IMPROVING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS USING WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

Executive Summary

by Ian S. Hayes

The benefits awaiting companies that build and maintain strong customer relationships are significant -- greater customer loyalty, higher retention rates, lower acquisition costs and expanded opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell products and services. Powering the interest in customer relationship management (CRM) are well-publicized success stories, the availability of powerful computing resources to gather and analyze information, and the new models for customer interactions, personalization and self-service spawned by the Internet. Now, wireless technologies and mobile applications are extending CRM advances to new locations, channels, customers and workers.

Wireless technologies excel at distributing information and resources to the areas where they will have the most impact. For CRM purposes, wireless technologies are a natural, and generally low-cost, extension of efforts already underway to improve customer relationships. Wireless applications give not only company employees but also customers the ability to obtain and exchange more useful and timely information, and to have more rewarding interactions as a result. Wireless applications also provide another "contact point" for companies to collect customer data and build more meaningful customer profiles.

Wireless technologies afford these types of CRM benefits.

• Extends the reach of companies, allowing them to mobilize more workers and move service delivery closer to the customer
• Permits companies to provide more personal, face-to-face service to customers
• Gives mobile workers more account-specific information to enrich customer interactions
• Fosters greater and quicker communications between company personnel and customers
• Allows mobile workers to offer more services and conclude more transactions in real time
• Expedites the dispatch and provisioning of service from field workers
• Provides more accurate, convenient and streamlined service by collecting data at the source and eliminating re-keying steps
• Improves customer safety through location services

There's good reason to start exploring wireless technologies now. On the consumer side, demand for wireless services and devices is skyrocketing, with data-ready devices set to grow 630% over the next 4 years and account for $20B in transactions in the U.S. (Source: Accenture). On the business side, a Cutter Consortium survey found that 70% of polled senior executives intend to explore wireless opportunities, and 90% of surveyed companies intend to have their CRM tools wirelessly accessible within the next 5 years.

This Executive Report looks at wireless technologies from a customer relationship perspective. Some of those technologies directly affect customer interactions by extending CRM applications and tools to wireless platforms and devices. Others indirectly impact customer happiness by improving business processes to deliver more accurate or timely service. Still others enable the creation of entirely new classes of value-adding products and services, like General Motor's OnStar® vehicle program.

Companies are already using a range of wireless applications to administer more personal and effective customer service, and strengthen relationships as a result. From financial services, to sales and field support, to healthcare services, wireless applications are delivering tangible benefits to customers, patients and consumers. Many companies are not adopting a "wait and see" posture. Rather, they are cementing valuable customer relationships and positioning themselves on the leading edge to gain competitive advantages over their more timid peers. Here's how they are doing so.

• Improving customer service and delivering service closer to the customer by arming mobile workers with the types of tools, software, information and devices traditionally available only to their office-bound peers. Field service and insurance claims are two areas already transformed by wireless applications.
• Retaining customers by offering new and attractive services from wireless brokerage and banking services to two-way messaging; by raising the cost of switching loyalty through wireless collection of customer-specific data that the customer can use to its advantage; and by keeping customers engaged for longer periods of time by offering wireless access services in places of public accommodation.
• Personalizing customer service by using history information, preferences and usage patterns discerned from customers' wireless interactions, and by applying location-based knowledge to tailor and expedite the delivery of information.
• Making it easier to do business by offering convenient service through wireless check-ins and check-outs; simple access to information through data and voice wireless services; or more accurate service from improved wireless data collection and management techniques.
• Enhancing responsiveness to deliver more timely information and services ranging from wireless emails and alerts about stock quotes and flight status, power blackouts and electric service disruptions, to expeditious dispatching of field service workers and claims adjusters.
• Empowering the sales force by giving them wireless access to CRM-type data commonly accessible only through wired networks like order status and inventory information.
• Reaching customers in new ways, through new wireless channels, through wireless promotional campaigns and through location-based services.

Opportunities abound to better serve, retain and satisfy customers. Some opportunities are direct and obvious -- letting customers trade stocks and update their accounts -- while others are more indirect -- improving inventory counts to ship more accurate orders and reduce returns. Deciding which business areas, capabilities and processes can improve customer relationships through application of wireless technologies is the challenge.

One way of identifying wireless opportunities is to look at your current operations from three angles.

• Could you do a better job with an existing capability by adding wireless technology? Sometimes the best opportunities for wireless are staring us in the face. A classic example is improving the timeliness of decision-making by giving senior executives wireless access to email while out of the office.

• Could you expand or extend existing capabilities through wireless? The CRM, SFA and ERP systems that your company already has in place are sources of information ideal for wireless enablement. Getting this information out into the field may be as simple as installing a vendor's pre-packaged wireless module. Other CRM data may be buried in legacy data or applications, but even these sources of information can be tapped, using commercially available tools, to re-purpose content to wireless devices.

• Could you develop a breakthrough capability by harnessing wireless technologies? Developing a breakthrough capability takes creativity and insight, and often requires working closely with vendors, carriers and device makers. The payback is often worth the investment. Progressive Insurance is able to attract good drivers by using a wireless application to collect data on driving habits and offer tiered premium rates based on where, how and when customers drive.

When evaluating wireless opportunities, start with the business process first. Processes that are already partly or wholly mobile are obvious candidates and can easily benefit from selective use of wireless technologies. But other process opportunities exist. Wireless technologies can overcome informational constraints that formerly inhibited processes from going mobile. And they can also enable entirely new products and services by transforming existing processes. Use the questions contained in this Report to help you evaluate processes that are candidates for wireless enablement.

After identifying business processes that are prime candidates for wireless enablement, it is time to start to devise a wireless strategy. Selecting the right wireless solution components requires navigating a maze of complex and confusing options and solution providers. To help make sense of this palette of components and issues, and choose the right ones, the Report contains a simple framework to organize solution categories. It asks four important questions to guide the analysis: Who will use the application? How will the application be used? Where will the application be used? What data is required?

Wireless applications rely on a host of supporting technologies to deliver the types of benefits cited earlier such as personalized service, enhanced responsiveness and an empowered sales force. These supporting technologies are not unique to wireless applications per se, but they are important for delivering key facets of CRM functionality to mobile customer and workers. As discussed in the Report, these technologies include CRM applications, location-based knowledge, speech recognition and presentation tools to empower workers and to provide better, speedier and more efficient service to customers.