notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

CRM 2.0 - Debunking the Debunkers

I DON’T BOTHER re-visiting my older posts (from way back when I was interested in politics); there are more interesting things to do. Today, though, I have to face myself - myself from March 24, 2006 when I wrote:

I find the vapor sold by old-school marketers as troublesome as the next guy; that said, is “push” dead? No, no, emphatically no: it will be around for as long as the average IQ doesn’t reach room temperature. [...] The “conversation-style marketing” so passionately propagated by the Cluetrain folks thus applies to the crème-de-la-creme only; if your client base consists of top earners, perhaps you can fire those marketing suits and start doing business differently. If, on the other hand, you are selling $5 shoes, you’ll probably want to stick with pushing the crap up the clueless users’ throats.

I’ve warmed up to Cluetrain since then, yet there’s still this tiny nagging voice in the background whispering, bullshit! Party for this reason, partly because Google hasn’t forgotten my older opinions, I’ve decided to stop dancing around. I gave two presentations on this topic in the past two weeks, and I realized I am far from ready to confront all the objections people raise.

So: what makes the claims of CRM 2.0 sound true (or not)? Are there any inherent flaws to its logic? Today, I’ll analyze a claim that we live in a “customer ecosystem“; the customer is tired of corporate b.s., demands authenticity and experiences (Paul Greenberg); that we are no longer being “managed” by corporations, instead, do most of the managing.

Objection: isn’t there a causal relationship between the intensitity of competition on the supply side and the level of control the customer seems to have? Aren’t businesses starting to listen only because they have to?

Argument: a conversation builds trust, and trust is necessary for a long-term relationship - be it a romantic or pragmatic one. You can only afford to ignore this point if you have a vital monopoly whose era is far from over. Perhaps we could get a sales rep from North Korean state telco to tell us more… but do these guys have telephones, anyway?

Objection: when haven’t we been tired of ads, press releases &tc.? Everybody skips the ads, and yet the advertisers somehow get their money back in product sales. Perhaps a 2% response rate is a great success, and the other 98% can go screw themselves - how about that?

Argument: (long pregnant silence)… so 2 is more than 98? (pause pause pause) … What if there was a way of reaching out to those 98%?

Objection: Most people are either too stupid or too lazy to participate in a conversation. The sudden explosion of good-naturedness and openness on the side of businesses is nothing more than a marketing ploy to engage the active 2%. The rest is still busy watching [insert your favorite TV spot here].

Argument: this is where I hear the ice breaking under my feet. Who does really want to talk to his utility company? Aren’t agile processes and good manners all that’s required for a functional CRM? Why add this “here comes the revolution!” stuff? How is business today different from 1990s - or 1950s?

I think ultimately it’s about the internet having enabled the massses to talk. My old post was elitist in how it ignored that people want to talk no matter how refined and nuanced their thinking is - or isn’t. People talk, and they do so regardless of whether companies are listening. And the pure force of that global conversation has to have an impact on how business is conducted.

We aren’t going to have any special feelings about utilitity companies or tax advisors or supermarkets, and yet we’re going to instinctively feel better about those who are just a bit more responsive, attentive, flexible… The same technology that globalized business interactions is making them local and more personalized. I am not yet sure how broad an assumption I can make; for now, let me say we’re going to examing this CRM 2.0 argument here pretty closely and we’ll see where it leads us.

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February 28, 2007 | Filed Under CRM 

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