Dirct and eMarketing - Essay Example

This connection between good levels of customer service and good levels of customer satisfaction and retention underpins the common association of customer service with keeping, rather than winning, customers. Customer service therefore plays a pivotal role in relationship marketing. Getting this role right, and to a standard of expertise that is superior to that of competitors and sustainable in the longer term, requires an in-depth understanding of the nature and nuance of customer service.

Knowing customers means closing the loop between the messages sent to them and the messages they send back. Developments in IT have led to interactive communication tools such as the mobile phones being used to complement less interactive mechanisms such as mail or media advertisements. Growing use of carefully targeted direct mail has characterized this as the age of addressability. "Mobile commerce refers to transactions using a wireless device and data connection that result in the transfer of value in exchange for information, services, or goods.

Mobile commerce, facilitated generally by mobile phones, includes services such as banking, payment, and ticketing" (Mobile commerce, 2005). "Some organisations view m-Commerce as merely another e-Commerce channel, those organisations that exploit the m-Commerce channel properly by developing alternative and complementary propositions will be more successful in m-Commerce" (E-Commerce, 2001). For suppliers, building longer-term customer relationships with the help of m-commerce means maintaining a dynamic knowledge of customers' requirements, preferences and expectations.

While corner shop managers may be able to retain customer likes and dislikes in their heads, larger organizations need customer relationship management systems which manage data throughout the customer life-cycle, from initial contact, through information exchange and sales, to delivery and post-sales service. "Elsewhere in Asia, subscribers to Hong Kong mobile service Sunday can receive offers from shops as they pass them in the mall"(May, 2001). This interaction is as important with the mobile as with any other communication medium, and outsource its development and operations with minimal provision for information transfer - hence repeating the mistakes often made in the early days of the call centre.

As surveys continue to show, advertising products and services with the help of m-commerce is relatively easy; more difficult, but absolutely crucial, is to gather vital customer information, obtain customer feedback, utilize existing knowledge about the customer and exploit the interactive nature to add value though product configuration (Evans, O'Malley, 2004).For instance, "a European-based mobile operator recently had some tickets for a pop concert for sale. Having identified a target audience, specials offers were sent to mobile customers by SMS allowing them to buy tickets at a discounted rate.

Within an hour, all the tickets had been sold for approximately $100 each, customer details had been captured, and most customers had given permission for further follow up offers" (E-commerce, 2001).It is apparent that some industries are being restructured as organizations redefine themselves to take advantage of IT-enabled marketing, or are replaced by newcomers which operate