My comments on Gartner's Report Concerning CRM's Past, Present & Future

I agree with the Gartner analyst, Ed Thompson’s report on CRM’s Past, Present and Future with the Key Message – Change is happening fast!

I have seen that companies are continuing to spend money on CRM projects even with the current economic downturn.  Mobile CRM, Social CRM, multi-channel service and business analytics are continuing to drive the CRM market forward.  I forsee with the economic downturn bottoming up, there will be a revival of customer-focused initiatives soon as a Gartner survey found that a CEOs are more focused on retaining existing customers as a top strategic priority.  Customer needs are in fact driving the CRM marketplace as indicated by the growing market trend of business analytics and Social Media influencing the CRM marketplace. 

In closing, I find that the following Ed Thompson quote shows the immense impact that Social Media will play in the future customer relationship and sales processes for companies:

“Consumers are more skeptical, more willing to complain, more willing to leave you for a bad experience.  And 89% will tell their friends about their bad experience. Twenty-five percent do that on Social Media. That is going to shift rapidly.  By 2015, 75% will tell other people about a bad experience with a company via Social Media”.