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[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

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e-Business Strategies <strong>for</strong> Virtual Organizations<br />

212<br />

target market <strong>for</strong> your initiatives – to make it easy <strong>for</strong> the right<br />

customers to do <strong>business</strong> with you.<br />

10.4.3 Owning the customer’s total<br />

experience<br />

How much control do you have over your end user’s total<br />

experience. The customer’s experience starts with learning<br />

about your products, then choosing an item, making a purchase,<br />

taking delivery, setup, installation, after-care, purchasing follow-on<br />

products, taking delivery, receiving accurate bills, and<br />

perhaps filing a complaint or resolving a dispute. If you deal<br />

through channels, you are ultimately responsible <strong>for</strong> the<br />

customer’s entire experience with that channel partner. If you<br />

outsource delivery, service, or other operations, you still care<br />

about the quality of the experience the customer is having.<br />

10.4.4 Streamlining <strong>business</strong> processes<br />

that affect the customer<br />

Federal Express and United Parcel Service (UPS) are good<br />

examples of companies that have automated and streamlined<br />

the entire end-to-end <strong>business</strong> process that affects the customer.<br />

Each company needs to streamline the end-to-end <strong>business</strong><br />

processes that affect customers in any way. Everything is a<br />

candidate <strong>for</strong> this process, from product design and manufacturing,<br />

shipment and delivery, pre-sales and post-sales service,<br />

billing, and credit-checking. Most large companies have reengineered<br />

internal operations to reduce cycle time or cut costs, but<br />

only a few companies have done this by focusing on the<br />

processes that impact customers the most. To be successful in<br />

e-<strong>business</strong>, you will need to streamline your <strong>business</strong> processes<br />

from the outside in – from your customers’ perspective – rather<br />

than from the inside out.<br />

10.4.5 Providing an all-round view of the<br />

customer relationship<br />

Efficient call centre and customer management are built on the<br />

same seamless infrastructure that gives customers (and customer<br />

service reps) direct access to all accounts and functions across<br />

computer systems, <strong>business</strong> units, and departments. This means<br />

that account reps and customers helping themselves have<br />

immediate access to every service the customer has asked <strong>for</strong>, the<br />

service history <strong>for</strong> each, and his or her current account status.

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