Today I read this August 24 article on CRMDaily.com featuring CRM vendor commentary on how their solutions are meeting the challenges of marketing in a recession. As someone who worked in the crm analytics arena the last time the economy went through a recession, I am all too familiar with the challenges associated with doing more with less, and focusing greater attention on retaining high value customers than acquiring scarce new ones.
The major differences today are two additions absent in the 2000-2001 time period – social media and the mobile channel. The former is emerging as a highly influential, community centric entity that offers consumers great power and commercial interests little control. While businesses struggle to understand and harness social media, the latter key difference – mobile – is a bit easier to grasp as it is more analogous to other interaction channels like web, call center or point of sale.
Where mobile differs, however, is in the behavior of consumers in the mobile channel given device dependencies and the highly personal nature of mobile communications, both of which place a premium on managing the mobile customer experience effectively. Get it wrong with consumers once, and you may not have another chance.
Traditional CRM vendors appear to correctly view mobile as a key interaction channel, yet like their forbearers at the start of the 21st century seem focused more on functions and business model than on process or experience.
If anything has been learned since the last recession it is that CRM is much more about business process than software. Similarly, taking advantage of the mobile channel requires a view toward managing the entire Mobile Customer Experience, from the way a consumer is targeted to the way information is collected and presented through the types of applications optimized for mobile devices.
