My CRM career began 10 years ago, when I completed my first CRM strategy project for a large U.S. Automotive Manufacturer. At that time, we were all striving to make the right offer, to the right customer, at the right time. Build a database….mine it….give everyone who is selling to or servicing the customer real time access to the universal customer record…and Presto! 1:1 communications! Except, of course, we were the only ones talking.
Doesn’t really sound like any of my current relationships.
But wasn’t it easier? If someone wanted to take you or your brand to task, they called customer service. A few years later, they might have written a blog. Either way, exposure was a lot lower than it is today. For the most part, we thought about how our programs would surprise and delight consumers, and build our brands.
Now marketing plans have to take into account not only the happy consumer, but the petty, petulant, entitled, grumpy, profane, consumer. Which – admit it – we’ve all been at some point. But now there’s an outlet. Consumers go online to their social network of choice, and when freebies run out, web pages crash, or products don’t deliver to expectations, it takes only 140 characters (or a flip cam) to make the world aware. Which could be really frustrating for a brand marketer if that were the end of the story.
Fortunately, it’s not. As a marketer, I do get tired of hearing about how, presumably, a world of ‘limited quantities available’ is a horrible place for consumers to live. On the flip side, I love to hear consumers defend the brands they love, even to another frustrated fan. I love knowing earlier – rather than later – that our program is a bust (though I prefer when that feedback is delivered in an even, balanced tone). Most of all I like knowing that what we’re all collectively doing – building products, launching programs, offering discounts – is at some level relevant to our consumers. Being the only one talking in the relationship may make it less volatile, but it’s also a lot less rewarding.
And so we embrace our consumer relationship, knowing that it will sometimes be better, sometimes worse, sometimes characterized by ‘plenty,’ other times by ‘want.’ The ‘bad times’ might become public, but the ‘good times’ will too, making it worthwhile.
CRM: Now You’re REALLY in a Relationship
by Perficient Author on June 21st, 2011 | ~ minute read
