The CRM Media Just Won’t Give Customer Service & Support Any Respect
Why do I say this? Because I constantly see what the CRM media focuses on and how the executives within companies treat their customer service and support organizations. It is a sad commentary about how the CRM media treats what is still the largest segment (according to Gartner) of CRM – Customer Service & Support (CSS). And if the media, and the analysts who work with the media, won’t give them any attention, why do we believe that company executives will. Let me cite two recent examples.
destinationCRM did a Best Practices on Mobile CRM. Since we are in process of rolling out our mobile application for CSS, I was very interested in reading what they had to say. However, I was very disappointed. It was 6 examples of how CRM vendors are solving the mobile needs of customers and started off with an editorial piece by their Editorial Director titled, “Mobile Apps Take Aim at Field Downtime”. The first sentence – “Field Salespeople are mobile.” It then goes on to talk about the importance of mobile apps to salespeople, even quoting an Aberdeen Group study that evaluated best-in-class companies, all focused on sales people. I guess Field Service personnel and CSS management constantly on the go just aren’t importance.
The second example – destinationCRM selected their Market Leaders in CRM, The 2008 CRM Market Awards with winners in 10 categories – 3 based on the size of customers (enterprise/midmarket/small), 5 based on segments of CRM (SFA/incentive/marketing/BI/data quality), Open-Source and Consultants. 10 categories, and not a one for the largest segment of CRM – CSS.
I find that executives tend to focus on those areas that are most top-of-the-mind. They know that investors and board members follow the media and analysts, and so do they. So as long as Customer & Support continues not to get the attention it deserves from the media, I believe that executives won’t pay as much attention as they should. And who will suffer – customers and those who serve the customers.
One company will continue to raise the needs of the Forgotten Space and highlight the challenges facing CSS organizations – Dovetail Software focuses only on Customer Service & Support CRM and intends to continue growing dramatically as we currently are, focusing on this segment. We know the importance of CSS to companies’ operations and we won’t let you down. We will continue to innovate and enhance the products available to Customer Service and Support organizations so you can better serve your most important asset – your Customers.
Until Next Time,
Stephen
