Bill Spornitz on Mon, 17 Dec 2001 21:00:38 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> CRM: Customer Relations Mismanagement |
This is a copy of a little note I sent out in response to an article in zdnet's tech update on *Customer Relations Management*, the latest popcorn fart of an idea put forth by a struggling industry to keep the money and the Porche's flowing... thanks for sharing ;-> b There's a fatal flaw in most CRM analysis available today. With all the talk of tools and platforms, TCO and ROI, no one is taking a look at the non-renewable resource that is key to success in this field - customer goodwill. I work on the front line of CRM, on the phones, and I can tell you that your *customer* is growing increasingly hostile to the regular intrusion by those that seek to better serve them. The CRM market is just in it's infancy and, already, it is very difficult to get anyone to talk to me; I'll call for an hour just to speak to one person, and then they'll tell me what they think I want to hear just to get rid of me. As far as I know, Garbage In still equals Garbage Out and I fear for the quality of knowledge that is derived from the interviewing I am doing, and the decisions being made because of it. With more players calling, emailing, faxing and pestering already busy people, the customer base is ready to vote with it's silence. As well, once we have the customer on the phone, we badger them with hastily produced, overly long scripts, effectively and subliminally associating aggresive brands with harassment and inconvenience. Do you want to improve your customer relations in America in 2002? LEAVE THE CUSTOMER ALONE. 10 steps to forecasting, achieving CRM ROI by Beth Eisenfeld, Gartner Group http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2830655,00.html From the page: When enterprises seriously begin to contemplate or pursue customer relationship management initiatives, they often become aware that the costs can be daunting. However, when done correctly, the benefits of CRM initiatives are significant and can justify associated investments. As the global economy continues to decline, more scrutiny is being paid to business and technology investments. CRM, although one of the last initiatives to be "cut back," is no different. In any economy (good or bad), smart senior executives pay attention to the investments they make, so that promised benefits are broughtto customers, employees, and shareholders. At a time when executives should be obsessing about customer loyalty, many are considering walking away from (or delaying) critical CRM initiatives, daunted by the seemingly high cost and time it takes to achieve the promised return on investment (ROI) or set back by organizational obstacles. However, making smart investments in the right components of CRM strategies can pay off in a big way, if they are done correctly... # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net