Big news, folks. Customers are the next thing we are all going to notice in our CRM projects. It says so in an article someone sent to our CRM readiness and guidance teams.
Just in case the term CRM is brand new to you, the first word is Customer, followed by Relationship Management. CRM is about getting customers, keeping customers and growing customers. Technology is only 1/3 of the CRM picture, but the noise from the CRM Software vendors is so loud it drowns out the customer who is saying, "Remember me."
Understanding and using CRM principles is an absolute requirement for staying in business. So are activities such as setting up a bank account and providing a way for customers to give you money without making them go through an obstacle course to complete a transaction.
Along comes the fresh air of truth from Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of Beagle Research Group, a CRM market research firm and consultancy, who writes in Customer Relationship Management magazine in March 2006, the following:
"Well, according to published reports, of the 36,000-plus new products that hit the shelves in the U.S. in 2005, 80 percent will fail. That's a good indication that someone isn't listening, and the best transactional systems in the world aren't going to accelerate the sales process for the 28,800 products projected to bite the dust.
Internet commerce has leveled the playing field in favor of the customer. What is interesting is that vendors have done such a poor job of leveraging the Internet to get closer to their customers. All we've seen so far has been a lot of click stream capture and analysis--am I the only one to see a bit of misplaced hope, hype, and voodoo in this?"
Vendors stink when it comes to telling business folks that CRM is not about technology. Why should they, is their push back? As long as people will believe a piece of software will make them more interesting, more attractive people and improve all of the work and service processes of their organization, CRM vendors will take the money and keep shoveling the hype.
Let's all pay attention to what Denis Pombriant is trying to get across. If he's right, the customers are in the drivers' seat and that's very new to many businesses, still focused on products and services, rather than what matters to customers--their experience with your business and how you made them feel.
YES! Thank you for this post!
As I was browsing the latest issue of CRM magazine yesterday a little voice started screaming in the back of my head "CRM is FAR more than software!"
When is the rest of the world going to get it?
I finally concluded that the name of the magazine should be changed to "CRM Software". After all, the predominent message the magazine sends (in my opinion) is "CRM is software".
Thank you for being a part of the solution!
Posted by: Lora Adrianse | August 23, 2006 at 05:17 PM
What's unfortunate about this is that so many people in business are buying the line that the software is the solution to their problem.
We can't look for something that is hyped as a "fix." Customers (people) will always be the deciding factor in our success.
The rest are just tools to help us complete the job.
Posted by: Gary Bourgeault (managersrealm.com) | August 25, 2006 at 08:37 PM
It seems like a lot of small businesses are opening up into the CRM world lately to improve sales and customer experience, which is great.
Posted by: CRM Solutions | December 10, 2008 at 05:00 AM