I have just read Paul Greenberg's challenging article Do We Really Need CRM 2.0 [1] over at his excellent ZDNet blog. I tried to leave a comment but ZDNet insisted that I fill in a registration form with 18 fields and then look at a further 23 checkboxes. I had to fill in less details about myself last time I renewed my passport!
So I have decide to answer Paul's question in this blog post instead.
Start:
Hi Paul
Challenging as ever. Do we really NEED CRM 2.0?
My answer is a BIG NO, not if it is led by the software industry that is loath to let go of CRM 1.0. Witness Oracle's recent mauling for its weedy Social CRM offering [2].
There is so much hot air about CRM 2.0, Social CRM, VRM and what not. Yet nobody really knows what customers need, let alone what solutions would work best for them? Why does nobody know this? Because nobody has bothered to ask customers in a meaningful way. They've just gone ahead and developed CRM 2.0 software in the same bad old way. The CRM industry knows best so just buy. Caveat emptor.
Until the CRM industry and its symbiotic CRM analysts sit down with customers to find out what they really need, CRM 2.0 is just going to be a lot of hot air and a better CRM 1.0 mousetrap. Nobody needs a better mousetrap, least of all customers.
Keep up the great work.
Best regards from Köln, Graham
End
I am sick and tired of the hot air, broken promises and disfunctional products produced by so many of the CRM vendors. Maybe one day a CRM vendor will emerge who really does understand what customers need, who really has developed an innovative new CRM solution that enables customers to do business better and who really won't overhype the solution as the best thing since sliced bread. But then again. What's that I see in the distance? Looks like a flying pig! Surely not.
What do you think? Is talk of CRM 2.0 just so much hot air? Or do you know of a REAL CRM 2.0 solution already on the market?
Post a comment and get the conversation going.
Graham Hill
Customer-driven Innovator
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