Question:
On-Line customer CRM is just a fad. The majority of our customers still use the phone and putting in a new call centre cost a fortune three years ago. What proof is there that the future relationships with my customers will be carried out electronically so that I can make a water tight busines case for investing in e-CRM?
David Foster, Transport/Logistics

Tony Rice answers:
There is not a 'one size fits all' channel of communication with customers. The route to success is to align your business to the channels that suit your customers best. Some will want contact by telephone, some face to face, e-mail, online etc. Customer loyalty and satisfaction will come by respecting their preferences. The key here is to operate a multi-channel environment, including an e-channel. Once you have customers coming to you through their channel of choice, then you can start to motivate them to adopt the internet and e-mail route, thus migrating customers over time to the lowest cost channel of all. 33 million people in the UK now use the internet, 32% of which access the web from work, so there is a big and growing audience out there to go for. There is no need to throw away investment in call centres, the opportunity is to experiment with small customer segments offering more channels and then when the concept is proven, put the business case forward to move onwards and upwards. This is how the coffee shops operate, they offer a new brew on a trial, if customers like it they put in into their core product set.