News & Views

November 30, 2009 from SOA World Magazine – “I am going to get a lot of heat for this statement but, truth be told, CRM is a hoax. There is no such thing as CRM. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and you cannot nurture customer relationships (or any other form of relationship) using a bunch of bits. It’s a cop-out. I know of CRM market segments and sizes. I am well aware of CRM dissemination and popularity in corporate America. I don’t question its omnipresence in virtually all businesses in one form or another. My claim, however, is that it does not and cannot work as billed. In numerous cases, it is simply a waste of “feel-good”money…

Now, I’m not saying all companies who use CRM manage customers poorly. Some do get lucky. And others use it as a tool, not a means to an end, which is perfectly fine. What I am pointing out is that customer service quality seems inversely proportional to the resources spent on CRM at the corporate level. And that’s ironic. The problem is in the C-suite. These folks see CRM as a panacea but inherently, deep down, these people do not have customer service “genes”. They have Board of Directors genes, profit margin genes, or MBA ones, but they don’t know the first thing about worshipping customers – It’s a form of autism on their part.

Because in my experience, customer service is not something you can learn on the fly (although I suspect it is taught in business schools). And it’s not something you can acquire via software. Companies, like people, are either born with it or not. It’s a nature not a nurture trait. And no amount of software or resources will change the behavior of a company whose culture isn’t obsessively centered on the customer. It sounds obvious, and everyone talks about it, but most of the time, it’s nothing more than lip service. It’s a sham I tell you…”

180 View – I stumbled upon this blog by Jerome Pineau and thought it was one of the better articles I have read over the last few years. Although I don’t agree with Jerome’s conclusion that CRM is a sham, I do agree with him when he says it is a means to an end. CRM is just like any tool. For example, a carpenter can work wonders with a saw, but in the wrong hands, a saw can not only be a waste of money but also dangerous.