The age of consumer empowerment – driven by the search for the cheapest price – is forcing companies to rethink their CRM strategies, according to Forrester, which has exposed 200 potential pitfalls in current practice.
The company has published a report – Navigate the Future of CRM – which explains that with online reviews and mobile web access, a company’s customers know more about its products, services, competitors and pricing than the business itself.
Competitors can also see a rival’s strategy simply by searching the Internet and viewing online customer experiences.
Attracting and retaining the so-called “empowered customer” requires a rethink of CRM. “The new power of customers means that a focus on the customer now matters more than any other strategic imperative,” said Forrester principal analyst William Band. “Empowered customers can easily find the cheapest prices from suppliers, large or small, anywhere in the world.”
Among the 200 potential pitfalls, a quarter of the organisations that participated reported poorly defined business requirements, while 48% of the companies surveyed admitted they suffered technical/integration difficulties in supporting company processes (48%).
Poor business process design accounted for 31% problems, while 21% of organisations stated the need to customise CRM products to fit unique organisational requirements as a problem area.
