Is It Time to Radically Change Your Approach to CRM?

by Jim Love

CRM continues to ride a growing wave of interest as businesses struggle to find any way to gain advantage in difficult markets and difficult economic situations. Companies have demanded, or at least pursued, strategies that I call the "Three Fs" (features, functions, and fads). Vendors have responded. New features, new functions, new fads, and even new CRM packages have hit the market at an amazing rate. Ironically, in the midst of this explosion of offerings, few companies have exploited the features of their existing systems. All too often, CRM systems remain caught in a vicious cycle of overpromise and underachievement. Customers are making radical changes to the way they behave in relationship with the companies that serve them. Can these same companies avoid radical changes to systems they count on to develop and manage those relationships? Tinkering won't do. In this Executive Report, I explore the real changes required to reinvent CRM and successfully address the challenges of the 21st-century customer.