Aspen Marketing Services Acquires Customer Relationship Management (顧客關係管理) -Provider Newgen

Aspen Marketing Services, a privately held marketing services agency, acquired the operatingassets of Newgen Results Corp., a provider of multi-channel customer-relationship management (顧客關係管理) software systems for auto dealerships and auto makers.

"This acquisition creates unparalleled scale in automotive CRM," says Patrick O'Rahilly. Aspen's CEO. "As a former autodealer, I understatid the importance of consistent, timely and personal communication. Knowing and understanding your customer increases loyalty, retention and profitability."The purchased assets and related customer contracts will become part of Aspen effective immediately.

Bob Kurilko. previously Newgen'svice president-marketing and operations,becomes executive vice president and general manager of the new operating unit at Aspen. As a result of the transaction. Aspen says it will acquire relationships with more than 1,800 auto dealerships, and expand the company's multi-channel offerings,including inbound and outbound call centers,pre-recorded messaging, e-mail anddirect-mail solutions.The Newgen transaction comes on the heels of West Chicago, IL-based Aspen in July purchasing the Townsend Agency, adigital and relationship marketing firm.

Source: WARD'S DeaierBusiness December 2007


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3 categories of Customer Relationship Management (顧客關係管理)

Customer Relationship Management (顧客關係管理) involves managing interactions within the company and its customers. The types of interactions and the processes for effectively using them are organizaed into 3 categories:

1.) Operational Customer Relationship Management : The objective is to make routine marketing operations such as sales calls, service programs, and customer support activities more efficient. By keeping track of a customer's purchase history, service schedule, and special requests, a firm can do a better job of anticipating the customer's needs, deciding which new products are best suited to the customer's operation, and providing preventive maintenance before problems occur.

2.) Analytical Customer Relationship Management : The objective is to effectively analyze all the available data about a customer. This involves merging data from internal company sources such as billing and payment histories, data generated by the customer such as average inventory amounts and reorder schedules, and data from third parties such as the government and credit bureaus. The analysis of such data helps a frim assess a customer's current and potential profitability, satisfaction, and loyalty.

3.) Collaborative Customer Relationship Management : The objective is to provide mechanisms for customers to interact with the firm. Rather than the traditional one-way seller-to-buyer communication of media advertising, brochures, or printing catalogs, this is an effort to regularly tap into what the customer is thinking. Examples include incoming call centers, seller-sponsored chat room where customers can communicate with one another, and regular satifaction surveys. Encouraging customer input permits a firm issues before they become problems that distrupt the relationship.

Source: Marketing, Michael Etzel, Bruce Walker, William Stanton, Mcgraw Hill 13th e.

The following is a video talking about CRM for Google

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What is Customer Relationship Management (顧客關係管理)?

Marketers place greater emphasis on building repeat customers. Research has shown that it is as much as 6 times less expensive to make a repeat sale than it is to make a sale to a new customer. Repeat sales are often the result of loyalty - a willingness of the buyer to purchase from the seller without an extensive evaluation of alternatives. Loyalty requires a high level of trust of the buyer. The process of moving toward long-term, cost-effective, mutually beneficial trust with selected customers is known as relationship marketing, and its implementation is called customer relationship management (顧客關係管理).

CUSTOMER. RELATIONSHIP.MANAGEMENT. Those three words together resonate with marketers. But, what does customer relationship managementmean, exactly?

In broad terms, customer relationship management—CRM—is the idea that businesses can improve the way they interact with customers over time, strengthen existing relationships and manage those relationships on a day-to-day basis.

“CRM is a philosophy and business strategy supported by a system and technology designed to improve human interactions in a business environment. The value of CRM is that it attempts to take the art of life and turn it into a science of business,”says Paul Greenberg.

Adds Denis Pombriant, [From a technology standpoint, CRM] is automation technology that supports sales and marketing services. It's also a business strategy that focuses on aligning a business with customer needs [in order to] do a better job of providing solutions that are timely, efficient and accurate.”

Source: Marketing, Michael Etzel, Bruce Walker, William Stanton, Mcgraw Hill 13th e.

marketingnews 15 Sep, 07

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