CRM to the Rescue: CRM End All Be All?

by Jeffrey Hahn

I love a challenge. And that is what I got when I was asked to lead a project to put together a CRM. How do you put together a CRM? Given my educational background is in Philosophy, I started thinking, “what is CRM?”, “What is the essence of CRM?”, and “What provoked the need for someone to create CRM?” After going back and reading about CRM, the many failures and few successes, I found whole experience enlightening. One might gather from reading up on CRM that there might be semantics issue, but I believe it goes deeper. Is CRM a business process? Is it a software application? Or is it a goal that you hope to achieve? In each of these three questions would unfold another layer of questioning in order for you (your company) to define what you/they mean by Customer Relationship Management. If it is a goal, how do you know when you have achieved CRM? If it is a business process how to you know you are following CRM? These are questions that a company must address before assembling a team to create a “CRM”. Read the entire post at: CRM to the Rescue: CRM End All Be All?