Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is one of the most effective approaches to improve the management of customers in an organization. Implementing CRM without thorough consideration of customer satisfaction and strategy poses a great risk to an organization. Customer strategy should be incorporated when introducing CRM software in an organization. Their opinions about the software should be taken with stern consideration. When an organization structure has not been oriented to fit the software, challenges will be encountered across different departments (Reichheld et al.). For instance, salespeople might encounter challenges while accessing and understanding the needs of customers when rolling out CRM before structuring the organization to accommodate the software.
Overinvesting in CRM can lead to a number of challenges within an organization. For instance, the firm can adopt unprofitable CRM and involve additional risks due to poor decisions from the beginning of the entire implementation process. Overinvestment can compromise the interests of the company’s shareholders since their goals and objectives might not be achieved. After overinvestment, there can be high chances of CRM not being well-profitable according to the shareholders’ expectations.
Overcoming the four perils associated with CRM implementation is a clear roadmap towards the success of an organization. First, creating and elaborating customer strategy is the hub of achievement in a firm. The impacts of CRM on customers should be assessed in a 360 degrees dimension to ensure clients are satisfied with its adoption. The organization layout should be restructured to accommodate CRM to avoid negative impacts on the software. Facts and proven CRM technology should be used when adopting a suitable system. Also, customers should be able to see the advantages of CRM, since any organization works to achieve customer’s satisfaction and the most attractive service level.
Work Cited
Reichheld, Frederick et al. “Avoid the Four Perils of CRM”. Harvard Business Review, 2002.