CRM is well.....C.R.M. and it is just that!!!

One of the most challenging question I've come across in my profession as a CRM Consultant is being asked what CRM is. (This blog post not being shared with my manager!!!).

Really, tell me how differently can I explain what is Customer Relationship Management about? CRM is essentially just that. It is Customer Relationship Management or Managing Customer Relationships or Relationship Management with Customers!!! I have not come across a acronym that so beautifully and completely explains itself. If I was asked what is ERP, then well that is understandable that Enterprise Resource Planning does not really cling a thought and many will need a more descriptive analogy to ERP.

One of the major reasons I believe this question crops up, is, for many CRM has become synonymous with technology. CRM is that über-cool software or a mystical tool that will manage the customer relationships and build on customer loyalty whilst the service provider keeps treating the customers like slaves to his majesty. This very unfortunate notion of CRM, which even some reputed organizations have come to believe to be true - has bled millions of dollars on investment in CRM software packages, only to see the perceived ROI from such solutions in abyss. (Please note that I've nothing against CRM software packages. They are simply brilliant products that can help an organization connect with their customers like never before. But the point I'm trying to drive home is having a CRM software solution just because the competition has it or is the latest trend is a waste of time and money, unless the tenets that CRM has been built upon are ingrained in the DNA of the company).

A recent incident brought this notion out in more clarity and enforced in me all the more that CRM, unless understood as a philosophy in itself, does not add value in just being implemented as a software package and spending all those dollars. That money can be put for much better use, say like.......dividends to shareholders...... :)

The incident I'm highlighting here was not at a mom and pop store but in a famous coffee outlet (one of India's leading coffee cafe chains) in our office cafeteria that boasts an exhaustive CRM software. At the cashier counter there was this board that read "If your bill does not accompany your order consider the order free" and I had in the past observed that the receipt never accompanied the order. If you asked for the receipt only then they used to print it out and hand it over to the customer. So, one beautiful evening after having relished my coffee (and having not received the receipt again), I went up to the cash counter and told the cashier that the order should be free as per this board. Immediately he punched in the keys and handed over the receipt to me. On disagreeing to take the receipt and standing my ground, the cashier called up the store manager and having explained him the situation extended the handset to me to speak with the store manager.

The store manager curtly informed me that the order cannot be free and in aspersion stated this was applicable only for takeaways and started to blabber that nothing can be done now as the receipt was printed. The cash paid and the receipt having forced in my hand, I choose to complain at the franchisee level and lodged a complaint on their website. I must confess that I was thoroughly impressed with their grievance and feedback software package. The title of their webpage read "Intelligent CRM" and sure enough it felt so. I got back a customer feedback number in my mail id with a note stating that a customer executive could get back to me shortly.

I have since been waiting but to no avail. On doing a back track I found that the email was from a auto generated mailer and there was no call back number or email id provided to follow-up on this. At last I left it off wondering how the "Intelligent CRM" helped the organization retain me as a customer. Or do they receive so many complaints that they have stopped tracking all together?

Apart from such instances, how many times have we been bogged down by relentless questions from the call center guy before he actually took note of our problem? How many times have we been greeted at the service desk with sullen and impersonal faces? And how many times have we been made to run around departments or worst still shuttle between offices when the customer could have been serviced right at that point and at that time!!! 

On a lighter note, cant get closer to what I want to say than this (click here)....