15 July 2006

CRM 2.0

In a world where more and more of the same is becoming the most compelling business proposition, it is extremely hard to make a product stand out in the crowd. We've worn out all of our famous 4 P's long ago - until the level where only rubbing in our brands into the brains of our target groups seemed a sustainable way to distinguish ourselves. But brands are becoming less and less interesting to our customers. Because, once again, all brands are becoming more and more of the same boring same. Therefore I think branding is also a dead end track.
Customers want a good product, or a good service - nothing less, nothing more.
Up till now we have been using - or abusing - technology in the same way we abused marketing communications - namely mainly as a means to rationalize our operations. To undress our services to the bone. To make our operations more efficient. To make our sales more effective. To improve our margins - preferrably without adding value to our delivery.
Probably one of the most destructive abuses in the history of business has been in automating customer services. Where concepts for self help are presently more popular than concepts to improve a customer's experience. Where premium rate voice response systems lead us into waiting queues, and - only if we're lucky - into the hands of students who read their answers from computer generated Q & A scripts.
What's so entirely wrong about these concepts, is that they completely ignore the fact that only a small percentage of our customers are in fact self sufficient, and even a smaller percentage want to be self sufficient. We've always known this. The art and science of direct marketing has learned us since World War 2 that only a minor part of our markets can be developed through customers who don't need a normal dose of service. Nevertheless, we're presently trying to push complete user bases into the lame claws of our CRM systems.What most people really want is simply to get appropriate service, especially when they need it, the moment they need it. More service. Better service. Service that makes their lives easier instead of more difficult. Service that takes away hassles. Service that enables them to spend their precious time on things that are worth wile. Service that honestly tries to give them a better customer experience.In a future where we will dominantly have to live with one person markets, we'll have to live with customers who don't accept that they are shouted at, through advertising, and who won't accept that they have to maintain a dialogue with a software. The future of commercial communications AND of services is in H2H. Human to Human.*"Social CRM" or "Customer helps Customer" already is a widely spread practice in the world of consumer forums. Many of these forums and boards are excellent exponents of "Web 2.0", although they're often much older than that term.
Most of the solutions below are aiming at reducing customer delight; only some elements of these solutions and cases may contribute to a better Social CRM practice. This niche is largely open for new concepts!


24sevenoffice - Web-based crm & erp
Ebase - Web-based community CRM
E-tranet - CRM
Fixya - Social helpdesk
Interactionchat - Chat with your site's visitors
Pushcrm - Web-based crm
Relenta - CRM tool set
Simpleticket - Helpdesk solution
Sky-click - VoIP call center solution
Solve360 - Groupware CRM
Sugarcrm - Open source CRM
Tickethappy - Shared CRM management
Userscape - Web-based help desk portal
Visiblepath - Relationship management tools
Vtiger - Open source CRM
Zohocrm - Web-based crm

Italic = new. Updated 061221, 070119.

*Text of presentation for Club of Amsterdam seminar, 2005.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Relenta CRM

From website:

"Relenta CRM turns familiar software product categories upside down by integrating the functionality of business-class email, contact management, calendar, and email newsletter marketing software into one elegant Web 2.0 application.

As a simple, yet robust alternative to bloated software, Relenta CRM helps you get things done quickly and effectively. Our product development is focused on usability and overall user experience, rather than sheer number of obscure features."

Less is more - the 90/10 rule

Designed for usability and efficiency, Relenta CRM achieves 90 percent of the functionality commonly required by small business users with only ten percent of the application weight.

Jan-Frederik Kobus said...

CRM 2.0 is honestly something more than CRM + Web 2.0. In my humble opinion it's about tracking and tracing one's true lifecycle and see how a companies proposition fits in that. Sure, sales driven, sure customer focussed but more than that, focussed on the life cycle stage the customer is in.

Web 2.0 will give organizations far more opportunities to get in touch and stay in touch with customers and their needs, that's a fact.

See www.mycustomer.nl

Nevertheless, a comprehensive blog on the meaning of CRM. Well done.

Jan-Frederik

Anonymous said...

I agree. CRM 2.0 is here and companies such as salesforce.com, Relenta (www.relenta.com) and Juice Media Worldwide (http://www.juicemedia.com) are going to make some news.

Ashish Ranjan said...

True but not for long I say. The market place is just evolving and these are signs of corporations / GSI overwhelmed with the science of CRMs.
Wait till we also learn the art of CRM.

These are roads no one has travelled yet, so it is natural for us to visit the end of each of these roads to see what lies there and which one will be finally choose to adopt.
Yes, this experimenting is at the cost of the consumenrs though not totally.

 
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