EDISON, N.J.—North American telecom companies are pushing new customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives to benefit business in several ways, according to a recent study by Fujitsu Consulting.
“Three forces have been driving communications companies to aggressively pursue CRM: soaring costs of marketing and sales, increasing customer churn and rising competition,” said David Yamashita, Telcom 360 Solutions Director for Fujitsu Consulting. “These forces are likely to increase as more and more wireline traffic moves to wireless and internet networks. Communications companies that can leverage CRM will have a significant advantage.”
The research, which included a survey of 45 communications companies and case studies on eight major telecommunications firms, also found current trends in how telecom companies are using CRM to their advantage. Current trends revealed included: communications companies are more involved in CRM initiatives than most other industries, trailing only utilities and financial services; telecom companies are shifting CRM to the Web, e-mail and interactive voice response systems; companies carrying out CRM initiatives are mainly focused on reducing sales and marketing costs.
