Customer relationships are for people, not technologies

Next time someone tells you they are implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to improve customer relationships, nod, smile politely and then change the subject. That, it seems, is one of Jeffrey Pfeffer's conclusions in his upcoming book What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management. While CRM has garnered a lot of headlines--and cash--the truth is that while these technologies can cut the operational costs associated with serving customers, it is far from established that the actual relationship is enhanced. "Before you can manage a customer relationship, you first need to build or create that relationship. And customer relationships are not really built by fancy data-mining and statistical analysis packages that track people's behavior -- Rather, relationships and their quality are determined by what happens to customers when they actually make contact with the organizations that have so avidly sought their businesses and of all things, real live human beings."

For the excerpt from this book:
- read the article in CIOInsight