Social media and internet technology's impact on customer relationship management

Future of CRM -- Introduction

Impact of social media and utilization of the Internet on CRM

Successful customer loyalty program

Future trends in multi-channel approaches

Consumer demographics and behaviors along with the resulting influence customer relationship development

Amazon.com: a successful customer relationship-marketing program

The customer is the most important element in the business as he provides the organization with a ready market for its products. Organizations that are dependent on customers should maintain favorable relationship with customers at all times with its customers. The concept of customer relationship management refers to the model where a company manages its interactions with the customers. The concept ensures professional treatment to prospective customers, clients and loyal customers to establish and maintain strong bonds with the company. Customer relationship management involves the use of technology to manage, automate and harmonize operations in the organization. Sales activities are the focus of the concept although the marketing, customer care and technical support department also benefit from the concept. The main aim of implementing and maintaining a customer relationship management in any organization is to attract new customers, maintain a loyal following and attract back old customers. The concept involves all departments in the organization especially departments that interact directly with customers (Peel, 2003).

Impact of social media and utilization of the Internet on CRM

The use of technology in customer relationship management has improved the way the organization communicates with the customers. The internet has created a platform that the organization can use to communicate with customers. The use of the internet can be in form of websites, forums or social media. The organization can provide large volumes of information to its clients through the internet compared to conventional methods such as magazines. The use of internet has revolutionized customer relationship management due to the convenience that is associated with the internet. The organization can address issues that directly affect the clients. The clients benefit by getting information directly from the organization. A company representative with adequate information regarding the products sold by the company controls the website (Goldenberg, 2003).

The use of the internet to provide information to the customers ensures that the customers' access updated information. The use of the internet enables the organization to conduct regular updates unlike the use of print media that requires the organization to print another magazine when some functions of the organization change. The use of the internet has a high initial cost but a low operating cost to the organization. The use of the internet thus provides a cheap way for the company to communicate with its customers. For a large organization with global outlets, the use of the internet is the most convenient way to reach customers. An organization with a global customer base uses the internet through a website. The organization can provide technical support to its customers and even make sales through the website.

Social media and mainly tweeter and facebook have revolutionized the field of communication. Organizations have joined social media as a way of interacting directly with the customers. Organizations train some staff members on how to interact with customers professionally. The use of social media has enabled organization to increase their market base through providing quality information to its clients. The use of the internet and social media has enabled the organization to improve the product sold by the organization. Through social forums, clients are able to comment of the satisfaction derived from the products and features that they would want to improve on the products. The use of the internet has also enabled the organization to give news to the customers. A change to a product or introduction of a product in the market requires the use of the internet (Goldenberg, 2008).

The use of the internet and social media does not always yield positive results. Misuse of the tools in customer relations management may result to lowering of sales and loss of customers. Nestle is one of the companies that suffered from unprofessional use of social media in customer relations management. The use of the internet also exposes the organization to data loss and privacy concerns due to hackers. The organization using internet and social media to relate to it customer needs a staff that is adequately trained. There is also a need to educate the public on the advantages of using this customer relationship management tools.

CRM blueprint

Successful customer loyalty program

A loyalty program is enables the organization to understand customers inclinations and expenditure habits while monitoring, supporting and providing incentives for the behaviors that are considered desirable. Many businesses have turned to the use of reward systems to enable their organization to have a competitive advantage over other players in the market. The use of a loyalty program enables the organization to build a promotion that booms each customer. The use of loyalty programs also enables the organization to increase revenue due to strong relationships build with the customers. The organization is able to differentiate itself from other companies in the market and to ensure that the brand awareness (Kostojohn, Johnson & Paulen, 2011).

Some organizations offer discounts as part of their loyalty program. This is not a good element of a loyalty program. Giving discounts to all customers increases the number of customers that visit the business but does not instill loyalty to the customers. A successful loyalty program targets a group of customers to the organization. This precision offer allows the organization to identify and reward loyal customers to the organization. The organization running a loyalty program should ensure that the target group would enable the organization to increase its revenue by maintaining a stable client base.

A successful loyalty program should also be honest and transparent promotions. The clients should be able to realize the advantages of being in a group of customers. The organization should ensure that the program is transparent and free from fraud. The management should ensure that all the customers understand the loyalty program. All information regarding the promotion, the customers should be aware to ensure that the customers make an informed decision. Hidden information or charges to the loyalty program may affect its integrity thus deter customers. An honest loyalty program enables the organization to market its brand as customers spread the word (Finnegan & Willcocks, 2007).

Customers should be able to evaluate the value associated with a reward program. The customers should be able to realize the advantages of joining a loyalty program compared to other customers. Investing in a loyalty plan should have more advantages compared to the services a regular customer services. Most of the successful loyalty programs have a monetary value that allows the customer to save on his purchases. The value of a loyalty program is also associated with the feeling of recognition. The customer needs to feel appreciated to participate in a loyalty.

Consumer demographics and behaviors along with the resulting influence customer relationship development

The use of technology in the field of customer relations management has been changing due to the advances in technology. From the use of customer care representatives roaming the streets, to the use of multi-channel approaches to communicate with customers, the future has a lot in store for businesses. Demographics assess the influence of the development in customer relationship management over different consumer groups. The changes in the technologies have also affected the customer groups targeted by organizations. The management should be aware of the changes in the demographics in relation to the approach used. This ensures that the organization communicates with the target demographic thus maintain a stable client base.

The changes in demographics evaluation is through a study of the available market and the access to technology. The developed nations have seen a change in the use of technology in customer relationship management. Concerning age groups, the younger generation has access technology compared to the older generation. The youth also comprise majority of the population in many nations thus the need to consider approaches of customer relationship management that address them. Most of the wireless gadgets in the market owed by the youth increases the accessibility to information.

An advance in technology has seen a large number of customers using the communication technology of their age. The oldest in the market is the print media that used by the customers who dominated the market when print media was largely used for customer relations management. The use of television show follows with the invention of the television. Viewers can call the numbers on the screen and talk to customer care representatives. The current generation uses the internet and mobile devises to communicate. Organizations have shifted to the use of this mode of communication in their customer relationship management efforts.

A successful customer relationship-marketing program

An example of a successful customer relationship program is the case of Amazon.com. The organization has used multichannel to ensure that it maintains a strong relationship with its customers. The company has successfully used is customer relationship program to improve its communication with customers in the market. Amazon.com uses a combination of software and research on the products customers would like to buy. The research drawn from customers past behaviour and current buying treads in the market promotes the organizations competitiveness. The information from the research has enabled the organization to ensure that customer experienced. The organization promoted consumer loyalty through providing the customers with relevant information (Freeland, 2003).

The organization promotes its products through virtual storefronts on websites affiliated to the company. This tempts the customers to click on the links to view the information thus persuading them to buy the product. The customer relations program at Amazon.com allows customers who have bought the books to write review on the book. New customers can use such reviews to learn more about the product. The customer thus has adequate information to make an informed decision before buying the book. Having sufficient information before buying the product ensures that the customer is satisfied. The organization provides adequate information about books ensuring that customers are attracted to the site.

Conclusion

Consumer loyalty promotion occurs when customer's satisfaction is the focus of the organization. Organizations should have a website that ensures that communication with the customer. The organization is looking into ways to improve communication with its customers as technologies in the market advance. The future of customer relationship management lies in technology that the businesses sector should embrace. Multi-channel approaches increase competitiveness of an organization thus used in the current business environment.