Brother Pursues Fully Integrated CRM Strategy
Brother is a growing global brand, recognized worldwide for providing high quality value added products in the office and home. With the growth of the Small office and Home Office (SOHO) market as well as corporate cost cuttings, Brother has established itself as the value supplier. Brother International Corporation of USA (BIC, hereinafter referred to as Brother) generated approximately $1 billion in revenues for 2001, more than 70% coming from its Business Machine Group which sells office equipment such as printers, fax machines, Multi-function Devices (MFDs), and Ptouch Electronic Labeling Systems. Other businesses of Brother are personal and home products, and industrial machinery and solutions. The Business Machine Group operates in a hyper-competitive market with fragile margins. It is extremely sensitive to customer loyalty, and is therefore a major focus for CRM. Brother sells its information and document products predominantly thought retailers, resellers, and distributors, but takes sole responsibility for all after sale customer contacts. The National Service Division of Brother is organized to provide service to its Customers, and resellers as well as manage Brother's Parts Distribution, Return Center, and Customer Contact Centers.
Information and document products nowadays have to offer a dazzling array of features, as well as interoperate with complementary products such as personal computers. Users who become frustrated with products that don't operate with their personal computers right out of the box will either call for help and/or return the product. The vulnerability is manifested by a high percentage of product returns in excess of 12% throughout the information and document products industry.