Tapnet Business Plan Essay Research Paper TAPNETCOMBusiness — страница 6

account summary  Marketing encyclopedia and Internet communication Today’s technology has reached a price/performance point where it is possible to acquire, consolidate, analyze, and manage the volumes of information that make this concept possible. First of all, it must be understood that at its core, CRM is more than just a set of technologies: it is a process. This fact will be of significant importance to Information Technology (IT) professionals who will be asked to support CRM with information and applications. Furthermore, it is intended to be a repeatable process to ensure ongoing, continually improving, and consistent results. Simply stated, CRM comprises the acquisition and deployment of knowledge about customers to enable a company to sell more of their product or

service more efficiently. The role of enabling IT in all three of these areas–deriving knowledge, enabling intelligent customer channels, and capturing and analyzing feedback–cannot be over emphasized. IT professionals have a tremendous opportunity to become enablers of a customer-centric business strategy and to have an impact on the organization’s bottom line. 2.3.2.1 Evolution of CRM In the past, customers were served by the corner store and door-to-door sales forces. The corner stores were small, intimate, and provided one-on-one service to their clientele. The door-to-door salesperson was the other face of the company and the personal relationship established by the salesperson was the key to success. This model provided, through personal interactions, an intimacy and

knowledge about the customer and developed customer loyalty and trust. The age of mass marketing replaced the intimacy of a direct sales force in many organizations. Centralized large-scale production, wide-geographic distribution, and one-way communication on a grand scale created a tremendous variety of easily available, affordable goods. This put pressure on the relatively inefficient corner store and door-to-door models. Over time, the local corner store gave way to the supermarkets, malls, and megastores of today. While society has benefited from the cost efficiencies of these arrangements, something was lost in the bargain. That loss was the sense of connection customers had with the local storekeeper–personalized service. Mass marketing was enabled through technological

improvements in TV, radio, and the printed press, all of which created simple and powerful means to communicate a company’s message to millions of people at once. Marketing’s major goal was to push product and create brand recognition. The main measure of success for this business strategy was market share. The Internet allows for a customized consumer experience. But how does TapNet enhance this equation? 2.3.2.2 Target Marketing In the mid 1980s, with the advances of technology and refinement in direct mail and telemarketing, another approach to communicate directly with the customer evolved. The use of Information System technology allowed the selection of specific (”targeted”) customers via mail or telephone. Unlike mass marketing, targeted marketing had the advantage

of potentially receiving a direct response from a customer. The general strategy was to unearth potential customers by canvassing large numbers. Response rates became the central metric in gauging success, with response rates of two to three percent being considered successful. Market share still remained the primary measure of business success. Target marketing recognized the need to interact more with customers, albeit at a very superficial level, but did not go far enough. There was a lack of specific data as it relates to responses from the targeting means resorting to “averages” for response rates, customer purchases, and other data. Nonetheless, target marketing was a significant step in the evolution to today’s CRM in that it moved the relationship between producer

and consumer one more step towards a personal interaction. 2.3.3 Customer Relationship Management CRM is the next step in the evolution, and it moves us back towards developing an intimacy with today’s customers, using today’s tools, and maintaining our mass production and distribution systems. It recognizes that the equation that yields trust and loyalty from a customer has two variables. The first variable is information and analysis (knowledge): one has to know what the customer wants, needs, and values. The second variable is the need for interactivity and personal contact and the way in which the customer wants to be contacted. TapNet can better enhance this experience with more real-time communication, voice over IP, video over IP, transmission of more graphically,