How Do We Measure Success?

by Raymond Pettit

For customer relationship management (CRM) software developers, success is defined by a number that reflects the client's payoff from investment in CRM software. The problem is that there are many important factors omitted from this success equation. There's no consistent benchmark from which to build an adequate valuation of CRM success. So clever CRM software folks have come up with "derived" metrics -- which generally ignore integration costs -- that purport to show ROI. For me, success measures are found in operational savings; increased effectiveness in marketing, sales, and customer service (which all need definition and calibration); and, finally, in the derivation of critical executive-level performance metrics that definitively depict "success." All these measures require expertise and sophistication not provided by CRM software vendors.