CRM != Customers don’t Really Matter
Published January 26th, 2007 in SoftwareThere’s a well known article by Meredith Gossland with a nice header CRM = Customers (don’t) Really Matter. In short it says that all software CRM systems can do nothing in customer retention and you should avoid using them in your company.
There’re a lot of nice points in the article and it’s very well written but I can’t agree with the main conclusion or to be more precise main presupposition. Maybe that’s just because I’m originally a software developer.
But I don’t want to say that the article is wrong. It’s correct. Well, it’s mostly correct. Let’s go step by step.
Meredith says that people who work in customer service and their attitude towards clients are more important than software tools they use. Right? Absolutely.
She also says that CRM tools can’t solve all the problems clients may have. That’s correct again.
After all the article has an example of circumstances under which client support person helped customers and CRM tool wouldn’t have helped. I totally agree that there’re a lot of such situations.
So the bottom line is caring people rule (agree), software tools suck (disagree).
My point is that software is not to replace people. It is to help them to do their work better.
I do believe in software. I know how much time it can save and how effective you can be if you have proper tools at hand. And still software is not god. It’s not even a 7 bucks per hour employee. It’s just a tool to help you but it’s your responsibility to apply it in a right way. So what I would like to say is CRM (meaning software and processes) is not always equal to Customers don’t Really Matter. It’s a powerful leverage for people who know how to use it and a dangerous toy for those who don’t.
That’s it.
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It really boils down to one of two evils
1) Businesses hire staff to deal with customer issues… get ready to pay more for your products/services but expect better service
2) CRM tools are used to reduce staff and create self help solutions for their customers… poorer customer service but cheaper products and services
Until people in general are willing to spend an extra 20% for things (I pulled that number out of my butt) and stop shopping at bargain discount stores because they save $2.95, CRM tools will grow. I’m just as guilty as everyone else. Buy something cheap and hope I don’t run into problems.
CRM tools are still in their infancy and businesses are trying to determine the best ratio of personal server verses automation.
Yes, CRM tools are making only first steps towards the clients. There’s a long way to go to achieve significant results.
But refusing to utilize such tools is not a clever decision.
A smarter approach to working with customers efficiently would be a balanced combination of human and computer effort. That would be both more efficient and less expensive than using human-only support.