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SAP Internet Sales helps you lower the cost of sales by reducing transaction costs in order processing – and by reducing human intervention in order-taking and status-checking."
Source : SAP
Turn the Internet into a Strategic Sales and Interaction Channel
Turn the Internet into a Strategic Sales is also known as :
Internet Strategy,
Web Strategy,
Online Strategy,
Developing Internet Strategy,
Driving Internet Strategy,
Corporate Internet Strategy,
Internet Marketing Strategy,
Internet Strategies Resource,
Corporate Internet Marketing,
Sales Channel Strategy,
Web Strategy Consulting,
Consulting Web Strategy,
Web Projects and Strategy,
World Wide Web Marketing,
Effective Internet Strategy,
Website Marketing Tips,
Online Web Marketing,
Internet Strategy Services,
Internet Strategy Info,
Proven Strategies Internet Marketing,
Internet Business Strategy,
Winning Internet Marketing Strategies,
Sales Effectiveness Internet,
Internet Business Models,
E-marketing Consulting,
Internet Business,
Marketing SEO Strategy.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OPPORTUNITY FOR DRAMATIC GROWTH
With the emergence of the Internet, the business environment
has changed for many organizations and will change
to an even greater extent in the future. What had started
with a few innovative companies has become a fertile
ground to attract and serve customers across all industries.
There's no way around it: in an increasingly dynamic
and global environment, the Web has become an important
source of competitive differentiation for companies
of all sizes.
The Internet provides a great opportunity
for organizations to grow their
business and, at the same time,
dramatically cut the costs of reaching
out to customers, processing sales
transactions, and providing all sorts of
services. To turn the Internet into a
strategic channel and gain a competitive
advantage, however, organizations
need to look beyond the customer
touch points.
As Internet technology has advanced
and online access has become ubiquitous,
customers have become more
Web-savvy, and they have rising expectations
regarding convenience, usability,
and - most important - reliability. A
key focus of your Web strategy should
be on the fundamental, strategic dimension
of online business. Of course,
Web design, site navigation, and catalog
functionality are critical elements of
a successful Web presence. However,
what's even more important for online
success is to make the Internet an integral
part of your business and to
achieve operational excellence across
your online and offline operations.
To reap maximum benefits, organizations
need to understand customer
expectations and manage customer
experience beyond the shopping basket.
Extending your business to the
Internet means that you need to synchronize
your online and offline channels
and seamlessly connect your Web
site to back-office fulfillment and transaction
processing. To unlock the full
potential of the Internet, you must align
marketing, sales, and service activities
and design business processes and
interaction cycles from end to end. Furthermore,
it is absolutely necessary to
embed powerful analytics into the marketing
sales and service activities in
order to track and monitor activity at
your Web site and to ensure availability,
reliability, and performance. You should
also apply analytical tools to consistently
improve the customer experience
and increase the effectiveness of your
online business by translating insight
about customers into front-line action.
To reap maximum benefits,
organizations need to
understand customer
expectations and manage
customer experience beyond
the shopping basket.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF THE INTERNET: THE WEB CHANGES EVERYTHING
Within a decade, the remarkable rise
of the Internet has impacted just about
every realm of modern life. It has
dramatically changed the way people
live, work, communicate, shop, and
consume. Information and news travel
even to the most remote places in an
instant, reaching about a billion people.
Today, the Web serves as a channel for
mail, news, information, entertainment,
social networking, financial and commercial
transactions, and numerous
other activities.
As the Internet becomes more embedded
in everyday and commercial life,
organizations can no longer afford to
underestimate its relevance for their
business. Although many organizations
have started to explore the new opportunities
of the Web, only few have been
serious about it. The Internet is more
than a high-speed "carrier pigeon" and
an attractive advertising vehicle or a
low-cost channel for sales and service
that doesn't require a lot of attention.
It's important to see the Web as an
integral part of your business that can
help you foster relationships with
customers and partners, reach out to
underserved segments and new markets,
drive new revenue, and harness
collective intelligence about consumer
preferences and trends, while taking
advantage of automation efficiencies.
Only then are you able to reap maximum
benefits. You also need to
synchronize every aspect of your online
and offline operations in order to fulfill
promises and provide a consistently
positive customer experience.
Online experiences vary widely, however,
and many Web sites don't measure
up to the promise of convenient buying
or self-service. Online customers often
encounter an array of problems: lack
of usability; navigational difficulties;
missing information such as order
status, product availability, contracts,
or customer-specific prices; ailing
checkout processes; poor search
functionality; and deficient problemresolution
capabilities. Online frustration
can turn into anger when orders,
claims, returns, service requests, or
payments are not accurately executed
because of disconnected fulfillment
processes. Cross-channel inconsistency
- for example, when customers place
orders online and the call center agents
have no access to their order information
- is another prevalent issue.
The point is that a Web channel can
either increase or decrease customer
loyalty, and it can boost revenue or
destroy market share. Many consumers
and business customers are ready
and eager to take advantage of the
convenience of the Internet. If done
right, providing customers with easy
access to enterprise knowledge,
up-to-date information, and critical
transactions anywhere and anytime
can be very powerful. A fully integrated
Web channel can be a significant differentiator
because it is difficult to imitate.
With customer benefits in mind and the
right technology in place, you can reach
out to customers more effectively,
improve relationships, and strengthen
sales and service operations while
keeping firm control of costs.
DESIGNING A WINNING WEB CHANNEL STRATEGY: THE WORLD IS SHOPPING ONLINE
Today, many customers go online to
search for information about products
and services, compare product features
and prices, check availability,
make purchases, track orders, manage
their accounts, request services, seek
help to solve problems, schedule
appointments, download software or
music, submit claims, rate products, file
tax returns, pay bills, and accomplish
much more.
The potential of the Internet to grow
your business while achieving efficiency
gains is huge - and customers are
ready. However, many organizations
are not keeping up with their customers
and are missing out on the great opportunities
of the Web. Customer expectations
are on the rise: They demand
convenience, reliability, and speed; they
expect to be in control and to have a
choice of channels, with an increasing
preference for online channels. More
than ever, they are able to turn to the
competition when organizations fail to
meet expectations and provide a negative
customer experience.
It may be time to overhaul your Internet
strategy, embed it in your overall business
strategy, and take your online
activities to a higher level in order to
expand your reach and exploit new
opportunities to grow your business. To
design a winning Web channel strategy,
you need to begin by understanding
your customers' interaction needs and
preferences, comprehending the channel
economics and channel dynamics,
and synchronizing your online and
offline business across different channels.
Operational excellence is absolutely
crucial and must encompass
entire business processes from end to
end to ensure success.
Customer Experience: The Key to Success
As customers are increasingly pressuring
organizations to invest in Internet
technology, confusion and skepticism
abound about how to best tap online
resources and opportunities to ensure
a substantial return on these investments.
Many organizations have failed
to leverage the potential of the Internet
by neglecting customer needs and
expectations. Taking advantage of automation
efficiencies can be enticing, but
it is not sufficient for success. A mindset
limited to cost reduction has served
many organizations poorly, leading to
increased costs and churn rates and
eventually resulting in diminishing
returns. This can happen, for instance,
when companies try to curb expenses
by deflecting as many customers as
possible from the call center to their
Web sites. If there is no value for the
customer, or if the customer experience
is negative, customer satisfaction
will decline and customer attrition will
rise.
Most companies have shortcomings in
understanding customer experience.
Ultimately, your organization must
understand and deliver on what the
customer will value most. For example,
although price-conscious consumers
may have dominated the online shopping
scene for years, most people -
and organizations - who buy online do
so because it is easier and more convenient.
The same is true for service
and support. Hence, a more lucrative
value proposition is to make life easier
for buyers who are increasingly
pressed for time. This is actually good
news, because it means that the Web
channel can, in fact, be an important
source of differentiation. Success is
determined no longer only by price and
product but also by well-designed sales
channels and service processes. Organizations
that can deliver superior customer
value and provide an exceptional
customer experience consistently -
online and beyond their Web sites -
have a competitive advantage.
Operational Excellence Beyond the Touch Points
As Web channels become mainstream
business for many organizations, operational
excellence is another key to
success. Although many organizations
focus on the attractiveness of their
online presence and spend a lot of
money on generating traffic, very often
the Web site and the company behind it
suffer from operational unreliability and
execution flaws.
You need to keep in mind that on your
Web site, you expose all your weaknesses.
Because customers are on
their own when interacting online, even
minor flaws can add up to major business
problems. When customers can't
navigate smoothly, can't find the right
information, get stuck in the checkout
process, or can't complete a sales
transaction, customer satisfaction is
clearly at stake, and another sales
opportunity may be lost. Such defects,
if undetected, can have a huge impact
and may result in substantial loss of
revenue. Customer experience is also
not limited to the Web site. If you can't
ship as promised, if returns are not
handled properly, and if customer service
representatives have no clue of
what transpired on the Web channel
when they get a call from an online customer,
customers can ultimately have a
negative experience.
Successful organizations have realized
that providing customers with an attractive
Web site is not enough. They
ensure convenience, reliability, and
consistency by achieving operational
excellence across and beyond the customer
touch points - and they put the
customer in control. Hence, three winning
elements in the formula of online
success are back-end integration;
synchronization of online and offline
channels; and alignment of marketing,
sales, and service activities.
Connect the Back End
When customers go online, they
expect easy access to up-to-date,
accurate information and reliable execution
and fulfillment. Without real-time
integration of the Web channel to backend
systems and back-office fulfillment
systems, organizations fail to connect
business processes from end to end,
damaging customer loyalty and losing
significant revenue. For a successful
Web channel, you need to seamlessly
connect entire business processes
such as order to cash or service problem
resolution to other critical business
functions, from finance to the supply
chain, including activities such as inventory
management, order processing,
delivery, billing, and payment.
Although many companies have
improved their online presence and
optimized their Web sites, disconnected
systems and disjointed processes
are still leading to customer frustration
and lost sales opportunities. Customer
experience doesn't happen in silos. For
example, to perfect order processes
and satisfy customers, you must eliminate
virtually all issues and errors that
can stymie on-time, accurate order
fulfillment. This involves every process,
including planning and forecasting;
acquiring accurate quotes, orders, and
contracts; dealing with back orders;
handling order changes; and resolving
fulfillment, shipment, and postdelivery
problems.
Synchronize Online and Offline Channels
Whether in a business-to-consumer or
business-to-business context, customers
demand multiple channels that they
can use to get information, purchase
goods, or get support that is based on
their specific needs and preferences.
Many customer requests or purchases
can be provided in a more convenient
and faster way online; however, more
complex questions, multifaceted services,
and more difficult transactions may
still warrant human interaction and the
additional costs and time associated
with it to provide real value to the customer.
For customers, self-service is
not a panacea. If they have a question
they cannot answer online, they want
to be able to call someone for help
immediately.
Also, customers want consistency:
They expect to get the same information
in any channel and be able to
switch channels seamlessly. For example,
a customer who orders on the
phone might want to track the order
status online, or vice versa. Business
customers may prefer to order online,
but when they negotiate contracts and
prices, they may want to meet face to
face with a sales representative.
To reap maximum benefits, your organization
must optimize its entire channel
mix. You need to develop multichannel
strategies for different customer segments
on the basis of interaction needs
and customer value, guide your customers
to the right channel, and provide
them with choices when appropriate
and cost-effective.
Align Marketing, Sales, and Service
Operational excellence and a consistent
customer experience can't be
achieved when departments make
independent decisions and take isolated
actions. You need to align your
customer-facing operations, break
down the silos, and link discrete
systems so that you can frequently
share valuable information across
marketing, sales, and service departments
and provide customers with
consistent information and a comprehensive
view of their relationship with
the organization.
Customer interactions have become
key sources of competitive differentiation
for many organizations: every interaction
provides a chance to better
understand customer needs, solve
customers' problems, or increase
wallet share. By failing to pass leads,
service cases, and purchase histories
across departments and channels,
companies miss out on such opportunities.
Successful organizations leverage
Web interactions across marketing,
sales, and service to harness collaborative
intelligence; make this insight
accessible throughout the organization;
and translate this knowledge into frontline
actions.
UNLOCKING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE INTERNET: COMPANIES ARE USING THE WEB TO DIFFERENTIATE
There are many opportunities and challenges
in leveraging the Web channel
to deliver best-in-class customer-facing
processes. The following section
describes some best practices that are
based on the experience of some of
the best-run companies, to help you
make the most of relationships with
customers by unlocking the full potential
of the Internet across marketing,
sales, and service.
Use Interactive Marketing to Increase Demand and Customer Loyalty
Companies are increasingly looking to
the marketing organization to drive and
sustain profitable growth through initiatives
that shape market perceptions
and foster customer loyalty. The Internet
provides compelling advantages
over traditional marketing mechanisms
such as mass advertising, mail order,
and telemarketing. Using e-mail and the
Web, you can achieve richer, personalized,
and more effective contact with
customers while reducing the cost of
delivering information to customers.
You can establish your corporate identity
more quickly online and then bolster
your brand image through Web activities.
In addition, you can employ interactive
marketing approaches that
increase marketing effectiveness
through the bidirectional nature of
online communications.
Organizations must expand into the
Web channel to remain competitive and
to provide customers with the online
experiences and convenience they've
become accustomed to. However, you
should be aware of the challenges of
e-marketing and consider them within
your overall marketing strategy. When
going online, customers benefit from
increased visibility into pricing, as well
as from lower switching costs. This is a
challenge for you with regard to customer
retention and loyalty. Customers
also expect more targeted experiences
and demand opt-in marketing approaches,
especially in view of the personal
nature of online channels such as
e-mail, text messages, and personalized
Web sites.
To address the opportunities and
challenges of e-marketing, you should
develop an integrated approach across
marketing channels, establish targeted
approaches driven by customer intelligence,
and cultivate two-way customer
relationships.
Develop an Integrated Approach Across Marketing Channels
To successfully market online, you
need to coordinate your e-marketing
programs with traditional marketing
initiatives from both a brand strategy
perspective and a customer touch point
perspective. The messages that you
send to customers and prospects
through traditional media should be
aligned with those delivered through
e-marketing mechanisms. Whether you
choose to leverage the same brand
online or employ different brands, the
brand recognition - a key component
of building lasting customer loyalty - is
greater if the message is consistent. In
addition, you stand to gain more impact
in your marketing touches by integrating
your offline and online campaigns.
For instance, many organizations in -
clude their Web site addresses in TV,
print, and radio ads to entice customers
to visit the companies' Web sites,
at which they can benefit from rich
media and personalized information
that enhance their overall customer
experience.
Target Approaches Driven by Customer Intelligence
Personalization is one of the key factors
in successful online marketing. You
need to establish personalized and targeted
approaches in your e-marketing
efforts. The more you can drive your
targeting with in-depth customer intelligence,
the more effective the targeting
is, both for you and for the customer.
Leverage a variety of customer intelligence
in this effort: by collecting profile
information directly from the customer,
by systematically tracking customers'
online activities, and by mapping
against previous purchase and interaction
history. Through these different
types of information about customers,
you can better understand your customers
and make more accurate inferences
about your customers' interests
and intent. This intent-based marketing
approach provides customers with a
more tailored and therefore desirable
experience than do traditional marketing
approaches and translates to higher
conversion rates for your organization.
Cultivate Two-Way Customer Relationships
One of the most powerful opportunities
with e-marketing is the ability to establish
two-way customer relationships -
effectively a "conversation" with
customers. To build this two-way relationship
with customers, marketers
should execute marketing campaigns
through both inbound and outbound
channels (such as phone, mail, e-mail,
Web, fax, and short message services),
as well as plan and execute dialogue
marketing campaigns. Dialogue
campaigns are preplanned two-way
customer interactions that unfold over
time; every interaction is personalized
with relevant information because it
leverages information from previous
interactions. For example, online advertising
allows customers to provide
information after accessing landing
pages or surveys. Marketers can use
this information both to deliver more
granular targeting of communication
back to customers and to improve their
overall customer and product strategy.
Turn the Internet into a Profitable Sales Channel
In a business environment that is characterized
by globalization, increased
competition, and customer demands
for greater convenience and ease of
doing business, the Internet has
become a key element for remaining
competitive and driving business
growth. The Internet can be a powerful
sales channel that enables organizations
to expand market reach and drive
revenue while keeping costs down.
Also, it is easier to do business with
companies that provide their customers
and partners with convenient selfservices
to buy online.
However, the Web also poses new
business challenges that need to be
addressed when an online sales strategy
is developed. Online, customers
have more visibility into product information
and pricing. This has a considerable
impact on competition in that customers
can easily find less expensive
products or better deals, which puts
pressure on vendors to lower prices or
improve customer service. The ease
and privacy of online buying experiences
means lower switching costs for
customers. This means customers are
more likely to switch to a competitor if
price, quality, or buying experience
doesn't meet their expectations. Also,
barriers to entry are reduced for online
businesses. The low cost and ease of
setting up a Web shop (as well as virtual
partnerships), combined with the low
transaction costs, allow both new and
existing businesses to flourish online.
To address the opportunities and
challenges of selling online, you should
strive to deliver excellent online
customer experiences; integrate all
customer-facing channels; ensure operational
excellence throughout the
buying processes; and consider new,
innovative sales models.
Deliver Excellent Online Customer Experiences
For your customers, one of the major
incentives to use the Web channel is to
be able to quickly access information
that is richer and more useful than that
which customers would normally be
able to access through other channels
such as the call center or a sales representative.
This rich information makes
it easier for customers to find the best
product or service to meet their
specific needs. When your customers
have access to rich company, product,
and pricing information based on their
preferences and previous interactions
with your company, you're more likely
to secure the sale and foster loyalty.
Rich information and media include
real-time product availability and pricing;
critical contract data; personalized
content and product recommendations;
multidimensional product visualization;
and interactive needs analysis and
guided selling. Also, the best-run organizations
are exploiting advanced Web
2.0 technologies to provide customers
with better experiences enabled by
more seamless user interfaces and
community-driven content.
Integrate All Customer-Facing Channels
You should also think about your online
selling processes from a multichannel
perspective. Today, customers demand
a variety of channels they can use to
get product information, to purchase
and pay for products and services, and
to get the support they need. For
instance, they may use the Web, a call
center, a partner store, or a direct sales
representative. Customers expect convenience,
choice, and a consistent
experience across all touch points. By
integrating customer channels, you can
better handle customer inquiries and
orders, perform more effective crossselling
and up-selling, and provide the
consistent customer experience that is
demanded in the marketplace. This
means supporting integrated processes
that let your customers choose the
channel that best fits their needs each
step of the way, whether they prefer to
help themselves or to have a customer
service representative help them.
Ensure Operational Excellence Throughout the Buying Process
To ensure operational excellence you
need to provide customers with a
secure online buying experience and
reliable commitments tied to your backoffice
and fulfillment systems. This
integrated approach enables you to
increase customer satisfaction and
trust - and drive more business.
Through end-to-end processes, you
can reduce error rates, increase operational
efficiency, and harness the
efforts of your entire organization to
make the customer experience better.
These end-to-end processes differentiate
the customer experience, resulting
in a valuable competitive advantage.
This may sound simple, but it's not that
easy; many companies still haven't got
it right. On a daily basis, customers
make purchases over the Web and
then don't receive their merchandise in
the expected time frame, fail to get the
right discounted price, or talk to a call
center agent who doesn't even know
about the purchase. The result is negative
customer experiences, a degradation
of customer trust, and, finally,
customer attrition. An organization
achieves operational excellence by
reliably executing customer transactions
and delivering on commitments -
and, by doing so, strengthens customer
loyalty and increases revenue.
Many companies have achieved great
success with the Web channel by
focusing on creative use of the Internet
and on operational excellence. For
example, one company in the household
goods industry doubled its revenue
in four years by enhancing its
ability to sell through its online store. It
was able to direct potential customers
to different product groups on the basis
of their needs, provide an easy-to-use
order process, and achieve excellence
in delivery performance. Although the
company had employed a call center
for many years, it didn't have to add
any call center resources; in fact, the
company eliminated initial order placement
through its call center.
Consider New, Innovative Selling Models
In addition to supporting a profitable
and low-cost sales channel, the Internet
offers unprecedented opportunities for
organizations to adopt innovative selling
models. When expanding into the
Web channel, you may want to consider
new models made possible through
the Internet that complement and
enable innovation in your selling strategies.
New models include distributed
selling scenarios, in which you can
expand your online sales channel to
include an integrated network of partners
who deliver complementary
products and services. In online
marketplaces, buyers and sellers work
together on a common technology
platform, driving business through
aggregation of interested parties and
brokering of deals. Online auctions,
which support the public sale of goods
to the highest bidder, have expanded
exponentially because of the Internet's
popularity and global reach.
Boost Customer Satisfaction by Low-Cost Online Self-Service
As customer service becomes a competitive
differentiator, organizations are
looking for new ways to meet growing
customer expectations of service
speed and quality, cope with increasing
product complexity, and keep operational
costs at a reasonable level. To
address the emerging requirements for
high-quality service at low costs, more
and more organizations have started to
implement self-service applications that
enable customers to help themselves -
without expensive human support.
Such applications have become sophisticated
since their inception a decade
ago and have evolved as essential
tools to improve service levels and
reduce service and support costs.
To reap maximum benefits, you need to
evaluate both opportunities and challenges
of online self-service. It is
important to provide customers with
easy access to useful and targeted
information, enable choices and
flexibility for customers, establish a
differentiated model through customer
segmentation and right-touch service,
and integrate channels to add value.
Provide Customers with Useful and Targeted Information
Effective use of online self-service
depends on providing information that
customers find beneficial and that's
focused on the task at hand. Design of
Web sites to facilitate simple access to
the most relevant content - and up-todate
maintenance of that information -
is key to success. To further the goal of
delivering this information, some organizations
have deployed knowledge
management applications to provide
self-help functionalities, often leveraging
customer-generated content
(referred to as "wiki" Web sites, which
allow users to edit Web site pages) and
peer-support forums. These trends
have helped companies enrich their
knowledge base and have opened
new avenues for providing customer
support. Moreover, by giving customers
the ability to help their peers,
organizations have transformed selfhelp
from an individual effort to a
collaborative one.
Enable Choice and Flexibility for Customers
Technology should enable appropriate
choices for service and a blending of
service modes and channels. Balancing
customer needs, business objectives,
and channel costs is critical for determining
the best service strategy. It may
be cost-effective to provide customers
with only self-service options online.
On the other hand, it may be appropriate
to provide customers with the ability
to initiate requests for live help from
a self-service Web site and to transition
seamlessly to an assisted mode of
interaction. As one example, many selfservice
Web sites have deployed proactive
chat functionalities to provide an
additional option for service delivery,
minimizing costs of inbound telephone
calls while helping to secure customer
loyalty.
Establish a Differentiated Model:Right-Touch Service
Although providing choice and flexibility
for customers can be beneficial, you
need a way to make decisions about
deploying the multitude of available
service delivery options. Customer
support and service organizations are
challenged by the need to support
diverse product lines and a broad customer
base. Contact center agents are
stretched to their limits. The one-sizefits-
all model for customer support has
limitations and is hard to deliver in a
way that satisfies the range of customer
needs
By leveraging self-service, customer
support organizations can lower
support costs and increase customer
satisfaction through differentiation of
end-to-end support that is based on
customer, product, and other segments.
This support model involves
no-touch, low-touch, and high-touch
modes of customer service. The figure
below describes how your customer
support organization could leverage
self-service as the delivery vehicle for
no-touch and low-touch modes of
service. The premium, high-touch
(and high-cost) contact center channel
is reserved for supporting high-end
products. Customers who purchase
high-value products receive a dedicated
toll-free number to talk directly with an
agent. These customers also have the
option to access the self-service mode
for product support. For customers
who purchase low-value products, selfservice
- such as interactive voice
response (IVR) - is the only means of
getting support. This is the no-touch
mode of support. Customers who purchase
mid-value products can access
only self-service and limited assisted
channels (Web chat). These customers
have the option to initiate a chat with a
live agent from the self-service Web
site. This is the low-touch mode of
support.
This approach optimizes the usage of
contact center resources and results in
increased revenue generation,
increased customer satisfaction, and
the transformation of the customer
support organization into a profit center,
rather than a cost center.
A large high-tech manufacturer with
numerous product lines found itself facing
increasing call volumes and poor
customer satisfaction, despite deploying
Web self-service functionalities. To
support its growth, the manufacturer
implemented a differentiated support
model by segmenting customers and
deploying sophisticated diagnostic
tools on the company Web sites. The
results were impressive: fewer customer
complaint escalations and reduced
agent call-handling time. Moreover, the
manufacturer enhanced revenue by
converting a support-only contact into
an opportunity to educate customers
and up-sell as appropriate.
Figure 1: A Differentiated Service Model
Integrate Channels to Add Value
If your company offers multiple support
choices, it's important to ensure consistency
across your support channels.
To harness the full potential of the Web
channel, you need a strategy that aligns
the Web channel with the existing channels
for managing customer service,
such as contact centers and walk-in
service centers. As discussed earlier in
this paper, seamless integration across
channels can lead to dramatically
reduced costs and enhanced customer
satisfaction derived from a uniformly
positive experience across channels.
The differentiated right-touch model
can work only if the self-service channels
for product support are fully integrated
and effectively deployed. For
example, a customer might visit a product
support Web site to troubleshoot
an issue, initiate a Web chat with a live
agent, and finally talk to the agent. The
customer shouldn't notice the transition
from channel to channel.
Poor deployment of customer service
and support channels in a disconnected
or uncoordinated manner defeats
the purpose of this strategic approach,
and the resulting model might actually
cause more strain on a customer support
organization than does the onesize-
fits-all model. You must think
strategically about how to address
these issues in your business and map
out a successful plan from the beginning
to achieve the desired results.
WEB ANALYTICS:CAPITALIZING ON CUSTOMER INSIGHTS: UNDERSTANDING BUYER INTENTION IS KEY
Web analytics has evolved beyond just
tracking page hits and visit lengths.
Web analytics plays a crucial role in
helping organizations achieve their
online business goals of improving
customer satisfaction, driving growth,
and reducing operational costs. With
the right analytics tools, your organization
can monitor the performance of
your Web channel, gain insight into the
effectiveness and impact of your online
processes and actions, and then act on
that insight to ensure that your organization
adapts and improves performance
over time.
The goal of Web analytics is to monitor
and provide insights into Web channel
success from both a technical perspective
and a business process perspective
in order to support profitable
growth. Technical analyses enable your
organization to review the technical
health and performance of your Web
shops to proactively maintain a welltuned
shop. As the Internet channel
becomes a critical part of your business,
you must ensure reliability and
availability of your Web site. On the
Web, you need to be able to keep your
business open continuously, handle
peak times without major breakdowns,
and identify flaws in operational performance
and transactional execution
immediately. In addition, you need to
perform analysis from a business perspective,
such as assessing purchasing
activity and sales across channels,
evaluating the operational performance
of your service efforts, and analyzing
profitability to support differentiated
levels of service. In addition, customer
behavior analysis provides your organization
with click-stream analysis, which
can be integrated with standard sales
reporting to get full information about
customer shopping patterns and thereby
improve conversion rates.
To address the opportunities and challenges
of using Web analytics, you
should understand customer intent;
review Web behavior to improve targeting
of customers and improve future
customer interactions; and gain insight
into, analyze, and act on e-business
trends.
Understand Customer Intent
Understanding your customer is important,
but understanding your customer's
intent within a specified interaction
gives you an opportunity to increase
customer satisfaction and close rates
even more. By analyzing historical data
about the customer (such as past interactions,
purchase history, and product
interest areas) and real-time data about
the customer's behavior on the Web
within the current visit, you can get a
more accurate idea of the customer's
current intent and therefore deliver
exactly what the customer wants. The
customer and the brand owner benefit
greatly in this situation. Consider, for
example, a customer with a high
income who is currently a renter and
does a Web search on real estate listings.
A company that puts customer
profile and site visit information together
to assume that customer is actively
looking for a home to buy has a valuable
opportunity to pursue and close
business while delivering outstanding
customer experience and increased
customer satisfaction. By understanding
the true intentions of your customers,
you can outpace your competitors
by meeting customer needs more
quickly and therefore increase revenue
and customer satisfaction.
How Philips Consumer Electronics Leveraged the Web
Holding the number 10 position on
FORTUNE's list of global electronics
corporations, Royal Philips Electronics
N.V. (Philips) boasts sales of over
?29 billion and operates in numerous
businesses, ranging from consumer
electronics to medical imaging.
Philips' consumer electronics (CE)
business - which accounts for over
30% of revenues - is an international
leader in connected displays, home
entertainment sets, and mobile
solutions.
In a fiercely competitive market,
Philips CE chose to differentiate itself
by strengthening customer relationships
to lock in long-term loyalty
while continuing to build upon its
legacy of product innovation. Philips
CE strengthened customer loyalty
and increased revenue by providing
Web-based interactions that customers
could trust, through tighter integration
with fulfillment processes.
In a changing business environment,
in which consumers expect the ability
to research and potentially purchase
directly from the manufacturer, Philips
needed to look at extending its business
model. The company needed to
support a direct online consumer
experience while not creating conflict
with the partner distribution channel.
At the same time, Philips decided to
extend integrated online capabilities
to its business customers, partners,
and employees. With its e-commerce
implementation, Philips supports
many types of shops, including a
direct store, an outlet store, and various
partner shops that provide rich
product data, efficient ordering capabilities,
reliable deliveries, and aftersales
services - enabled through
integration with back-end systems.
Philips now has better insights into
consumer purchasing and service
needs, which the company uses to
drive future marketing efforts. An
independent ROI review projects
Philips CE to achieve a 26% internal
rate of return by 2007 through cost
elimination and increased revenue
contribution.
Improve Customer Interactions by Using Web Behavior Analysis
On the Web, you can obtain valuable
information about your customers by
using a systematic approach as customers
navigate your Web sites. This
data-rich situation, in which your organization
can capture, store, analyze and
then act on detailed interaction information
down to the level of an individual
consumer, provides significant opportunities
to personalize customer
experiences, deliver more value to
customers, and therefore improve and
increase business. If you understand
your visitors on an individual level,
you have a more extensive and more
nuanced view of customer intentions
and can engage in more effective
one-to-one marketing and sales ap -
proaches. Also, you can better target
campaigns, return more relevant search
results, and identify more lucrative and
successful cross-sell and up-sell
opportunities.
Gain Insight Into, Analyze, and Act on E-Business Trends
Using Web analytics, you can leverage
information and insight obtained within
your Web channel and apply that intelligence
to your overall customer relationship
management (CRM) business
strategy to improve your marketing,
sales, and service efforts across the
board. Using information derived from
Web analytics, marketers can distill
insights about customers, communicate
this information across the organization,
and collaborate to synthesize
marketing and sales programs that
address brand-level issues and
meet overall customer expectations.
By establishing and monitoring key
performance indicators, marketing and
sales management can also use Web
analytics to improve accountability of
staff in the organizations and help
ensure that goals - such as response
to campaigns and market share - are
met in both online and offline channels.
Finally, you can monitor key performance
indicators relating to efficiency
and resource utilization, which helps
identify process improvement opportunities
and refinements to the mix of
online and offline channels. By leveraging
the appropriate Web analytics, you
can better determine the right investments
for your marketing and sales
dollars.
CONCLUSION:RUNNING YOUR E-BUSINESS LIKE A BUSINESS: FOCUSING ON CUSTOMER VALUE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Making the most of the Web's opportunities
is not simple; indeed, adding
significant value requires careful
investment, a smart strategy, operational
excellence, and professional
manage ment.
In other words, you need to run your
e-businesses like a business. To succeed,
Web channel operations need to
be run with a focus on delivering customer
value, with vision and creativity -
and with discipline and solid measurements,
particularly in order to achieve
operational excellence across and
beyond the customer touch point -
injected into the process. Ultimately,
the e-business must contribute to
profitable growth of the enterprise.
Running an e-business, just like running
any business, is not an easy task.
Keep the following points in mind:
- The customer experience is key to
success: focus on delivering an
excellent and consistent experience
both online and offline.
- Establish integrated and reliable
business processes to ensure that
product and service fulfillment is
executed efficiently and in line with
customer expectations.
- Blend marketing, sales, and service,
so that you can attain a comprehensive
understanding of your customers
and reap maximum benefits.
- Leverage customer insights in order
to more deeply understand customers'
current and future requirements
- and synthesize actions that allow
you to outperform the competition as
you both satisfy and anticipate customer
needs and market trends.
The business environment changes
continually, and companies must stay
vigilant to survive. In particular, the
Internet must be considered a very
strong factor in opportunity identification,
business strategy development,
and execution.
To execute business well, the best-run
companies provide a Web presence for
their business that is rich in functionalities,
intuitive and easy to use, and fully
integrated across all customer touch
points, as well as with back-end business
processes. By offering a superlative
Web presence, your company can
gain competitive advantages and
achieve long-term profitable growth
while meeting rising customer
expectations.
If you want to know how SAP can help
your company turn the Internet into a
strategic sales and interaction channel,
call your SAP representative today, or
visit us at www.sap.com/crm.
CONTENT
- Executive Summary
- Opportunities and Challenges of
the Internet
- Designing a Winning Web
Channel Strategy
- Customer Experience: The Key
to Success
- Operational Excellence Beyond
the Touch Points
- Connect the Back End
- Synchronize Online and Offline Channels
- Align Marketing, Sales,and Service
- Unlocking the Full Potential of
the Internet
- Use Interactive Marketing to
Increase Demand and Customer Loyalty
- Develop an Integrated Approach
Across Marketing Channels
- Target Approaches Driven by
Customer Intelligence
- Cultivate Two-Way Customer
Relationships
- Turn the Internet into a Profitable
Sales Channel
- Deliver Excellent Online Customer
Experiences
- Integrate All Customer-Facing
Channels
- Ensure Operational Excellence
Throughout the Buying Process
- Consider New, Innovative Selling
Models
- Boost Customer Satisfaction by
Low-Cost Online Self-Service
- Provide Customers with Useful
and Targeted Information
- Enable Choice and Flexibility for
Customers
- Establish a Differentiated Model:
Right-Touch Service
- Integrate Channels to Add Value
- Web Analytics: Capitalizing on
Customer Insights
- Understand Customer Intent
- How Philips Consumer
Electronics Leveraged the Web
- Improve Customer Interactions by
Using Web Behavior Analysis
- Gain Insight Into, Analyze,
and Act on E-Business Trends
- Conclusion: Running Your
E-Business Like a Business