This month marks the 10th anniversary of this community. What a fabulous experience it has been for me!
Please indulge me as I reminisce about what's happened over the past decade. Join me for a look back to recognize those who helped launch and support the community. Together, we've created a special place to learn what it takes to build a customer-centric business.
The pioneers
After a 15-year career at IBM and then 3 years running a technology reseller, I took the plunge in 1998 to become a CRM consultant. Why? Because CRM seems like a wonderful blend of business strategy, customer-centric thinking and technology.
Well, as some may recall, my early days were spent mostly as an expert in PRM (Partner Relationship Management), which was an emerging niche in the late 1990s. But I also found time to start a general CRM newsletter ("On the Front Line") in mid-1998. And then an email-based discussion forum ("CRM.Talk") in 1999.
Both grew like crazy, but were hobbies that I supported as a sideline to my "real" business as a PRM analyst/consultant.
That started to change in 2000 when I launched CRMGuru.com, mainly as a place to archive newsletters and discussions. But we also wanted to provide a service to help answer questions. To support that idea, three brave souls joined me to volunteer their time to answer questions as "CRM.Talk Gurus" in different areas of CRM.
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The First "CRM.Talk Gurus" | |||
 Bill Brendler [1] (change management) |
 Bob Thompson [2] (partner relationships) |
Dick Lee [3] (CRM strategies) |
 Mei Lin Fung [4] (customer lifetime value) |
Bill provided a focus on people and culture that continues to this day to be a key issue in CRM success. Mei Lin deserves a special thanks because she encouraged me to keep CRM.Talk going at the beginning when nobody wanted to, um, talk about much of anything. And Dick Lee has been our longest running advisor, starting from the Day One and continuing for 10 straight years!
CRMGuru was launched but it was quickly apparent that we needed more help to cover a wide spectrum of topics. So over the next couple of years these experts signed up to help the community.
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CRMGuru Panel Grows | |||
 Barry Trailer [5] (sales) |
 Graham Hill [6] (customer value) |
 Jay Chang [7] (technology) |
 Jay Curry [8] (small-medium enterprise) |
 Jim Barnes [9] (customer strategy) |
 Jim Dickie [10] (sales) |
 Naras Eechambadi [11] (marketing) |
 Tony Craddock [12] (customer-centricity) |
Over the years, having an advisory group has been a core part of our community leadership. Thanks to these experts for generously contributing their time and talent from the beginning.
Growth, change and CEM
CRMGuru.com took off immediately and our CRM email subscription list grew to the largest in the world. By 2003, I realized that I had to make a choice and make CRMGuru.com my main business, and scaled back PRM and other activities accordingly.
Over the next several years we were fortunate to have many more top industry experts from around the world share their insights on advisory councils/boards. Those serving for 2+ years include:
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Global Advisors | |||
 Andy Rudin [13] (sales) |
 Bill Price [14] (customer service) |
 Colin Shaw [15] (customer experience) |
 David Rance [16] (customer service) |
 Donna Fluss [17] (contact center) |
 Francis Buttle [18] (CRM strategy) |
 Jack Fujieda [19] (CRM in Japan) |
 Jill Dyché [20] (marketing analytics) |
 Jill Griffin [21] (customer loyalty) |
 Jim Sterne [22] (web analytics) |
 Michael Cusack [23] (contact center) |
 Michael Lowenstein [24] (customer loyalty) |
 Paul Greenberg [25] (CRM 2.0) |
 Rafael Rodriguez [26] (CRM in Latin America) |
 Sampson Lee [27] (customer experience) |
 Silvana Buljan [28] (CRM in Europe) |
By the middle of the decade it became apparent that CRM was falling short of the vision that we had at the beginning. CRM was still thought of as a primarily a technology initiative by most people, not as a loyalty-building strategy.
Fortunately, some new ideas were pushing forward as a counterbalance to CRM's inside-out, tech obsession. Namely, Customer Experience Management.
After a lot of soul searching, in 2007 I changed the community's name from CRMGuru to CustomerThink [29]. It was a controversial move, but I felt that over the long term a more neutral name would help us cover new developments. And indeed it has.
In 2007 we also made a huge site upgrade to enable authors to post blogs and other content directly. Along with our name change, that set the stage for a rapid increase in contributed content and visitors over the past three years.
The social road ahead
The last decade was dominated by CRM and CEM. As commonly practiced, CRM is mostly about managing customer information, while CEM is a strategy to deliver memorable experiences that differentiate a company. My research in 2006 found [30] that CRM is largely analytical ("left brain") while CEM is more about emotions ("right brain").
Now, of course, social media is all the rage. I couldn't be happier because in 2002 I observed that collaboration is the cure for what ails CRM [31]. There's no doubt that social-empowered customers have really forced companies to be more customer-oriented. Or end up as a story on CNN!
Still, the social media revolution that customers started has only just begun. Although buzzwords are still being debated [32], I believe the journey towards a more "social business" will define the next five years or more.
And once again, our top authors are helping us figure out what the future will bring. I'd like to recognize and thank our top "social evangelists" over the past year:
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Top 10 Social Business Bloggers | ||||
 Axel Schultze [33] |
 Catherine Sherwood [34] |
 Esteban Kolsky [35] |
 John Todor [36] |
 Harish Kotadia [37] |
 Mitch Lieberman [38] |
 Prem Kumar Aparanji [39] |
 Tatyana Kanzaveli [40] |
 Vanessa DiMauro [41] |
 Wim Rampen [42] |
Thanks to staff and sponsors
I want to thank our staff for their outstanding work, mostly behind the scenes. Our first site (www.crmguru.com [43]) was launched by Matt Carroll [44], who handled all web publishing and discussion moderation duties in the early years. Carol Smalley and Gwynne Young [45] both made huge editorial contributions at different stages of our development. David Sims [46] wrote about sometimes too-serious CRM material with style and humor. Rob Finley managed sponsor relationships and Jennie Greer [47] has been the mainstay of our increasingly complex operation for the past six years.
Sponsors have also been a big part of our success. Without their financial support we couldn't have implemented the many improvements we've made over the years. Some of our major sponsors have included:
- Big brands like Genesys, Microsoft, Oracle, Siebel and SAP
- SaaS pioneers such as NetSuite, RightNow and Salesforce.com
- Mid-market focused vendors like Consona, Pivotal, and Sage
- Specialty vendors such as Allegis, E.piphany, InQuira, SAS, Unica and UniPress
Of course, the industry has changed a lot in 10 years—some of these companies have new homes as part of bigger vendors. But these sponsors and many more (nearly 200 in all!) helped support this community and deserve our thanks.
Lessons learned
I've traveled the globe speaking at conferences; met and worked with many of the brightest minds in the industry; and learned a lot about customer-centric business management. And life.
The main business lesson I've learned is that the right people make all the difference in the world. Leaders who envision the future and inspire others. Strategists who think and plan. Supporters who put the new ideas to work. Techies who evangelize and implement new tools. Critics who question conventional wisdom.
On a personal level, I've learned that what's most important is my family. My wife Regina's love and support kept me going, especially during challenging periods. (Yes, we've had a few.) My son Matthew has grown up to become an impressive thinker, writer and person. It won't be long and he'll be off to college and then launching his own career.
Well, that wraps up my trip down memory lane. Thanks for reading! Thanks to one and all for your great support. Please take a moment to add your comments below.
Now let's get to work creating the next decade. I can't wait.