InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
October 5, 1998
The Service Imperative
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By Mary E. Thyfault, Stuart J. Johnston, and Jeff Sweat
he customer comes first." Marketing slogan? Or a serious business goal backed with resources and commitment from upper management? For a growing number of companies--including Hershey Foods, Mobil, and Staples--it's the latter. Recognizing that top-notch service requires more than a courteous greeting and a smile, companies are deploying enterprise resource planning applications, call-center software, self-service Web sites, and customer-management apps in an effort to improve service. The return on investment is not always great. But it's an intangible--customer loyalty--that's driving these efforts.The customer-service imperative is spreading across industries. The Chlor-Alkali & Derivatives division of chemicals company PPG Industries Inc. is using a new interactive inventory-management system to keep its customers informed about supply levels. American Airlines and British Airways are teaming with Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Qantas Airways to link their customer-service and frequent-flier operations. Chase Bank of Texas is using customer-management software from Siebel Systems Inc. to transform bankers into what it calls "relationship managers."
Companies already known for their customer-service operations are looking for ways to improve. "Our customer service can distinguish us from others," says Bill Floyd, senior VP and CIO with Novus Services Inc., the financial firm that issues the Discover Card. "That's where we want to be."
A new survey by InformationWeek Research shows that corporate managers are increasingly turning to IT to help in these efforts. Of the 250 IT executives with responsibility for customer-management applications who participated in the survey, three-quarters say senior executives at their companies are making customer management a higher priority for IT departments. It's clear these businesses have a lot of work to do. Only a quarter of survey respondents say the technologies they use to manage customer relationships are "very well" integrated with each other. Just 15% say they are "very close" to achieving goals of making better use of customer records.
One company with a handle on the problem is BellSouth Corp. The phone company, a winner of J.D. Power & Associates' customer-satisfaction survey three years in a row, has a customer-care application that integrates sales, service, and bill collections, giving its service representatives a single view of customer data to better handle incoming calls. The application "allows us to bring the whole power of the corporation to that call," says Bob Yingling, CIO of consumer services with BellSouth.
That's the goal, but how do companies get there? A starting point for many is to do a better job of making customer data available to employees who can use it. Community Playthings, a manufacturer of school furniture in Rifton, N.Y., has implemented Onyx Software Corp.'s Customer Center application to help its phone reps provide better service. The Windows NT-based application provides "live views" into order processing and accounting, says Tom Potts, the company's database administrator. That means customer calls about delivery information, warranty claims, or damaged merchandise can be handled more expeditiously. The application keeps track of these service incidents, and callers get to the right sales rep with fewer hassles. "Previously, a customer would call and we would ask them the account number or the ZIP code of the billing address," says Potts. "We were still far from knowing who they were."
Service For The MillenniumHershey Foods, the $4.3 billion maker of chocolate and other foods, is implementing SAP's R/3 applications as part of a companywide project, called Enterprise 21, to prepare for the next century. "We redesigned the whole business process with the customers in mind," says Keith Costello, project team member for Enterprise 21, which is scheduled to be completed next July. "Grocery stores and wholesalers want to be able to control costs and display the latest products. SAP will help us improve our product planning, letting them have the right products on the store shelves at right time." For example, when customers place orders, Hershey customer-service reps will be able to say whether the product can be delivered on the date the customer wants it, and, if not, when it will be available.
Without R/3, Hershey doesn't know if it can deliver a product until it starts to process the order. With R/3, the company will able to tell customers availability on a line-by-line basis, says Costello. The company has made the project a high priority: Five of Hershey's top nine executives meet monthly to review it. "We're implementing this No. 1 to enhance our competitiveness, and No. 2 to enhance our customer service," says Costello. "In our corporate culture, the customer service piece is highly visible."
Chlor-Alkali & Derivatives, the world's third-largest producer of chlorine and liquid caustic soda used in manufacturing, deployed a new inventory-management system earlier this year to ensure that customers keep an adequate supply of its products. The unit's service reps, or customers themselves, can access the inventory-management system through a secure Web site to check on the status of orders, railcar locations, ship dates, estimated times of arrival, and chemical analyses. The system "knows how much inventory they have, how much they are consuming on a daily basis, and when they should place their next order," says Sharon Piciacchio, manager of customer service for the PPG division.
continued...page 2, 3
Illustration by David Wink
Photo of Sharon Piciacchio by Jim Judkis
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