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

CRM 2.0 isn’t like holding hands and smelling flowers

What is CRM 2.0? Here’s a thought:

It’s a nice thought, but my gut feeling says these forces (CRM, VRM, etc.) are not converging, not in a harmonious way. In fact, where CRM now represents the established order (organizations with their processes & tools to “push” value / messages to the customer), VRM is an underdog, a disruptor that doesn’t care at all about what companies are doing.

In a hypothetical VRM scenario, I say here’s my contact information that I choose to share with you, you, but not THEM, and by the way I’d like to refinance my mortgage so I’m open for bids. Vendors, do whatever you want to do as long as you play by my rules.

Time will tell whether this scenario is viable enough, but there is no denying companies are much less enthusiastic about the customer-driven economy then they would like you to think. I believe their default mode would be charging you money for nothing if they could get away with it, and some - like the managament consulting industry - are quite good at it.

Here’s my diagram of CRM 2.0:

The blue box is the company. It’s doing whatever it’s doing - there’s too many acronyms out there to remember. And CRM strikes it from outside; the company doesn’t know how big it is because it doesn’t come from the comfortable blue box. It will only react when the balls start rolling.

I liked what Paul G. said in his latest podcast (ep. 15): CRM 2.0 is the company’s response to what the customer is demanding. It can be proactive but it’s ultimately driven by market necessity rather than shareholders’ preferences. There is no harmony in the picture (as in “closing the loop”) but rather conflict, drama, tension, and uncertainty.

Which is exactly the environment most nurturing to business innovation.

Additional reading

May 6, 2008 | Filed Under CRM 

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