Customer Relationship Management

You will no doubt be aware of the 'buzz' surrounding something called CRM or customer relationship management. In some cases it might be referred to as ERM ( enterprise relationship management), customer loyalty, or even the customer experience.

It all means the same thing.

"How do I/we make money?"

Essentially all the terms above are concerned with the long term profitability of customers. There are many proponents of this and their various approaches often concentrate on one aspect or another. Software companies try to brand CRM as a software solution and many businesses have bought on this basis only to discover that , in fact, it is a way of doing business. So the processes, organisation, strategy, technology, data, information, governance, branding and performance indicators all need to be changed.

Thoughtcrew takes a trouble-shooter position in this marketplace. Using our extensive CRM experience, our role is to help you cut through the jargon and help identify the aspects that are appropriate to your business. We will tell you if CRM is appropriate to your type of product or service (there are a number where customers do not want a 'relationship'). We are also particularly good at sorting out CRM projects that haven't quite gone according to plan!

Key words: CRM, ERM, Customer relationship management, customer loyalty, customer experience, Siebel, business intelligence, balanced scorecard