Business

Wednesday August 12, 2009

Asian firms see enhanced customer care boosting sales


KUALA LUMPUR: Asian companies see enhanced customer care as a revenue generator nowadays and realise the importance of adopting different tools in improving customer satisfaction.

Market researcher IDC said customer care had emerged not only as a key differentiator between companies but was also fast becoming an invaluable tool to capture new markets and customers.

IDC Asia Pacific emerging technology advisory services principal Claus Mortensen said companies in Asia were increasing their customer focus due to changes in the business environment and the emergence of new technology tools.

“Asian companies are seeing customer care as a sales tool and more about reaching out to the customers,” he told a press conference at the IDC’s Advanced Customer Care & Retention Conference 2009 yesterday.

Mortensen, who spoke on Building Quick Wins in an Economic Downturn - How Companies Can Use Advanced Customer Care and Retention Approaches to Minimise the Impact of the Economic Crisis, said companies in Asia were starting to realise that there was something that they could apply proactively in customer care.

IDC Asia Pacific emerging technology advisory services principal Claus Mortensen spoke at the Advanced Customer Care & Retention Conference 2009 by IDC on Tueday.

He said the customer care model had changed by using the Advanced Customer Care and Retention (ACCR) tools.

“Customer care became much more of an outreach tool and something that can transform your customer from being more than just loyal and happy to actually becoming your advocate,” he said.

He added that the goal was making customers so happy that they would start spreading the good news on your products.

ACCR encompasses customer analytics, virtual call centres, multiple modes of communication, Web 2.0 and virtual world tools, which are changing the ways companies reach new customers and keep existing customers engaged.

“All the elements in ACCR are not new in themselves but it is a new way of implementing and thinking on customer care,” Mortensen said.

He pointed out that ACCR could be applied across the broad, especially for companies that were consumer-focused.

Mortensen said that new media, notably the Internet, had became more important in providing customer care due to its higher penetration and more consumers were searching for information through such platforms.

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