There are plenty of places where you can read that CRM is '..not a technology but a rather a mind set..'. Even this adds to the overall confusion though, as it tries to be too clever an answer in my book.
There are two types of CRM - transactional and strategic, reactive and proactive.
Transactional / reactive
This is where an organisation uses CRM to record and monitor transactions. Calls, opportunities, letters, complaints, orders etc... It's employees will then take action based on this historic record.
Strategic / proactive
Where an organisation plans the action it is going to take and uses CRM to monitor the response. For example - plan and execute a marketing campaign, then use CRM to monitor the response by, for example, the number of call received.
It doesn't take too much figuring out to see that the strategic / proactive approach is better. Both are very valid uses of CRM and I wouldn't want to sit here and say one is right and the other wrong. However, many CRM implementations barely make it past the transaction level and if they did they would release enormous value.
Getting to the strategic stage is all about using good business methods -
- Having a vision for the system
- Making it part of your business plan
- Knowing what a successful system will look like
- Understanding the effect change will have on customers and staff
- Producing and sticking to a plan
- Accepting that the work must be phased over time
- Don't get carried away with the new toy
- Celebrating successes and non judgementally understanding setbacks
CRM is not a tool that will solve all problems but it must help an organisation release knowledge about how it affects it's environment. It should provide the stimulus to take action and the knowledge to make decision making more comfortable.
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