the human-centered design experience of mcrm

8/8/2019 The Human-Centered Design Experience of mCRM

1/4

The Human-Centered Experience of mCRM

Kirsten Woodhams-Thomson

Department of Computer Science

The University of Waikato

Hamilton, New Zealand

[email protected]

ABSTRACTMotivation Mobile customer relationshipmanagement (mCRM) is an emerging business strategy,technology and area of research. We aim to learn howto develop mCRM technologies that provide the humanwith more fun and engaging experiences.

Research approach This paper presents a brief review of the literature on CRM, mobile technologiesand human experiences with the goal of understandingdirections for future research.

Findings It will be important for our ongoing researchto adopt human centered design approach that involvesreal customers and users throughout the entire processand in contexts where the technologies will be used.

KeywordsCRM, mCRM, mobile, human experience, customer experience, user experience, human-centered design,customer-centered design, user-centered design,funology

INTRODUCTIONCustomer relationship management (CRM) is a businessstrategy and set of software programmes aimed todevelop and improve relationships with customers.Recent development in mobile technologies (global

positioning tools, multimedia applications, and so on)have opened up new possibilities for engaging andinteracting with customers. For mCRM to be acceptedand used by customers it will be important that offeringmeet the motives of the customer with regard to their desires for a relationship with the business, and providea usable, attractive, pleasurable and enjoyableexperience.

This paper explores the converging topics of customer relationship management, mobile technologies andhuman experience.

BACKGROUNDCustomer Relationship ManagementSimply put, CRM is about how a business manages therelationship between itself and its customers. CRM is:

1. A set of sales, marketing and customer servicestrategies designed to maximise the business'

profits (Sinisalo et al ., 2005) that are put in placeto:

a) Attract new customers.

b) Gain loyalty from existing customers.

c) Lower business costs (Chan and Lam, 2004).

2. A set of sales, marketing and customer servicesoftware programs used to gather information aboutthe customer.

CRM software tools fall into two groups. The firstgroup of tools are business facing tools e.g. sales forceautomation, contact management systems, marketingautomation and customer service tools. The secondgroup of tools are customer facing i.e. tools thatcustomers can use to help interact with the business e.g.websites for information provision, e-commerce sitesfor product purchases, mobile applications, and so on.It is the customer facing tools (business-to-customer,B2C) that we focus on in this paper.

But There Is a Paradox

There has been much research on CRM as a businessstrategy within the management disciplines. Equally,information systems research has focused on thedevelopment of the business facing software tools.Usability practitioners have been drawn by the design of websites and e-commerce sites, so much so that theyhave shifted their focus from the usability(functionality, utility, effectiveness and efficiency) of the tools to the experiences of the users and/or customers of the tools.

And here lies a number of paradoxes: Users are not customers, but customers are users

and expect such attributes as ease of use whenusing a product.

Research of experiences, and experience design,

has been followed up by little practical application.The focus has not shifted from usability butinstead the terminology has been altered.Therefore, designing and testing for aspects of experience are not frequently performed in

practice. Although part of the business relationship is to

deliver a seamless customer experience across allnetworks, channels and services (Shen et al .,2009), the customer is often left out of thesolution (Reinhold and Alt, 2009, p.97). Littleresearch is conducted into understandingcustomers' motives and wishes regarding their


2/4

relationship with the business (Reinhold and Alt,2009).

Mobile TechnologyWireless communication enables communication andinteraction transfer across distance without the use of wires. This allows any time, any place connectivity.

In this paper, we focus our attention on mobiletechnologies that will be used by typical customers intheir daily lives, and which businesses will utilise withintheir CRM strategies. Mobile devices include mobiletelephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Invisible networks, provided by a mobile operator or thecarrier, enable the devices to communicate with eachother over a wide geographical area. Mobiletechnologies offer an array of features. Older devices,e.g. feature phones, provide the most basic tools: voicecalls, SMS, games, alarms and calendars. Moresophisticated tools, e.g. smartphones, offer many moreapplications: video, global positioning service (GPS),touchpad display screens, internet access, built-insensors, etc.

As stated by Consolazio (2004), years of innovationand competition across the industry have yieldedtremendous benefits for end users, driving down thecost of wireless devices and services while dramaticallyimproving their power, functionality and overall utility.

Mobile users a person who is expected to be andexpecting to be on the move demand mobile tools inany place and at any time (Reinhold and Alt, 2009,

p.98). Mobile devices are convenient to use, as due totechnologies such as GPS, users can access personalised(Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009) location-based and value-added (Basole, 2007) applications and services(Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009). However, using a mobilein any place and at any time adds stressors to its use: The amount of device memory and storage space

(Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009) means that largeapplications can not be easily downloaded andused. Although, we note this issue may be metwith the use of cloud computing technologies.

Limited bandwidths (Chan and Lam, 2004;Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009) (although bandwidthlimitations are constantly improving (Basole,2007)) mean that on-demand applications andservices may be slow and tedious to use .

Poor network coverage (Chan and Lam, 2004)means that users may not be able to use their devices where ever and when ever they want.

Small screen displays (Chan and Lam, 2004;Harding et al., 2009; Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009)

particularly on feature phones but even onsmartphones and PDAs (compare the size of amobile screen to a computer screen for example)means that limited information can be displayed atone time causing overall interaction to be moretedious and fiddly.

Difficulty in input and output formats (Chan andLam, 2004; Kenteris and Gavalas, 2009; York and

Pendharkar, 2004; Harding et al ., 2009;). Feature phones utilize keypad buttons which requires heavyuse of thumb control. The larger touch pad screensof later phones enable use by a special pen device,

but the environment and context of use may makeeven this difficult to use.

The cognitive resources of the users (Harding et al ., 2009; York and Pendharkar, 2004) e.g. consider the task the user is involved in (York andPendharkar, 2004) driving for example; the user'sattention due to environmental constraints (Hardinget al ., 2009; York and Pendharkar, 2004) avoiding objects while walking for example; andthe varying interaction models, even on the samedevice.

Limited colour and font support (Kenteris andGavalas, 2009; York and Pendharkar, 2004) for theolder mobile technologies.

The high cost of wireless connections (Kenterisand Gavalas, 2009), where nearly everything a user does with their mobile device, especially whileroaming, will be at a price.

The Second Paradox

There has been a lot of research into mobiletechnologies, with much focus on networks, hardwaredesign and functionality, but as (Harper and Taylor,2009, p.1) state the problem of understanding how

people themselves orient to and act withcommunications technologies in a way that gives

priority to the overall experience and motivations behind that use which accords what users themselvesthink they are about has still to be addressed.

Kjeldskov and Graham (2003) further indicate that fewreal-world real-context studies have been conducted.Harper and Taylor (2009) go further and suggest thathuman-centered research, through HCI research, of mobile technologies have not really been too interestedin philisophical reflections on the object, the human, atthe heart of its inquiries. It has tended to take a rather middle-of-the-road, somewhat behaviourist view. (p.2).

Human ExperienceEarly on in this paper we touched on the humanexperiences with CRM and mobile technologies. Whena person sees, hears, touches, controls or communicates,the interaction, the event, leaves an impression on the

person. The impression may be influenced by thecontext of the situation and the environment andlocation the person is in. The person judges the

phenomena based on previously held tangible or conceptualized expectations and understandings.Judgement is often made at an intangible, subjective,emotional level that involves the person's memory,imagination, and feelings (Havelena and Holbrook,1986).

Human experiences in the contexts of this paper involvecustomer and user experiences. These are similar concepts but differ in their focus.


3/4

Customer experience is predominantly a marketingdomain. It focuses on the motives and goals of peoplein relation to direct or indirect contact with the businessthrough marketing, sales, customer service, and generaluse of the services or products. The contacts are calledtouchpoints and are made throughout the customer-relationship lifecycle.

User experience research is a research area of HumanComputer Interaction (HCI). It focuses on the tasks andactivities a person undergoes when trying to achieve agoal in relation to a particular product. It is about theexperience gained through direct manipulation of the

product. User experience researchers seek to improvethe usage experience by improving the design of the

product. It is about the experience a person has whileusing a product. User experience and what experiencemeans in relation to product design is still undergoing adefinition process.

Of great interest to us and our research into CRM and

mobile tools, is the developing concept of funology,where the experience should be fun, enjoying, pleasureable (Blythe and Hassenzahl, 2004), good, and beautiful (Overbeeke et al., 2003).

We enjoy Carroll's (2004) perspective as we believe itsits well with the concepts of human experience, wherecustomers and users want to be engaged and satisfiedamong other things: Things are fun whey they attract,capture, and hold our attention by provoking new or unusual perceptions, arousing emotions in contexts thattypically arouse none, or arousing emotions nottypically aroused in a given context. Things are funwhen they surprise us, when they don't feel like they

look, when they don't sound like they feel. Things arefun when they present challenges or puzzles to us as wetry to make sense and construct interpretations, whenthey transparently suggest what can be done, provideguidance in the doing, and then instantaneous andadequate feedback and task closure.

Yet again, we are faced with the dilemma of funologynot having an agreed upon definition or set of terms.Perhaps this is not an issue for the moment. But tofurther our understandings of funology, it will beimportant to consider the following issues raised byBlythe and Hassenzahl (2003): Which terms encompass the concepts of funology? What do these terms mean? How can they be described? Are they the same or are they different, perhaps

depending on the context of the experience? Can they be used to describe all experiences or

only a subset of experiences? Do we need to consider fluidness, length [and

intensity] of experience, repetition, progressions,frequencies, contexts, relevances and trivialities?

What do the terms mean in terms of experience,communication, relationship building, applicationand user interface design?

CRM AND MOBILE TOOLSThe convergence of mobile technologies and CRM iscalled mobile customer relationship management(mCRM). It is also sometimes called ubiquitous CRM(uCRM). Mobility and ubiquity are similar areas of research. m-commerce applications also sit looselyunder this umbrella. At the present time we areresearching business-to-customer (B2C), rather than

business-to-enterprise (B2E), applications and services.

A simplistic view of mCRM would be that mobiletechnologies provide an additional communication andinteraction channel to build continuing relationshipswith customers. However, as mobile technologies areso personal they can: 1) track consumers or usersacross media and over time, 2) provide content andservices at the point of need, and 3) provide contentwith highly engaging characteristics (Chan and Lam,2004, p.6) their use will enable even closer, more on-demand and more highly-personalised business-customer interactions, enhancing the CRM process(Reinhold and Alt, 2009; Sinisalo et al ., 2006).

mCRM AND THE HUMAN EXPERIENCEDue to the emerging nature of mCRM, there is littleresearch of how real life mCRM applications andservices are accepted and used by people. Backgroundconcepts may be found from marketing and HCIresearch of CRM strategies and tools or of mobile tools

certainly these topic areas would provide a goodinsight into the range of research methodologies andtechniques that can be used. But individually, none of the research areas would provide the depth of insightinto the motives, needs and desires of the users of mCRM applications and services, how they use thetools, how the tools affect their lives and their relationships with businesses, how the applications andservices can be better designed for the needs of thecustomer, to engage and satisfy them in the process.

In addition, it is not clear to many businesses how themCRM will be implemented and how thisimplementation will affect CRM; it is anunacknowledged phenomenon (Sinisalo et al ., 2005,

p.205). And it will be important not to mistake thetechnologies for the concept itself (Sinisalo et al.,2006, p.2). Indeed, as stated by Shen et al .:Technology alone cannot provide a sustainablecompetitive advantage, and needs to be supplemented

by a well-designed user experience and the application'svalue proposition. [Shen et al ., 2009, p.1).

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDERThe most important question to our research that weneed to ask is:

What do we need to do to develop mCRM technologies(devices, applications and services) that: Attract, capture and hold the human's attention Provoke their perceptions and emotions in contexts

that are new to them Surprise them in ways that are pleasurable and

enjoyable


4/4

Challenge or puzzle them to make sense of themand construct interpretations of what is going on?

It is obvious to us that the human, the object at the heartof the use, must be the center of the research.

1. We must develop an appropriate human-centereddesign methodology; one we suggest should be

derived from both customer-centered and user-centered design methodologies.

2. We must involve the humans through the entireresearch process: start to finish.

3. Real humans must actively participate so we asresearchers can hear their voices and understandtheir motives.

4. We must actively research in the actual context of the situation: with mobiles, in the field,communicating and relating to businesses.

SUMMARYIn this paper we have explored the topics of customer relationship management, mobile technologies andhuman experience with the goal of drawing conclusionsabout future research and development directions for mCRM technologies.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a businessstrategy and set of software programmes aimed todevelop and improve relationships with customers, butwhich have been developed from the business, rather than the customer, perspective. Recent development inmobile technologies have opened up new possibilitiesfor engaging and interacting with customers, but we areunaware of how users orientate themselves within themobile experience. There is much room for understanding how humans use mobile technologies inthe real world and how they want to use them todevelop ongoing and engaging relationships with

businesses through the use of these technologies.

REFERENCESBasole, R.C. (2007). The emergence of the mobile enterprise:

a value-driven perspective. Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business(ICMB 2007) , IEEE Computer Society: 41

Blythe, M., and Hassenzahl, M. (2004). Interview with Don Norman. interactions , Volume 11, Issue 5 (September and October, 2004), pp.43-46

Caroll, H.M. (2004). Beyong fun. interactions , Volume 11,Issue 5 (September and October, 2004), pp. 38-40.

Chan, S.S., and Lam, J. (2004). Customer relationshipmanagement on Internet and mobile channels: ananalytical framework and research directions. MobileComputing Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and

Applications , edited by David Taniar, InformationScience Reference, pp.2212-2232

Consolazio, R. (2004) CRM: The wireless dimension inComputerWorld, Online reference at:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120 ; last viewed30 May 2010.

Harding, M., Storz, O., Davies, N., and Friday, A. (2009).Planning ahead: techniques for simplifying mobileservice use in Proceedings of the 10 th Workshop onMobile Computing Systems and Applications, February23-24 2009, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. pp.

Harper, R., and Taylor, S. (2009). Glancephone anexploration of human expression in Proceedings of MobileHCI 2009, Association for ComputingMachinery, In.c 15 September, 2009.

Havelena, W.J., and Holbrrok, M.B. (1986). The varieties of consumption experience: comparing two typologies of emotion in consumer behaviour. Journal of Consumer

Research, Vol. 13 (December, pp.394-404.

Kenteris, M., and Gavalas, D. (2009). An innovative mobileelectronic tourist guide application. Personal UbiquitousComputing (2009) Vol. 13, pp.103-118.

Kjeldskov, J. and Graham, C. (2003). A review of MobileHCIresearch methods in Proceedings of the 5 th InternationalConference on Mobile HCI , Mobile HCI 2003, Udine,Italy. pp.317-335.

Overbeeke, K., Djajadiningrat, T., Hummels, C., Wensveen,S., and Frens, J. (2003). Let's make things engaging inFunology: from usability to enjoyment, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.7-17.

Reinhold, O., and Alt, R. (2009) Enhancing collaborativeCRM with mobile technologies. eEnablement:

Facilitating an Open, Effective and RepresentativeeSociety , 22 nd Bled eConference, June 14-17, 2009,

Bled, Slovenia.Shen, S., Hart, T.J., Ingelbrecht, N., Zimmermann, A.,

Ekholm, J., Jones, N., Edwards, J., and Frank, A. (2009)The Top 10 Consumer Mobile Applications in 2012 , 13October 2009, Gartner.

Sinisalo, J., Salo, J., Leppaniemi, M., and Karjaluoto, H.(2005). Initiation stage of a mobile customer relationship management. The E-Business Review,Volume V, 2005, pp.205-209.

Sinisalo, J., Salo, J., Karjaluoto, H., and Leppaniemi, M.(2006). Managing customer relationships throughmobile medium underlying issues and concerns inProceedings of the 39 th Hawaii International Conferenceon System Sciences, (HICSS'06) Track 6, Kauai,

Hawaii, January 4-7, 2006.York, J., and Pendharkar, P.C. (2004). Human-computer

interaction issues for mobile computing in a variablework context. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 60 (2004), pp.771-797.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/95975/CRM_The_Wireless_Dimension?taxonomyName=CRM&taxonomyId=120

the human-centered design experience of mcrm

Documents