Database Reference
In-Depth Information
It is interesting to realize that as much as 80% of the sales process may be controlled by specific
knowledge of a customer's business. Information as relationships can help in enhancing the effec-
tiveness of the various functions within the company:
◾
In sales, it helps companies to make the offers that are most likely to be accepted and to
focus sales efforts on the highest lifetime-value customers.
◾
In after market service, it reduces customer hassles, lowers costs, and streamlines repair and
return processes.
◾
In marketing, it is key to planning, executing, and evaluating campaigns.
◾
In manufacturing and distribution, it helps to forecast optimally delivered solution.
◾
In design, it guides in the development of product features and style.
◾
In finance, it helps in managing credit risks and opportunities.
Customer information bases within CRMs like SAP CRM consist mainly of two components,
namely, a customer database and an enterprise-level statistical database. Customer database typi-
cally contains
◾
Descriptive data such as the customers' name, address, and phone number
◾
The customer's status data, such as outstanding balance, line of credit, and preexisting
conditions
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The customer's lifestyle preference data, such as meals, meals, clothes, cars, housing, and
allergies
◾
The customer's history, such as search history, purchase history, returns, failed deliveries,
complaints, recommendations, and any other data that could affect the customer's relation-
ship with the firm
1.2.1.4 Customer Capital: Customer Knowledge as the New Capital
Adam Smith helped start the industrial revolution by identifying labor and capital as the eco-
nomic determinants of the wealth of a nation. In this century, however, the size of the land, mass
of labor, and materials that you may possess might be worthless if you do not control the related
know-how including customer know-how.
The information about an asset is more important than the asset itself. This stance
also opens up possibilities ranging from co-ownership, options on ownership, etc., to
ownership for access/use or even ownership by consumption.
In the twenty-first century, know-how will reside and flourish in people's minds; what might
matter more are how many enterprising and innovative people you have and the freedom that they
have in realizing their dreams. It will be the century of information economics and, in particular,
customer economics. Traditional capitalism made companies more efficient by the classical means
of cutting costs of producing and distributing volumes of offerings, rather than giving custom-
ers the value they were after. This is why more than two-thirds of the companies identified in
In
Search of Excellence
in 1980 fell from grace within 5 years. Similarly, this is also why so many com-
panies in the Fortune 1000 improved their margins between the mid-1980s and 1990s, but fewer
