Sophisticated CRM Systems--Too Sophisticated For Their Own Good

  CRM   Stakeholder Management  

In this classic Twain quote, one could very easily substitute "adversaries" with "customers" (if you are a customer service rep) or replace it with "customer service departments" (if you are a customer). But then you may also ask, "What is this doing in a feature article within the E-Commerce department?" I scratch my balding head and still can't come up with an intelligent answer, except that recently I have had enough with the customer service of both the new economy and old economy companies, and I decided to ponder it over in writing.

My exasperation with customer service emanates from almost all touch points. It involves human and non-human interventions. It covers e-mail, snail-mail, phone and face-to-face interactions. It goes beyond policy procedures and includes computer systems. It deals with expediting (or lack thereof) issue resolution. Name anything that comprises customer service and the odds are someone, somewhere could come up with something that is not working right. And I am no exception.

Why is this so? We are supposed to be moving toward a service economy. One of the promises of the new economy was to usher in more customer friendly service. Then why is that more and more of us are getting stressed out because of quality of service? And it is afflicting people…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.