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Customer Relationship Management

crm CRM Manifesto Purpose

The CRM Manifesto is a declaration of truths and key principals which define Customer Relationship Management. The CRM industry benefits with an objective, straightforward and unbiased conversation about this business strategy and how it can be leveraged to empower and advance adopters.

In the first few years the CRM manifesto was frequently updated with minor enhancements. As the current manifesto has acquired more maturity, participation and sponsorship, the frequency and magnitude of revisions has decreased. Nonetheless, this project is a community forum which seeks legitimate opinion from any interested participant.

CRM Manifesto, v1.9

  1. Customer Relationship Management is a combination of customer facing strategies, business policies and processes. CRM is not a technology and it is not software. CRM seeks to proactively manage business processes which improve relationships with current and prospective customers.

  2. CRM strategies can vary in size, sophistication, complexity and scope. Some organizations may limit their CRM strategy to select departments or divisions and limited customer facing processes while other entities may adopt CRM strategies for virtually all customer facing touch points and business processes across the enterprise.

  3. Sales Force Automation (SFA) is a component, and not a replacement, substitute or alternative for CRM. SFA seeks to manage the business processes between sales professionals and customers as well as sales professionals and sales management. Other integrated components of CRM include marketing and customer support.

  4. Contact management is not CRM. While contact management may be a function of CRM, CRM is more comprehensive and caters to more customer touch points than just contact management.

  5. CRM software consists of at least the three integrated functions of marketing, sales force automation (SFA) and customer support. Additional functions or software modules (such as Partner Relationship Management) may also be included in a CRM software suite, however, the three functions of marketing, sales force automation (SFA) and customer support are required to support the customer facing life cycle process of marketing to the customer, selling the customer and supporting the customer.

  6. Social CRM, also known as CRM 2.0, consists of the processes and social characteristics designed to promote mutual collaboration and engagement between the customer and the provider in a transparent and trusted communication medium. Social CRM advances the customer-vendor relationship from a one way broadcast to a two way dialogue and from a vendor managed relationship to a customer managed relationship.

  7. Analytical CRM analyzes CRM data in order to provide insight or intelligence to support decision making.

  8. Cloud computing or Software as a Service (SaaS) do not change CRM strategy, opportunity or fulfillment. SaaS is merely a change in software delivery (from on-premise to delivery over the Internet from a central data center) and software pricing model (from an up-front licensing purchase to a subscription or rental fee).

  9. CRM initiatives often fail because implementations are limited to software installation or utilization and do not recognize the holistic nature of CRM as a business strategy. CRM application software should be implemented only after a CRM business strategy and operational plan are put into place. CRM can be achieved without investments in CRM software, however, application software is often very useful in realizing the full benefits of a CRM strategy.

  10. The CRM acronym may change among different industries. Within the government and public sector, CRM may be the acronym or abbreviation for either Citizen Relationship Management or Constituent Relationship Management.

 

Customer Relationship Management Manifesto