New information technologies such as the Internet and most new marketing and sales tools promise innovative and efficient ways to reach and maintain customers. The question is whether all these promises become real value or not. However, many companies do not recognize the potential of new information technologies. One of the reasons for this is the dynamic and rapid development of the information technology (IT) market. Another explanation is the lack of success stories and experiences in this area. In order to get a picture of the benefits and value of the customer by using different technologies, you must first focus on the customer process after you have identified the actual customer problem. The following summary emphasizes the potential and power of new information technologies in relation to the customer. The first chapters provide an overview of the developments and challenges in the relationship with the client. The main part describes the research work of the Electronic Customer Care (ECC) project, which calls for solutions to structure IT potentials and identify the benefits of ECC solutions.
Customer-centric
New information technologies will change the traditional way of marketing. Information technologies can support and develop new possibilities for the four main aspects of marketing: customer acquisition, customer retention, product / service innovation and product / service focus. The following examples provide an overview of these potentials. Customer acquisition becomes much more efficient if you get a lot of information about the customer, about their profile in general and about their behavior and habits in specific situations. New products, such as Broadvision's One-to-One commercial server software, enable efficient customer profiles and help create individual products and close customer contacts. If the user offers his profile directly and actively, a rules-based system can customize the offer based on this information. This concept is called map based on the profile or rule. Rules-based profile or agreement, as well as the observation-based pairing concept, not only redesign efforts to acquire new customers, but also help strengthen customer retention and enable new services and innovative products. Observation-based matching is a system that does not obtain direct information from clients, but is learning through observation of customer behavior and through indirect questions. This can prevent customer disapproval.
The Peapod grocery store, located in Evanston, Illinois, offers customers the opportunity to order their products online. Peapod is an intermediary that supplies six to seven different suppliers. Customers need to purchase special software for $ 30, which allows them to access the Peapod product database. The integrated customer profile system allows Peapod to observe its customers and offer them individual products. After each purchase, customers are asked to announce their level of satisfaction and to make suggestions for improvement. This leads to a "learning relationship" between the customer and the supplier, which produces at best a win-win situation for both parties. In addition, the "interaction record", a document in which the delivery service has to fill customer information and customer preferences, helps increase the level of actual customer retention, which is already 80% .
![[Image: 1d_2a.gif]](https://www.isoc.org/inet99/proceedings/1d/1d_2a.gif)
That simple, but also an effective way to generate customer value is "Yours Truly" , a gift shop that reminds its customers on special days like birthdays or wedding anniversaries through an email reminder. This shows a very personalized relationship towards the customer and also increases the possibilities of cross-up and potential sales.
These small examples already show the power of information technology in relation to the customer. Information technologies change the laws of this relationship. In the information age customers want to get "everything, everywhere and whenever they want (without stopping)". Customers want to be in the center, they want the feeling of being the only customer in a very personalized customer-supplier relationship (one-to-one). Above all, the customer problem has to be solved in one stop. This leads to a reduction of complex and time-consuming processes.
