By Ravi Kumar, Director CRM Consulting at Cubastion Consulting Private Ltd
The consumer service & product industry is facing strong competition. The number of players is increasing along with the 
quality offered. To add a perspective to the sharp curve in the rising consumer expectations, the concept customer satisfaction has been introduced few years back which is a basic expectation these days. Over a period of time, the whole concept of Customer Satisfaction has moved to next level, Customer power, where the customer has the power to give feedback, rate, share, promote etc.
Meeting rising consumer expectation is not easy, unless you have a strong technology backbone in form of aseamlessly integrated application environment, embedded with intelligent dynamic workflows which can help the organisations to be proactive instead of being reactive. For example, reminder for renewal of your car policy, informing passengers on delay of their flight, giving loyalty points on every purchase made online, or every ticket booked through the airline, all these were typical examples of a traditional CRM program which helps in achieving Customer Satisfaction.
The idea of moving from customer satisfaction to customer ecstasy is like a future dream. With companies currently struggling to achieve customer satisfaction, the idea of customer ecstasy is a long shot. Technology plays a backbone for all CRM initiatives, thus right from choosing the correct database & application architecture, seamless integrations, process expertise along with future vision can help achieve the same to an extent. Lets assume you just booked a flight from BookMyTrip and you received a 20% discount code for your drop to the airport. This would be a good example of using the integrated data intelligently to serve your customer better. Another very good example would be Lloyd Khushiyonki guarantee campaign where the power of closing a service request/complaint lies with the customer. You just called for AC repair, the mechanic showed up and repaired the AC to your satisfaction,the company would send you an OTP(one time password)which is required to be entered in the mechanic’s app for a successful closure of the service request, so that the mechanic would be paid for his visit. If you are not happy, don’t share the OTP with the mechanic. The servicing company would not be paid by the parent company. Now this is an excellent example of a shift in power into the consumer’s hands, all made possible at the real time, through technology and innovation.
Social media is definitely playing a major role in giving consumer the power. There is a lot of content and information on the social media platforms which can be used to create valuable information which could feed the modern age CRM applications. It keeps you on the cutting edge of the modern technology landscape where “social” is not just a key word but a key enabler. It opens up this exciting domain of technology to enable your Social CRM strategy within your existing Siebel CRM deployment. It helps the organizations in the below mentioned areas:-
- Define your automation
- Launch integrated campaigns to fans and followers
- Link your contact with a social profile
- Increase service reach, address grievances
The whole idea is to use the technology and empower the consumers to form an opinion about an organization and provide feedback. With this strategy, the companies are also able to provide customer satisfaction which is an important trend in today’s world.
