Customer relationship management

In the face of increasing competition, mature markets, and the ever-demanding customer, it is casier than ever for customers to defect from your organization when they are just a click away from checking out the competition.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the key competitive strategy you need to stay focused on the needs of vour customers and to integrate a customer-facing approach throughout your organization. CRM is an enterprise-wide approach to not only acquiring and deploying knowledge about vour customers, but also to improving and automating the business processes that deliver value to your organization's customers, suppliers, and employees. In short, CRM is critical to vour business success.

Sound complicated? It's not. Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative ln the World of e-Business ondines what it takes to bceeffective in managing the customer relationship:

• What CRM is and how you can use it as a key competitive advantage
• Leading trends and best practices in CRNI
• Successes and failures of organizations around the globe that have implemented CRNI
• The 20 key steps in implementation of CRM
• The role of people, processes and technology to enable CRM
• How to define strategies for customers, channels and products, and infrastructure

• Explains how new technologies enable CRM as never before.
• Shows how back-office solutions create front-line efficiencies.
• Features examples and case studies of best-in-class companies that have integrated new web technologies with traditional channels to give them the right marketing mix (for interaction with custorners rather than simply forcing self-service).
• Demonstrates how to implement and integrate several CRM technologies at once.
• Includes contributions from PricewaterhouseCoopers CRM consulting partners and senior professionals from around the globe.

He is a frequent speaker on the topic of customer care, and writes regularly for newsletters and magazines around the globe. He is the author of five previous books: Strategic Customer Care: An Evolutionary Approach to Increasing Customer Value and Profitability (Wiley, 1999), Breakthrough Customer Service: Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support (Wiley, 1997), What Customers Value Most: How to Achieve Business Transformation by Focusing on Processes That Touch Your Customers (Wiley, 1995), Total Quality Service, and Creating the Service Culture.

Table of contents

FIRST PRINCIPLES IN CRM: OVERVIEW.
Putting CRM to Work: The Rise of the Relationship.
The Need for a Market-Intelligent Enterprise (MIE) ^Sm.
A Case Study on CRM and Mass Customization: Capital One.
STEP ONE: BUILDING AND IMPLEMENTING THE CUSTOMER STRATEGY: OVERVIEW.
Creating Loyalty: Its Strategic Importance in Your Customer Strategy.
From Customer Loyalty to Customer Dependency: A Case for Strategic Customer Care.
Customer Acquisition and CRM: A Financial Services Perspective.
STEP TWO: THE NEED FOR EFFECTIVE CHANNEL AND PRODUCT STRATEGIES: OVERVIEW.
Customer Relationship Management through New Product Development.
Channel Management and Customer Relationship Management.
Embracing the e-Channel.
e-Channel Management: Electronic-Customer Relationship Management.
The Customer-Centric Organization in the Automotive Industry?Focus for the 21st Century.
STEP THREE: THE INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY: OVERVIEW.
The Tools for CRM: The Three Ws of Technology.
Using the Tools: Database Marketing, Data Warehousing and Data Mining.
CRM in the Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of Swisscom.
ENABLING THE CRM STRATEGY: OVERVIEW.
Implementing CRM: 20 Steps to Success.
Using Catalytic Measures to Improve CRM.
Best Practices in Outsourcing CRM and Lessons Learned.
Learning and Knowledge Management Programs in the Age of CRM.
Implementing CRM: The Need for Performance Alignment.
Conclusion.
Appendix.