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| Tech Update CRM |
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CRM vendors don't walk the talk
'Do as I say...'
By David Sims
October 29, 2001
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How can an entire industry dedicated to jacking up customer satisfaction antagonize so many of its own customers? "Any time you get in an early-stage market like this, vendors tend to overpromise and under deliver," says Chris Selland, long-time CRM industry analyst and managing director at Boston-based Reservoir Partners. "The hype has gotten far ahead of the reality; vendors are always talking about the next product."
The study suggests that individual vendors and the industry as a whole can improve customer-satisfaction levels by, among other things, making software more flexible and easier to use, replacing marketing and sales pressure with a more consultative approach, and increasing innovation.
Customers have a role to play, too. The study says "many customers are contributing to their own dissatisfaction by not preparing themselves properly to implement CRM." Customers can increase their levels of satisfaction by being educated buyers, knowing what their software requirements are before contacting vendors, insisting that the software conform to their requirements, and objecting to high license fees, the study says.
"When I look at the numbers I was taking it more in a relative sense," says Onyx's Bunker. "I wouldn't sit in this chair and pretend it's never our fault," but when customers buy CRM tools without a clear idea of how they're going to use those tools, he says, "people have to point a finger somewhere."
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dissatisfaction by not preparing themselves properly to implement CRM." Customers can increase their levels of satisfaction by being educated buyers, knowing what their software requirements are before contacting vendors, insisting that the software conform to their requirements, and objecting to high license fees, the study says.
"When I look at the numbers I was taking it more in a relative sense," says Onyx's Bunker. "I wouldn't sit in this chair and pretend it's never our fault," but when customers buy CRM tools without a clear idea of how they're going to use those tools, he says, "people have to point a finger somewhere."
Granted, customers sometimes trash vendors for no good reason. And CRM is still an emerging industry, with kinks to iron out. "With a lot of these implementations it's not even the software vendor's fault per se," Selland says. "If you're in the business, it's stupid not to take the purchase orders."
Maybe so, but that attitude may explain the behavior of many CRM vendors, and why many users are turned off. As the study notes, "survey-takers place extraordinarily high importance on vendors' being willing to walk away from jobs when they know their software isn't a good fit--with their sensitivity to the issue a clear indication of customer relationship problems."
For more information and to purchase the full report, visit CRMGuru.com
David Sims, principal of sharpAngle.com, has been covering developments in CRM for three years.
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