The word
1Stop is first advocated by Jonathan Trivers.
He is a well-known industry speaker and also the president of Abbey Carpet Company (the largest floor-covering franchiser in the
United States).
In
academic field, he is a
adjunct professor at the School of Business at Southern Oregon State College as well as a
FCW columnist.
In his book
1Stop Marketing,<ref>Jonathan Trivers (1996).New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.</ref> the concept of 1Stop is clearly stated.
It is a 360 degree solution that can ease someone from
routine.
1Stop solution in business
This concept is fundamentally adopted by business.
Jonathan Trivers believe that the idea of 1Stop is simple while the best ideas are always simple and obvious.
The fact is that customers decide business fate.
The logical extension of that is: Since the customer decides, why not let them lead?
That means understanding of customer preference is one of the
core competence of businesses.
If customers’ needs have not been satisfied, the cycle of success never stops.
Other academic giants’ also share this customer oriented view, one of them is
Michael Porter, an
American scholar who focused on
management and
economics, who is the founder of The
Monitor Group.
Porter has made important contributions to strategic management and
strategy theory.
His advocated theory called
Porter generic strategies<ref>Aaker, D.
(1998).
Developing Business Strategies (6th edition).
New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.</ref> <ref>Author (Bruer, S., 2005); Barney, J.
(2002).
Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage.
New Jersey: Prentice Hall</ref> <ref>Keller, K.L.
(1998).
Strategic Brand Management:
Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity.
New Jersey: Prentice Hall</ref> <ref>Prentice Hall; Porter, M.E.
(1990).
The Competitive Advantage of Nations.
New York: The MacMillan Press.</ref>, this theory suggest that business can take offensive or defensive action to create a defendable position in an industry.
These actions will enable the firm to successfully manage competitive forces and create a higher than average level of economic return.
The three basic strategies offered in Porter's theory are cost leadership, focus and differentiation; all these strategies rank customers’ preference as the
1st priority.
1Stop concept in Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management <ref>Kotler & Armstrong (2001).
Priciples of Marketing, 9th Edition,Prentice Hall</ref>(CRM) has been around for a long time, and it has gone through a number of evolutions as a result of changes in the economy and the business mindset.
Today, CRM has gone through yet enough of those evolutions and, as a result, has perhaps
become one of the most important aspects of business success.First, decision-makers need to understand what CRM entails.
Essentially, CRM software refers to any software that is designed to help companies more effectively work with their customers <ref>Thomas M.
Petro, profeitability: The Fifth "P" of Marketing, Bank marketing, September 1990, pp.48-52</ref>.
In the early stages, CRM wasn't much more than glorified databases that maintained information on customer preferences and buying histories.
For example, an individual could contact a pizza delivery place and ask for the usual and actually have delivered his ordinary order.
While customers did appreciate these little extras, the return on investment for most organizations was minimal and barely worth the extra effort<ref>Rick Brooks, Unequal treatment: Alienating Customers Istn't Always a Bsad Idea, Many Firms Discover, Wall satreet journal, January 7,1999, p.A1; Erika Rasmusson, Wanted: Profitable Customer, Sales & Marketing Management, May 1999, pp.28-34</ref>.
Later, the CRM emphasize switched to making it easier for the customer to do business with the seller<ref>Michael E.
Porter, Competitive Advantage; Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press, 1985; Michael E.
Porter, What Is Strategy? harvard Business Review, Nov-Ded 1996, pp61-78</ref>.
The logic was that the easier it is to place an order, the more likely the customer will be to do it.
Furthermore, companies were able to start predicting - based on past buying patterns - what new products or additional services customers would also be interested in purchasing<ref>Edwin McDowell, Ritz-Carlton's Keys to Good Service, New York Times, March 31, 1993, p.1; Don Peppers, Digitizing Desire, Forbes, April 10, 1995, p.76; Ginger Conlon, True Romance, Sales & Marketing Management, May 1996, pp85-89; Ritz-carlton Hotels Reign in Three Categories of travel & Leisure's, World Best Awards' List, Sept 1999</ref>.
While the payoffs for this approach were better, sudden events in the market can make it nearly impossible for businesses to predict anything about customer behavior.
Now, CRM has changed again and this time instead of focusing on what the seller needs to do to make the customer buy what they offer, the attitude is on finding out what the customer wants and needs in the first place, then supplying those things <ref> Jennifer Waters, High-Tech Test Restaurant Offers Customer Order, More Efficiency, Advertising Age, April 14, 1997, p.49</ref>.
CRM software has been designed to provide companies with ways to answer some crucial customer-related questions, such as what customers consider value-added, what criteria do they use as a basis for decisions, and how much are they willing to spend.
These questions and similar ones have become the main focus for those who deal with CRM.
The benefits of this new approach are that once again companies are beginning to be able to forecast customer behavior <ref>Myron magnet, The New Goldern Rule of Business, Fortune, Feb 21, 1994, pp.60-63; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Why Collaborate?, Executive Excellence, April 1999, p.8; Gabor Gari, Leveraging the Rewards of Strategic Alliances, The journal of Business Strategy, April 1999, pp.40-43</ref>.
By staying on top of what customers want to purchase and by delivering those goods, businesses are also demonstrating the flexibility necessary to survive in this next economic cycle.
Those companies that are not willing to give up on old attitudes toward CRM and about customer behavior will fall by the wayside and will have difficulty recovering while those that can make use of CRM data will flourish <ref>Otis Port, baldrige's Other Reward, Business Week, march 10, 1997, p.75, ISO 9000 and Quality: A World Class Advantage, special section, industrial Distribution, jan 1998, p.61; Zhiwei Zhu and larry Scheuermann, A Comparison of Quality Programmes: Total Quality Management and ISO 9000, Total Quality Management, March 1999, pp.291-97; Standards & Certification: ISO 9000, American Society for Quality</ref>.
Today, customers are finding it easier to communicate with sellers.
They can leave feedback through websites, call over 1-800 lines, send emails around the globe, even fax over letters to let companies know their needs <ref>melissa larson, Whatever Happened to TQM?
Quality, june 1999, pp.32-35; TQM Is Alive, Quality, Feb 1999, p.12; Roland T.
Rust, Anthony J.
Zahorik, and Timothy L.
Keiningham, Return on Quality (ROQ): Making Service Quality Financially Accountable, Journal of Marketing, April 1995, pp.58-70; Roland T.
Rust, Timothy Keiningham, Stephen Clements, & Anthony Zahorik, Return on Quality at Chase manhatten bank, Interface, March-April 1999, pp 62-72</ref>.
Several years ago, much of those decisions were based on guesswork and were sometimes wrong.
CRM software can help businesses take advantage of all of that input and determine how to use it in their operations.
In some cases, the input could mean a new product, a change in policy, or an adjustment in price.
Either way, customers who recognize that businesses are receptive and are willing to meet their demands will be more loyal and less likely to venture elsewhere for their purchases.
All of this input from customers has another, almost more important, advantage for businesses: it can help them determine which population segments are most likely to become high-profit, long-term customers.
With this information, businesses will be able to more directly target appropriate audiences and make financial predictions.
Additionally, it allows companies to find out why other segments of the population aren't making those purchases and it can help them identify changes that may turn non-buyers into loyal customers.
While CRM may still not be in its final form, the software tools and business tactics have definitely come a long way since their initial development.
All in all, customer market is being shared by differenct
MNC and it is very difficult to aquire new customer nowadays.
A more effective and efficient way to maintain one's business is to create long term relationship with loyal customers.
While
1Stop service is a caring and totally customer focus practice, customer can be satisfied by one solution in a particular aspect.
For example, a housewife can buy all consumer good in a supermarket or discount store rather than visiting different grocery stores can save her time and efforts.
References