The CRM Manifesto is now available in German.  Thank you to Wolfgang Haas for kindly providing this translation ..read more

Source: Why Consultants Should Read The CRM Manifesto ..read more

Earlier this year Microsoft included new Voice of the Customer functionality in its Dynamics CRM 2016 Online product.  Having previously worked in Customer Insight for several years the thought of having Research fully integrated into CRM was truly exciting.  So, in advance of my presentation with Andrew Bibby at the CRM User Group, I thought I’d share top tips for successful research. 1) Start with the end in mind For each question you should be able to answer ‘what will I do when I have the answer?’. Be really strict to separate the truly insightful from the merely interestin ..read more

Kost’ Koniev (twitter: @skfd) messaged me today, saying “You should rewrite the manifest. Right now it’s crazy business-speak.  You fell into the trap of abstraction, but the message is good”. He very kindly came up with a few suggested amendments, and I welcome an approach to use plain English. What do you think? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy. Not software. Not a technology. CRM is not a technology. CRM is not software. CRM seeks to increase our revenue and customer’s satisfaction. Engaging in CRM means that the way we work is going to change. C ..read more

I’ve added a signatories page to the CRM Manifesto.  I would be great to see support for the manifesto spread across the CRM community. download the badge ..read more

I recently presented the CRM Manifesto to the UK Dynamics CRM User Group.  It was a hugely enjoyable session and there was lots of discussion around the 13 articles. The slide deck can be downloaded here ..read more

It’s been said that CRM is a journey, not a destination. CRM is stranger than that, CRM is not even CRM! In this article we aim to refocus on the core principles and strategic reasons for using CRM software, correcting expectations of what CRM is and what it can achieve, and what else needs to be done to make that come true. Let’s start by getting right back to basics: CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.  It’s how we manage relationships with our customers, both our current customers as well as our prospective customers. This is the first tenant of the CRM Manifesto: CRM is ..read more

Data is the lifeblood of Customer Relationship Management; it is the means by which users are informed about the customer, so they can best direct their decisions and actions to add value to the customer experience and meet business goals.  The content of a CRM solution is as important as the people, processes and technology.   These six guiding principles will help you define your programme’s data strategy. Seek to enable better decision making, both for individual customers interactions and collectively to inform wider customer management strategy. Recognise that data is a tangibl ..read more

Why customer research is an essential element of any CRM programme It’s all too easy for the focus of a CRM programme to become too inward looking, to focus on organisational improvements. Indeed many CRM business cases will rightly have much benefit attributed to efficiency improvements, showing a tempting reduction in headcount that will delight the cautious CFO. By all means consider internal benefits but remember that the focus of Customer Relationship Management is the customer, and improving their experience. It could be that the operational efficiencies you have identified add value to ..read more

I was going to write a lengthy piece about the importance of Data in relation to any CRM programme, and this post may well  turn out to be longer than I wish, however, there is really only one thing you need to remember… Data is going to take much, much longer than you anticipate. Unless your CRM application is only going to take data from one data source, and that data is clean and very well understood, then it’s going to take a huge amount of effort to handle. Actually, even if you think your CRM application is only going to take data from one data source, and you believe that the data ..read more