Электронный CRM: Управление взаимоотношениями с клиентами в цифровой среде.

The eCRM or electronic customer relationship management coined by Oscar Gomes encompasses all standard CRM functions with the use of the net environment i. e., intranet, extranet and internet. Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers through the use of information technology (IT). eCRM processes include data collection, data aggregation, and customer interaction. Compared to traditional CRM, the integrated information for eCRM intraorganizational collaboration can be more efficient to communicate with customers.

The concept of relationship marketing (RM) was established by marketing professor Leonard Berry in 1983. He considered it to consist of attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships within organizations. In the years that followed, companies were engaging more and more in a meaningful dialogue with individual customers. In doing so, new organizational forms as well as technologies were used, eventually resulting in what we know as customer relationship management. The main difference between CRM and e CRM is that the first does not acknowledge the use of technology, where the latter uses information technology (IT) in implementing RM strategies.

The exact meaning of CRM is still subject of heavy discussions. However, the overall goal can be seen as effectively managing differentiated relationships with all customers and communicating with them on an individual basis. Underlying thought is that companies realize that they can supercharge profits by acknowledging that different groups of customers vary widely in their behavior, desires, and responsiveness to marketing. Loyal customers can not only give operational companies sustained revenue but also advertise for new marketers. To reinforce the reliance of customers and create additional customer sources, firms utilize CRM to maintain the relationship as the general two categories B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to customer or business to consumer). Because of the needs and behaviors are different between B2B and B2C, the implementation of CRM should come from respective viewpoints.

Several CRM software packages exist that can help companies in deploying CRM activities. Besides choosing one of these packages, companies can also choose to design and build their own solutions. In order to implement CRM in an effective way, one needs to consider the following factors:
Create a customer focused culture in the organization. Adopt customer based managers to assess satisfaction. Develop an end to end process to serve customers. Recommend questions to be asked to help a customer solve a problem. Track all aspects of selling to customers, as well as prospects. Furthermore, CRM solutions are more effective once they are being implemented in other information systems used by the company. Examples are transaction processing system (TPS) to process data real time, which can then be sent to the sales and finance departments in order to recalculate inventory and financial position quick and accurately. Once this information is transferred back to the CRM software and services it could prevent customers from placing an order in the belief that an item is in stock while it is not.

Channels through which companies can communicate with its customers, are growing by the day, and as a result, their time and attention has turned into a major challenge. One of the reasons eCRM is so popular nowadays is that digital channels can create unique and positive experiences – not just transactions – for customers. An extreme, but ever growing in popularity, example of the creation of experiences in order to establish customer service is the use of Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life. Through this so called vCRM, companies are able to create synergies between virtual and physical channels and reaching a very wide consumer base. However, given the newness of the technology, most companies are still struggling to identify effective entries in Virtual Worlds. Its highly interactive character, which allows companies to respond directly to any customer's requests or problems, is another feature of eCRM that helps companies establish and sustain long term customer relationships. Furthermore, Information Technology has helped companies to even further differentiate between customers and address a personal message or service. Some examples of tools used in eCRM:
Personalized Web Pages where customers are recognized and their preferences are shown. Customized products or services. CRM programs should be directed towards customer value that competitors cannot match. However, in a world where almost every company is connected to the Internet, eCRM has become a requirement for survival, not just a competitive advantage.