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Wednesday 26 December 2012

Internet Based Customer Relationship

Internet Based Customer Relationship

Problems of IT Based Customer Relationship
The development in Information Technology has been rapid in the recent years. This has had a lot of impact on every sphere of human existence. Many companies take advantage of these developments and innovations to ease management and improve efficiency. For instance, there are software that have been developed that help ease management of customer contact details, which has grown into fully fledged customer relationship management (CRM)

These software make it easy for customers to obtain help from the company they are dealing with, view solutions to problems similar to what they are experiencing and get quick and sometimes automatic responses. Some of the software offer instant chats, FAQ and email system. In view of this, we can see that these IT solutions are very convenient for the organizations and some of the clients (Raab, 2008).
On the other hand, companies that offer only IT based customer support may face some challenges and problems.

When customers have limited IT literacy, the company will fail to communicate new products and services to its customers. Failure to respond to the immediate needs of customers about their queries due to break of communication, leads to dissatisfaction on three part of the customer. There are always immerging new information technologies and the customers may not necessarily have up to date knowledge of using the Information Technology and communication (ICT) and therefore will miss out to participate in the affairs of the company (Goddard & Gergeya, 2008).

Another Problem which is faced while offering IT based customer service is that customers may not have the confidence that the company will keep their details safe. Online safety in this case becomes paramount and some customers avoid giving their details to the website. Such details may include email, residence, credit cards among others.

The customer involved may shy away from a transaction if the only contact method available was electronic. Having been used to one on one interaction, it requires that companies also establish one on one customer experience centers to ease the fear and build confidence in the customers. A major issue in this area arises because there are many bogus organization that may actually never exist or do not handle any real products or services. Such organizations are fraudulent and collect customer details to use them inappropriately (Ajami et al, 2008).

According to Raab (2008), advancement in technology may have brought along more stable platforms, but also IT based contact system may face the danger of technological failure. This is true because computer systems are prone to failure either because of webpage errors which may result in an endless loop and discourage the customer or totally incapacitate them. A research carried out by a company known as Tealeaf shows that when customers encounter errors in the process of an online transaction, instead of contacting the company, many just switch to a competitor fearing instability of the company or incompetence.

In addition, IT applications are prone to virus attack or many other sources of technical hitches. It is known that competitors or rivals have the power to manufacture programs that may harm customer experience. With such problems as viruses and hacking on the rise, it would therefore be appropriate for a company to establish a variety of channels through which customers can contact the company (Goddard & Gergeya, 2008).

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