Customer Relationship Management

I found this book packed with useful information that is delivered in a simple to understand format suitable to digest one chapter at a time. I'm a big buyer of business books and found this to be one of the more usefull tools I've acquired. Similar to the Fast Forward MBA Series this is a great value for the money and a book you will read from cover to cover.

Perhaps the best recommendation I can give for this book occurs in one of the many little tip boxes scattered throughout this treasure trove of ideas, tips and tricks of the trade. This particular tip box says simply "Strategy Isn't Technology ...people confuse strategy and technology ... Insist that CRM technologies be referred to as CRM tools. Ask how each tool supports your CRM strategy."This book provides the best antidote to that tendency we have today to mistake a software application for a full solution. Not only will this book show you how to get the most out of such CRM tools, but it also provides tips and ideas for managing the whole complex and essential business of Customer Realtionship Management.

I've looked through a number of books on CRM in an effort to get a better handle on the topic and to find a good process for teaching the concepts to emploees in my company. I stumbled over Anderson & Kerr's take on CRM and found what I was looking for. Anderson and Kerr have captured the essence of CRM in a very practical, hands-on way. They have great examples from their lives and (I assume) the lives of their friends that adds texture and a realness that the other books I've looked at lacked. I really thought I understood CRM, but after reading this book I realized that I had missed the whole point -- Customer Relationship Management is about CUSTOMERS, not computers. Well worth the reading if you have anything to do with customers.

Despite the tens of millions dollars now being invested in new customer relationship management solutions, customer satisfaction with service dropped almost eight percent from 1994 to 2000, according a study by the University of Michigan's business school. Consultants Anderson and Kerr suggest some reasons why: a failure to distinguish between CRM strategy and CRM technology and a tendency to view meaningless data as useful information. We from getAbstract highly recommend this concise and thorough examination of CRM to all managers and students of business.