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(Re)Defining CRM
One constant in the area of CRM -- customer relationship management -- is the ongoing discussion about a newer, more appropriate nomiker for this overarching, enterprisewide strategy. Some organizations have embraced CEM (customer experience management) or CMR (customer managed relationships); other organizations have their own unique name for customer relationship management.
To me, CRM is a good fit; the rest is mostly semantics. (Although I do admit that using something like CMR can help rally a company’s staff around the customer.) As long as an organization has an enterprisewide customer strategy that creates a win-win for company and customer, does it really matter what it’s called? Many industry experts think so.
One particular CRM guru, Paul Greenberg, thinks the conversation on this is so important that he’s created a wiki to discuss it.
One thing I think is great about Greenberg is that he’s always looking forward. He’s not just talking about CRM on the wiki, and on his blog, he’s talking about CRM 2.0 – what’s next. And he takes CRM 2.0 so seriously that it’s now it’s now an integral part of the judging process for his annual Steppin’ Out Awards.
How would you define CRM today, or as Greenberg calls it CRM 2.0? What makes it different than how organizations have defined it in the past?
Ginger
Good question. Paul and the rest of us CRMGurus have been discussing this for some time. As you might expect of people at the leading-edge of a fast-moving subject, there is no single opinion about what to call CRM.
For me, CRM is company-centric customer management, CEM is customer-centric customer management and CMR is customer-driven customer management.
The management point that Paul raised is part of today's dominant model of CRM. But as customers develop more choices through C2C partnering, Customer Co-creation together with business and other forms of (networked) economic activity, we may see that changing.
The CRM2.0 discussion that Paul has started is very relevant for these changing times. I encourage all your readers to chip in their ideas about where CRM is going.
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager
The thing that jumps out to me is the use of the term "management" in all it's forms and subtleties. It is a company-centric approach that assumes the customer needs to be controlled and managed. Why not use a term like "customer relationship enable-ment" (not a real word but it's never stopped anyone before.)
At least in this form it sends the message to the customer and the company employees that it is all about the customer and what they want out of the relationship versus what the company wants.