Customer Information Management - Essay Example

This research proposal is designed to provide detailed information about Information Management at the time of completion of thisresearch. How this CIS has become an integral part of the companies research and development and how it has impact E-business. The concept of Customer- Centric Information Quality Management (CCIQM) is also discussed briefly. The proposal also discusses the methodology of how will be collected for analysis and the limitations that might be experienced during this research. Chapter 1: Literature Review: Customers increasingly perceive customer service as an essential differentiating factor when deciding which product or service to choose. Companies particularly doing e-business achieve decisive competitive advantages by knowing their customers' wishes in detail, guaranteeing them customized service, and establishing long-term relationships with them. By delivering 24/7 personalized access to customer service via the Internet, a call centre, or face to face, they can get the most from their company's existing customers, and develop an ongoing stream of satisfied customers in the future []. Customer information management covers methods and technologies used by companies to manage their relationships with clients. Information stored on existing customers (and potential customers) is analyzed and used to this end [1]. Automated information management processes are often used to generate automatic personalized marketing based on the customer information stored in the system. In its broadest sense, customer information management covers all interaction and business with customers. A good CIM program allows a business to acquire customers, provide customer services and retain valued customers. Customer services can be improved by [2]: Providing online access to product information and technical assistance around the clock Identifying what customers value and devising appropriate service strategies for each customer Providing mechanisms for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls Tracking all contacts with a customer Identifying potential problems before they occur Providing a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints Providing a mechanism for handling problems and complaints Providing a mechanism for correcting service deficiencies Storing customer interests in order to target customers selectively Providing mechanisms for managing and scheduling maintenance, repair, and on-going support CIM applications often track customer interests and requirements, as well as their buying habits. This information can be used to target customers selectively. Furthermore, the products a customer have purchased can be tracked throughout the product's life cycle, allowing customers to receive information concerning a product or to target customers with information on alternative products once a product begins to be phased out [2]. Repeat purchases rely on customer satisfaction, which in turn comes from a deeper understanding of each customer and their individual needs. Customer Information management is an alternative to the "one size fits all" approach. In industrial markets, the technology can be used to coordinate the conflicting and changing purchase criteria of the sector. The data gathered as part of Customer Information management raises concerns over customer privacy and enables coercive sales techniques (Goodhue, 2002). However, Customer Information management does not necessarily involve gathering new data, but also includes making better use of customer information gathered as a result of routine customer interaction. The privacy debate generally focuses on the customer information stored in the centralised database itself, and fears over a company's handling of this information, especially regarding third parties [3]. Profit from the numerous advantages of an innovative solution for customer relationship management [3]: Reduce your costs by transferring functions in a targeted manner from company to customer, simplifying your data maintenance. Increase your revenues through consistent customer acquisition and support, with the help of time-proven methods such as data mining, cross selling, and up selling. This research will specifically highlight on an approach to customer information management that significantly increases the quality of customer data. This approach is called Customer- Centric Information Quality Management (CCIQM) [3]. CCIQM is an approach to managing customer relationships in a truly "customer-centred" way. This management approach employs methods that significantly increase the quality of customer information to a high enough level required by a customer-centric business model. Understanding what it means to be "customer-centric" means understanding the business model and the strategies that involves within the organizations. Most organizations deal with four types of customers [3]: Individual Household of Individuals Business Corporate Household (Related Businesses) The individual customer, sometimes referred to as a consumer, is a person with a unique identity. Information about an individual often includes a name, address, phone number, and occupancy status. A household is usually defined as a group of individuals who share the same address, e.g., a family. A similar situation exists with business customers, either an individual business operating at one location, or a corporate household of different-but-related units such as departments, divisions, and branches [3]. CCIQM addresses problems related to infrastructures where customer contact information is organized in "clusters"; that is, all information related to a customer is linked or grouped together. Information about all types of customers normally exists in multiple data stores, each with its own customer recognition process. Because of this 'scattered' nature of customer data, organizations encounter problems when attempting to adopt customer-centric strategies. Information quality must be high enough for organizations to balance their ability to [4]: 1. Discriminate between customers 2. Retain and integrate all data related to a single customer. Customer recognition occurs when customer data integration (CDI) methods and technologies are used to determine the identity of a customer, regardless of how, when, or where that customer interacts with the company; customer recognition systems are automated systems for determining the identity of a customer through the information given during a customer transaction and for performing customer synchronization across an enterprise [6]. CCIQM addresses issues encountered in these customer recognition systems used for CRM applications. By employing multiple touch points, companies tend to spread out a single customer's information across multiple data stores or silos in different divisions [4]. However, to remain competitive, companies must have a single view of each customer across all touch points. Companies must know their customer well enough to customize its products and services to meet the needs of that customer [6]. To support this customer-centric business strategy, organizations need to change their business, information management, and technical strategies from "product- or account-centric" to "customer-centric." Customer-centricity can only be as good as the quality of the customer information upon which it is based [5]. Chapter 2: Scope and Methodologies: The purpose of this research study is to discuss the emergence of Customer Information Management in the UK and how it is advantageous for the e-business. This research will help to analyse the changing trends of the organisation to maintain and invest in Customer information management to gather key knowledge about their customer behaviour and preferences. The research will mainly focus on the companies based in the UK, which are engaged in e-business and use CRM (customer resource management) systems to maintain their customers' records. As the research conducted will be qualitative in nature, causal loop diagrams will be used extensively to analyze qualitative data. In traditional causal modeling, a network of variables is developed and the causal relationships between variables are explicitly delineated. The model is typically developed after all of the field data have been collected and some cross-observation meta-analysis has been completed. In recent years, there has been an enthusiastic use of casual modeling to understand organizations and businesses. In this research, we will adopt this perspective, and decided to develop causal loop diagrams during the data collection phase of the research. At each interview session, we will be generating a causal loop diagram to document our understanding of the factors important to our research [7]. Chapter 3: Potential Limitations: The research mainly aims to identify the need for Customer information management and its advantages on the e-business. The companies selected are based in UK and therefore the data collected through these companies can be only eccentric to the particular mindset or a trend. The sample selected would not ensure the overall analysis of the emergence of customer information management and its advantages on e-business. Random sampling will be used in shelters to select the companies. The participants mainly consist of senior executives of these companies. This type of selection of respondents can be expected to produce samples that are reasonably representative of the overall population (i.e. the UK e-business) industry for this rather different sub-group. However, there can be some refusals by selected companies among this sub-group and this may serve to bias the sample in ways that are not readily evident. Chapter 4: Usage: The research design is a one-time survey that will produce a profile of the characteristics of the companies using CIM in the e-business. This type of cross-sectional design precludes being able to draw any conclusions about cause and effect relationships between these characteristics. This research can be used to as secondary research to facilitate useful information to other researches. Further studies can be conducted while forming this research as a base to probe more into detail about the advantages and importance of Customer Information Management. References: 1. Brown, S. A., A. P. Massey, et al. (2002). Do I really have to User acceptance of mandated technology. European Journal of Information Systems 11(4): 283-295. 2. Fjermestad, J. and N. C. J. Romano (2003). Electronic Customer Relationship Management: 3. Goodhue, D. L., B. Wixom, et al. (2002). Realizing Business benefits Through CRM: Hitting the Right Target in the Right Way. MIS Quarterly Executive 1(2): 79-94. 4. Horovitz, J. (2000). Chapter 4: Information as a Service to the Customer. Competing with Information, D. A. Marchand, Wiley. Revisiting the general principles of usability and resistance - an integrative implementation framework. Business Process Management Journal 9(5): 572-591. 5. McCalla, R., J.-N. Ezingeard, et al. (2003). "A Behavioural Approach to CRM Systems Evaluation." Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation (EJISE) 6(2). 6. Peppard, J. (2000). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Financial Services. European Management Journal 18(3): 312-327. 7. Yin, R. K. (1998). Chapter 8: The Abridged Version of Case Study Research. Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. L. Bickman, J. C. Rogers and D. J. Rog, Sage Publications: 229-259. Read More