NEW DELHI: India has not been left behind in the great CRM revolution
sweeping the world. Particularly in view of the large IT-enabled services market
that India has the potential to exploit. At the organization level, most
companies in India are familiar with the concept and have been dabbling in it in
one form or the other. However, the full-scale implementation of CRM by
organizations is only now beginning to take root. This was the predominant
viewpoint that has emerged in the one-day seminar on "customer care through
call centers" organized by the ER&DCI, Noida, Netscape Communication
and CRM Foundation in the capital on January 11.
There is no doubting the fact that a major part of the IT-enabled services
market in India will be devoted to customer-care services. With dismal level of
customer care in the country even by prominent MNCs, the hype surrounding CRM is
indeed ironical. Upendra Singh, VP, Spectramind, defends this perception on the
grounds that customer care is indeed an organizational attitude and not a people
attitude. "How else do you think we have managed successful customer care
through call centers? It is the same people we employ who are able to deliver
services to our overseas clients where the expected quality of service is
high." Spectramind, a Delhi-based start-up with investments by Microsoft
Corp, HDFC, and Chrysalis Capital, is entirely focused on providing support
services to overseas clients remotely.
The implementation of CRM at the enterprise level will require a lot of best
practices to be in place. Therefore, its implementation does not just mean
making investments and deploying technology but also a change in mindset
including attitudinal changes. Another important aspect in deploying CRM is not
only to look at emerging technology but also to integrate its implementation
backwards. This means that with the increasing popularity of mails and Web-based
chats traditional communication modes like a telephone call should not be
ignored.