CRM - 3 roads to disaster

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) seems to get an increasing number of articles about failure. It offers so much opportunity for a business, yet has a high failure rate.

The attached article by Rick Cook in Inside CRM is another in the list. In it Rick identifies 3 areas where businesses have made mistakes with a CRM project:

• Concentrating on technology rather than people.
• Not having everyone on board.
• Not putting the customer first.

I've mentioned these before, but it keeps happenning. The last is the most interesting. When we use the words "Customer Relationship Management", how can we think of anything but putting the customer first. If we want to improve the relationship, the customer must be first.

The second must be important if we are to accept the third. If our people are not on board, the customer will never be first.

If we accept those two, then we should not be concentrating on technology. It is the least important and only becomes important because the job is left to the technology people. Technology is only a small part of the solution. It may be a big one from a non-technician's point of view, but forget that. The people, the change in process, the relationship is what's important.

In order to achieve success, it is the only thing that is important.