CRM Survey: CRM hasn’t found its way into corporate philosophy yet

A survey of ec4u expert consulting reveals: CRM is often considered a marketing instrument. A consequent customer oriented management philosophy was only found in one out of four cases.

Karlsruhe, 01.07.2009 – Although many companies have invested fast amounts of money in software solutions for customer management, this topic is often perceived to be isolated from the management philosophy. This is the key result of a survey conducted by the CRM consultancy ex4u expert consulting ag. According to the survey, CRM is rarely used as an instrument of a customer oriented strategy.

42 percent of almost 300 surveyed companies consider CRM as a marketing instrument. Just one out of four companies (26 percent) responded that CRM is part of the management philosophy. Yet another third of the surveyed companies responded that the role of CRM is not determined. “Customer management is not an end in and of itself but instead must represent the overall company strategy” says Mario Pufahl, Director of CRM Consulting at ec4u expert consulting. “Apparently, CRM is perceived as a separate entity, with the result that CRM is not an integral part of a company’s objectives”, he continues. “Companies will continue to spend fast amounts of money on customer management without gaining the full potential of CRM if no appropriate actions are to be taken” says Mario Pufahl. His recommendation is an integrated management approach.

In order to reach this goal, companies need to overcome some obstacles. The survey raised the question which areas are considered the biggest challenges for an integrated management approach. Most companies (59 percent) responded with CRM strategy. The quality and efficiency of customer management processes are also considered challenging.

According to the survey, CRM culture and the technical solutions are perceived quite positively. Only 39 percent of the surveyed companies identified CRM culture to be a weakness. 42 percent identified the technical solution to be a weak spot. This comes to no surprise for Mr. Pufahl: “Although there is a significant market demand for migration, the functionality of CRM systems is appropriate for most companies. This is especially true for companies that invested in state-of-the-art CRM systems over the last couple of years” says Mario Pufahl.

Whether these potentials are actually put into practice is another story. “The identified weaknesses in strategy and processes show that a good CRM system is no guarantee for successful customer management” says Mario Pufahl. The self-assessment of the surveyed companies also shows that an integrated customer oriented management philosophy is a reality for only 27 percent of the surveyed companies. The remaining respondents acknowledged some weaknesses in this regard.