COVID-19 Impact on Customer Relationship Management in the Information, Communication and Technology Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole planet with its major impacts on the economy and businesses across the globe. The COVID-19 spread worldwide in unprecedented ways due to its high infectious and contagious nature and lack of availability of its vaccine. As a result, the greatest medical challenge in the 21st century is yet to be faced by physicians worldwide. Though the emergence of the virus can be traced back to Asia, many European countries along with the U.S. have been struck massively by the pandemic. The virus has spread across all regions ranging from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa up to South America. The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. After the declaration of the pandemic, various countries announced the complete lockdown such as India, China, and other Asian countries to decrease its spread. According to the latest situation report by World Health Organization (WHO) stated 175 million cases of Corona have been reported globally and 4 million patients are dead due to the coronavirus. On a slightly positive note, a total of 158 million people have recovered and a total of 2 million vaccine doses have been administered as well.
The spread of Coronavirus has led to a global recession, where, many companies are being bounded to take stringent actions of laying off their employees, small businesses are being shut, and manufacturing facilities are being put on hold. There has been a disruption in the supply chain of many industries due to restrictions in logistics and the closing of manufacturing facilities. In addition, the slowdown in the economy has lowered the spending capability of individuals and people are saving money for emergencies. However, now almost in every country, the factories are started to reopen with precautions such as 20% -50% of total employees on the field, social distancing, extreme hygiene measures, and others to support the economy.
The pandemic has boosted the growth of the customer relationship management (CRM) market. In response to the COVID-19 virus, many companies are moving towards working in a more virtual environment. This has placed a focus on organizations embracing collaboration tools and practices to support the virtual workplace. Organizations around the world are supporting the BYOD model (bring your device) to enable sales professionals to better serve their customers and prospects. Moreover, the government mandate of Work from Home (WFH) policies has driven organizations to increasingly focus on more effective ways of engaging with customers in a remote working environment. This has driven the adoption and implementation of CRM solutions. The governments of various countries are focusing on digitization of business processes and making it mandatory to adopt technologies that support physical distancing, cashless transactions, social distancing norms, and others. Directly this will positively impact the use of customer relationship management solutions.
For instance,
- In May 2021, according to a blog on CRM statistics, 91% of companies with more than 11 employees now use CRM software. Also, CRM usage has grown from 15% in 2010 to 97% in 2020
- According to the Agile CRM blog, CRM is becoming a necessity wherein 65% of businesses adopt CRM within their first five years. Also, businesses that leverage CRM software see sales increase by 29%, sales productivity increase by 34%, and sales forecast accuracy increase by 42%
IMPACT ON DEMAND
The pandemic has boosted the digital transformation of industries, companies are focusing more on a digital platform to interact with their clients and customers. People are also more reliant on digital sources. The e-commerce and healthcare market is increasing rapidly in this pandemic, and thus there has been increased online customers due to which there has been a huge demand for customer relationship management solutions. Moreover, it was observed that the gradual spike in demand observed was due to the shift of consumers from traditional platforms to online digital platforms, 81% of users are now accessing their CRM software using devices such as laptops, desktops, smartphones, and tablets among others.
Also due to lockdown and COVID-19 norms; digitization and automation have become mandatory for any business. Providers need customer relationship management solutions to provide their customers excellent experiences to boost sales during this pandemic period. Also, providers need customer relationship management solutions to analyze crucial consumer data and to drive insights for providing enhanced and personal customers experience and formulate effective marketing strategies to overcome the losses.
IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN
The supply chain was adversely affected in the initial phase of the pandemic as lockdown prevailed in many regions globally and the government had limited the number of workers. Companies are making their operations work according to the government regulations by making limited workers work in different shifts. Industries were facing operational and supply chain disruptions, breakdowns, and labor shortages. However, now there is an improvement in the supply chain as most of the facilities and travel restrictions have opened and working in most optimum capacity. The companies are doing their best to meet the increasing demand.
LONG TERM STRATEGIC INITIATIVES ADOPTED BY MANUFACTURERS
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to expand, makers would possibly face challenges on varied fronts. Producing firms would be searching for immediate measures to stay their workforces safe and their businesses solvent. Makers would conjointly have to be compelled to look on the far side of their economic viability. Because the COVID-19 pandemic intensifies, makers would possibly face continued pressure on demand, production, and revenues. They’d continuously face cash-flow liquidity challenges and difficulties in managing debt obligations. The pandemic has boosted the growth of the customer experience management market. Thus, developers and providers were focusing on strategic decisions like partnerships, acquisition, product launch, mergers, and collaborations to meet the increasing demand in the COVID-19 outbreak.
For instance,
- In November 2020, Microsoft announced a partnership with Adobe Inc. and C3.ai to offer customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). This partnership jointly marketed an integrated suite of industry-specific AI-enabled CRM solutions for applications in marketing, sales, and customer service
- In August 2020, Genesys announced a partnership with Adobe to deliver contextual customer experiences. Under this partnership, Genesys integrated their cloud platform with Adobe experience platform’s real-time customer profiles to improve personalization, drive higher sales conversion rates, and increase loyalty
CONCLUSION
Pandemic has taken a toll on every aspect of life, including the global economy. With the significant downfalls in many sectors, a collaborative effort of government, industry players, and consumers can win the fight against COVID-19.
It continues to inflict the world with appalling economic and social dilemmas, capable enough to leave severe backlash on the economy for the next several years. The first wave had already inflicted severe blows to the population as well as the economy. The currently experiencing second wave is expected to be more disastrous not only to the masses but also to ICT markets.
However, COVID-19 boosted the growth of the global customer relationship management market due to the pandemic behavior and governmental norms. There is an increased demand for customer relationship management solutions and services amongst various service providers to support governmental norms, and to provide effectively, enhanced, and personalized online and digital services to the consumers due to the growing digitization of business practices. Manufactures were focusing on partnerships and collaborations to meet the increasing demand in the Coronavirus outbreak. The government’s decisions of digitization, automation, and increasing growth of e-commerce and the healthcare industry are boosting the market growth.
