Part 1 : CRM, the quick fix and hard work

Hi Bob, thanks for "talking" with us. In January you predicted that CRMGuru.com would reach a membership of 25,000 by year-end, a target you hit a while ago. Why are people joining your site in such numbers?
We offer free lunches, pizza parties on Friday, and all the emails you can eat! But seriously, I think you can sum up the popularity of the CRMGuru.com site and publications by our tag line -- Real CRM Gurus. Real Answers. We don't have the largest CRM web site in terms of content, just the opposite. We strive to offer very targeted, well-written content that helps people understand CRM a little bit better.

The discussion list CRM.Talk is popular too; people need a place to hear other opinions, ask questions, and network. Combine all that with high management interest in CRM and creative marketing approaches, and the growth just happened. Lately we've been growing by 5,000+ new subscribers per month!

Apart from the obvious "what is CRM?" type questions, what kind of CRM information are most people looking for?
It runs the gamut from strategic planning to process design to cultural issues to technology. CRM technology is one of the more popular areas, to be sure, but it's not the main focus of our site. We're not CRMTechnologyGuru.com.

The Internet and the associated technologies held so much promise for marketers, yet poor customer service has been a never-say-die feature of e-commerce. How come?
It's really not too surprising when you think about the evolution of any business. When you're starting out, customer acquisition is everything. Who needs customer service if you don't have customers? So even "brick and mortar" businesses struggle with customer service issues that appear after the business starts to mature a little.

But I do think that the web-heads believed the Internet would be so easy that no customer service would be required. So they've been scrambling to correct the problems that result in so many abandoned shopping carts in the online stores.

Why is there so much focus on technology, when all the books say customer service and CRM is about people and attitudes as much as IT and database solutions?
There you go bringing up that mushy people stuff! Well, a relationship can be improved with technology if it's applied properly. As many studies have shown, however, companies rush to install the technology that worked for someone else, without planning how it will be used.

The disastrous results are predictable -- like trying to build a house with the latest power tools but no architect's drawings. I guess it's natural to look for a "quick fix" but effective CRM takes a lot of hard work. Technology can only do so much.

Continued...