VERBATIMS

Please describe your best -- or worst -- experience with CRM.
Not having a company-wide system ... a bunch of disparate databases throughout the company.
The best experience is gaining a better understanding of your customers thus enabling companies to more effectivly target and segment consumers, producing a better and bigger bang for your buck.
In Phase II now. Slows down call centers initially due to extra call handle time and systems. Long-term benefit should begin to be realized in one year.
Spending $10 to acquire a customer's information and then never using this info (thus requiring another $10 to talk to them again)
Worst: Ongoing lack of vendor/agency competence. Companies pitch us on the possibilities of CRM, but fail to provide the expertise and competencies necessary to deliver results.
It's tempting for a technology company to decide to develop their own custom CRM in house - it's a huge mistake!
Sales personnel find it hard to use.
Worst -- seeing the vast number of articles & new experts (trying to make a buck)
Making a reservation to travel to a major vacation destination via their phone center and then not being able to check my reservation, make changes to it, or cancel it by any other means than calling the phone number again--there is a wait when you call this number This vacation destination gives the customer no automated way to check or change my information either by phone or on-line; I can't go to the internet to check it, as the company's Web site only allows consumers to access information on reservations that came in through the Web site ) This can be frustrating and in today's multi-channel, 24/7 society, you want to be able to access and change your reservation in the way that is most convenient to you at that time.
Many bad ones come to mind, one that happened yesterday: I logged into a hotel web site to make a reservation. The site was awful (poorly designed and ran slower than molasses). After inputting data to reserve a room, I received a message that my membership number was invalid, which was odd since I was looking right at my card, and receive quarterly mailings with points updates. Called the 800# to reserve the room and was told that due to the fact that I had not used my number in the past 6 months (this is not true--I indeed had done so by staying at a participating hotel in January), the database wiped out my record with the reservations system. In order to fix this, I was given another 800 number to call, even though I had just given the reservations agent all of the necessary data. Upon clalling the member #, was told that there was a system upgrade, and not all of the member daste had gone to reservations. Long story short, I was less than pleased with this frustrating interaction.
The ridiculous price tags consultants -- who claim to know all about my business but don't -- ask for the simplest solutions.
CRM is not by any means new. Its just a semi-nouveau buzzword for a customer focused strategic plan. In otherwords, 99% of successful marketing stratagies.
The best experience is hearing from a customer who has felt neglected that they feel they are now being treated as a valuable customer, and yes they would like to invest more in our product, what else do we have to offer.
Absolutely horrible experience with Siebel (as a user in a Fortune 100 company) and Anderson Consulting who helped us implement a Sales Force Automation system in the early days of CRM software ... the focus was on SFA and not the customer and the implementation was slow, did nothing to enhance the customer relationship and quite frankly was not embraced as part of a total company commitment to CRM but rather as a technology solution for CRM.
Continually selling "CRM" to management who has more confidence and experience with mass media. Getting the company to be patient enough to see the long term results in a short-term financial world. CRM is more measurable than TV/other mass media...therefore, always on the defense.
tools don't work
Worst, the entire CRM budget has been spent and the client has no idea who their customer is and no more money to find out.
Best experience has been the time-after-time it has led to new sales and increased sales. The worst experience is what happens when the data and response generated outgrows your IT infrastructure's ability to handle it all.
It is just in development so we do not have a best/worse case yet.

Worst - not being able to get enough people in dialog, and not being able to communicate with them as well as we'd like, due to lack of resources. Best - Seeing new products succeed as a result, and seeing happy consumers.
This would be my best experience with CRM.
Worst: not having it...and triyng to send out a mailing...or trying to pretend you understand them
best - dealing with some huge banks that suddenly become very personal - re our conversation recently....etc etc worst - huge long questions and probing intrusive touchpoints after which most of my info is not captured
Not being flexible to change tactics midstream hurt sales on holiday season. With measurable marketing strategies, we've found our greatest success in identifying not only customers, but answers to many other questions -- where do they come from, who are we missing, why are they loyal or not, etc.
My experience of CRM is at the receiving end. And based on that, all have been negative except for Amazon, which extracts thousands each year by seeming to know what I might like.
Database investments planned without specific, measureable plans for deployment across the entire organization.
My clients are in the process of compiling names for their database, so it has been a task qualifying consumers. Getting a consumer to fill out purchase information so that we can segment them is sometimes difficult.
We created a CRM program for a client targeting a specific business operation. This "points" program allowed specific customers to earn points to be used towards merchandising/marketing materials used to promote their operation to consumers. These business customers bought products through a distributor, making it difficult for our client to track purchase activity with each customer. Using this program, business was forced to submit distributor invoices in order to earn points. Invoices not only showed our clients purchases but also competitive purchases. Through this program, our client is able to track and market to specific customer segments based on volume potential, product mix etc..
All of my clients identified "name capture for CRM" as a PRIMARY promotion objective in 2001...so when I wrote their 2002 plans, I recommended we send all these wonderful consumers various trial and continuity incentives...and the clients said, "No, that's too expensive, and besides, the database hasn't been compiled yet and we don't know when it will be ready."...fortunately, I was unarmed at the time.
As a consumer I have been impressed with manyof the bricks and clicks reatilers use of CRM, e.g. J Crew tell a friend coupons, Starbucks/Barnes & Noble christmas emailing, Sprite.com constant communiques, etc.
Worst -- clients who capture names without a strategic plan to build consumer profiles and leverage the data.
Hmmm, it might be when a customer service supervisor at AT&T Wireless told be that "It wasn't their responsibility to meet my customer service expectations." Or perhaps it was when United Airlines lost my luggage and I had to use their new voice recognition software to track it down. At least I had fun trying to find out what foul words I used would correspond to an airport name!
Best CRM...right now probably with the car industry..service needs, incoming cars..car turn-ins.. Worst CRM..Industries whose main goal whose main focus is to only collect as many email as possible with no specific goal in mind..
Haven't had one yet but it would be when you called a company for a follow-up to a problem and they actually knew what you were talking about.
The reason CRM hasn't paid out is because it's still more about the technology than the consumer. In general, people don't want a "relationship" or an on-going dialog with a brand. They want a brand to bend over backwards to give them what they want. The best CRM is easy, non-invasive.
Developing a program that was successful from the customer response/behavior results and not being able to quantify the success financially based upon systems contraints.
Best: Building a "Customer for Life" Program with Ford UK and their dealer base. Comitted, driven, had access to the right decision makers, less political. Customer focused as a company, which always helps. Worst: Trying to build a customer for life program with a well-known bank. Matrixxed, conflicting agendas, product driven, marketplace confusion, DM wear-out. Up hill battle the entire way.
IBM... enough said?
Conducted a survey of my client's customers which was so well incentivized that we had a 95 percent response rate. We continue to mine the survey results to craft marketing and advertising messages as well as shape the client's internal corporate culture.
I have used CRM for more than 10 years and cannot imagine life without it.
The worst experience was working with a client and finding they had thousands of names in the CRM database...but were doing nothing with them. They were so busy collecting names, they had no time to create marketing programs for these customers or to figure out a reason for reaching them!

Worst - when development was assigned to the sales team by a president (a sales person himself) who didn't understand what else it could do for him
enormous collection of detailed data -- and no one to analyze it. And even worse -- no one cared. And to top it off -- it probably didn't make any difference. But then....who knows?
I haven't experienced anybody that has "got it" yet. Amazon is the closest.
People think it solves eveything and it doesn't
Amazon.com - wow! Despite their size and my spending (typically only a $1000/year), they strike just the right balance of letting me know what I might be interested in and when to leave me alone! I am shocked at how little the likes of Lowes and Home Depot do in regard to CRM. I spend LOTS more money in each of those stores ($500 month) and I have yet to get any 'bonding' with either store!
I haven't had a memorable experience either way.
Putting a software face without testing ease of use - pissing the hell out of the people responsible for your company's survival by forcing them to deal with software hell.
I got a mailer for a new catalog because I was already on a different one, and the new catalog was actually of interest to me. I wasn't annoyed to receive a new one -- which is unusual!
Worst -- CRM salespeople selling technology
An IT system
on the receiving end - having no less than 5 offers of home equity line appear at my new home within 5 weeks of closing
Worst experience - a contract role responsible for (among other things) customer relations, in an organisation that had outsourced its database and was not able at that time to action most database alteration requests that came directly from customers, such as change of address requests or 'gone no address' returns; also unable to prevent duplication of promotional mailings to the same customer with different account details. Impossible to do much at all. Aaargh!!
I sold out of a franchising business that I started (with two partners) because my partners could not understand the importance of the relationship between us and our franchisees ... who were our customers. They didn't listen, lied, talked down. We had over 40 franchisees when I sold, and we were world leaders at the time. Two years and a franchisee rebellion later, they had all but lost the entire business. Everybody lost. The business staggers on, but has never recovered. A tragedy.
Through a combination of sales promotion and data base building was able to put together an on going monthly program of activites targeted to specific entertainment interest. Using traditional marketing tactics the data base was built and transfered to a CRM program that permitted managing the ongoing activity to the prospects. A one point 55,000 names were in the program as potential repeat prospects for 25 retail outlets.
The best, and most challenging experience I've had with CRM involved the integration of customer data from 6 subsidiaries of a large insurance company. The technical problems of course where enormous. Each company had it's own way of identifiying customers and policies and finding and agreeing upon standards was difficult. But once we had reached this point, we were past the most difficult stage, which was getting these companies to agree to share data in the first place. It was only through managmenet commitment that we succeeded, showing the organization how there was a 39% overlap in there customer base. Many clients had accounts or policies at more then one company, this revelation allowed a streamlining of business processes and a more personal way of administering to these customers. Knowledge about your customers is key, and in an organisation that large, the knowlege was hidden in many small databases throughout the company.
the marketplace gets guided by large consultant/integrators such as PWC, Accenture, KPMG to implement more than they need at a total cost much higher than required.
Watching a client's CRM initiative surpass expectations so dramatically that it rolled out to become a $4 mil bump to the company's bottom line
My worst experience was a long planning process that was never even implemented.
One of my best: I encouraged a financial newsletter publisher to start personally telephoning five of his subscribers each day to say "thanks for subscribing" and to ask for comments/suggestions. My reasoning was that it would position him more as "Uncle Joe," a trusted, likeable, real person offering financial advice...rather than a simple face-on-the-masthead like his competitors. Second, it would start to build a buzz and generate referrals from existing subscribers (for example, tennis buddy to partner: "Bill, you'll never guess who called me today..."). Finally, it *would* give the publisher valuable inputs for improving his publication. An extra ego-stroke occurs when his subscribers gush about how much they enjoy his publication (the first time this happened he called me right afterwards from "Cloud 9.") He resisted my suggestion for a long time (I'm too busy," etc.), and preferred to do what others did by mailing an impersonal, printed survey.
No company seams to want to spend what it takes to implement...including training for employees. I think alot of companies depended on the IT departments to put these systems together. All the other departments weren't informed enough to voice their specific departmental needs...therefore leaving it to the IT guys to decide what those needs were and that translated into un-usable departmental systems.
Best: Data mining a supermarket market research and find relationships among: age, sex, discount cards and freezer!
Worst - lots of micromanagement of human interactions allowed individuals with no connection to the relationship to make judgment calls. A large failure waiting to happen. Best - a good database of names and contact information.

Segmenting a database and finding that it hadn't been built from the beginning to support the mining of the types of data that might yield actionable marketing programs
Understanding and meeting customer expectations
POS data analysis with major retaailers
Worst: Programs in which the clients won't allow the process the time necessary to show results; a total lack of commitment to the philosophy or the process. Best: Our own internal process to increase Client Satisfaction--very low-tech, but it involves surveying the clients, and systematic follow-up.
The downside of CRM - it only tells you what's in the rear view mirror, not what's on the proverbial road ahead.
The worst is banks. I have three accounts and a loan through my bank, and because of our "relationship" they ask me to open credit cards and consider them for another loan. Yet when I visit one of their ATMs, they still always ask me whether I speak English or Spanish. They obviously don't know me or value my time enough to "remember" that I prefer English. Another pet peeve is entering my account number on a phone inquiry only to have the service rep answer and ask me for the same account number. These examples are carried into their solicitations and marketing which are not personalized or customized for me at all - a waste of my time and their money.
The best was the integration of marketing and sales efforts to target the most likely prospects, capture and track leads, provide multiple methods for prospects' input, acknowledgment of every request (for information, calls from reps, addition to a mailing list, etc.), offer ongoing communications directly related to the prospects' areas of interest and, following a sale, additional acknowledgment and ongoing, pertinent communication. The worst case was when a marketing automation firm, which is supposed to be able to provide targeted email campaigns and provide relevant feedback, decided to send everyone on its prospect list the same message... and ignored requests to be removed from the list.
IT runs it - and it becomes an IT fiefdom that does nothing to augment brand equity with specific customers.
Personal worst experience - My bank thinks they can do it - They think they are my friend and want to know me better - I just want a bank that knows it is a bank and does bank stuff well - not spend money keeping the postal system in new shoes
In most companies, CRM requires a cultural adjustment throughout the enterprise. (The old saying, "this would be a great job if it weren't for all those pesky customers"). That's why executive management must drive the commitment. TQM (as it was) was just the beginning, CRM is where you close the loop, get and keep the business.
As a customer, Reflect.com. They remind me just often enough of what I need to reorder. They let me know of line extensions of new products I should be interested in. They reward me for trying new products -- for continuing levels of purchase of existing products. Every order contains something the "surprise and delight" -- a candle, mirror,etc. I even received -- totally separately -- a spray of purple orchids -- as a thank you. And -- of course -- they make good products -- personalized for me down to the label on the packaging. As a marketer, I ran a "testing lab" -- marketing additional services to existing telecomm customers. It was great to be able to try different approaches -- figuring out what information was critical for creating a better and more likely sale. The fact that we could collect all the information, analyze it and try something new within days was exciting. It also made for a happy client. I think the key was "not to boil the ocean." We didn't try to make every system and all systems work. Instead we pulled together only the information we needed and the channels we could reasonably control...
Our internal learning about customers isn't complete, so we can't take any action whatsoever. In some ways we are just as confused as ever, but we feel very good about our progress because we believe we are confused on a higher level and about more important things. (And that was our BEST experience!)
It is often inflexible for data mining. All of the info is at our finger tips but not really accessible.
Best: Getting better and better results from a client each year on a promotion that kept the customer coming back for 5 years, when 3 year cycles are/were typical.
Best - developing a single point of truth about our customer base so we could deliver on true CRM
Thinking that it was the next best thing
none stand out as extremes
Complete failure because CRM was implemented to track and manage the sales organization instead of helping to sell and maintain the relationship.
Worst- before all dept bought in and best, still waiting on that one...!
WE had 3 magazines and due to circualtion trends, we opted to combine 2. We thought we did a good job motifying customers of the change -- we lost approx. half the circulation of one magazine.
Worst experience turned into a positive. Two incorrect database mailings (one that the mail company left out a bounceback card and the second with print error) resulted in a third contact with our core customers that was very positive.
High costs, low response.

The software goes into place...and nothing changes because everyone keeps trying to do things the old way
Trying to define it.
increased retention & sales!
Best experience -- Getting a hand written letter from a customer that received a mailing from us that he loved/appreciated.
I was working with our then National Director of Marketing and we were still in the initial task force stage of developing our CRM strategy. We had sorted out a lot of the logistics--how to deal with 5 POS platforms, picking our data partner--those sorts of things. We are in a 2-day meeting with the entire executive leadership team of the country and the task force gets bogged down on the necessity of a card. We are talking about a multi-million dollar investment with an unbelievable potential ROI and we almost ended up killing the project on the grounds that 2 of the Regional Presidents thought cards were annoying and the CEO didn't like coupons.
best personal sales promotion. (with the loyalty card). Each customer received each personalised promotion
In our company, all employees are empowered to solve customer problems when they happen. It is how we build the relationship with our customers. We also offer deals etc to our better customers. Worst. I am a big Discover Card user with a pretty hefty credit line. I have never been late and pay my bill in full every month. I just got a notice from them that after reveiwing my credit from one of the credit agencies which they do for all customers, they are decreasing my credit line. I Was a very good customer. I am now an ex customer.
Trying to conduct an email campaign with no front-end campaign management software
Calling into a company where you can't get a live person on the phone but can only leave a message on voice mail.
Best: inhouse Customer service with cross trained, reliable people. Worst: outsourceing customer service. They just didn't get it.
Excellent method to talk with your customer about topics relevant to them
It needs to be real-time. I once worked with a system that every time I (the account manager) would enter something the sales person would also enter the same thing because we had to replicate it onto a common server. So we'd both be putting in a contact name, and it woudl be in there twice. And then the sales guy from another division would also have access to a mutual client, and go and change everything over so it would appear to be his.
Using our Store Database to advance a clients understanding as to the relationship between shipments to a retailer and the subsequent consumption of that product by consumers. It continues to offer new insights into the marketing dialoque between manufacturer and consumer.
Best experience - at UnitedHealthcare, where there is a huge focus on collecting data and using it to promote good health, and proper education (services, benefits, providers, treatments). This company has a good understanding of the power of information,and has an excellent approach to collecting, maintaining and using information to the customer's (both employer and member) advantage. Worst experience - my current employer, where data is a four-letter word at best!
gathering customer profile information and then not using it as it was insinuated we would use it - having specific info but still communicating in a one-way, general communications.
Adding benefits to subscriber-based service
Critical issue for most companies is not being able to capture enough relevant information to allow targeting. This is most true where businesses have an indirect relationship (e.g., packaged goods, pharmaceutical, etc.) versus those with a direct relationship (e.g., financial services, retail (with shopper's cards), catalogs, etc.) Without relevant information (particularly buying behavior), CRM is mostly useless regardless of the technology investment.
Marketing "testing" too many out bound treatment types for a campaign minimizing the overall effectiveness of measuring outcomes.
Best Experience: Seeing the philosophy ultimately improve store traffic, sales and profitability. Worst Experience: Getting senior level people with strong mass marketing experience to understand and buy-in to the concept.
Nothing really shines or hides in the closet.
Best - where people know where you are coming from and its just not another selling strategy!
Our Goldmine product goes down once a week (but that may be a function of our LAN)

Receiving mailers even after I've ceased to be a company's customer & having told them to stop all correspondence.
Don't go there!
it is a fancy word that needs to be further understood and applied in order for it to have any practical value
Lack of understanding at the executive level
Worst: watching IT spend serious six figures for a customer database search and retrieval product that cannot provide intelligent marketing information because it's not designed to. Best: spending less than $100 for a customer contact database product and customising it to provide the marketing information / segmenttation needed and thereby being able to have all the IT spend allocated to my budget removed.
attempting to unsubscribe from cool news of the day ;-)
My best experience was applying our CRM philosophy to a personal issue -- it worked!
Generic e-mails coming from a mass-pirchased list of demographic names.
Complaining from cust support reps who did not want to use it!
database marketers who don't understand demographics or the true tools and assets of data mining and panel details.
Best = Amazon .com sending email and books that intrest me based on last purchases Worst = My bank - phone system, and the lobby of the bank. They seem to not want to deal with me prefer that I use technology rather than a teller. do not care who I am.
At best, CRM allows companies to maximize the customer experience at every touchpoint-- whether that's while they're talking to your csr's learning about special sales, receiving a targeted special offer, or a customized statement.
Database marketing program that sent me femenine hygiene coupons. I don't purchase in that category! ( my name is Pat..rick. Must have thought I was a woman.)
turnover in decision making at any client during a time of re-signing
Best is yet to come ! The worst is --The conference organisers blocked tickets in my name with the Airlines and when my Travel Agent appproached them with the reference they said No tickets are available.we are fully booked.It took more than a Month for me to get the same ticket.Total Manual Operation would have been better.
worst - too much junk mail best - there's a challenge!!
best, amazon, worst most other retailers