you need to find employees who can make your dream a reality. You and other company leaders may have been able to build up your business and culture, but it isn’t enough to just know your company’s brand. When it comes to internal marketing, you need someone who knows how to properly communicate that brand to others. Assess Your Current Marketing Strategy You need to know the state of your current internal marketing strategy before you can create a new and improved plan. Again, you’ve probably been engaging in some kind of internal marketing without even realizing it. This passive approach likely isn’t the best plan for your organization, but you need to know what your current efforts look like and what kind of impact they’re having. It can help to learn what trends are popular across the marketplace and what is working for other companies. This may provide insight into how your own organization compares, and where you have room to be more deliberate with your approach. After that, you can begin changing and tweaking your plan. Do more of what’s working well and eliminate practices that aren’t benefiting you or your employees. Further, don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new, as even unconventional tactics may resonate with your organization. Consider Your External Marketing Similarly, take stock of your external marketing efforts, analysing what’s working well and what isn’t. Consider what your current messaging is and if it matches what you hope to 227 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
project internally. It’s best to align your internal and external marketing messages, as it creates a powerful brand identity and allows all of your marketing tactics to work cohesively. Sending mixed messages to employees and potential customers can come across as disingenuous, harming your reputation as an employer and as an organization. Additionally, it presents a missed opportunity to present a strong, unified brand to the public. Simply put, mixed messaging may not actively hurt your business, but it likely won’t help either. Encourage Employee Involvement Internal marketing doesn’t have to be a top-down initiative; it can be an interactive and collaborative process across your entire organization. Asking your employees what they think or inviting them to participate shows just how much you value their opinions and contributions to your business. Not only does this support your efforts to improve engagement and culture, but it can also lead to innovative teamwork from your employees. Each one of your employees brings a unique experience and perspective to the table. They may suggest powerful ideas that you, company leadership, or your marketing team wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Further, your employees are on the front lines of your organization — they see what’s actually going on, both good and bad. They’ll know what people care about and what messaging would be sincere and helpful for their co-worker. This insight is invaluable to effective internal marketing. Reassess Your Strategy You aren’t done with internal marketing once you have developed and implemented your plan. As with external marketing strategies, you need to carefully measure the outcomes of your internal marketing efforts. Re-think your approach to marketing and look for ways to make it better. There’s always room for growth and improvement. Your organization is dynamic, so it’s wise to continually look for ways to respond to any changes and shifts that occur. Keep making internal marketing a priority to ensure your strategy — and entire business — is as successful as possible. 13.4 INTERNAL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES A growing body of research amply demonstrates there is a link between internal marketing and profitability. The 2006 Internal Marketing Best Practices study identified the six key characteristics that drive successful internal marketing programs. Conducted by graduate students of the Integrated Marketing Communications department at North-western University, the study shed light on strategies and tactics that align, motivate and empower employees — at all functions and levels — to consistently deliver a company’s “brand promise,” which, in turn, helps businesses reach their goals. 228 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
The six common characteristics of highly effective internal marketing programs are: (1) Senior Management Participation, (2) Integrated Organizational Structure, (3) Strategic Marketing Approach, (4) Human Resources Partnership, (5) Focus on Employee Engagement And (6) Internal Brand Communication. This section explores specific internal tactics deployed by the companies studied in these six categories. The results of the “case study” provide valuable insights for other companies so that they too are able to achieve internal marketing success. Best Practice 1: Senior Management Participation Visible support from internal marketing leaders and frequent and direct communication from c-suite executives is necessary for effective internal marketing. Senior management-initiated internal marketing o The Container Store’s CEO believes that the company has a moral obligation to ensure that employees are provided with a stimulating and secure work environment on a daily basis. o The Ritz-Carlton’s long-held belief that employee engagement is linked to customer satisfaction and enhanced profitability goes back as far as the hotel’s very first president. Visible senior management support for IM (or equivalent) leaders o Because the company is known to hire external talent and acquire complementary product lines, the CEO of Wrigley knows all too well the need for internal marketing. With the old culture clashing with the way, employee engagement and internal communications are seen as critical. o A canned- and frozen-food company’s new CEO demanded critical communications support for internal audiences. At this company, communication consistency and effectiveness is ensured by leveraging management buy-in to drive a trickle-down effect. Face-to-face/direct communication o Hospital employs mini employee meetings led by senior management at each of its sites that usually focus on a quarterly earnings release, company milestones or bad news. It empowers each site to choose topics discussed. 229 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
o At The Container Store, the chairman and CEO are famous for visiting stores and interacting with employees. o Once a month, a group of Cisco employees are invited to join CEO John Chambers at an informal breakfast session where no topic is off-limits. Best Practice 2: Integrated Organizational Structure Most of the companies interviewed utilize horizontal integration to achieve internal marketing, believing that it should encompass all communications with all employees to maximize employee involvement and commitment. To encourage employee commitment, most of the companies have a minimized hierarchical management process and empower employees with many key business decisions. Virtual Internal Marketing Team o At Kellogg’s, marketing, brand management, and employee communications have internal marketing roles. They work individually and together in order to ensure employee buy-in. o Internal communications, branding, public relations, organizational development, HR, and training teams work together at Staples to implement effective internal marketing. o At The Ritz-Carlton, internal marketing is implemented by a broad-based steering committee of department representatives from human resources, operations, product/brand management, and sales and marketing, among others. Employee Empowerment o Internal marketing is initiated primarily by employees at The Container Store. o At Kellogg’s, biweekly and bimonthly cross-functional team meetings are held. These meetings, which are used to align the brand priorities in a team environment across the organization, include employees at all levels of the organization. Corporate Culture o A globally diversified information-technology company describes the driving force behind the company’s internal marketing efforts as “embracing and understanding internally before people can project it externally.” o Cisco describes its culture as “all about giving back.” It is about changing the world for the better, in whatever ways one can. Customer advocacy is rooted within company culture as is employee engagement. 230 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
o Staples touts what it calls its “Me 3rd Culture.” Employees are told that to succeed at Staples they must think Staples first, their team second, and themselves third. Best Practice 3: Strategic Marketing Approach When it comes to marketing internally, best-practice companies market to internal constituents in a manner that parallels how it reaches out to acquire and retain customers. A formal approach to the internal marketing function o At 3M, one group takes the lead on strategic communications planning and organizes cross-functional teams for specific internal marketing initiatives. 3M’s centralized strategic-planning resource serves as a consultant to other “client” groups within the organization. o At Union Pacific, an internal “agency” for all business units works exclusively on the company’s employee communication needs by consulting across the organization and assisting with creative planning and designing. Derives insight from employee research o A fast-growing investment bank has measurement and feedback mechanisms to uncover insights into employees’ wants and needs as they change over time. It also accumulates critical research in the form of employee focus groups. Segments internal audiences in order to improve relevancy o In the case of Union Pacific, the communication medium is designed to meet each employee segment’s needs and accessibility. For example, off-site employees are communicated to via traditional mail while on-site employees can access an employee Intranet. o A globally diversified information-technology company has a standing segmentation scheme for its internal marketing targets: company to all employees; business unit to business unit employees; region to local employees. Measures effectiveness of IM programs to support further investment of resources o Before implementing any new IM program, a participating company conducts a pre-measurement study to provide a baseline of employee attitudes and behaviours. Ongoing measurement throughout the change process helps ensure that shifts in attitudes and behaviours are taking place. Post- measurement studies help management better understand whether the change was effective and if it impacted business performance. o In another best practice firm, every department has to identify its own internal clients and their performance metrics. One manager said, “Once you measure 231 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
the service provided, you can have the goal to improve it. Continuous improvements in processes and outputs directly correlate to customer satisfaction.” Best Practice 4: Human Resources Partnership For successful internal marketing, human resources staff must consistently seek to integrate innovative methodology to train, communicate and foster feedback. Recruitment o The Ritz-Carlton employs 28,000 “ladies and gentlemen” worldwide, and each individual property is empowered to recruit its own staff. It uses predictors such as ethics, self-esteem, teamwork and empathy to help select successful future \"ladies and gentlemen.” Employee Training and Acculturation o With more than 11,000 employees in over 450 locations, inventive quick- service restaurant chain Chipotle places pioneered internal-marketing efforts targeting employees across all departments and all business functions. Because two-thirds of its workforce is Spanish-speaking, Chipotle established language classes to enable workers to better connect with employees. o In order to expand its workforce rapidly, a technology company’s internal communications team partnered with HR to overhaul the new employee orientation program to ensure all pertinent messages were incorporated into a one-day initial session. A tool kit was created that required follow-up throughout the first 90 days of a new hire. This constituted a big shift from the previous oversimplified new hire orientation process, which focused mainly on distributing I.D. cards and setting up workstations. Retention o Compared with the industry average of 100 percent, The Container Store’s exceptionally low turnover rate of 14 percent clearly demonstrates the success of employee-retention initiatives. Employees are consistently recognized as the company’s greatest asset. They receive more than 241 hours of training in the first year followed by 262 hours thereafter and are entitled to a number of unique incentive programs, such as family-friendly shifts for parents. o The Ritz-Carlton strongly believes that “while many in the U.S. consider service to be subservient, we consider it an honour.” Its vigorous 21-day training session begins the retention process, and 100 hours of training every year after maintains it. 232 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Employee Feedback o With 123,000 employees worldwide, a global consultancy placed a strong emphasis on internal communications during a period of time when workforce reductions occurred. Once that period of time had passed, the company continued the internal communications efforts. An important key learning from a series of internal communication focus groups revealed that employees wanted to hear only what they needed to know in order to do their jobs. o At Wrigley, The Wrigley People Survey is administered to every employee (14,800 total) to measure attitudes about individual job responsibilities, managers‚ performance, and company programs and initiatives. Last year, there was more than a 98 percent response rate. Best Practice 5: Focus on Employee Engagement Employee engagement is a result of an efficient and collaborative work environment where employees feel involved and motivated. The organizations use simple, effective tactics to focus on employee well-being through fundamental work appreciation tactics. Empowerment o At Cisco employees are empowered to make changes, big and small. Ideas are sought from all employees. If there is no budget for a worthy project, a new budget is created. o Empowerment implies that frontline employees can exercise a degree of discretion during service delivery. Progressive hotelier Ritz-Carlton allows employees to spend up to $2,000 to correct a customer's problem or handle a complaint. Two-Way Communication o The Wrigley “Breakthrough” program unites management and employees to brainstorm stretch goals, discuss innovative ideas, and devise systems and tools for training. The program provides an avenue for subordinates to truly communicate to managers within the safety zone of the program, and encourages thinking beyond traditional barriers. Reward and Incentives o A fast-growing investment bank, which has $1.1 billion in total assets, hosts an annual “Leaders Retreat,” a four-day resort retreat for high-level executives and top-performing employees and their spouses. Corporate Philanthropy o Twelve years ago, a successful biotechnology company started a major community relations program that has blossomed into an annual tradition. The 233 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
company also sponsors employee participation in fund-raising events for the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and others. Alignment of Corporate Goals with Employee Goals o The Wrigley has its GOLD (Goals Outcomes Learning Development) program, which enables employees to be active participants in the ongoing appraisal of their performance against corporate goals. The employees become more engaged because they understand their value in reaching business goals. Special Events o When Hospital spun off from Abbott Laboratories, it initiated “Founder’s Day” events to celebrate the new beginning and communicate integrity, Hospira’s most important value. o A Fast-Growing Investment Bank recently organized a Halloween party for which all employees were flown in at the company’s expense. A subsequent survey boasted the bank’s highest satisfaction rate to date: 90 percent response rate with 95 percent of the company’s employees being very satisfied. Best Practice 6: Internal Brand Communication Internal branding bridges the gap between promise makers (marketers) and promise keepers (employees). Despite the varying scope and cost of the internal branding programs, all firms shared the basic principle that internal branding should inform and engage employees to consistently support brand initiatives. Branded Communication Material o At Oppenheimer Funds, internal communications materials reflect the brand promise of security and partnership, a promise that is deep-rooted in the company’s history. Oppenheimer Funds executives say that the Internet, memos and speeches are cost-effective communication vehicles that can efficiently reinforce a consistent brand message. Brand Ambassador Team o Kellogg’s holds brand ambassador team meetings where employees engage in open dialogue with the leadership team and share their perspectives on the financial success of the brand, current innovations and improvement ideas. Although the Kellogg’s brands function separately, the success of Kellogg’s internal marketing is due to cross-functioning teams that bridge the gap between silos to form a seamless flow of communication. Internal & External Brand Alignment 234 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
o After learning that confusion surrounded a technology brand’s promise and its delivery to its external customers and employees, the graphic brand initiated employee communication materials and educational opportunities, such as meetings and luncheons, for employees to learn about the brand promise. This internal marketing effort was carefully aligned with external marketing and sales activities. o A Canned- and Frozen-Foods Company uses internal communications that mimic the look and feel of the company’s external communications. By incorporating the same visual cues in all communications, employee messaging underscores that the corporation has a uniform vision and voice. While applying metrics used for external marketing (e.g., return on investment) to internal marketing remains a work in progress even for best-practice companies, many are moving in this direction. The authors of this study anticipate an increase in the growing number of organizations that will begin to adopt best practices in attracting and retaining top talent, tapping into the technological revolution in employee communications, linking communications with bottom-line results, and engaging top management with the significance of organization-wide internal marketing efforts. Internal marketers need to step up their efforts to create hard performance measures and assessment techniques that clearly demonstrate how a program or campaign contributes to achieving corporate goals. Hard measures include communication audits, objective evaluation of employee behaviour and the impact communication has on company performance. Measurements ascertain whether a change in attitudes and behaviours toward internal marketing has taken place. Though much progress remains to be made, it is no longer difficult to envision a corporate marketplace where internal marketing shares equal status with external marketing. The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement, which designed the study, is a research centre within the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program at North-western University. A central objective of the Forum is to develop and disseminate knowledge about communications, motivation and management so that businesses can better design, implement and manage people-based initiatives both inside and outside an organization. ELEMENTS OF INTERNAL MARKETING The boom of service industry in the 80s has led to the development of a theoretical corpus specific to this sector, and the work of Gronroos, Lovelock and Parasuraman et al., for instance, have contribute a lot to the understanding of specific characteristics of the service business, that includes IM. One of the elements of IM presented by Bansal et al. is employment security that is defined as “providing employees with the reasonable assurance that they will not be laid off, even during tough economic cycles. Any slowdowns in productivity or profitability may result in transfers, retraining, or job rotation, thus avoiding 235 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
the necessity of layoffs”. Another element is extensive training since almost all “descriptions of IM practices emphasize the importance of training because frontline employees need the requisite knowledge and ability to recognize and solve problems and to ensure high-quality products and services” If an organization is serious about attracting and retaining the best and brightest candidates, “providing them with a higher-than-industry-average salary is one way of accomplishing this objective. What is the message that paying people well sends? Higher pay is a way of communicating the value of employees to the organization”. This way, “higher-than-industry- average salaries and pay partially contingent on performance will be positively associated with job satisfaction, loyalty to the firm, and trust in management” In order to build trust, it is important that organizations function in a transparent manner, with a service focus. To do so, companies must be prepared to openly share with their members, “information on their strategy, financial performance, and expenditures – sharing information is a key factor to IM. Employee empowerment is an essential way to impact employee attitudes and behaviours and, hence, the level of service provided to the external customer”. Finally, consistent with a focus on information sharing and empowerment, organizations with an emphasis on internal customers should also work to reduce the status distinctions that make some people feel more or less valued than their colleagues. Service excellence means delivering what the customer wants at the first encounter. In an external marketing perspective this is related to service quality, to exceed customer expectation, to make it right the first time. For that to happen, internal customers must also have what they want, since they are customers. It is believed that internal customer satisfaction will lead to external customer satisfaction, which represents a way to offer service excellence. “Although the importance of internal customer satisfaction levels on external customer satisfaction levels has been increasingly emphasized, there remains a dearth of literature that comments on the exact nature of the relationship between the two”. By satisfying the needs of its internal customers, an organization upgrades its capability for satisfying the needs of its external customers. This is true for most organizations. Service excellence calls for a marketing plan. Figure below presents a service plan with IM mix and external marketing mix. 236 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Figure 13.1 Internal Marketing Plan The organization must have clear at a strategic level the importance of customers (both internal and external), for the success of the service production and deliver. Issues like employee empowerment, customer satisfaction and more important, the marketing mix management. IM mix consists of the programme, product, price, communication and distribution, according to Pierce and Morgan. The plan should link the mission, objective, strategic audit and marketing tactics to both IM and External marketing. Services are intangible and people dependent on nature. Having employees satisfied is a key topic for service excellence. What we are trying to stress is that, with the application of IM a service organization would be able to deliver service excellence better than the ones that do not have it a service philosophy or as a strategic tool. Gremler et al. claims that “successful service organizations understand well the importance of carefully monitoring and managing customer satisfaction”, and service encounter can play an important role whether customer satisfaction will occur or not. The satisfaction of internal customers can be influenced by service encounters with service suppliers internally in the organization. Internal service encounters are the interaction between customers within a firm. “In order to have their needs met, employees often depend upon internal services provided by others in the organization. Like external customers, internal customers engage in numerous service encounters to satisfy the many needs they have in the course of carrying out their job responsibilities”. THE ROLE OF INTERNAL MARKETING 237 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Management Of Change: Internal marketing may be used to place, and gain acceptance of new systems such as the introduction of information technology and new working practices, and other changes. Building Corporate Image: Internal marketing's role is to create awareness and appreciation of the company's aims and strengths - as all employees are potential company ambassadors. Strategic Internal Marketing: which aims at reducing inter-departmental and inter- functional conflict and developing the co-operation and commitment needed to make external marketing strategies work. Problems affecting successful implementation of Internal Marketing. a. Managerial Incompetence in interpersonal, technical and conceptual skills is some of the stumbling blocks against successful internal marketing. b. Poor understanding of internal Marketing concept. c. Individual conflict and conflict between departments makes the implementation of internal marketing difficult. d. Rigid organizational structure coupled by bureaucratic leadership hinder success of internal Marketing. e. Ignoring and not listening to subordinate staffs. f. The Tendency of ignoring employee’s importance and treating them like any other tools of the business. g. Unnecessary protection of information against employees. h. Resistance to change. 13.5 EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Employee relationship management can mean many things to different people. It starts with giving employees detailed job descriptions. It continues with training new hires. Businesses must also monitor the performance of employees to ensure they are doing their jobs correctly. A relationship is a two-way street, so you must make sure employees at all level can communicate back and forth. Finally, employees should receive feedback on how they are doing, often done by annual reviews. During reviews, employees should be able to tell how they feel about the employer, as well. Good relationships with employees help you spot and resolve problems early, according to the National Business Research Institute. Functions of Employee Relationship Management: Following are the important functions of employee relationship management. They are 238 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
To Create healthy and balanced relation with the organization and as well as with the employer andemployees. To build confidence and moral values as well as to encourage the people to give their performance fully. To bring out the inner potentials and make employees to come out with new innovative ideas and opinions. To treat all employees equally without any favouritism and without any discrimination. To Develop the good coordination and improves better communication to avoid conflicts. To encourage employees in decision making, seminars, and cultural events. To help employees more flexible so that they will able to take additional responsibilities. To Make employees more effective,efficient, and more productive in their work. To Maintain work culture where employees feel stress free and having better infrastructure and otheradditional benefits like food court, music while having coffee in rack room. Features of Employee Relationship Management Determining Employee Needs It is not enough to assume that a company knows what is important to employees for them to remain happy and not look to leave. Needs vary greatly depending on employee characteristics, such as age, gender, income level, as well as the type of job being performed. It is a good idea to find out directly from employees what their needs are. You can do this in one-on-one conversations that take place informally throughout the year, during formal employee evaluation meetings and through surveys that provide a quantitative indication of employee needs. For example, younger employees might be more interested in learning new skills and advancement, while older employees want stability and benefits like retirement contributions and health insurance. Balancing Work and Life Needs Effective employee relationship management requires consideration of the whole employee, not just the on-site worker. That means taking steps to ensure that the employee's work-life needs are well balanced. This can occur through creative staffing that might involve part- time, flexitime or even off-site work assignments. 239 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Monthly employee birthday parties, company outings, day care stipends, gym memberships, wellness programs, charity events and other non-work related activities can help make work less stressful and working for a particular company more fulfilling. Open, Honest Communication Communication is critical to establishing strong employee relationships. Managers must be committed to communicating regularly and honestly with employees about the issues that affect their work. The more open organizations can be, the more likely they are to establish strong relationships that lead to increased loyalty and productivity among employees and decreased turnover and dissatisfaction. Look at the way your company's managers and supervisors communicate with staff members, and the communications channels your staff members have to communicate upward to see if you are doing everything you can to manage your employee relationships. Measuring and Monitoring Results Effective employee relationship management requires tracking not only worker performance, but also satisfaction, according to corporate education provider Management Study Guide. Managers should be alert for signs of discontent, which can be subjective, as well as carefully monitoring the results of more formal assessments. Tardiness, missed deadlines, excessive sick and personal days, formal complaints filed, disciplinary actions and employee morale should all be tracked. The results should also be shared with employees. Too often employees are asked to complete surveys and are not informed of the results or told what was done with the results and the outcomes. \"People Skills\" are Critical Ultimately, employee relationship management requires the same skills and processes required to manage any relationship. A clear understanding of employees' needs and a desire to meet those needs is foundational. Steps must be taken to interact effectively with employees through a variety of communication channels, both interpersonal and formal (e.g., intranet site, employee newsletters, etc.). Finally, measurement of the effectiveness of these efforts should be frequent and ongoing, with improvements and adjustments made when results are not showing continual improvement or satisfactory levels of performance. Importance of Employee Relationship Management To start, the number one reason why employees resign from their job is because of the relationship with their manager and co-workers. When the relationship between the manager and employee is strained, there are two possible outcomes that are never good for businesses. One, the employee quits. Or two, the employee stays, the relationship is seriously strained and can lead to other employees feeling the same way. Here’s the bottom line, maintaining a strong employer and employee relationship is crucial to the company’s success. A positive relationship only leads to more productivity, more efficiency, less conflict and low turnover. 240 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
So, with all of that in mind, how can you build and maintain a healthy, positive employee- employer relationship? By using the right employee relationship management software. What does this software really do? It’s your tool to manage employee engagement, development, and relationship. 13.6 EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Meaning Employee relationship management software deals with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training. Benefits of Using Employee Relationship Management Software 1. Streamline communication. Keep employees involved from day one because communication is key to building strong employee relationships and growing trust among teams. As a manager, you have to regularly communicate with your employees – send them updates on company matters, acknowledge victories (sales, new customers, etc.), share customer success stories, celebrate “mundane” things (birthdays, anniversaries, personal milestones like marriage, new babies, etc.). There is a direct positive impact on employees who feel engaged, connected to their work and in the loop; employees become more motivated and work harder With employee relationship management software, you can easily streamline communication. Either start a one-on-one chat or group chats targeted via team, department, location, etc. Track who read messages and allow for social functions like comments and likes. The more open and transparent your company is, the stronger the relationship. 241 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Kristina Matric, digital marketing and employer branding expert argues “to deliver a good employee experience, employers need to be ready to improve the way they communicate with employees. Open and transparent communication helps employees feel involved which often leads to higher employee engagement”. There’s no way your company’s employee communication management is picture perfect and that means there’s always room for you to make improvement! 2. Employees first. Give them a place for their voice to be heard and respected. Employees should be given a platform to share their thoughts and ideas on company matters. When an employee believes that their input is highly and genuinely regarded, it will enhance their determination to excel in the company and to work toward increasing the company’s goals. Use employee relationship management software to send surveys to consistently gain feedback from your employees. Send surveys after a meeting, a company event, a team building exercise, etc. Create a suggestion box that’s always accessible so employees have direct access to voice their ideas at any time. 3. Retain top employees & reduce turnover. Show appreciation and gratitude to your employees because acknowledging and reinforcing good work is what inspires your employees to keep it up. If the sales team finished a killer project or closed some great deals; send a companywide announcement letting everyone know their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed and congratulate them on their perseverance! Give an employee public praise or send a message via the employee relationship management 242 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
software and allow co-workers to comment and like the update. This will help to inspire the rest of your employees as it cultivates a culture of appreciation and inspires them to work hard. Make employees aware that their hard work is NOT going unnoticed! Instead of spending tons of time and money trying to find new employees because your turnover rate is high, make sure you’re retaining your top employees and rewarding employee’s achievements and successes. A Forbes article advises business owners “to find out what makes your employees happy. Once you do that, you can understand what motivates people and take the steps necessary to achieve an environment that makes them an asset to your team”. As we already mentioned, employees leave a company because of poor employee-employer relationships so by showing your appreciation, you are a step closer to retaining your top employees and lowering that turnover rate. 4. Employees are well-versed on company policies. When you lower the turnover rate, you are ensuring that employees stay with your company for longer, therefore this helps them gain wide-ranging knowledge of company policies, practices, and processes. When your employees have tons of institutional knowledge, they serve as an excellent resource. How so? Well, they’re better skilled, more efficient and can offer excellent training for new hires. According to a study by Covestro, 71% of executives say employees’ desire for purpose is “prompting HR to rethink certain work policies such as paid time-off for volunteer or community work, flex time and/or telecommuting.” Organizations need to develop policies and procedures that reflect their vision, values and culture as well as the needs of their employees. Once they are in place, enforcing these guidelines is even more important. 5. Strengthen the company culture. Employee relationship management software can help reinforce the commitment to the company and that only equals better employee engagement and employees are more committed to tasks. With the right strategies in place, such as shared goals, trust, communication, HR practices and leadership styles, the employee relationship management software helps employees achieve targets set for their job roles. These strategies further enhance and boost effective communication channels, so information needs of employees are met. The software helps focus on employee performance, growth and development so that there is healthy competition amongst the employees. This helps to better working conditions and establishes healthy relationships so that there is more sense of belonging among the employees – that is key to strengthening the company culture. 6. Revenue growth. 243 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
When you have amazing employee relationships, you have a direct impact on the growth and revenue of the company. This only leads to a happier work environment for the employees and in turn, the customers and clients. When you have engaged, motivated employees, you have a much better customer satisfaction which only leads to more sales and profit growth. 13.7SUMMARY By treating employees as “internal customers\", internal marketing helps employees align with the company’s vision and operations. Internal marketing can keep employees informed about and supportive of your company. Internal marketing requires time, attention, and care if you want your efforts to be successful. Good relationships with employees help you spot and resolve problems early. Employee relationship management software can easily streamline communication. The more open and transparent your company is, the stronger the relationship. Employee relationship management software can help reinforce the commitment to the company and that only equals better employee engagement and employees are more committed to tasks. 13.8KEYWORDS Internal marketing is the promotion of a company’s objectives, products and services to employees within the organization. Employee relationship management starts with giving employees detailed job descriptions. It continues with training new hires. Businesses must also monitor the performance of employees to ensure they are doing their jobs correctly. Employee relationship management software deals with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training. 13.9LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. What is Internal Marketing? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. What is Employee Relationship Management? 244 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3. Give examples of internal marketing? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 13.10UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. What is Internal Marketing? 2. State the need for internal marketing? 3. List the benefits of internal marketing? 4. State the elements of internal marketing? 5. What is Employee Relationship Management? Long Questions 1. Explain the strategy for internal marketing? 2. Explain the best practices of internal marketing? 3. Explain the features and functions of Employee Relationship Management? 4. Explain the benefits of using ERM software? 5. Explain the ten principles of customer-supplier relations B. Multiple choice Questions 1. Which of the following describes e‐commerce? a. Doing business electronically b. Doing business c. Sale of goods d. All of these 2. Which of the following is part of the four main types for e‐commerce? 245 a. B2B b. B2C c. C2B d. All of these CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
3. Which segment do eBay, Amazon.com belong? a. B2Bs b. B2Cs c. C2Bs d. C2Cs 4.Which type of e‐commerce focuses on consumers dealing with each other? a. B2B b. B2C c. C2B d. C2C 5. Which segment is eBay an example? a. B2B b. C2B c. C2C d. None of these Answers 1 - a, 2 – d, 3 - b, 4 – d, 5 – d 13.11REFERENCES Reference Books • Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Approach to Marketing by Mukherjee K • Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies by Francis Buttle and Stan Maklan • Customer Relationship Management by S Sheel Rani • Data Mining Techniques: For Marketing, Sales and Customer Relationship Management” by Gordon S Linoff and Michael J ABerry 246 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
• Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools by V Kumar and Werner Reinartz Text Book References • Day, G.S. (1986). Analysis for strategic market decisions. St Paul, MN: West Publishing. 4 Cokins, G. (1996). Activity-based cost management: making it work. New York: McGraw-Hill. • Gupta, S. and Lehmann, D.R. (2005). Managing customers as investments: the strategic value of customers in the long run. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. • Gupta, S. and Lehmann, D.R. (2005). Managing customers as investments: the strategic value of customers in the long run. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. • Rust, R.T., Lemon, K.N. and Narayandas, D. (2005). Customer equity management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. • Saunders, J. (1994). Cluster analysis. In G.J. Hooley and M.K. Hussey (Eds). Quantitative methods in marketing. London: Dryden Press, pp. 13-28. Websites • https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/en/experiential-marketing/ • https://study.com/academy/lesson/experiential-marketing-definition-strategies- example.html 247 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
UNIT 14 - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR CRM STRUCTURE 14.0 Learning Objectives 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Definition of Supplier-Partnership 14.3 Types of Supplier Sourcing 14.4 Customer – SupplierRelationship 14.5 Supplier-Partnerships for Competitive Advantage 14.6. How to build Supplier-Partnership Relationship 14.7Summary 14.8 Keywords 14.9 Learning Activity 14.10 Unit End Questions 14.11 References 14.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to: Understand the concept of Supplier-Partnership Relationship Describe Supplier Sourcing Describe Supplier-Customer Relations Describe supplier- Partnerships for Competitive Advantage Describe how to buildSupplier and Partner Relationship 14.1INTRODUCTION Supplier Partnering Partnering is a defined as a continuing relationship, between a buying firm and supplying firm, involving a commitment over an extended time period, an exchange of information, and acknowledgement of the risks and rewards of the relationship. The relationship between customer and supplier should be based upon trust, dedication to common goals and objectives, and an understanding of each party’s expectations and values. 248 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
14.2 DEFINITION OF SUPPLIER-PARTNERSHIP A commitment over an extended time to work together to the mutual benefit of both parties, sharing relevant information and the risks and rewards of the relationship. These relationships require a clear understanding of expectations, open communication and information exchange, mutual trust and a common direction for the future. -- Institute for Supply Management Definition of Customer-Supplier Partnership An extended relationship between buyers and sellers based on confidence, credibility and mutual benefit. -- Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Benefits of Partnering The benefits of partnering include: Improved quality. Reduced Cost. Increased productivity. Increased efficiency. Increased market share. Increased opportunity for innovation; and Continuous improvement of products / services. Key Elements to Partnering The three important elements to achieve the customer / supplier partnering relationship are: Long-term Commitment: Long-term commitment provides both customer and supplier the much-needed environment to achieve the planned objectives. Because to set up and solve the problem of continuous improvement, both parties may require the sufficient time. Trust: Mutual trust between two parties forms the basis for a strong working relationship. Trust enables the partners to effectively combine their resources and knowledge. It results in a ‘win-win’ situation for both partners. Shared Vision: Both the customers and suppliers have the common goal i.e., to satisfy the end user. In order to ensure this goal, both particles should share and understand their goals and objectives. 14.3 TYPES OF SUPPLIER SOURCING Three types of supplier sourcing are: 249 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
SoleSourcing. MultipleSourcing, and Single Sourcing. 1. Sole Sourcing Sole sourcing is the use of only one supplier for the organization. The organization does not have any choice. It is forced to use only one supplier. This forced situation is because of the following factors: patents, technical specifications, raw material location, only one organization producing the item, etc. 2. Multiple Sourcing Multiple sourcing is the use of two or more suppliers for an item. The basic concept of multiple sourcing is that competition will result in better quality, lower costs, and better service. (The selection of suppliers from various alternatives is based on their performance in terms of prices, quality and delivery. 3. Single Sourcing Single sourcing is the use of one supplier for an item when several sources are available. It leads to long-term partnering relationship. The suppliers should be treated as partners to achieve the same quality level as attained within the organization. The following forces need Supplier Partnership to improve quality, reduce costs and increase market share. Deming Philosophy (Deming’s 4th point) Just-in-time Continuous process improvement ISO 9000 14.4 CUSTOMER – SUPPLIER RELATIONS Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa has given ten principles of customer-supplier relations. They are 1. Both the customer and supplier are fully responsible for the control of quality. 2. Both the customer and supplier should be independent of each other. 3. The customer is responsible for providing the supplier with clear and sufficient requirements so that the customer can know precisely what to produce. 4. Both the customer and supplier should enter into a non-adversarial contract. 5. The supplier is responsible for providing the quality that will satisfy the customer. 250 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
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