Difference between revisions of "Customer Management"

[[Category:Marketing]]{{Knoppen}}  

[[File:Customer management.jpg|thumb|right|Customer Management]]

'''Customer Management''' is a widely implemented model for managing a company’s interactions with customers and prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, service and retain those the company already has, entice former clients to return, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.Customer management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments.

Measuring and valuing customer relationships is critical to implementing this strategy.

==Benefits of customer management==

A customer relationship management system may be chosen because it is thought to provide the following advantages:

* Decrease in overall costs

* Increase profitability

==Challenges==

Successful development, implementation, use and support of customer relationship management systems can provide a significant advantage to the user, but often there are obstacles that obstruct the user from using the system to its full potential. Instances of a customer management attempting to contain a large, complex group of data can become cumbersome and difficult to understand for ill-trained users. The lack of senior management sponsorship can also hinder the success of a new customer management system. Stakeholders must be identified early in the process and a full commitment is needed from all executives before beginning the conversion. But the challenges faced by the company will last longer for the convenience of their customers.

Additionally, an interface that is difficult to navigate or understand can hinder the customer management’s effectiveness, causing users to pick and choose which areas of the system to be used, while others may be pushed aside. This fragmented implementation can cause inherent challenges, as only certain parts are used and the system is not fully functional. The increased use of customer management software has also led to an industry-wide shift in evaluating the role of the developer in designing and maintaining its software. Companies are urged to consider the overall impact of a viable customer management software suite and the potential for good or bad in its use.

===Complexity===

Tools and workflows can be complex, especially for large businesses. Previously these tools were generally limited to simple customer management solutions which focused on monitoring and recording interactions and communications. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking, territories, opportunities, and the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other client-interface business functions,. These tools have been, and still are, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure.

===Poor usability===

One of the largest challenges that customer management systems face is poor usability. With a difficult interface for a user to navigate, implementation can be fragmented or not entirely complete.

An intuitive design can prove most effective in developing the content and layout of a customer management system.Two 2008 case studies show that the layout of a system provides a strong correlation to the ease of use for a system and that it proved more beneficial for the design to focus on presenting information in a way that reflected the most important goals and tasks of the user, rather than the structure of the organization.This ease of service is paramount for developing a system that is usable.In many cases, the growth of capabilities and complexities of systems has hampered the usability of a customer management system. An overly complex computer system can result in an equally complex and non-friendly user interface, thus not allowing the system to work as fully intended.This bloated software can appear sluggish and/or overwhelming to the user, keeping the system from full use and potential. A series of 1998 research indicates that each item added to an information display can significantly affect the overall experience of the user.

==Fragmentation==

Often, poor usability can lead to implementations that are fragmented — isolated initiatives by individual departments to address their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: customer management and decision processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, and dysfunctional processes.

A fragmented implementation can negate any financial benefit associated with a customer management system, as companies choose not to use all the associated features factored when justifying the investment.Instead, it is important that support for the customer management system is companywide. The challenge of fragmented implementations may be mitigated with improvements in late-generation customer management systems.

===Business reputation===

Building and maintaining a strong business reputation has become now increasingly challenging. The outcome of internal fragmentation that is observed and commented upon by customers is now visible to the rest of the world in the era of the social customer; in the past, only employees or partners were aware of it. Addressing the fragmentation requires a shift in philosophy and mindset in an organization so that everyone considers the impact to the customer of policy, decisions and actions. Human response at all levels of the organization can affect the customer experience for good or ill. Even one unhappy customer can deliver a body blow to a business.

Additionally,customer management systems face the challenge of producing viable financial profits, with a 2002 study suggesting that less than half of customer management projects are expected to provide a significant return on investment.Poor usability and low usage rates lead many companies to indicate that it was difficult to justify investment in the software without the potential for more tangible gains.

===Security, privacy, and data security concerns===

One function of customer management is to collect information about clients. It is important to consider the customers' need for privacy and data security. Close attention should be paid to relevant laws and regulations. Vendors may need to reassure clients that their data not be shared with third parties without prior consent, and that illegal access can be prevented.

Technical writers can play a large role in developing content management systems that are secure and easy to use. A series of 2008 research shows that customer management systems, among others, need to be more open to flexibility of technical writers, allowing these professionals to become content builders.These professionals can then gather information and use it at their preference, developing a system that allows users to easily access desired information and is secure and trusted by its users.

==Sources==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management Wikipedia Customer management]