Just responding to customer's needs is not enough for establishing one's competitive advantage. One has to anticipate and meet the needs of the customer on an on-going basis. eCRM with its online data mining and warehousing enables a company to take real time corrective action and maintain its competitive edge.

CRM tools help companies understand their customers from a multifaceted perspective, who they are, what they are like, and what they do. Once they have a close approximation of their prospective client, companies can shower them with desirable proposals.

Its no secret that customer data is a gold mine for making effective marketing and business decisions. The value of customer data when effectively used is astounding. CRM technologies are designed to collect, sort, consolidate and analyze diverse and complex streams of  real time data received through diverse means of communication. CRM solutions can turn raw data into reliable information for effective decision making.

Data mining sifts through specific, programmed profiles to come up with appropriate customer know-how. Databases are analyzed and sorted to identify hidden relationships among facts. Data mining is getting widespread attention as companies learn to make the most of the available information and use it for marketing purposes. If they know which segment of the masses is buying or not buying their products, they will avoid wasting valuable resources.

Consider the difficulty in analyzing phone bills so as to segment customers. The variables are almost infinite, particularly for heavy users. One long-distance company hit upon the idea of mining its database for customers who did their calling just before rates rose in the morning and straight after they fell in the evening. This created the opportunity to direct cheap offers to this price sensitive segment while avoiding customers who, though happy to have the savings, would neither change their behavior nor become more loyal to the company. Companies are identifying up-selling and cross selling opportunities through CRM solutions such as data mining.

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