Customer Relationship Management Strategies for the Internet

INTRODUCTION During the agriculture age, people exchanged agriculture goods, which the other one needed (i.e., barter trading). All exchanges were confined to certain regions and limited by geographical boundaries. So there was a high degree of inter-dependence on each other. In the industrial age, the seller & buyer concept was coined. At first, manufactured produced the products and sold them aggressively to buyers (i.e., selling concept). Later, the product was produced and marketed according to the customer's requirements (i.e., marketing concept). With the advent of the Internet, we see the dawn of the information age. The Internet economy makes it possible to offer customers an experience unlike any experience they have had before. Goods & services are now specially designed in order to cater to a particular group or even a specific The term customization, which is the mass production of individually customized goods and services, has been popularized. It is the intention of the firm to provide goods and services that offer greater value to the Companies try to make the customer loyal towards the firm by offering products that satisfy their needs better that those offered by the competition. Many companies are using Internet technology to reach, identify, acquire, and serve their loyal An integrated approach can give the company the competitive advantage that it needs to successfully cater to the needs of customers in today's networked economy. The primary purpose of the research is to study the underpinnings of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). More specifically, this research will identify how CRM can be practiced successfully via the Internet. Using the tools of CRM, the research will highlight techniques that can assist marketing managers in optimizing their overall Internet marketing strategies. CONCEPT OF CRM As evident in Table 1, there are several disparate viewpoints of CRM. For example, IBM's definition talks about only the steps of CRM and does not mention it as a continuous process. While each of the definitions is accurate, none of them are all inclusive. Furthermore, in the various definitions, CRM is defined as a monadic concept, which is beneficial only to the company and not the These and other short falls make no one definition the best. However, some common themes reoccur throughout the current literature. As an alternative, we propose the following definition of CRM. CRM is a process of identifying, acquiring, developing, and retaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with an organization's best customers. Three points need to be noted in this proposed definition. First, CRM occurs over time. That is, prospects have to be identified first, and then relationships have to be developed and preserved later. Second, the, relationship must be advantageous to both the parties. Relationships can not be uni-directional (i.e., benefiting one party), they must be bi-directional. More specifically, the result should be a win-win situation for all parties involved. Third, relationships do not have to be developed with every customer, only with the most profitable ones. Separating customers into categories based on their ability to make profits for a firm has been appropriately termed lifetime value of customer. Basically, we can classify the process of CRM as follows. Customer acquisition involves identifying potential customers by understanding their needs, wants and desires. Then creating an interest in the firm by offering potential customers goods and services to satisfy their needs. Finally, offering customer support in the form of after-sales service to build loyalty to ensure customer satisfaction. In line with the recent paradigm shift from transaction marketing to relationship marketing, CRM attempts to go beyond the selling process (i.e., completing the transaction). …