Letters to the Editor

Re: What is CRM? Some Definitions (The CRM Loop, July 28, 2005)

Let’s put it this way: I have been involved in “CRM” technology and services long before CRM became the big hit. It’s really so simple but everyone makes it so complicated.

What is CRM?

CRM is a customer-centric way of operating your business.

That’s it. That simple. Yet people make it so complicated. Why? Because they never learned to walk in someone else’s shoes.

Businesses operate from their own perspective, from what’s good for them. That’s easy to tell. See how much businesses will pay to manage historical data (accounting) and how little when it comes to spending money to manage what is happening…what will happen…and to integrate all the pieces so that customer’s can be served more effectively.

Simple however doesn’t mean easy! Nor does it mean you can buy it in a box and install it. Its a cultural shift for most companies.

What is CRM?

CRM is running your business from a customer/operational perspective and not an accounting/operational perspective as the majority of businesses are designed to do.

If only companies would view their business from their customer’s perspective—then they would make the changes they need to make to improve their internal operations appropriately. Instead they buy a piece of software because their IT guy suggested it. This is definitely not CRM.

CRM is not technology but CRM is not process either. It’s not even, as some suggest, a combination of two all the time. CRM is whatever it takes for the business the in question to operate in such a way as to serve customers.

If you run a small hairdresser, obviously CRM is quite different than if you run an international manufacturer and distributor. The first one doesn’t even need technology, and the second obviously would need strategy and technology.

Kerri Groves
President
LookOut Software Inc.

– – – – –

Re: The CRM Cynic: Don and Martha ROC and Roll (The CRM Loop, July 28, 2005)

You’re right: The “new” Return on Customer term is nothing more than a heated-up LTV meal, and not a breakthrough book as (Peppers & Rogers’) self-promotion would have you believe. Scott Cook, CEO of Intuit commented in his review: “Books like this comes along only once a decade.” He’s right, and Fredrick Reichheld wrote the first breakthrough book, “The Loyalty Effect,” a decade before, in 1996. For those who think ROC is a new concept, I suggest they read the original recipe.

John M. Coe
President
Sales & Marketing Institute
Scottsdale, AZ

To comment on these letters or anything else, please e-mail us at [email protected]