Can CRM Predict the Future?
December 22, 2010
Nah, but it is fun to look at their view of information access. For me, CRM is a code word for cutting costs and keeping customers away from humans who are really big cost black holes. Customer support is for the upscale customers. Serfs get to do Web self service or spend time in telephone loops listening to a person’s recorded voice saying, “Your call is important to us.” Yeah, right.
So what’s the future from the CRM crowd?
“CRM 2011 – What’s Up Wit’ That – Part I” and Part II are Paul Greenberg’s CRM predictions for the coming year with a quick year in review. Greenberg’s “big Kahuna” is analytics / customer insight apps. Greenberg says:
“Being able to capture [social data], granularly interpret it, decide how to use it and then make decisions on the basis of that use is perhaps the most fundamental of needs for now and several years ahead. Couple that with the interest that key corporate execs have in ‘getting closer to the customer’ and we are talking about what is probably the most important trend for you to pay attention to in 2011.”
Another prediction is that knowledge management will replace content management:
“Knowledge management, unlike enterprise content management, isn’t only the collection, storage and organization of documents but is the accessibility of information that answers questions. What it also involves is the delivery of that information and the timeliness of that information. That means it can be via FAQ, Web self service knowledgebases that are accessible by both employees and customers; it can involve the delivery of dynamic knowledge based on ongoing wikis and threaded forums; it most certainly involves a highly effective search mechanism.”
Both knowledge and management are both difficult to define, so when he asserts that research reveals the importance of KM over CM, one has to question the results.
We find it interesting that some mid tier content processing vendors are now “experts” in customer support. Well, it is less onerous than trying to add substance to a fuzzy notion like “business intelligence.” My prediction is that fuzzy marketing will be popular in 2011. Who wants reality to limit the use of an ageing software system?
Alice Wasielewski, December 22, 2010
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