Are you the type that enjoys going to magic shows and sits in awe as the magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat or mysteriously selects the card that you were thinking of? Then CRM is probably magic to you.
Or, do you tirelessly scan the show looking for the ‘tell’ or prop that disproves the magical illusion? Being pragmatic, I am the latter and unfortunately a harbinger of broken dreams.
With the advent of interactive technologies and user generated content the ability to truly keep a ‘secret’ has become more and more exigent. In this insatiable information age, a simple search on YouTube can lead to a plethora of videos easily explaining away the ‘magic’ behind a magician’s craft from card tricks to Houdini like escapes. Did you know that the hovering-card trick is actually done with scotch tape and thread taped behind the magician’s ear?
CRM is not Magic
Continuing on where others dare not venture, there is no special potion, incantation or magic word that allows an organization to ultimately become customer centric. There is no magic box, Holy Grail or wizard behind the curtain that constantly provides the right customer, matched to the right offer at the right time, through the right channel at the right cadence. Or is there?
Blog: CRM is Magic…revisited
The Merriam – Webster dictionary defines Magic as…
‘The use of means believed to have supernatural power over natural forces’
If we first substitute ‘means’ with ‘strategies, policies and technologies’ then ‘supernatural power’ with ‘purchasing influence’ and finally ‘natural forces’ with ‘prospects and customers’ leaving us with the modified definition:
‘The use of strategies, policies and technologies believed to have purchasing influence over prospects and customers’
In this definition, have we now found our ‘abracadabra’? Is this the Rosetta Stone required to decrypt the seemingly unintelligible? Perhaps…however this is the only definition that will allow me to acquiesce that CRM is magic.
To effectively develop and foster ongoing customer relationships, companies must utilize a knowledge-based CRM approach that focuses on understanding customer’s needs and preferences. This requires a holistic view of your customer data, analysis and profiling of customer segments and utilization of innovative tools and technology to deliver relevant marketing messages to key customer segments.
Simple, actionable, measurable and effective CRM strategies based on sound principles work ‘like magic’ to transport individuals along the relationship continuum from prospect to suspect to customer to advocate ultimately increasing ROI and improving the customer experience.
Oh yeah…one last thing, since we are bursting bubbles anyway…there is no tooth fairy either.
