OVERVIEW

A return to the personal service that s offered by the neighborhood merchant is an economic impossibility. The edge for the local business is its limited customer base and the associated knowledge base that allows delivery of personalized service. This is normally not possible for a national company; yet it s widely recognized that personalized service can grow sales.

There is also the growing need to effectively attack the rising cost of sales. As a counterattack, many companies have turned to inside sales channels. They are also linking their corporate databases to customer call centers, turning these centers into powerful sales and service support systems with the help of sales force automation (SFA) tools.

To accomplish these types of transitions is significantly challenging. Surprisingly, the challenge occurs more within the cultural make-up of the organization as a whole, rather than within the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) technology.

But where does the call center s leading technical feature, the ACD, fit within the CRM realm? An ACD has great value in handling high volumes of like calls, but its original focus of homogeneous treatment of volumes of callers is increasingly perceived to be a disadvantage in this day and age, where sensitivity to individual customers is considered a competitive edge.

Database technology (the underpinning of all CRM technology) allows personalized treatment to be delivered to a much larger base of customers on a grander scale the inherent promise in any CRM proposal.

The trade-off when integrating CRM solutions within...