Using Electronic Customer Relationship Management to Maximize/Minimize Customer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction

TUGAS SOFTSKILL

Using Electronic Customer Relationship Management to Maximize/Minimize Customer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction

BAHASA INGGRIS 2

Nama kelompok :

Heri kurniawan (23210252)

Muhammad iqbal (24210736)

Yusuf fadillah (28210800)

Abstract                     

Electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) has attracted the attention of managers and academic researchers for the past several years. Issues of eCRM have varied from marketing to information technology. While there are many concerns and efforts for successful management of customer relationship in the online environment, this study posits that the major components of eCRM include increasing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, minimizing customer dissatisfaction, resolving customer complaints and increasing product/service quality. This paper has reviewed the issues on eCRM published over the past years that have involved major topics such as customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The study also reviewed customer loyalty and complaints that are consequences of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The study provides implication both to researchers and businesses that a hybrid approach of marketing and information system perspectives leads successful eCRM.

I.   Introduction

Electronic commerce relies on customer interactions via a computer and telecommunications infrastructure for the purpose of advertising, promoting, and selling products and services online. Electronic commerce replicates most of the physical activities that take place in the market place to the point where increasing electronic commerce usage are shifting companies from those traditional market places to new market spaces. The traditional market places emphasize “customer satisfaction” as a way to earn consumer loyalty and attract new customers. Therefore this study examines the firm’s approach to Customer Relationship Management in order to account for the new realities of market spaces. To be successful in a market space, a firm will have to be responsive to their virtual customers’ wants, needs and desires, and manage the interactions with them properly in order to arrive at a win/win outcome. Marketing considers that interactions between customers or potential customers and the firm arrive at a win/win outcome either in a market place or in a market space, when: i) such interaction(s) lead to the sale of a given item(s); and/or ii) such interactions lead to an increased likelihood that a sale of the same or other item(s) will happen in the near future to the satisfaction of both parties. Win/win means the customer wins through a satisfying purchase of a product or service and the firm wins by selling this product or service. Increased customer satisfaction will augment the likelihood that the customer will purchase again and/or induce other potential customers to buy, either through testimonials or word-of-mouth effects. Under this scenario, moving from the market place to the market space poses new challenges to the firm. Many years of experience have enabled them to manage market space, but market space is the result of a phenomenon (the web), which is about 20 years old.

In addition to the new realities of the market space, the constant development of the web as a new environment medium opens significant challenges to marketers, that they may not be well prepared face. The key new element is the dynamic nature of the interactive system used by customers to gain access to a firm’s web site, and what happens after the web site has been reached. Under this scenario, three important questions must be answered: i) How does a firm attract potential customers to its own web site; ii) Once customers enter the firm’s web site, how can the web site “cooperate with the customer” in order to arrive at a win/win situation; and iii) How must the firm adjust its marketing information systems to ensure that proper information and feedback is obtained from market space interactions for better management decision-making.

These three questions are not independent, i.e., the satisfaction experienced by a potential customer reaching a firm’s web site will depend on the prior experience and expectations that they build along the way (both in the past and in this particular web session) and the design of the web site, which may or may not handle those expectations in a “cooperative” manner. Management will not have a clue as to what happened if proper arrangements are not made to capture the satisfaction of the customers with the overall process. Because a market space is a unique blend of marketing activities in a “virtual,” interactive electronic environment, this paper will track the issue of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction both from the traditional marketing viewpoint, and the more recent Information Technology views about interactive systems. In particular, given the importance of “cooperation” between the firm and its customers, current knowledge of user satisfaction with collaborative environments will also be included. All these aspects will help the future formulation of a “hybrid model of customer satisfaction” using the Web that accounts for all the components of market space, under the win/win mandate of the “marketing principle.”

2. Defining Electronic Customer Relationship Management

eCRM has attracted the attention of e-business managers and academic researchers who are interested in increasing repeat business and customer loyalty (Julta, Craig, and Bodorik, 2001). Various researchers have defined the eCRM according to different aspects. Based on the review by Jukic Jukic, Meamber and Nezlek (2002-2003), eCRM is a business strategy that utilizes the power of technology to tie together all aspects of a company’s business with the goal of building long-term customer loyalty. Jukic et al. (2002) also stressed that eCRM, in practical terms, is the management of customer interactions at all levels, channels, and media. Hansen (2000) sees eCRM as “a process of acquiring, retaining and growing profitable customers. It requires a clear focus on the service attributes that represent value to the customer ant that create loyalty.” A review by Romano and Fjermestad (2001-2002) emphasized that eCRM involves attracting and keeping “economically valuable” customers while repelling and eliminating “economically invaluable” ones. On the market space, eCRM is to build and maximize the value of the relationship with the customer and to improve customer retention rates (Jukic et al., 2002; Cho, Im, Hiltz, and Fjermestad, 2002).

3.MAXIMIZING/MINIMIZINGCUSTOMERSATISFACTION/DISSATISFACTION AS MAJOR COMPONENTS OF ECRM

Various researchers have proposed a framework for eCRM studies. A previous review on eCRM in information system research by Romano and Fjermestad (2003) suggested the frameworks for CRM research, including eCRM within markets, eCRM business models, eCRM knowledge management, e-CRM technology issues, and e-CRM human issues. From about the early 1990s until now, studies on eCRM have addressed issues regarding i) factors affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty; ii) factors affecting customer dissatisfaction and complaints; iii) effectiveness of the website; iv) the impact of online communities on eCRM; v) supply chain management; and vi) knowledge management, etc. Cho, Im, Hiltz, and Fjermestad (2002) notes that the major eCRM components to be discussed include: i) maximizing customer satisfaction/minimizing customer dissatisfaction; ii) increasing customer loyalty; iii) increasing product/service quality; and iv) resolving customer complaints. This study will review issues of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction including theories and models that have been frequently applied to eCRM. This study will also review issues of customer loyalty and complaints that are consequences of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction

4. Conclusion

In an effort to provide a positive contrast for the new against the old, this paper addressed the issue of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction as being at the center of successful e- business exchanges. Further, the author stressed the importance of customer loyalty and complaints as consequences of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The author reviewed theories and models that have been applied by e-commerce customer relationship management. Theories applied to eCRM have been rooted in satisfaction/dissatisfaction theories and theories for customer complaining behavior that have been proposed by traditional marketers. This study also investigated models for customer satisfaction and complaining behavior that examine factors affecting customer relationship management.

This paper focuses on the how to maximize/minimize customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction for successful eCRM because it provides clues as to what managerial changes might have induced different and more desirable behaviors, raising the issue of customer loyalty myopia. This myopia stems from believing that consumer behavior can be created and sustained in and by itself without careful regard to its underlying basis on the customer satisfaction side, reviving the long-standing marketing dilemma of attitude and behavioral measures, and how much attitudes influence or predict behavior. This study also examined studies that addressed the importance of customer complaints that also go beyond the customer satisfaction concept and much more deeply into the underlying theories and models that attempt to explain why people may or may not be satisfied. This study suggested the ways to maximize/minimize customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, such as improving customer loyalty and resolving customer complaints. 

This study provides implications for both academics and practitioners. Future study will be needed to investigate mode of online customer satisfaction that are proposed by Fournier and Mick (1999), including satisfaction-as-contentment, satisfaction-as-pleasure, and dissatisfaction-as-surprise. Future research exploring consumer satisfaction of pure-play vs. multi-channel is also likely to be fruitful.  Other issues that increase the level of relationship between or within online customers and businesses will also be a future research. 

Based on the review, this study found that little attention has been paid in issues of customer dissatisfaction and complaints in the online environment. This study found opportunities to measure online customer dissatisfaction and complaints both qualitatively and quantitatively. This study also recommended that e-businesses develop a defensive marketing strategy and complaint management as an excellent competitive tool for Customer Relationship Management (Cho, Im, Hiltz, and Fjermestad, 2002). Taking complaint management seriously affects such factors as product/service quality, website design, and optional policies. The author believes that managing customer dissatisfaction and complaints facilitate repeat business and customer loyalty. Efforts toward the effective resolution of customer problems serve as the basis for long-term product and successful eCRM.