CRM or SPAM?

As some of you might know, the 23rd of January marked the day of my 33rd birthday … so feel free to wish me a belated happy birthday in the comment section below 🙂 Since I never take off my branding goggles, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of SPAM I received in my inbox under the title of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). I literally received email with my CRM code in the subjet heading …

 

 

 

 

 

So what started out as the company’s intention to wish me a Happy Birthday, ended up making me feel like a mere number in their database – not the best gift! So let’s step back for moment and remember what the objectives of a CRM initiative are:

• Customer Identification – identifying/profiling the customers by tracking their engagement with the brand
• Customer Differentiation – understanding customer needs and value
• Customer Interaction – engaging with the customer to insure a long-term mutually beneficial relationship
• Personalization – increasing customer loyalty by treating every customer as a unique individual

Let’s put the first three objectives aside and focus on that last one: Personalization! My birthday wishes from these brands made me feel like a CRM ID_Number or a field in a form [First_Name][Last_Name] … I’m certain this is the basic definition of SPAM and I think that certainly massacres the whole concept of personalization.

If you’re not willing to invest the time and effort needed to understand your customer’s individual needs, please spare yourself the costly embarrassment under the corporate umbrella dubbed as CRM. Nowadays, I’m not sure why some companies even bother investing in CRM technology when social media provides tons of valuable information that would help them understand their customers better and cater to their needs.

Tell me about your experience with CRM, in the hope that one of you can highlight a great experience of their own!