In the current scenario when most of the modern businesses are going virtual, it is important to build Electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) and learn the mapping and dependence of features such as E-Service Quality (ESQ), Ease of Use (EOU) and Brand Image (BI) (Al-Hawary & Alhajri, 2020).
Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM)
ECRM involves the integration of Web channels into the overall enterprise CRM strategy with the goal of driving consistency within all channels relative to sales, customer service and support (CSS) and marketing initiatives (Melovic et al., 2020). There are three main types of CRM systems such as collaborative, analytical, and operational. Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) is implemented electronically using a web browser, the internet, and other electronic media such as e-mail, call centers, and personalization (Melovic et al., 2020). ECRM is a technique for companies that are carried out online to strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers (Naim, Hussain, Naveed et al, 2019). This aims to increase customer satisfaction and gain loyalty from its customers (Kumar et al., 2021). The use of the Internet as a channel for commerce and information provides an opportunity for businesses to use the Internet as a tool for customer relationship management. This study reveals the relationship between ECRM and customer satisfaction by determining the ECRM feature on the website (Khan et al., 2019). There are three types of ECRM and figure 1 shows the types of ECRM and their applications.
Figure 1. ECRM types and their applications (Anaam, Abu Bakar, Mohd Satar et al, 2020)
There are many benefits of ECRM like it improves the customer relations, service and support, provide suitable offers matching with the customers’ behavior and needs, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, improve efficiency and reduce cost and finally increase revenue for the businesses (Seify et al., 2020). Some of the benefits of ECRM are shown in figure 2.
Figure 2. Benefits of ECRM (Seify et al., 2020)
The success factors of ECRM include operational and strategic benefits, top management support, technological readiness, and knowledge management capabilities. These factors are important for the firms to consider while building the strategies for achieving ECRM for their web app or Ecom activities (Naim, Khan, Hussain et al, 2019). Figure 3 shows the ECRM success factors with their inclusive.
Figure 3. ECRM strategic success factors (Naim, Khan, Hussain et al, 2019)
ECRM performance measurement in organizations is very important to help companies increase revenue and increase customer loyalty. ECRM technology must be more advanced and sophisticated to meet the evolving and knowledgeable needs of customers. The use of CRM technology consistently has a strong impact on CRM performance (Hanif et al., 2020). The more comprehensive CRM technology, and the use of higher / advanced CRM technology, CRM performance is better throughout the customer lifecycle phases. However, CRM technology shows an important impact on customer relationship performance. There are 3 dimensions to ECRM such as the quality of information, ease of navigation and efficiency of customer service (Hanif et al., 2020).