1

The implementation of CRM in logistic

enterprises

A study submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science in Information Management

At

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

By

WENLI FENG

September 2008

2

Abstract

Background: Logistic is an industry specially providing logistic trade service for

customers. Compared with the traditional logistics, the competitive ability of modern

logistic industry comes from the rising value provided by customers. The customer

relationship management (CRM) system provides strong technical support for

logistic enterprises. The emergence of CRM enables more and more people pay great

attention on the relationship between enterprises and the customer. Increasingly

practices have proved that the key matter enable business success is not only

depending on paying attention on the customers‘ needs and providing customers the

products or services they need, but also depending on to maintain the long-term

customer relationship.

Aims: The schema of CRM should be adopted according to specific customer

characteristics which vary from one to another. In light of this, the necessity of CRM

in the third party logistics enterprises (TPL) has been pointed out and a reasonable

CRM model is provided as well in this article on the basis of the thorough customer

analysis of the TPL enterprises. The TPL enterprise is a new industry, which put

service as their main business. The CRM has a direct relationship with the success of

an enterprise. At present, although the value of CRM has been recognized by the

business community, the research of CRM on TPL enterprises is less than other

businesses. This paper will analysis the TPL enterprise customer. Then describe the

importance and urgency of those enterprises to implement CRM system. This paper

makes a special discussion on the problem of structure and construction of CRM

system of logistic industry in the light of characteristics of logistic industry.

Methods: The author creates two questionnaires to the customer and TPL company

internal clients respectively. What is more, there are three interviews in this paper to

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help this research.

Results: There are some issues in the implementation of CRM in TPL enterprise.

the company‘s lack of communication with customers; the service in some TPL

enterprises lack of personalized service; the enterprise should put more emphasis on

the customer loyalty; the enterprise lack of customer information; domestic Chinese

TPL enterprise face huge competition from the international enterprises

Conclusion: The author compares with the successful experience of some

international enterprises, give some advice to both the international TPL enterprise

and the Chinese domestic enterprises.

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Acknowledge

I would like to express my sincerely gratitude to people who contribute to this

dissertation.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Ms. Sheila Webber who

answered all my questions, give suggestions and always treats me very patiently and

friendly. Without her help, my work cannot be smoothly.

Secondly I would like to thank my parents who gave me support through the whole

process of my work.

Thirdly I would like to thank all my friends and people who help me to complete the

questionnaire and interviews. There view have a huge significant to this essay.

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ABSTRACT 2

ACKNOWLEDGE 4

1 INTRODUCTION: 8

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 8

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 9

1.3 GENERAL STRUCTURE 11

2 LITERATURE REVIEW: 12

2.1 THE EVOLUTION OF CRM 12

2.2 THE DEFINITION OF CRM 13

2.3 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CRM IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND INDUSTRIES: 20

2.4 TPL 22

2.5 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOGISTICS PROCESS AND CRM 28

3 RESEARCH METHODS 33

3.1 INTRODUCTION 33

3.2 DATA COLLECTION 34

3.2.1 QUESTIONNAIRES 35

3.2.1.1 Literature review 35

3.2.1.2 Questionnaire for customers 37

3.2.1.3 Questionnaire for company client 40

3.2.2 INTERVIEW 42

3.2.2.1 The different implication of interview and questionnaire 42

3.2.2.2 Interview for the customers 43

3.2.2.3 Interview for the clients 43

3.2.2.4 Interview for the manager 44

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4 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 45

4.1 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE 45

4.1.1 QUESTIONNAIRE OF CRM FOR CUSTOMERS 45

4.1.2 QUESTIONNAIRE OF CRM FOR COMPANY CLIENT 52

4.2 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS FROM THE INTERVIEW 57

4.2.1 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS FROM THE INTERVIEW FOR THE CUSTOMERS 58

4.2.2 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION FROM THE INTERVIEW WITH THE INTERNAL CLIENT 59

4.2.3 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS FROM THE INTERVIEW WITH THE MANAGER 60

4.3 THE CONCLUSION OF THE ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 61

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 63

5.1 THE COMMUNICATION WITH CUSTOMERS 63

5.1.1 THE CORE PROBLEMS 63

5.1.2 RECOMMENDATION: 63

5.2 LACK OF PERSONALISATION 64

5.2.1 THE CORE PROBLEMS 64

5.2.2 RECOMMENDATION 65

5.2.2.1 Provide Personalized, dynamic service 65

5.2.2.2 Construct automated customer intelligence. 65

5.2.2.3 Implication classified customer management strategy to meet the needs of different

clients 66

5.3 CUSTOMER LOYALTY 68

5.3.1 THE NEED FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY 68

5.3.2 RECOMMENDATION: 69

5.3.3 THE METHOD TO IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER LOYALTY. 69

5.4 LACK OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION 71

5.5 FOREIGN COMPETITION 73

5.6 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE CRM SYSTEM 73

7

REFERENCE: 75

APPENDIX 1- INTERVIEW THE CUSTOMER: 84

APPENDIX 2- INTERVIEW THE CLIENT: 86

APPENDIX 3- INTERVIEW THE MANAGER: 88

APPENDIX 4- QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CUSTOMER 91

SECTION A ABOUT CRM 91

SECTION B ABOUT TPL 91

APPENDIX 5- QUESTIONNAIRE OF CRM FOR COMPANY CLIENT 93

APPENDIX 6-FIGURES AND TABLES 97

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1 Introduction:

1.1 Purpose of the Study

In recent years, along with the economical globalization and the development of

modern information technology, modern logistics as one advanced economy

movement management technology, obtained the vigorous development in almost the

world scope. Accompanying the speedy development of economics in some

developing countries, the majority of those countries pay more attention to the

development of logistics market. Since the 1980s, Europe, the United States and other

developed countries began a TPL competition. According to the survey of Hui (2006),

the TPL are gradually replacing the inhouse logistics. In the United States, more than

60 percent of the logistics are completed through TPL enterprises. According to the

research of Hui(2006), in Europe, the proportion of the customer who chose the TPL

enterprises service was 76 percent. And in Japan, TPL enterprises account for the

entire logistics market as high as 80 percent. In China, although were nearly 70,000

logistics enterprises, only about 4 000 of them were TPL enterprises (Hui, 2006).

What is more, the TPL services business is mainly focused on foreign-funded

enterprises. For instance, the customer of ZhongHai logistics enterprises are IBM,

NOKIA, Sanyo, Toshiba, Samsung while the customer of Baogong logistics

enterprises are Philips, Nestle, Wal-Mart and other enterprises (ShenZhen logistic

website). Thus famous foreign companies which founded branches in China have

thrown a huge threat to the Chinese domestic logistics enterprises.

CRM as a modern technology has increasingly important implications for different

industries. King (2007:49) stated that, ―when it (CRM) works well, can encourage

customer loyalty and the development of long-lasting profitable relationships for the

provider.‖ However, CRM as a modern technology is mainly used in communications,

financial and other industries, especially in those developing countries (King, 2007).

In the logistics industry, there are few companies using it now. If logistics enterprises

9

implement CRM, it will help them to communicate with the some customers

effectively, obtain the customer resources, and then have a greater opportunity to have

long-term partnerships with customers. It will allow companies to earn stable and

increased profits and have a competition advantage in the same industry. The purpose

of this dissertation is to explore the current and potential benefits to Chinese logistics

enterprise of implementing CRM..

1.2 Statement of the problem and research questions

As global economic integration, diversification of consumption, the arrival of the

flexible and efficient production flow in this era, social and logistics services to

customers has been increasingly demanded. However the logistics enterprise is a new

kind of enterprises in some developing countries. Taking China as an example, the

number of logistics enterprises in China is large. As have been mentioned above,

According to the research of Hui (2006), there are approximately 10,000 logistics

enterprises now in China, but the company which has a certain scale is very few. The

small scale, mostly using low level technology, the non-standard features, the lack of

competitive advantage and able to provide a package of service to very few. This is

true portrayal of logistics enterprises in China. And the comprehensive strength of

foreign logistics companies such as DHL, UPS, APL, EXEL and FedEx, by virtue of

their advanced ideas and technology, abundant capital and a high degree of networking

and alliances through merger or equity. Specialized logistics enterprises, are able to

function as professional "third-party logistics" logistics service providers and offer

customers nationwide distribution, international logistics services, multimodal

transport and mail courier services. According to the survey of Hui (2006) the number

of those companies accounted for only 0.13 percent of the number of logistics

companies operation in China. However, their market share is as high as 8 percent.

The huge gap of the market share between the domestic logistics enterprises and

foreign logistics enterprises has attracted the attention of citizens in China.

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Also since CRM is a new concept for the citizens in China, the vital implementation of

CRM has not been noticed by the majorities. The situation in China is that, compared

with the operation of domestic logistics enterprises, there is one thing that, strongest

foreign big companies are using sophisticated CRM systems to obtain greater

advantage. Domestic enterprises are aware of the importance of CRM and have

accumulated a certain amount of customer information. However, lack of theoretical

knowledge, lack of resources, technical limitations, and imperfect systems, result in

less than thorough implementation of CRM. Internal customer information can not be

shared and the internal resources can not be fully integrated, which results in high

costs, and the total value of customers can not be improved. That, in turn affects the

customer satisfaction and loyalty and increasing the profits of enterprises is

impossible.

However, it is gratifying that a small number of domestic enterprises are gradually

close to a modern logistics. According to the survey of Chinese logistic industry

reports, (Chinese logistic industry reports, 2006) the position of three large logistics

companies in the top 500 Chinese enterprises in 2005 has risen. The number of large

and medium-sized logistics enterprises is increasing. What is more, more than 47

percent logistics enterprises chose CRM as their most intensive needs of the

information management construction direction. (Chinese logistic industry reports,

2006)

This dissertation will summarise the success experiment of some logistics enterprises

in the developed countries and illustrates the vital effect and the successful

experiences it brings to these enterprises. The dissertation will identify the

characteristics of those enterprises and how they can survive under the huge pressure

of the world famous enterprises. So there are three questions the dissertation will focus

on:

How can CRM help the logistics enterprises?

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What are the opinions of customers about the adoption of CRM system in

logistics enterprises?

What are the benefits that customers, enterprises themselves and the client in the

enterprise can gain after using CRM system?

1.3 General structure

In chapter two, there is the review of prior literatures to show the recent research

situation of CRM and TPL. Chapter three will be research methodology, which will

indicate the data collection, questionnaire design and the purpose of interview. After

this chapter, the research will analyse the data from questionnaires and interviews and

present findings. Finally, in the last chapter of the paper, there will be the conclusion

and suggestions based on the research findings.

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2 Literature Review:

2.1 The evolution of CRM

Xu (2002) research the evolution of CRM, stating that, ―The first surf of CRM

solutions came in the late 1980s and early 1990s.‖ At that time, it was thought that

merging customer data from the field (sales) with call centre interactions would result

in more informed interactions with the customer (Osarenkhoe, 2007:145). Then in the

mid-1990s the web emerged. 3com Corp (2001) pointed out that, ―a new market

segment of eCRM emerged.‖ Xu (2002) summarized the history of CRM into a table.

Age Year Lesson learned Milestones

introduction 1980s to early 1990 Very expensive to maintain Focusing on automating and

standardizing the internal

processes to make the

customers an asset

Growing Mid-1990 to end

1990

Some vendors are slow to

respond to the internet

Cue to the emergence of the

web, client/ server

architecture behind CRM

applications would disappear

Current 2000 N/A E-ERM

future After2000 N/A N/A

Table 2.1-1- Adopting customer relationship management technology (2002)

In the early time, Most of the companies carry out CRM in order to increase profits, to

survive the competition, for development of technology, and/or as demanded by the

company‘s customer, etc. (Foss & Stone, 2000). But the market grows saturated when

the production techniques in place become mature as the purchase groups stable. With

market assimilation proceeds, competition on price grows stiff. Mass media is losing

its targets especially that organisations can hardly expect results from broad

advertising (Brown, 2000). Companies come to realise that raising the average

satisfaction of customers generate little profits, or worse, minus (Lombardi & Passino).

13

In addition Ryals, Knox, and Maklan (2000) also suggested that loyal customers

(consumer ‗sticky to‘ the products/services that company sells) tend to be more

profitable. According to report by Jupiter Media Metrix (eCRM, 2001), loyal

customers can help to cut down 27 percent of cost and enlarge order size by 60 percent.

Moreover, enduring relationships with customers can hardly be duplicated by the

competitors. Companies succeed in relationship management can therefore largely

benefit from this sustainable advantage, especially in the turbulent and tough market

place (Foss & Stone, 2000). These indicate another important cause to the CRM

emergence – the urgent demands for relationship marketing, which burst out under the

heated competition.

2.2 The definition of CRM

The implementation of CRM to support marketing, sales and services functions may

be traced back to the 1990‘s. Law (2003) pointed that, ―It has attracted great attention

from businesses, because of it can give mutual benefit to both the customer and the

company.‖ Sower (2001) stated that, ―marketing was the first functional area to

embrace the concept of CRM and tailor it to the needs of its managers.‖

There are so many different definition of CRM based on the different understandings

of CRM. Scott (2001) defines CRM as ―a set of business processes and overall policies

designed to capture, retain and provide service to customers‖. In a similar vein, Swift

(2001) emphasises CRM as a business process by saying that, ―CRM is a process

designed to collect data related to customers, to grasp features of customers, and to

apply those qualities in specific marketing activities‖

Xu (2002:442) focused on the aspect of technologies of CRM said that, ―CRM is an

information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet

14

capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized

way‖.

While Bose (2002:89) combine the thinking of Swift and Xu said that, ―CRM is an

integration of technologies and business processes used to satisfy the needs of a

customer during any given interaction.‖ The same view as Galbreath and Rogers (1999)

stated that, ―CRM normally involves business process change and the introduction of new

information technology, consequently effective leadership is important.‖

However all these definitions are not emphasis the vital role of CRM in the organization

and how CRM can help the organization to develop. In this aspect, Butler (2001) gave

a better definition, ―Customer Relationship Management is a term used to encompass

the methodologies, software, and communication capabilities that help organizations

to structure and manage their customer relationships and interactions, with the

objective of increasing customer satisfaction with the organizations‘ products or

service.‖

Chen and Popovich (2003:676) describe that, ―A CRM implementation model that

integrates the three key dimensions of people, process, and technology within the

context of an enterprise-wide customer-driven, technology-integrated,

cross-functional organization is proposed in Figure 2.2-1.”

15

Diagram 2.2-1- Understanding customer relationship management (CRM) People, process

and technology (2003)

1) People: Implementation of enterprise technology, such as CRM and ERP, requires

changes to organizational culture (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000). Chen and

Popovich (2003:676) supported their view and pointed out, ―While both

technology and business processes are both critical to successful CRM initiatives,

it is the individual employees who are the building blocks of customer

relationships.‖

2) Process: Customer relationship management is an enterprise-wide

customer-centric business model that must be built around the customer. It is a

continuous effort that requires redesigning core business processes starting from

the customer perspective and involving customer feedback. (Chen and Popovich,

2003:682). The Seybold Group starts this process by asking customers what

barriers they encounter from the company (Seybold, 1998; Seybold et al., 2001).

In a product-focused approach, the goal is to find customers for the products using

mass marketing efforts. In a customer-centric approach, the goal becomes

developing products and services to fit customer needs. In Seybold‘s work, five

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steps in designing a customer-centric organization were suggested:

(1) Make it easy for customers to do business;

(2) Focus on the end customer;

(3) Redesign front office and examine information flows between the front and

back office;

(4) Foster customer loyalty by becoming proactive with customers;

(5) Build in measurable checks and balances to continuously improve.

3) Technology: Information technology (IT) has long been recognized as an

enabler to radically redesign business processes in order to achieve dramatic

improvements in organizational performance (Davenport and Short, 1990;

Porter, 1987). IT assists with the re-design of a business process by

facilitating changes to work practices and establishing innovative methods to

link a company with customers, suppliers and internal stakeholders (Hammer

and Champy, 1993). CRM applications take full advantage of technology

innovations with their ability to collect and analyze data on customer patterns,

interpret customer behaviour, develop predictive models, respond with

timely and effective customized communications, and deliver product and

service value to individual customers. Furthermore, Peppard (2000)

suggested that technological advances in global networks, convergence and

improved interactivity, are key to explaining the growth of e-business and

CRM. The increasing use of digital technologies by customers, particularly

the Internet, is changing what is possible and what is expected in terms of

customer management (Tamminga and O‘Halloran, 2000). The appropriate

use, for instance, of automation technologies, such as interactive voice

response systems and Web-based frequently asked question pages, could be

popular with customers and highly cost effective (Petrissans, 2000).

According to the research of Kincaid (2003), CRM comprises three major functional

areas:

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1) Marketing;

2) Sales;

3) Services and Support.

West (2001) supported the view by stating, ―These three components may be seen as

the life cycle of a customer relationship that moves from marketing, to sales, to service

and support‖. Also, Kincaid (2003) pointed out that, ―IT and IS are the other crucial

components in supporting and maintaining these three functional areas as well as the

whole CRM process‖. Thus, the classification framework is based on these four areas,

which are Marketing, Sales, Services and Support, and IT and IS. Nagi (2005) drew a

picture to show the CRM general category.

Diagram 2.2-2–Customer relationship management research (2005)

Then Nagi (2005) explain the figure below:

CRM. This is the core part of the classification framework that includes general

discussion, concept, and managerial aspects of CRM.

Marketing. Marketing is the function most often associated with CRM (Kincaid,

2003). CRM is founded in marketing (Russell-Jones, 2002) and relationship

marketing (Ryals and Knox, 2001). Ling and Yen (2001) have described the

18

evolution of CRM from direct sales to mass marketing, target marketing, and then

to customer relationship marketing thus emphasising that marketing and CRM are

inseparable. Xu (2002:445) summaries the pros and cons of CRM from a

marketing perspective by stating that: ―it identifies and targets best customers

based on recency, frequency and monetary scoring. It helps manage marketing

campaigns with clear goals and quantifiable objectives. It also creates and

manages solid sales leads for field and telesales representatives. Marketing and

cross-selling opportunities are also increased. The enabled tight and accurate

targeting and one-to-one marketing increases returns on marketing investments.‖

Sales. The sales function is direct interaction with customers, which makes up

CRM (Kincaid, 2003). It is important to develop sales strategies at the customer

level to build and maintain relationships with customers to achieve revenue goals

(Ingram et al., 2002). With technologies emerging for the sales function, it is

possible to make the sales process more efficient and automated to increase sales.

Xu (2002:446) support the view by stating that, ―sales efficiency is increased

through wireless and internet-based order entry.‖

Service and support. High quality customer service and support is the key to

improving customer retention rates and maintaining a good relationship with

customers (Yelkur, 2000). In today‘s highly competitive environment, companies

must pay attention to fulfilling the needs of each customer quickly and accurately.

Customer satisfaction is hard to win and easy to lose. If customers are not satisfied,

they will simply move on to other companies. Xu (2002:446) supported these

views by stating that, ―customer satisfaction and retention are ensured by solving

customer problems quickly. The management of people and materials within the

service organization are smoothly integrated. Customer satisfaction is ensured by

allocation, scheduling and dispatching the right people, with the right parts, at the

right time.‖

IT and IS. IT and IS play a key role in the development of CRM (Kincaid, 2003;

Ling and Yen, 2001). They can be used to automate and enable some or all

CRM processes. Bose (2002:89) pointed that, ―in IR terms, CRM means an

19

enterprise wide integration of technologies working together such as data

warehouse, web site, intranet/extranet, phone support system, accounting, sales,

marketing and production. Appropriate CRM strategies can be adopted through

the assistance of technology, which can manage the data required to understand

customers. The use of IT and IS can enable the collection of the necessary data

to determine the economics of customer acquisition, retention, and life-time

value. Moreover, Dewhurst (1999) added that, ―IT can facilitate and enhance

customer relationships in various ways, but mainly enables companies to attain

customization, the essence of the customer-centric orientation, through the

deployment of sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM)

systems.‖ Advanced technology involves the use of databases, data warehouses,

and data mining to help organizations increase customer retention rates and

their own profitability. Web-based support functionality directly to the

customers can decreased the costs of support and service (Xu, 2002). It also

permits businesses to leverage information from their customer databases to

achieve customer retention, and to cross-sell new products and services to

existing customers (Falque, 2000; Foss and Stone, 2001; Ghodeswar, 2000;

Natarajan and Shekar, 2000).

By analyzing those definitions, Greenberg (2001) pointed that CRM systems basically

make three things possible:

Having an integrated, single view of customers, by using analytical tools.

Managing customer relationships in a single way, regardless of the

communication channel: telephone, website, personal visit, and so forth.

Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes involved in

customer relationships.

Therefore as the research of Bergeron (2001), using CRM systems can be predicted

following improvements:

Greater customer satisfaction, through offering a better

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Service.

Greater business coherence, defining corporate objectives linked to customer

satisfaction.

Managing to increase the number of customers and secure greater loyalty

thanks to the reorganization and computerization of business processes

surrounding the customer relations life-cycle (sales, marketing and customer

care services).

Improving and extending customer relationships, generating new business

opportunities.

Knowing how to segment customers, differentiating profitable customers from

those who are not, and establishing appropriate business plans for each case.

Increasing the effectiveness of providing customer service by having complete,

homogeneous information.

Lower costs

Sales and marketing information about customer requirements, expectations

and perceptions in real time.

2.3 The implementation of CRM in different countries

and industries:

CRM is becoming one of the hottest areas in enterprise applications and enable the

enterprise and even the whole world market earns huge profit. For example, it was

predicted that the total aggregate revenue of the CRM market is anticipated to grow

from $1.2 billion in 1997 to $11.5 billion in 2002 with an annual growth of more than

50 percent. CRM license revenue would top $7.5 billion by 2002 against $762 million

in 1997 CRM applications and market penetration was expected to significantly grow

to new levels when the market was continuing striving to leverage the strategic

advantages. (NameProtect, 2001a)

.

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According to the Research AMR (2002), The CRM software market was expected to

increase from $7 billion in 2000 to $23 billion in 2005, even though conventional

wisdom was that 30 to 50 percent of CRM initiatives fall short of meeting company

objectives, while another 20 percent actually damage customer relationships.

The use of CRM is increasing rapidly throughout the world. According to the survey

of international data corporation, in 1998 Western Europe represented almost half of

the CRM market. USA and Western Europe were still the main market of CRM. But

the development of rest of the world especially the implementation in developing

countries should not be neglected.

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 ARG

98-03

USA 12.03

1

16.21

1

22.06

6

29.65

1

39.23

3

51.87

6

33.90

percen

t

Western Europe 6.966 8.766 11.07

6

14.17

0

18.22

3

23.62

7

27.70

percen

t

Rest of the

world

5.836 7.017 8.772 11.20

9

14.76

1

18.63

8

26.10

percen

t

Total 24.83

3

31.99

4

41.91

4

55.03

0

72.21

7

94.13

2

30,50

percen

t

Table 2.3-1-CRM market- Geographic Analysis (millions of dollars)-International Data

Corporation, 1999 AGR: Average Growth Rate

Potentially, most firms can make use of CRM technology, but there are certainly some

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that are better suited for CRM than others (Bose, 2002: 95). The Harvard Management

Update (2000) identifies companies who are most likely to benefit from CRM and

those who are less likely:

Most likely to benefit are companies who ―accumulate lots of data on each

customer‘s buying patterns in the course of their business‖; for example,

financial or telecommunications companies. Clearly, a key component to CRM

is lots of information about the firm‘s consumer.

Least likely to benefit are businesses where the consumer is not in contact with the

marketers, where the lifetime value of customer is low, or businesses with huge

customer churn. It is important to note, though, that some of these problems might

actually be overcome with a better understanding of the customer via the use of

CRM.

The current use of marketing in UK retailing:

According to a survey by Gartner Group (2001), apart from a select few, the UK‘s

largest retail store companies are lagging significantly behind other sectors, notably

financial and insurance services, in adopting customer relationship management

(CRM) technology and systems. However, the survey by Gilbert and Summer (2004)

the traditional retail stores (such as grocery convenience retailers and audio,

photographic and IT specialist retailers) are characterized by their continued focus on

price competition while the retail service providers (such as retail banking, financial

services providers and optical, health, hair and beauty service providers) emphasis the

use of CRM and other customer-specific strategies. The same feature of the retail

service providers are that, it is important to build relationship with customers and

make customer satisfied at those industries.

2.4 TPL

TPL originally began during the 1970s as public warehousing, when manager‘s of

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warehouses began to sell space to business organizations when it ran out of space

during busy seasons (Aghazadeh, 2003). By 1980s TPL expanded into selling not only

space but also offering through put to physical distribution managers who wanted to

improve customer service with their current customers (Tompkins, 1999). However,

the last decade of the twentieth century was characterized by consolidations by TPL

providers to offer logistics support through value-added services and offer

opportunities to organizations to reduce costs and provide higher levels of customer

satisfaction (Sohail and Al-Abdali, 2005). Moreover, the TPL industry has also

resulted in the emergence of large companies that have the capabilities to offer

sophisticated logistics solutions on a continental or even global scale. Such logistics

service providers (LSPs) strive to assume a more strategic role within the supply chain

of clients, expanding their scale and scope of operations (Selviaridis and Spring,

2007).

A further insight into the literature on international logistics providers reveals that

there have been three waves of entrants into the TPL market (Berglund et al., 1999).

The first wave date backs to the 1980s or even earlier with the emergence of

―traditional‖ logistics providers, whose activities usually emerged from a traditionally

strong position in either transportation or warehousing. The second wave dates from

early 1990, when a number of network players, for example DHL, TNT and FedEx

started their logistics activities. The third wave dates from the late 1990s where a

number of players from areas of information technology, management consultancy

and even financial services are working together with players from first and second

waves.

Overall, the evolution of the TPL market is explained with reference to three distinct

phases (Berglund et al., 1999):

(1) In the 1980s, many transportation and warehousing firms have developed into 3PL

providers (e.g. Exel Logistics and Frans Maas).

(2) In the early 1990s, firms that specialise in express parcel deliveries entered the

24

market (e.g. DHL, TNT, UPS and FedEx).

(3) In the late 1990s, companies originally specializing in financial services, IT

services and management consulting entered the market by developing competences

in information systems and supply chain planning (e.g. Andersen Consulting).

In recent past, the third-party logistics (TPL) has received considerable attention from

logistics scholars, which result in a plethora of research and discuss in this field. Lieb

(1992:29) stated that, TPL involves ―the use of external companies to perform

logistics functions that have traditionally been performed within an organization. The

functions performed by the third party can encompass the entire logistics process or

selected activities within that process‖. Coyle et al. (2003:425) have the similar vein

by saying that, TPL involves an external organization ―that performs all or part of a

company‘s logistics functions‖. Both the two definition emphasis that the activities of

TPL are to perform logistics functions. Both of those ―broad‖ definitions appeal to

suggest that TPL included any form of outsourcing of logistics activities.

Alternative, ―narrower‖ definitions connect the TPL to some distinctive functional and

interorganizational characteristics of the logistics outsourcing relationship. Berglund

et al. (1999:59) emphasis the supply of management support in addition to operational

activities by providers and the duration of the relationship as follows: ―Third-party

logistics are activities carried out by a logistics service provider on behalf of a shipper

and consisting of at least management and execution of transportation and

warehousing. Further Van Laarhoven et al (2000:426) they state that other activities

might be included, such as ―inventory management, information related activities like

tracking and tracing goods, assembly and installation of products or even supply chain

management.‖ By these narrower definitions, Skjoett-Larsen (2000) summarized

that, ―TPL appears to be distinguished from the ―traditional‖ outsourcing of logistics

functions on a transaction-by-transaction basis presupposing that several features are

fulfilled before the relationship between buyer and provider of logistics services can

be characterized as TPL. These features include the provision of a broad range of

25

services, a long-term duration, joint efforts to develop cooperation, the customization

of the logistics solution, and a fair sharing of benefits and risks, and suggest that TPL

incorporates strategic and not just tactical dimensions.‖

Bask (2001:474) who gave a definition between the alternative broader and narrower

views stated that, ―TPL as relationships between interfaces in the supply chains and

third-party logistics providers, where logistics services are offered, from basic to

customized ones, in a shorter or longer term relationship, with the aim of effectiveness

and efficiency‖. Selviaridis and Spring (2007) summarized that, ―Different definitions

tend to emphasize different aspects of outsourcing arrangements such as the service

offering, nature and duration of relationships, performance outcomes, extent of third

party responsibility over the logistics process and position/role in the supply chain.‖

The research of the impact of CRM on the TPL customers will at the ―narrow‖ side

of TPL while the impact of CRM on the TPL enterprise itself will be the ―broad‖

side of TPL.

TPL is usually associated with the offering of multiple, bundled services, rather than

just isolated transport or warehousing functions (Leahy et al., 1995). Contemporary

TPL arrangements are based on formal (both short- and long-term) contractual

relations as opposed to spot purchases of logistics services (Murphy and Poist, 1998).

In recent years, the term fourth party logistics (4PL) has also emerged to describe more

advanced contracting arrangements. Van Hoek and Chong (2001:463) define 4PL as:

―a supply chain service provider that participates rather in supply chain co-ordination

than operational services. It is highly information based and co-ordinates multiple

asset-based players on behalf of its clients.‖

Users of TPL have cited a number of benefits to the company. The typical benefits

realized by firms in Australia, USA and WE are cost reduction, improved expertise

26

and a reduction in capital requirements for the user firm (Millen et al., 1997). Similar

benefits were reported from the Singapore study (Bhatnagar et al., 1999). Acccording

to the survey of CAWS (Chinese association of warehouse and storage) (2001:29), the

satisfaction gap between TPL and self logistic has become obvious in China.

The satisfaction of production enterprises to the logistics operation:

22%

11%

67%

23.00%

23.00%

54.00%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

not completelysatisfied

not satisfied

satisfied

Self

TPL

Figure 2.4-1 the third report of Chinese logistics industry (2001:29)

The satisfaction of commercial enterprises to the logistics operation:

21%

38%

43%

40.00%

7.00%

53.00%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

not completelysatisfied

not satisfied

satisfied

Self

TPL

Figure 2.4-2- the third report of Chinese logistics industry (2001:29)

The reason not satisfied to the TPL:

27

Reason factors Production

enterprises

commercial

enterprises

high operation cost 7 percent 0

information not prompt and

accurate 21 percent 34 percent

low operation speed 21 percent 33 percent

uncompleted service content 7 percent 0

high products damage rate 7 percent 0

high rate faults 13 percent 0

bad service attitude 0 percent 0

without online service 7 percent 33 percent

cannot satisfied the demand

waves 0 percent 0

Table 2.4-1- reasons for dissatisfaction with TPL -the third report of Chinese logistics industry

(2001:29)

The reason not satisfied to the self-logistics:

Reason factors Production

enterprises

Commercial

enterprises

high operation cost 11 percent 11 percent

information not prompt and

accurate 22 percent 0 percent

low operation speed 0 percent 33 percent

uncompleted service content 0 percent 34 percent

high products damage rate 11 percent 11 percent

high rate faults 23 percent 11 percent

bad service attitude 0 percent 0

without online service 11 percent 0

cannot satisfied the demand 22 percent 0

28

waves

Table 2.4-2- Reasons for dissatisfaction with inhouse logistics- the third report of Chinese

logistics industry (2001:29)

Survey shows that: the demand for the adoption of TPL enterprises, 67 percent of the

production enterprises and 54 percent of the commercial enterprises are satisfied with

the TPL services. 23 percent of manufacturing enterprises and 7 percent of the

commercial enterprises are not satisfied with the third-party logistics services. The

reason not satisfied, first of all because of the slow speed of operations and logistics

information is not accurate. Followed by operational error rate is high, high operating

costs. It can be seen that the first thing the production enterprises and commercial

enterprises care about of TPL services is the quality of operation and operation of

capacity which including the logistics information. Followed is the cost. At the same

time, the quality and operation of enterprises has become the biggest obstacle to

self-logistics.

2.5 The relationship between logistics process and CRM

It is universally acknowledged that the logistics process have close relationship with

customers‘ activities. Gunasekaran (2003:827) stated that, ―Logistics processes and

related activities comprise order fulfillment processes, customer relationship

management, and customer service, and procurement and demand management.

Customer relationship management (CRM) focusing on clients to make sure that there

is no communication gap so that goods are made available as required and delivered on

time: there are several ways by which communication between the logistics company

and clients can be established. These include via strategic alliances, frequent meetings

between suppliers and customers, and shared information systems.‖ Viswanadham

and Gaonkar (2001:4) stated the important role of CRM play in the logistics

enterprises, who stated that, ―Most logistics companies can be considered to be a

29

bundle of three primary processes: a customer relationship management (CRM)

process, a product innovation process, and an infrastructure management process.

Each plays a unique role, employs different kinds of people, and has different

economic, competitive, and even cultural imperatives. The role of CRM is to find

customers and build relationships with them.‖

The rapid development of CRM market enables more and more industries using CRM

to gain more benefits. The logistic industry as a new research region, different

countries have their own developments and situations of using CRM in logistics

enterprises. In some Asian countries, Wang (2002) stated that, ―In a service sector like

the 3PL industry in Singapore, customer satisfaction and retention are two pertinent

issues that have major impact on the competitiveness and profitability of a company.

Many 3PL companies are now trying to leverage on the tools of Customer

Relationship Management (CRM) to address the above issues.‖ The situation in

Turkish which pointed by Goll (2007:384) is that, ―With continuing pressure on

improving their relationship skills, 3PLs should focus more on CRM activities in an

effort to exceed customer expectations.‖

Yu (2007) combine characteristics of the TPL business customers drawing a flow chart

(figure 2.5.1), which suit the logistics enterprises to implement the CRM.

30

Diagram 2.5-1- TPL enterprise CRM flow chart-CRM in TPL research (2007:16)

The operation concept of TPL enterprises CRM is same as the general CRM. It is a

management concept. Meanwhile, it is a set of management software system. This

system starting from the end-customer demand, with information technology and

network technology, through analysis of customer information, the demand of

information integration and specific implication establish supporting the use of the

function level system to connect between the business and customer relations. It

provides a basic platform for the enterprise collection, management and use of

customer information.

Specifically, according to different parts of the functions the TPL, CRM system can be

classified in information sources layer, information processing layer, basic functions

layer and decision support layer. Its system structure is as shown in Diagram 2.5-2.

The first part The second part The third part

Customer

Service

Customer info

Service system

Info analysis

Info integrate

operation

Decision

support

Implement feedback phase

31

Diagram 2.5-2- TPL enterprises CRM system structure chart-CRM in TPL research (2007:16)

The information source layer includes customers and partners, which is the

fundamental starting point and final destination of CRM system. TPL enterprises hold

the dualism of the end-customers, which means the customer satisfaction and

company competitiveness can be improved only if it can meet the logistics demands

of both the final customers and the manufacturers; it can play from the effects of the

satisfaction proliferation and improve the competitiveness of enterprises. Therefore, in

the TPL CRM system, the information source layer is important for the customer

information collection and information integration.

Information processing is a layer enterprises to process and integrate information,

which mainly use the web portal and call centre those two channels to realise the

integrity management between enterprises and customers, partners.

Basic functions layer mainly includes the automated management, marketing

Information

sources layer

Information

processing

layer

Basic

functions

layer

Decision

support

layer

End-

customer

partners

Web

portal

Call

centre

automate

managemen

t marketing

managemen

t customer

service

business

intelligence

Informatio

n data

warehouse

Decision

analysis

module

32

management, customer service, business intelligence, and other modules to realise the

logistics optimized and automate. Automation Project Modules include account

management, pricing management. Through this module it can be realized that from

price, ordered to pay the full automation of commission. And also provide based

Internet auto sales functions, which allow customers to order products or services

personalize via Internet. Marketing module started from the customer demand and

market information to detail logistics market. And that, in turn found the high-quality

marketing opportunities, get important customers information, which provide quality

personalized service for high-value customers. Also for potential customers trace their

value fully. Customer Service Module can provide customer support, automation the

after sales service and it is an integral part of the CRM system.

Decision support layer includes decision analysis module and information data

warehouse. Information data warehouse contain all the information data which related

to the CRM. It is the foundation of the entire CRM system. Decision analysis module

through the methods of on-line analysis and data mining to analysis, admission,

conversion and integrate the information, which in turn to the acquisition,

cross-selling, personalized customer service of logistics enterprises‘ new customers

provide effective support.

CRM system is an organic integration. Through the effective implementation of CRM

system, the TPL enterprise can make full access to enterprise customers and provide

personalized service, realise the automation during the process of sales and marketing,

improve customer service and after-sales service management, which enable

enterprises to provide a unified, complete and accurate service in the shortest time.

33

3 Research methods

3.1 Introduction

The methodology of this dissertation involves both quantitative research and

qualitative research. Because the similarity research has been surveyed by the

researcher, the range of answers has been already been research. Thus the questions

in the questionnaire should be closed or limited choice of answer. This type of

question is most amenable to quantitative analysis. The demographic questions in the

final part of the questionnaire count as closed or limited option questions. However,

because the research in this field has not been fully explored, it needs some

interviews and open questions to find the perceptions and preferences of the

interviewer. At that stage, the qualitative research will be helpful.

The research addresses three different populations. The first group is the customer who

is the user of those logistics enterprises. Because the focus of CRM is the feeling of

customer, the thought of customers is crucial to those enterprises. The question on this

questionnaire will focus on the acknowledgement the customer‘s view of CRM and if

CRM system is a key factor when they choose logistics enterprises. The second group

is the internal who deals with the system or who use this system to deal with something

relative with customers. The CRM system not only influences the thought and work of

customers, but also the clients in the companies. For instance, the client works in the

customer service department. After using it, if their work changed or do they think it

really help will be the key point. The last group consists of managers of those logistic

enterprises. The emphasis will be on exploring why those managers make such

decision, what is their feeling about CRM and how the CRM system helps them to

manage.

The methodology of research on the first group will be both questionnaire and

interviews. Because the population in this group will have little speciality knowledge,

34

the questionnaire will focus on demographic data about the client and some multiple

choice questions, which will be easy to answer, encouraging response. What is more,

there will be one or two interview to particular people to know more information about

their feelings. Those two kinds of data collection will also be used with the second

group. The difference is that the questions on the questionnaire given to the second

group will be more specialised and complex. The research on the last group will be

only interview, which will get more information of the situation in the whole company.

In this case, the research ethics can be those of business confidentiality. The entire

interviewer in this survey has known what would happen to the data. The data in

this dissertation collected safe and it will be destroied when it was no longer need.

3.2 Data collection

The data collection will include collecting both primary data and secondary data.

Primary data and secondary data play different role in research. Hollensen (2003)

defined the primary data as follows, ―Primary data is data that collected for the first

time for the specific purpose of a particular market research study and secondary data

is data that already exist but were collected in the first instance for another purpose.‖ In

this case, the primary data will be collected by interviews and questionnaires and the

secondary data will be gathered from documentations, such as reports of company,

surveys done by the company, business records and the literature. The literature

review in the last chapter belongs to the secondary data. At that chapter it has been

examined the literature in order to identify previous relevant research and review that

research. The type of the sources includes the books, e-journals, newspapers, reports,

essays and the web database. The literature in this dissertation was all chose by the

library or some authority website, for instance, Google scholars, Emerald and Dialog,

which provide academic essay.

35

3.2.1 Questionnaires

3.2.1.1 Literature review

The design of questionnaires is used to collect the primary. Proctor (2000) defined that,

―A questionnaire is a data-collection instrument. It formally sets out the way in

which the research questions of interest should be asked.‖ Talking about the function

of questionnaire, Brace (2004:4) said that, ―the questionnaire is the medium of

communication between the researcher and the subject, albeit sometimes

administered on the researcher‘s behalf by an interviewer. In the questionnaire, the

researcher articulates the questions to which he or she wants to know the answers

and, through the questionnaire, the subjects‘ answers are conveyed back to the

research.‖

The structure of the questionnaire is comprised of three major parts: (Proctor, 2000)

The introduction -to explain to the respondents the aim of this survey. It must

be persuasive and qualify respondents as someone who belongs in the sample.

The body - the content of the questionnaire full of any types of questions.

The range of topics covers facts, knowledge, opinions, attitudes, possible

future behaviour, and etc.

The basic data - a section for collecting information of respondents, which

normally consists of name, address, occupation, telephone number, email, and

etc.

In addition, Barribeau et.al(2005) pointed out that, ―All researchers must make two

basic decisions when designing a survey--they must decide: 1) whether they are going

to employ an oral, written, or electronic method, and 2) whether they are going to

choose questions that are open or close-ended.‖ A common definition is: A closed

36

question can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase.

(Changingmind.org, 2008). The characteristics of the closed questions are that,

They give you facts.

They are easy to answer.

They are quick to answer.

They keep control of the conversation with the questioner.

An open question can be defined as: ―An open question is likely to receive a long

answer.‖Open questions have the following characteristics :(Changingmind.org)

They ask the respondent to think and reflect.

They will give you opinions and feelings.

They hand control of the conversation to the respondent.

The aim of questionnaire is to research the different implication of CRM on

customers and company clients. So the questionnaire has been separated into two

parts. The one is for the customer and the other one is for the company clients.

Because the number of customers who have business with TPL enterprise is so big and

also there are so many clients in the TPL enterprise, using mail survey, telephone

survey or email survey throughout a country is not a good idea. Therefore, sampling

is a good way to collect the data from both customers and clients.

In the market research, there is a population of objects of interest. Usually the

population consists of an enormous number of objects, so some objects which are quite

few are selected and to be studied. This is called sampling and the selected objects are

called the sample (Blankenship et al., 2001).

The sample of the first group is selection from the population,

Elements: Males and females, who visit the webpage of the questionnaire.

Units: individual person

Time:18th

July – 5th

Aug, 2008

37

The sample of the second group is the clients both in the international companies

and the Chinese companies. Because the object of the questionnaire for this group

is to explore the whole view of the client, the result should be implying both the

international companies and the Chinese companies. The interviewer of the

interview is the client of DHL, who is working in the DHL customer department

now. Because one of the object of this paper is to know what the different with the

international company and the local company in China, as a well-known company

in the world, the feedback of the clients is very important to the compare. What

is more, the customer service department is the department which have the most

direct contact with the customer and using the CRM system. Their view will be

significant.

The interviewer of the third group is marketing director of FedEx. The purpose to

choose the manager in this company is as similar as the reason choosing DHL‘s

clients. FedEx is a well-known international TPL enterprise, as well. The view of

the manager will be different from the view of clients. Both the view of the client

and manger should be considered and analyzed in the following chapters.

3.2.1.2 Questionnaire for customers

The purpose of the questionnaire is to explore the feelings of customers. It is

universally acknowledged that the feedback of customers will have huge direct

implementation on the enterprise. So to pay more attention to the feedback of

customer will enable the enterprise get improvement.

The questionnaire has been divided into two sections. Section A is the question about

CRM and section B is about TPL.

Section A about CRM

The question in Section A aims to explore two general problems, which in order to

38

acknowledge if the customers have a concept of the CRM and the general impression

of CRM. The aim of Q1 is to know that if the concept CRM have been accepted or

acknowledged by the customers. In some developing countries, CRM is a very new

concept, which only has been used in the big company or international company now.

The contribution of CRM should be seen through the increase of enterprise profits

and the level of customer satisfaction. If the customer has no concept of CRM or

does not acknowledge the value which it can bring to the enterprise, then it will be

more difficult for them to comment on this issue. Also the aim of this question is that

because this research is to explore the implication of CRM on logistic enterprises,

enabling more people who had previously never heard about CRM to know the

helpful role of CRM. At the same time, Q1 is the basic of Q2. Only if the answer of

the customer is A (yes), he or she can answer the question B.

Q2 is a more difficult question to answer. Because the majority of customers do not

know, if the company they have business action have a CRM system. However, if the

customer who answers the questionnaire does have the acknowledgement of this

aspect, or they have had business with both companies that do not have a CRM

system, their view will have more significance for the research. The object of

interview is also chosen depending on the answer to this question. This will be fully

explained by the following sections.

Section B about TPL

From Q3 to Q9 are some questions to research the view customers‘ view of TPL.

The purpose of Q3 has the same usage as Q1. The answer to Q3 also has the direct

implement on the chose of interview object, too. Because TPL is a new concept for

some customers in China, but maybe they just not know this noun, it does not mean

those customers have never had business with the TPL enterprise..

Q3 will explore what degree the customer knows the logistic and logistic enterprise.

The logistic industry as a modern industry in recent years has been known by many

39

business individuals especially in developed countries. To some developing countries

such as China, the business men maybe have a long cooperation relationship with

TPL enterprises. But majority of them even do not know what is TPL. Which is TPL

enterprise? However it will not implement their cooperation with them and after they

know which is TPL enterprise, their view will also contribute to this survey.

The number of times the company has done business with the TPL enterprise will

illustrate the huge contribution in the business area. Q4 aims to find out this data not

only in the business area but also in the general public. Because the general public

will also needs TPL enterprises to do some individual things.

The period the customer cooperation with the TPL enterprise will illustrate the

development and being known level in the public to some extent. Q5 is a basic of

following questions as well. The longer period cooperation with the TPL enterprise

the more information this industry will be known by customers. After that the

customer may have more choice on the different companies.

There are two kinds of TPL enterprises in china. One is the local companies, which

found by the local themselves. Their main work area is in the domestic. Some big

companies maybe have business with the foreign companies. The majority company

in China is the branch of the international companies. Their main office has been

found for a long time. But their branches in China may be just built. There must be

some compete relationship with this two kinds of companies and the aim of this

essay have close relationship with those two kinds of companies. Q6 is a direct

question to explore the view of customers to these companies. If the customers do

not know which company is the local one or which is the international companies.

There are some samples in the brackets.

Q7 is a multiple choice question. Because there will be many things to implement the

customers‘ choice. The question is design to find which are the most important

40

reason and the auxiliary implication of other reasons. If there is other reasons may

affect the customers‘ choice which did not mention in the choice. The customer can

write down it and it can also be considered by the final data analysis.

Q8 can find the customer view to change companies. Because there are so many

companies in China including international companies and domestic enterprises, the

customer has a large choice region. Some individuals and companies still have

business with only one TPL company. Others have business with several companies

at the same time or often change it. This question is also the basic for Q9.

If the customer changes the cooperation companies, it must have reasons. This

reason is very vital to the TPL enterprise to improve their business. Q9 as Q7 is also

a multiple choice question. Because sometimes there is not one specific reason which

can affect the customer to change their mind, the customer can also write their own

reasons which not included in the questionnaire.

3.2.1.3 Questionnaire for company client

The questionnaire for company internal client is designed of the internal clients of

TPL enterprise. From Q1 to Q8, the question is design for the client who works in

the TPL enterprise. The aim of these questions will explore the client‘s acknowledge

and feeling of CRM system.

Q1 is question to know the basic situation of the CRM system in the interviewer‘s

company. Clients can fill in the definite year on the questionnaire.

Q2 asked for the entire feeling of clients to the CRM system in their company. This

is a general question. The implementation included the clients, the customers and the

managers in the company.

41

Because the client is the person who has contact with CRM system everyday and

they can feel the change of enterprise at the first time. So Q3 is a question want to

know if the company can obtain the advancement through CRM.

From Q4 there will be some detailed questions about the clients‘ everyday work.

There are a few methods the client can contact with customers. There may be not

only one way. The aim of this question is to know which is the most often way which

the client contact to the customers. Because the different customer have different

require, the most often way may be not suit for all the customers. After that it can be

given some advices through the result of this question.

Q5, Q6 and Q7 are based on the Q4. Q5 take phone as an example to explore more

information about the contact. Q5 is focus on the contact times. Q6 is focus on the

content while Q7 is focus on the communication time.

The customer information is an important resource to the enterprise. However, keep

too much records will consume the company‘s resource and reduce working

efficiency. In the contrary, too little information does not have implication to the

analysis of customers. So update and modify customers‘ consumer behaviors in some

specific period is a good idea to the company. But different companies have the

different year limitation depending on the different situations. Q8 is a question

design to find this information.

There will be something different for the clients‘ work because of the CRM system.

But different person in different department maybe have different feelings about that

while different person in same department maybe have different feeling as well. Q9

will enable the client to choose.

Based on Q9, Q10 will special on the clients‘ comment and salary aspect. It is

42

cleared that comment and salary is the most important benefits for the client who

working in the company.

The final four questions will record the interviewer‘s information. The four questions

are age, sexual, degree and salary..

3.2.2 Interview

3.2.2.1 The different implication of interview and questionnaire

This essay not only included questionnaire but also interviews. Both questionnaire and

interview have their advantages and disadvantages. The essay adopt internet

questionnaire to survey. An Internet questionnaire is a form of written survey.

Respondents may be invited to participate in the survey through email or they visit a

particular web page. In this survey, it adopts the method to invite the individual to

visit a specific web page. On the one hand, the pros of this method are that, Fast to

conduct and tabulate. Some software products allow questionnaires to be customized

depending on the respondent‘s answers, which avoids interviewers‘ bias and

distortion. Answers unlikely socially influenced, easy to administer, and relatively

low costs. On the other hands, there are some cons of this method. Such as

information transferred via the internet may not be confidential; poor control over

respondent selection; follow-up difficult to conduct; difficult to obtain probability

sample; and, like mail surveys, this is the most difficult type of questionnaire to

design.

According to the features of the internet questionnaire, in this essay, there are also

three interviews. Face-to-face interview is that, interviews or personal interviews are

surveys conducted in person by an interviewer who usually travels to the person

being surveyed. Pros of this method is such as, high response rates; can clarify

43

questions, if necessary control over respondent selection can use longer, more

complex questionnaire; and easier to motivate the respondent. While the con is that

high costs, time-consuming, and more administrative requirements Also, there is a

tendency for respondents to give socially acceptable answers.

3.2.2.2 Interview for the customers

The first interview group will be the customer who answers the questionnaire.

Because the questionnaire only has the choice question and the question is more

basic, it is difficult to have deep research according to the result. The interview in the

first group will choose the customer who give the A (yes) answer to the Q1, Q2 and

Q3. So the interviewer is a person who has been had business with DHL and TNT

for a long time. There are three questions here. (See Appendix 1)

The first question is that how long have you corporation with TPL enterprises,

which enterprise is the best one you corporation and the reason that he choose

this company.

Then the second question is that why the interviewer does not choose the

domestic TPL enterprise of China.

The third question is that why the customer changes their enterprise, which items

will affect their decision.

3.2.2.3 Interview for the clients

The object of the second interview is the client of DHL who works in the customer

service department. The aim of this interview is to explore how is there work in

customer service department. What the implementation the CRM system brings into

their work and their comments as well. There are five questions here. (See Appendix

2)

The first question is that could you introduce your work department for me?

44

The second one is that could you tell me if the CRM system have some effects on

your work?

Could you tell me how many kinds of requests do you have and what are the

different methods to reply those requests.

The fourth question is that what will implement your performance score.

The last question is that how your company keeps the customer information and

how can you get customer from your competitors?

3.2.2.4 Interview for the manager

The aim of the interview is to know the general operation situation of a well-known

TPL enterprise. The third interviewer is the marketing director of FedEx. According

to her answer, it is clear that how the CRM system operation in her enterprise and the

benefits can be brought by the CRM system. There are two main questions here. (See

Appendix 3)

The first question is that let the interviewer describe the process of CRM system

in her company in details.

Then the second question is that what value the CRM system creates to the

FedEx?

45

4 Analysis and Findings

In accordance with the explanation of the research methodology in Chapter 3, in this

Chapter, firstly all the results of the questionnaire which stored through Access and

have been analyzed using Excel will be described while the interview content will be

analyzed later in this Chapter. The data from questionnaire will be described

narratively first and then put into diagrams. Through the analysis, the situation in

China now and the issues in the implementation of CRM in TPL industry in both

China and some developed countries can be illuminated.

4.1 Analysis and conclusions from the questionnaire

TPL industry is a big market in China. In this survey, there 200 questionnaires were

sent to individuals and 200 questionnaires to TPL company's internal clients. On the

one hand, all the questionnaires for customers had been given to the citizens of

Beijing, which is the capital of China. The response rate was 74 percent, because

some of the questionnaire did not complete or some of respondents miss some

questions. On the other hand, the questionnaire which designed for the TPL

company's client had been sent to the internal client of some TPL enterprises. The

majority of enterprises are Chinese enterprises. So the result will mainly describe the

situation of Chinese TPL industry. The response rate to this questionnaire was 89.5

percent.

4.1.1 Questionnaire of CRM for customers

There are 148 individuals intend to this survey. The group which answer the

questionnaire are almost covered the whole age range. More than half of them are

between 20-29 years old. About 10% are teenagers and about one third of them are

more than 30 year's old. These results might be indicative of the response of

customers in Beijing. The result of this question shows below.

46

8.11%

4.05%

22.97%

29.73%

24.32%

8.11%

2.70%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

more than 37

34-37

30-33

26-29

22-25

18-21

less than 18

Figure 4.1-1 the result of personal information Q1

The female respondents out number the male. However this both male and female

are represented. There are 60.81 percent female and 39.19 percent males intend this

research

The majority of interviewers have bachelor degree or more than that. Only one fifth

of them have the degree below bachelor. So the questionnaire can describe the view

in the different groups.

1.35%

10.81%

66.22%

17.57%

4.05%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

other

more than bachelor

bachelor degree

the junior colledge

high school or less

Figure 4.1-2 the result of personal information Q3

47

There is no interviewer have less than 1000RMB salary. Most of them earned

2000-5000RMB every month. About one of forth interviewers earned more than

10000RMB per month. As a result, the survey could show the situation in different

groups.

20.27%

22.97%

40.54%

16.22%

0.00%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

more than 1000RMB

5000-10000RMB

2000-5000RMB

1000-2000RMB

less than 1000RMB

Figure 4.1-3 the result of personal information Q4

It can be seen clearly in Q1 that the degree of the citizens acknowledge the CRM

is low. There are even half of them (51.35%) have heard not about CRM yet. If the

manager of a company lacks of knowledge, the company cannot be improve. If the

customers lacks of the knowledge, sometimes it will result in poorer decisions.

Q2 based on Q1 show that if the implement of CRM system in TPL enterprises will

effect the decision of customers. Although more than half individuals believed that it

will not implicate their choice. There are 43.24 percent of them thought it will

influence their choice.

As Q1, Q3 focus on the knowledge of customers on the term of TPL. The result is

better than Q1. More than two thirds of respondents have heard about TPL. However

48

it still has 32.43 percent of people have not heard about this industry.

Q4 will explore the business situation of customers with TPL enterprises. Most of

individuals have business with TPL enterprises about once a month. More than one

thirds of interviewers never have business with these companies. 14.86 percent

customers have business with TPL enterprises nearly every day. Because there are

some examples of which company is TPL enterprises, nearly all the respondents

answered this question.

The interviewee of the customer was chose in the group who has business about once

a week. The analysis of customer interview will be described in the sections later on

in this chapter.

14.86%

8.11%

41.89%

35.14%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

nearly every day

about once a week

about once a month

never

Figure 4.1-4 the result of customer questionnaire Q4

In the results from Q5, it can be seen that about half number of customers have

business with TPL enterprises for about 1 year. This is the group which has the most

members. About the same number of customers have business with TPL enterprises

about 2-5 or more than 5 years. Only 4.05 percent of customers have business with

TPL enterprises more than ten years, which illustrate that the TPL industry has been

49

recognized in recent 5 years. This data is in coherence with the data in Chapter 2

literature review.

4.05%

14.86%

32.43%

48.65%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

more than ten years

more than 5 years

about 2-5 years

about 1 year

Figure 4.1-5 the result of customer questionnaire Q5

As the result of Q6 shows, more than half of people believed that they would like to

have business with both the international companies and the native enterprise of

China. The customer who prefer to the international companies is less than the

customer who prefer to the Chinese enterprises. The view of customers will benefit

from the development of local Chinese TPL enterprises.

54.05%

24.32%

21.62%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

both of them

the nativeenterprises of China

the big companies ofdeveloped countries

50

Figure 4.1-6 the result of customer questionnaire Q6

From the result of Q7, it can be seen that the customer put the reputation of a

company as the first consideration thing when they chose a company. The good

service attitude is also important to the decision of the customers. More than half of

customers thought that the cheap price is one of the key reasons when they chose a

company. In addition, just under half of customers put the online tracing system as a

condition. There are 6.76 percent customers believed that there are some other things

they will be considering when they make a decision. Respondents had the

opportunity to add other considerations, such as if the service will suitable their need,

the suggestion of friends and the special need of the service.

6.76%

44.59%

62.16%

56.76%

68.92%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

others

has the onlinetrading system

good serviceattitude

cheap price

the good reputationof the company

Figure 4.1-7 the result of customer questionnaire Q7

The result of Q8 shows that how often the customer changed the logistics company.

More than half numbers of people claimed that it not easy to say. Almost 10 percent

of individuals have never changed the company.

51

51.35%

13.51%

25.68%

9.46%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

not easy to say

often

almost never

never

Figure 4.1-8 the result of customer questionnaire Q8

It can be clearly seen from the result of Q9, why people changed their TPL

companies. More than 60 percent of interviewees chose the answer of the unsatisfied

service, which means the customer still put the service as the first considered thing.

Just under half of members thought that the high cost and the product damaged or

lost is the reason made them changed the company as well. The number of the two

groups is same. Then about one fourth of interviewers believed that the company

they chose in the beginning does not have the suitable project for them. Lack of an

online tracing system prompted 14.86 percent customers to change the company. The

other reasons including some private reasons and the problems maybe very special.

52

6.76%

24.32%

14.86%

44.59%

44.59%

60.81%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

others

the project does notfit me

without onlinetracing system

the product damagedor lost

high cost

because of theunsatisfied service

Figure 4.1-9 the result of customer questionnaire Q9

4.1.2 Questionnaire of CRM for company client

The following paragraphs will present the result of the questionnaire of CRM for

company internal clients.

From the answer of Q1, it can be seen that most TPL enterprise has implemented the

CRM system more than 5 years. There are also some companies have not

implemented it yet.

It can be seen clearly in the result of Q2, the majority of clients thought that the

CRM system do not have excellent or good performance in their company. Only

10.56 percent clients thought that their company's CRM system is excellent.

However, more than one fourth clients believed that the implementation of CRM

system in their company is very poor.

53

29.05%

29.60%

20.11%

11.17%

10.56%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

very poor

poor

fairly good

good

excellent

Figure 4.1-10 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q2

Like the prior question, Q3 focuses on the benefit, a CRM system brings into the

TPL Company. No client thought that the company got no benefit from a CRM

system. Almost all clients give the confirmed answer to this question. The result of

this question is that 94.97 percent of respondents give the confirm answer on this

question and 5.03 percent of respondents chose ―Don‘t know‖ .

The internal client such as the client in the after service department is the person who

can help the enterprise to contact customers directly. So the method they use will

effect the improvement of the enterprise. There are many methods the client can use.

But more than half of clients choose telephone to contact with their customers. The

number of contact by internet and by text message is similar. There are 13.42 percent

of clients choose others and give some example on this, such as by fax and by email.

The detailed number has been show below.

54

13.42%

5.03%

18.99%

58.10%

4.47%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

others

by text message

by mail

by telephone

by internet

Figure 4.1-11 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q4

Q5 to Q7 is based on Q4 to explore more information about the contact situation by

phone. Q5 is to survey the number of the call in one day. More than one third of

clients receive ten to twenty phones per day. This is the most frequent situation. The

times which the client received less than ten phone calls, twenty to thirty phone calls

and more than thirty phone calls are very similar. They all accounted for one fifth of

the result.

20.11%

20.67%

39.11%

20.11%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

more than thirty

twenty to thirty

ten to twenty

less than ten

Figure 4.1-12 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q5

Q6 focus on the content of the phone calls, because if the external customer takes the

55

initiative to contact the internal, because once the customer contact with the client

initiatively, it must be something happened or something they want to know. More

than 40 percent customers call the client to ask where their package is now, whether

the company has online trace system or not. Very few customers calls to complain

about a lost package and to ask the price of different services. More than half clients

choose the questionnaire option ―others‖. They give some examples about that, such

as to complain about another colleague's service, to complain about damaged

shipment or fax invoice and airway bill, to check duty charge or ask when they can

deliver the shipment will take to arrive at its destination.

50.84%

5.59%

3.35%

40.22%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

others

to ask the price ofdifferent service

to complain the lostpackage

to ask where istheir package now

Figure 4.1-13 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q6

The duration of a phone call will reflect the importance of the problem and the

abilities the client resolve the problem. Q7 aims to explore the situation. Almost half

number of the phone call lasts 3 minutes. And the opportunity the call lasts one

minute, five minute, ten minutes and more than ten minutes are alike. Some

enterprise has some rules about the duration of phone calls. More than that time or

less than that time, the client's work is judged to be poor. This will be further

described in the interview part in details.

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10.61%

11.73%

15.64%

48.04%

13.97%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

more than tenminutes

ten minutes

five minutes

three minutes

one minute

Figure 4.1-14 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q7

The period that the company keeps the records of customers' consumer behaviors

depends on the company's policy and the database content. Because the customer is

coming and leaving every time, it does not mean, the longer the company keeps a

record of the customers' consumer behaviors, the better the company's service will be.

Almost three quarters of companies store this information less than one year. There

are about 15 percent companies which store the information for 1-2 years, as well.

The other figures surveyed by Q8 show in the following diagram.

6.15%

5.03%

15.64%

73.18%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

>5 years

3-5 years

1-2 years

<1 year

Figure 4.1-15 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q8

57

The prior questions have been explored the impact of CRM system for customers and

the enterprise, Q9 is to know if it has impact on the clients, too. More than half

number of the client believed that it does not have any effects on there everyday

work. However, it also has more than 17 percent of clients claimed that CRM system

has huge impact on their work.

17.32%

28.49%

54.19%

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

very much

a little

never

Figure 4.1-16 the result of internal clients questionnaire Q9

The most things the client care about is their salary and feedback. Q10 aims to know

if CRM system has implication on the client's salary, promotion and feedback. No

client thinks that it does not have effect on them. In the contrary, 31.28 percent of

clients believed that the CRM system has a huge impact on these while 61.72 percent

of clients thought that the CRM system has a little impact on these.

4.2 Analysis and conclusions from the interview

In this chapter, it will analysis the response to the interviews. There are three

interviews have been undertook. The content of the interview not only involved the

international enterprises such as FedEx, TNT, DHL, but also some domestic

enterprises of China. From the interview, it can be seen why customers choose this

58

company and the different advantages of the different international enterprises.

The order of the analysis of interview will be, firstly the analysis and conclusion

from the interview for the customers, then the analysis and conclusion from the

interview with the internal clients. The last one is the analysis and conclusion from

the interview with the manager.

4.2.1 Analysis and conclusions from the interview for the customers

According to the interview and the questionnaire, it can be seen that the majority of

citizens responding to this survey make international enterprises their first choice,

because of their good reputation and good service. In this case, the special thing is

that TNT has a corporation with the Swiss post office. This specialty is more fit the

need of the interviewer.

The way the TPL enterprise communicates with customers is very limited. As the

result from the questionnaire, the most frequent way is contact by telephone,

following by mail, text message, internet and fax. This is the general problems in

present TPL industry. As all the service in those companies are very good, price still

as the first considering thing when the interviewer choice their company. This result

is in coherence with the questionnaire results. And also, sometimes the massive

service items can not attract more customers. Too many choices may make the

customers spend more time on understanding the different service and make them

lose patience.

The interviewee has a bad image of the domestic TPL enterprise. Because the

company he cooperated with can not check the situation of his document when the

client who responsible to the document is occupy. And other clients cannot help him

at the same time.

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4.2.2 Analysis and conclusion from the interview with the internal

client

This interview is based on the internal clients questionnaire Q10 to explore how the

CRM system to influences the client's advancement, feedback and salary. The

interview for the client in customer service department of DHL introduces a new

noun that is performance wages. Using CRM system can record the client's usual

performance, which will be taken into account the wages of the clients.

According to the interview, there are four kinds of requests in DHL. Each kind of

request will resolve one kind of problems.

The first type of request which they called No.1 request is that the customer

call in to request the shipment information. The client will set call back time

depending on when the customers call in. The manager will check five or

seven queries monthly and make a score for every client. Because the system

is recording in English, the score will be made depending on how many

misspellings the clients make and the client‘s effectiveness in solving the

problem. Further more, because the system will record every calling from

customers and the client have the regular process to say something in rule.

Depending on the different situation, the client can also provide the shipment

information to foreign colleagues.

The second request called non-delivery. Many shipments which are imported

to China the sender provide the wrong recipient's information. So the client in

China can not distribute the items through all kinds of methods. At that time

the Chinese clients will re-link the sender to provide new contact way. The

performance and the effectiveness of their work should be checked by

managers.

The third category request which called no.9 is called by foreign colleagues to

60

check. Generally the manager will check two of the no.9 requests monthly for

clients' performance.

The fourth category is called initiative request. DHL have specialized colleagues

to track every express every day. If there are some problems the client will

request customers proactively and to tell customers what are the problems also

set the call back. So the score standard is just like no.1 request.

In addition to check the case, the client also has a lot of performance standards. DHL

regulates that every requirements need to be resolved in 3 days. This part will also be

scored and put into the whole performance evaluation.

Each request has the different resolve method and standard process enable the work

of the client more effective and more normal. This kind of method will encourage the

client work harder. And also make the wage more equally and transparent.

DHL also emphasise gathering more information on their competitors‘ customer,

which enable them to get more customers. The client of DHL believed that the good

service and more contact will help them to keep the old customers.

4.2.3 Analysis and conclusions from the interview with the manager

Federal Express (FedEx) is one of the most famous TPL enterprises in the world.

Over these years, FedEx has always insisted that services, technology, cooperative

with customers to expand the market as their business ideas. And the achievement of

the benefit from the CRM system is to a large extent.

FedEx's CRM system consists of two parts, the front desk and the back desk. The

front desk is mainly the enterprises' website. Besides the front desk of FedEx's CRM

system, there is a strong information management system operating platform in the

61

background. The most important thing is FedEx's intelligent transport management

system which builds on the Internet. For customers, FedEx's intelligent transport

management system can provide a seamless connection between customers and

enterprise or straight involved into the user's transportation through the web pages. In

this way, any companies can directly put FedEx massive air and land team as their

transport resources in logic. FedEx launched the "the whole is greater than the parts"

collaboration, intelligence solutions project, which welcomed by all types of

enterprises.

For individual users, the standardization work flow of FedEx website enable them

carry out self-service easily. They can access the orders, submit transport business,

track parcels, and collect information. Each month there are more than 300 million

visitors on the Chinese website. All the data can be store into the company's internal

network at the same time. Because about two third of the transport process through

the system automatically, it greatly reduced the huge costs which the user call the

FedEx response centre. Thus save a large number of funds for users. Federal Express

helps users to reduce logistics costs. It also means that it enhances the user's

competitiveness in the market. This is the value that Federal Express's CRM system

creates. At the same time, FedEx also creates many loyal customers for themselves

which enable they own a dominant position in the competition market.

4.3 The conclusion of the analysis and findings

According to the result of questionnaires and interviews, the issues of adoption CRM

in TPL enterprise can be summarized into five points.

The company‘s lack of communication with customers

The service in some TPL enterprises lack of personalized service

The enterprise should put more emphasis on the customer loyalty

The enterprise lack of customer information

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Chinese TPL enterprise face huge competition from the international enterprises

The first four of them aim at the whole TPL enterprises. However the last issue is

focus on the situation in Chinese enterprises.

The following chapter will describe the five issues in detail and give some

recommendations to each of them.

63

5 Conclusion and recommendation

5.1 The communication with customers

5.1.1 The core problems

According to the result of internal clients questionnaire Q4, at present, the logistics

enterprises mainly adopted telephone, fax and other communications methods to

connect with customers. The efficient use of network was also minimal. The

customer was not willing to take the initiative to contact, because of the time factor,

or troublesome. And the corporate marketing staffs also lack the habit to take the

initiative asking. So it is difficult to gain feedback from customers. And which in

turn, it is very difficult for enterprises to obtain the customer satisfaction.

5.1.2 Recommendation:

Construct a variety of communication channels.

(1) The establishment of a modern call centre

The main function of Call Centre is to:

Provide the customers each week seven days, 24 hours a day services;

Provide for the customers multiple-choice communications in addition to the

traditional voice, free telephone, e-mail, fax and et al. ;

Collect market conditions, customer information, increase sales potential for

logistics enterprises

Maintain customer loyalty, enable customers feel the value.

(2) Establishing the Internet-based self-help service

The Internet-based self-help website can provide further service than the call center,

through providing customers online consulting, online complaints service. It can

promptly solve problems for customers.

64

(3) Establishing an information exchange platform.

Information exchange platform is for two-way exchange of information between

enterprises and customers. The main function is to realize contact and influence

between each other. In essence, CRM is the process of information exchange.

Though CRM also can achieve effective information exchange and maintain good

business between customers and enterprises. On the one hand, through modern

technology in business organizations, CRM can provide products and service

information to customers timely, provide technical support and a good after-sales

service to customers. On the other hand, collect important information from the

customer. Customer feedback is important to find issues which happened in the

customer service promptly. Customer complaint is the primary way of feedback, how

to correctly handle the customers views and complaints, the elimination of customer

dissatisfaction, safeguarding the interests of customers and win the trust of customers

are important guarantee to permit good customer relationship.

The three recommendations above are according to Chen and popovich (2003), who

pointed out technology as one of the three dimensions in CRM.

5.2 Lack of personalisation

5.2.1 The core problems

When customers are looking for logistics services process, they are not satisfied with

the service providers. One of the main reasons is that they can not gain personalised

services. In addition, the enterprises based on the same service standards will have

different customers. Satisfaction level they obtain should therefore be different. It is

important to Logistics enterprises to have personalised service for customers in the

implementation of CRM.

As the different customers hold the different product characteristics, procurement

strategy, marketing strategy and customer service policies, so whatever the service

65

content, services methods or the speed of response to the request, all show strong

personalized service characteristics. According to different customers the TPL

enterprise should provide personalized service for warehousing, transportation and

raw materials. To the finished products, it should provide storage, distribution,

packaging, and distribution, billing, information processing and a series of Logistics

services to meet their individual logistics needs.

Diversification includes two aspects. On the one hand, for different customers adopt

different service delivery model. On the other hand for the same customer adopt

different services at different times. Because CRM is a concept, which emphasizes

customer-centric management, the enterprise should put customers at the centre to

enhance its competitiveness.

5.2.2 Recommendation

5.2.2.1 Provide Personalized, dynamic service

The TPL Customers need timely, safe and cheap services. So logistics enterprises

should establish a personal profile for individual customers. Focus on each customer

to implement personalized service, improve service quality and enhance customer

loyalty. The fact that a TPL enterprise has a small number of customers and has

large-scale increases the feasibility of this option. In addition, enterprises should pay

attention to logistics service development trends and strive to offer a wide range of

services. Not only focus on to different customers to adopt different Service model,

but also for the same customer at different times to adopt different mode of service,

which help to improve customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.

5.2.2.2 Construct automated customer intelligence.

The main objective of customer intelligence is to achieve the ―one-on-one

66

marketing," or personalized services, so as to enhance customer satisfaction and

loyalty. Specifically, technology should support the call center and web. The TPL

company should collect customer data, recognize, distinct, rationale the customer and

grasp the personalized customer demand. There should be focus on the different

customers to adopt different strategies. Amazon Bookstore is a typical example of

using the C R M customer intelligence successfully. When the user bought the books

in Amazon Bookstore, its C R M system will record the user‘s purchase and the books

the user has scanned, and analyse the preference of the user. When this user log in

again, the system will recognise the user‘s identity, then the system will recommend

books in accordance with the preferences. When a new book arrives, Amazon will

automatically mail the user who may be Interested. The information which has been

recorded by the system is the customer‘s consumer behaviours. This method is the

same as the view of he Harvard Management Update (2000) which pointed out the

companies who are most likely to benefit from CRM is the company which record the

customer consuming behavior.

Different companies keep this for a different amount of time. The situation has been

discussed when analysing the result of questionnaire for internal clients Q8. This

targeted service is extremely helpful maintain customer loyalty.

5.2.2.3 Implication classified customer management strategy to meet the

needs of different clients

According to the value of customers bringing to the enterprise, the other words, how

much interest customers can bring to the enterprise. The enterprise can divide the

customers into A, B, C three categories as has been mentioned in the Literature

review. To different types of customers determine the different goal of CRM and

design different customer project.

67

For the customer in C category, it is recommended that companies. The firstly, build

customer files. Secondly, they should send regular information the enterprise

customer about new products and the third thing is the random telephone exchanges

with the customer and reinforces the communication with customers. In percent,

from the current situation of China's logistics enterprises, mostly of them are in the

early stage of development which has been mentioned in literature review Therefore,

the small clients can not be ignored.

For class B, the emphasis of CRM should focus on retention of customers. The

exception of the management category C above, it can perform Membership

management system. Once the potential customer becomes a member of the

company, they can get the special treatment by enterprise. Thus enable customers

willing to maintain further business contact with enterprises. They can give

suggestions and opinions on products and services of the enterprise and maintain

better cooperation relations with enterprises. The interviewee of the customers had

been invited to become the member of DHL after the first cooperation with them.

For customers in category A, in addition to the CRM projects above, they also need

to be provided one-on-one personalized service. The specific measures are as follows:

Firstly, for each customer in Class A set up customer service representatives who can

contact by telephone or in door visits directly to maintain good customer

relationships. Secondly, based on customers‘ needs to provide a comprehensive

range of services, which including transportation, storage, packaging, loading,

unloading, distribution, circulation processing, information processing and supply

chain management. Thirdly, create a ―win-win‖ partnership with customers. The

enterprise can have business analysis activities in regular or irregular and provide

report to them. So that customers can feel the special services from the enterprise

68

5.3 Customer loyalty

5.3.1 The need for Customer loyalty

The various practical activities that enterprise pursuit the satisfaction of customers is

ultimately attributable to a centre, which is, how to enhance existing customer

loyalty. The result of customer questionnaire Q5, Q8 and Q9 are focus on this

aspect.

The calculation method of the retention rate is very simple. If an enterprise lost 100

customers in one week, at the same time expand another 100 customers. Therefore

the level of business sales is good. But the cost of such practice is so much greater

than maintain 100 old customers and expand new customers at the same time. The

business operations mainly rely on the repeat purchase of customers. According to

Hui (2006) shows that nearly 70 percent of sales share from the sale of the old

customers. The cost of development a new customer is more than eight times higher

than to maintain an old customer. According to the survey of Hui(2006), if the

customer loyalty increases 5 percent then the enterprise profits can be increased 25

percent-85 percent.

Therefore make customer satisfied and improves customer loyalty is an effective way

to increase sales. CRM provides a variety of communication ways to customers. Also

confirm the data in the various communication channels keeping consistency and

continuity. Sales departments can use these data to make the right response rapidly

for customers‘ demands which allows customers to purchase products satisfied and

intended to maintain effective communication and business relationship with

enterprises in the same time.

69

5.3.2 Recommendation:

Enterprises should not only familiar with the entities customers, but also understand

network customers and their future development goals. On the one hand, this can

improve their customer loyalty; on the other hand also can discover potential

customers. Comparing with bank, the telecommunications industry and other sectors

with third-party logistics enterprises, the customer in this industry is much less then

number of those sectors. So to establish personalized profile and focus on every

customer to implement personalized service can enhance customers‘ loyalty.

5.3.3 The method to improve the customer loyalty.

(1) Customer identification:

Build customer database is the base of keeping the long-term contact with the

customer. Customer database is an information management system which

accumulates stores and analyses the related information of the customer. The data in

the database not only can get through the market survey, but also can get through the

customer complaints records. Staff should enter customer information into the

database as much as possible and store customer information orderly according to the

specially designed classification structure, which can increase the efficiency of

customer information. At the same time, it is vital to constantly improve and enhance

data quality, verification and update customer information and delete outdated

information. Customer‘s data sources can help enterprises to understand customer

preferences and other important information, so as to provide them with appropriate

products and services. At the same time, according to the information provided by

the database, it can provide related products and services information to customers

regularly. Using mail and phones to strengthen and establish long-term sustainability

communication relationship with customers.

(2) Analysis of the differences between customers

Enterprises should understand that there are two major differences among in

70

different between customers. Firstly, different customers have different values for the

business. In another words, it is more productive to focus on the largest and most

profitable customers. The largest and most profitable customers said here are the

golden business customers. The enterprise should give the most valuable clients the

most attention and investment. For majority customers who can bring some profit to

the enterprises. The enterprise should attract them to the core customer‘s level.

Secondly, different customers hold the different need for the products and services.

Enterprises can provide them with different products respectively.

(3) To aim at logistic enterprises, the different analysis of customers can be based

on the following questions. Firstly, which enterprise is the most one that the

enterprise itself wants to establish a business relationship? Secondly, which big

enterprises repeatedly complained about the enterprises‘ products or services in

the last year? List the name of these enterprises and trace to research. Thirdly,

identify the number of transactions for the biggest customer last year. If there is

no business transactions in this year or business transactions descend. The

enterprise should analysis the reason from both inside and outside of company

deeply.

Maintain good contact with customers

When logistics enterprises in CRM, there is an important thing that can reduce the

contact cost of enterprises with customer and increase the effectiveness of contact.

The specific methods a TPL company should,

Try to contact with competitors‘ customers, to understand the services level

of competitors and then compare with itself improve its own inadequacies

and increase the service level.

Treat every call from customers as a good opportunity to contact with

customers.

Test the quality of automated voice systems in the Customer Service Centre

to ensure contact channels between customer and enterprises connected.

71

Track promptly the corporate records which record the customer information

in the text or paper. Obtain various of the customer-related information

promptly. This information includes that find which customer can bring a

higher value to the enterprise talk with them more actively.

Through the application of information technology enables the businesses

between customers and enterprises more convenient.

Improve the handling of customer complaints, get understanding from

customers and win the trust of customers.

(4) Simplify the transaction channel with customers

Customer loyalty largely depends on the difficult level of contact with customers.

The specific practices to solute this question is that,

Easy to communicate with customers

The client does not have to call a lot or pay a visit to their house.

Easy to transact

Customers can have Business transactions in the way they like. Such as to visit the

relevant departments of the enterprise, access the Internet or telephone contact.

To provide customers the comprehensive information and analysis tools,

which enable customers to select Products and services rapidly?

The enterprises should make the customer familiar with industry products,

services and understand all the aspects of business information.

5.4 Lack of customer information

The majority of logistics enterprises in China lack customer data collection and

customer analysis abilities.

Logistics enterprises do not pay attention to collecting detailed information about

customers before the trading process and in the process of transaction with the

customer. From the perspective of the supply chain, having a comprehensive

72

understanding of customer needs helps logistics companies to provide

comprehensive services for the customer promptly. However, as regards small or

new customers, there are few Chinese TPL companies taking the initiative to care

about the customers‘ preferences and other issues. In this aspect, the overseas

companies in developing countries set a good example. According the survey of Hui

(2005), for example U P S established a specialized client files, record each customer

unit‘s information, contact methods, the use of the items and the evaluation of the

company. To identify major customers enterprises need to clearly outline their

development potential and the potential effectiveness they can bring to enterprises

through the analysis of data. Thereby it needs the marketing staff to target customers.

So logistics enterprises should try to take the initiative to obtain and record customer

information, to understand customer behaviour and preferences through data

excavation and data analysis. Those help enterprise to know customers consumption

patterns and the change of habits and cultivate insight capability of enterprises. The

following methods are to resolve this problem.

Focus on customer data collection and analysis.

The analysis result of Logistics enterprises for customer information can help

companies identify categories into A B C customers, which has been discussed in

preceding paragraphs. Customer analysis capacity is the basis of customers‘ data

collection and analysis. The function of customers‘ data collection can through several

methods including that design of customer information forms in details to assign to

marketing staffs as a visit log sheet; using Web site registration information and the

user's browser web log document records information. These can help Logistics

enterprises research customers demands, preferences and consumption patterns

development trend, better understand customers and turn potential passengers into

actual customers. Through various channels to obtain a lot of customer information,

integrate them to the corporate database or data warehouse. And then use data mining

technology to find the valuable customer knowledge for supporting business

decisions.

73

5.5 Foreign competition

Overall, logistics enterprises‘ CRM in China is still in the initial stage. Most of

logistics enterprises‘ CRM is not regulated. Many customers are held in the hands of

marketers. Customer data collection and classification is a complex task and current

Chinese TPL enterprise lake the internal systems to deal with this task. The lack of a

core staff can take away many corporate customers. It can be seen in the analysis of

the customer interview, Sometimes if a member of the company occupy, the

customers he was responsible do not get timely business contact with the company.

Other staff who would like to help does not know how to help them. So it often gives

a less care impression to the customers, which result resource flow. However, the

foreign logistics enterprises, Such as the U P S, DHL, T N T depending on strong

abilities, advanced management rationale, outstanding service, especially the

all-round care for customers makes the majority of Chinese enterprises willing to

cooperate with them. Therefore, it brings a huge competition pressure to the Chinese

enterprises.

5.6 Recommendations on the CRM system

CMM system is a huge and powerful system. From the IT perspective, CRM is an

application system software. It includes the operational management subsystems,

customer‘s cooperative management subsystem, data analysis and management

subsystem and Information technology management systems. The enormous cost of

system implementation (for example, US$50 million for SeibleT and PSFT system)

make many logistics enterprise in China have to give up at the end. Even if some of

these modules should cost over millions, for many logistics enterprises is a huge cost.

Besides the capital problems, to the modern logistics enterprises the situation is

74

different, which include different service projects, different scale, the forces of

modern information technology, and the level of the personnel quality. Some

enterprises fit to adopt CRM system immediately while some enterprises should

suspend the implementation. In addition, in the system design stage, software

companies and logistics enterprises should build a small group which closely around

the actual business and the future development planning develop a truly suited CRM

system to the enterprise.

CRM system is extremely complex system, which involve all aspects of business.

And the investment costs of such a system have long cycle and slow results.

Especially in the early construction stage, it will increase the workload and bring

troubles to some staffs in enterprises. Therefore the implementation of CRM system

must get the strong support from business leaders. To maintain the CRM project

implementation must get enough time, money and other resources. What is more, the

assistance of all employees plays a vital role in the implication of the system.

Words count:15858

75

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Appendix 1- Interview the Customer:

Interviewer: Sherry Customer: Mr Bang

S: Good morning, I am a postgraduate student undertaking an MSc in Information

Management in the University of Sheffield. My dissertation is specializes in CRM in

the TPL enterprise. Could you tell me how long have you corporation with TPL

enterprises, which enterprise is the best one you corporation?

B: well, because the business content of our company, we have many corporations

with TPL enterprise since 2000 I think. Usually I choose TNT as my first choice, I

also have corporation with DHL as well.

S: could you explain why you put TNT as you your first choice?

B: because we are a travel company in Switzerland, we do have some logistic

business between china and Switzerland and internal Switzerland. TNT is the only

TPL enterprise I can find in post office. It is very convenient for me. And also the

low price is another reason I choose them.

S: As you have said you do have some business between china and Switzerland, why

you not choose the domestic TPL enterprise in China?

B: as you know the international enterprise built a good reputation which I can trust

one hundred percent. Also some domestic TPL enterprise of china only can do

domestic business or have few businesses with Switzerland. Those may affect the

delivery time of our goods. Also I think the price in the international enterprises is

reasonable.

85

S: OK. So when do you have business with DHL? Why you change your mind to

TNT?

B: I just have once or twice business with DHL. I think the service of them is good,

too. But as I have been said, because the do not have corporation with post office, it

not convenient enough. By the way, after the first business, the client of DHL called

me to join into their membership, which may provide more choices for me. But I

think it is too much for me to read and understand all of them, so I rejected. The most

important thing is that DHL is more expensive than TNT.

S: those enterprises just contact you with telephone or they also have other methods?

B: the most way is the telephone, DHL have contacted me by email as well. But the

only way TNT contact me is the first time they visit my home.

S: Have you ever cooperated with the domestic enterprise?

B: Yes, I have once.

S: why it is just once?

B: I think that it is a nightmare. Because this is a very important document which I

want to send from Beijing to Shanghai. When I call the company, where is my

document now, the staff said that the client who responsible to your document is not

here today, please call tomorrow. When I ask if someone here could help me, the

clients said, they cannot check the information which responsible by another client. I

think it is inconvenience to me.

S: OK, thanks. I think I have known the most of thing I wan to know. Thank you

very much!

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B: you are welcome.

S: all right, thanks again. See you later.

B: See you then.

Appendix 2- Interview the client:

Interviewer: Sherry client: Wang Wei

S: Good morning, I am a postgraduate student undertaking an MSc in Information

Management in the University of Sheffield. My dissertation is specializes in CRM in

the TPL enterprise. I want to know something about your work.

W: OK, I am pleased to answer your questions which I know.

S: first could you introduce your work department for me?

W: OK. I am working in the customer service department. Our work can be divided

into four parts. The first one is that help customers, agents, colleagues within the

company to resolve the enquiries and complaints. The second thing we should do is

that help customers provide remedial services and claims solutions. The third thing

we should do is that customers will reflect the problems in the course of enquiries and

we found the problem back to the network and local branches together to improve our

processes and service levels. The last thing is that every day we would also like to

assist the network in other countries, respond to their request.

S: So could you tell me if the CRM system have some effects on your work?

W: yes, it could be. Our wages are divided into normal wages and job performance

wage. Performance wages is determined by a lot of work standards. These standards is

a score which based on your usually work play.

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S: I do not very understand the process which you have been scored, could you

explain it for me?

W: OK. I will say something about our different catalogue requests, I think it may be

some help. The first kind request which we called 1 request means the customer call

in to request the shipment information. We will set call back time depending on

when the customers call in. We will check five or seven queries monthly and make a

score for every client. Because our system is recording in English, the score will be

made depending on how many misspelling do you have and the effectiveness you

solve the problem. Further more, because we will record every calling by the

customers and we have the process what you must to say. Depending on the different

situation we will provide foreign colleagues the shipment information.

The second request we called undelivery. Many shipments which import to China the

sender provide the wrong recipient's information. So we can not be distributed through

all kinds of methods. At that time we will re-link the sender to provide new links Way.

The performance and the effectiveness of resolve should be checked by managers.

The third category request which we called nine is called by foreign colleagues to

check. Generally the manager will check the two of the nine requests for our

performance.

The fourth category is called initiative request. We have specialized colleagues to

track every express every day. If there are some problems we will request customers

initiatively and to tell customers what are the problems also set the call back. So the

score standard will just like 1 request.

In addition to check the case, we also have a lot of performance. Our company

regulate that our requirements need to be resolved. This part will also be scored and

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put into the whole performance evaluation.

S: OK. I think I have a general image of how your performance should be involved.

And the last question, I think your work will get more customer information. How

your company keep this information not explosion to outsides.

W: in fact customer information May disclose by sale every usually. Every time we

will contact with different customers. And our company signed contract with the

customer. The content involved that how many times you will have business with us

every month and how long it will be take. So if we want to leave a customer it can be

through more exchanges with customers and provide a good service. We can get

competitors‘ customer information. Moreover, many companies are also having

business with many companies because each company has advantages.

S: OK, thanks. Thank you for your explanation of your work. I think I have got

enough information which I do want to get.

W: you are welcome. Please contact me if you find any problems.

S: all right, thanks again. See you later.

W: good luck. Bye.

Appendix 3- Interview the manager:

Interviewer: Sherry Marketing Director: Wang

S: Good morning, I am a postgraduate student undertaking an MSc in Information

Management in the University of Sheffield. My dissertation is specializes in CRM in

the TPL enterprise. I want to get some details of the implementation of CRM in your

89

company.

W: OK, I am pleased to answer your questions which I know.

S: my first question is could you describe the details of the process of CRM in your

company?

W: well, first of all, our company‘s customer relationship management system

consists of two parts, the front desk and the back desk. The front desk is mainly the

enterprises‘ website and has been built and put into operation in 1995. Besides the

front desk of FedEx‘s CRM system, there is a strong information management

system operating in the background.

S: could you tell us something about how the website of the front desk and how

customers can operate it in details?

W: OK, I will explain it to you in details. FedEx site is also an operational window

face to the practical operation. Every page has the feature of that, business publicity,

practical operations and Establishment Company‘s image. In the homepage of our

website has a drop-down menu, which lists all the Countries FedEx has business with.

There are several selected buttons on the left side of the page which are "sign in",

"transport Goods ", ―Search", ―service‖ and ―contact us‖; on the right hand, it

introduce the ―FedEx Internet-Ship‖ business system to users. The website also has

"welcome new users centre" and "online service center.‖ I will explain both of them

respectively. The The main features of The Welcome center are to guide the new

users. there are several services items which includes domestic and oversea parcel

shipping and land transport, to verify and receive shipping goods, paper, packaging,

processing and service, transport and management tools such as Internet, dedicated

software, hardware, solutions, The cost and time optimization transport process, and

some transport samples, such as introduce The simple steps of FedEx system, how to

90

apply and submit a filling business table by demos. Online service center functions

are carried out practical operation. Customers can carry on the actual business

operations in online service centre.

S: so what are the advantages of the FedEx Internet-Ship?

W: well, it really helps. FedEx Internet-Ship business system is a set of intelligent

delivery system based on the Internet. This system can improve the speed of delivery,

and can search the transport 25 items information at one time.

S: could you explain to me how the back desk works?

W: OK, I will explain that FedEx's intelligent transport management system the most

important system builds on the Internet to you. For customers, FedEx‘s intelligent

transport management system can provide a seamless connection between customers

and enterprise or straight intervene to the user‘s transportation through the Web

pages. In this way, in logic any companies can directly put FedEx massive air and

land team as their transport resources. FedEx launched the ―the whole is greater than

the parts‖ collaboration, intelligence solutions welcome by all types of enterprises.

S: what value the customer relationship management system creates to the FedEx?

W: For individual users, the standardization work flow of FedEx website enable

them carry out self-service easily. They can access the orders, submit transport

business, tracking parcels, and collect information. Each month there are more than

300 million visitors on the website. All the data store into the company‘s internal

network at the same time. becouse about 2 / 3 of the transport process through the

system automatically, it greatly reduced the huge costs which the user call the FedEx

response centre. Thus save a large number of funds for users. Federal Express helps

users to reduce logistics costs. It also means that it enhances the user's

91

competitiveness in the market. This is the value that Federal Express‘s

Customer relationship management system to create. And this, also creates many

loyal customers for our company and enable our company own a dominant position

in the competition market.

S: OK, thanks. I think I have known the most of CRM in your company and I think

they are useful for me to do my dissertation. Thank you very much!

W: you are welcome. Please contact me if you find any problems.

S: all right, thanks again. See you later.

W: good luck. Bye.

Appendix 4- Questionnaire for customer

Section A about CRM

1. Have you heart about Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

A. Yes

B. No

2. Will it implement your business choice if the company has CRM system?

A. Yes

B. No

Section B about TPL

3. Have you heart about third party logistics (TPL)?

92

A. Yes

B. No

4. How often do you have business with TPL enterprises?

A. never

B. about once a month

C. about once a week

D. nearly every day

5. How long have you had business with TPL enterprises?

A. about 1 year

B. about 2-5 years

C. more than 5 years

D. more than ten years

6. What kinds of companies do you like?

A. the big companies of developed countries (such as UPS, Federal Express, DHL)

B. the native enterprises of China

C. both of them

7. What are the key points to implication you to choose this company? (Multiple

choice)

A. the good reputation of the company

B. cheap price

C. good service attitude

D. has the online trading system

93

E. others (please write down)

8. How often do you change the logistics company?

A. never

B. almost never

C. often

D. not easy to say

9. What is the main reason that makes you changed the logistics company?

(multiple choice)

A. Because of the unsatisfied service

B. High cost

C. The product damaged or lost

D. without online trading system

E. the project does not fit me

F. Others (please specify): _____________

Appendix 5- Questionnaire of CRM for

company client

1. When did your company implement CRM? _____________________

2. How is the implementation of CRM to your company?

A. excellent

B. good

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C. fairly good

D. poor

E. very poor

3. Do you think your company gets benefits from CRM?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Don‘t know

4. How does your company contact to your customers? (multiple choice)

A. by Internet

B. by telephone

C. by mail

D. Text message

E. Others: _______

5. How many phones do you receive one day?

A. less than ten

B. ten to twenty

C. twenty to thirty

D more than thirty

6. What is the most often content in the phone?

A. to ask where is their package now

B. to complain the lost package

C. to ask the price of different service

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D. others:

7. How long will be a phone call?

A. one minute B. three minutes C. five minutes D. ten minutes E. more than ten

minutes

8. How long does your company keep the records of customers‘ consumer

behaviors?

A. <1 year

B. 1 – 2 years

C. 3 – 5 years

D. >5 years

9. What degree do you think the CRM system will influence your work

performance?

A. never

B. a little

C. very much

10. What degree do you think the CRM system will influence your improve,

comment and salary?

A. never

B. a little

C .very much

Finally, we are sincerely inviting you to fill in the details as below:

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1. Can I have your age?

A less than 18

B 18-21

C 22-25

D 26-29

E 30-33

F34-37

G more than 37

2. Are you female or male?

A male

B female

3. what is your highest degree

A high school or less

B the junior college

C bachelor degree

D more than bachelor (such as master, phD)

E others

4. how much is your salary

A less then 1000RMB

B 1000-2000RMB

C 2000-5000RMB

D 5000-10000RMB

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E more than 10000RMB

Appendix 6-Figures and Tables

FIGURE 2.4-1 THE THIRD REPORT OF CHINESE LOGISTICS INDUSTRY (2001:29) ............... 26

FIGURE 2.4-2- THE THIRD REPORT OF CHINESE LOGISTICS INDUSTRY (2001:29) .............. 26

FIGURE 4.1-1 THE RESULT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION Q1 .................................................. 46

FIGURE 4.1-2 THE RESULT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION Q3 .................................................. 46

FIGURE 4.1-3 THE RESULT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION Q4 .................................................. 47

FIGURE 4.1-4 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q4 ............................................ 48

FIGURE 4.1-5 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q5 ............................................ 49

FIGURE 4.1-6 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q6 ............................................ 50

FIGURE 4.1-7 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q7 ............................................ 50

FIGURE 4.1-8 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q8 ............................................ 51

FIGURE 4.1-9 THE RESULT OF CUSTOMER QUESTIONNAIRE Q9 ............................................ 52

FIGURE 4.1-11 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q4 ........................... 54

FIGURE 4.1-12 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q5 ........................... 54

FIGURE 4.1-13 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q6 ........................... 55

FIGURE 4.1-14 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q7 ........................... 56

FIGURE 4.1-15 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q8 ........................... 56

FIGURE 4.1-16 THE RESULT OF INTERNAL CLIENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Q9 ........................... 57

TABLE 2.1-1- ADOPTING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY (2002)

...................................................................................................................................................... 12

TABLE 2.3-1-CRM MARKET- GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS (MILLIONS OF

DOLLARS)-INTERNATIONAL DATA CORPORATION, 1999 AGR: AVERAGE GROWTH

RATE ............................................................................................................................................ 21

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TABLE 2.4-1- REASONS FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH TPL -THE THIRD REPORT OF

CHINESE LOGISTICS INDUSTRY (2001:29) .......................................................................... 27

TABLE 2.4-2- REASONS FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH INHOUSE LOGISTICS- THE THIRD

REPORT OF CHINESE LOGISTICS INDUSTRY (2001:29) .................................................... 28