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CGM for CRM

I know, you’re thinking “Oooh! Acronyms!”, and yes, I’m excited by acronyms too. They’re even alliterative acronyms. CGM, as you’re probably aware, stands for Consumer Generated Media, which I sometimes rename participatory media. (What to call the aggregate of blogs, discussion boards, forums, usenet groups, etc. is the fodder for another post.) CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. And the overlap is the big C. Consumers are, by definition, customers.

Largely due to this overlap, CRM vendors, and more abstractly, people responsible for customer satisfaction within a corporation, are starting to think about how to integrate CGM into the bigger picture of customer relationships.

While CGM might be thought of as outside the realm of traditional CRM, with increasing frequency customers are not even bothering to contact a company with their problems. Fearing the trap of labyrinthine phone systems, or the futility of attempting to explain an issue to someone who barely speaks English, individuals are relying more and more on the internet community for assistance. Not only is this generating increasing traffic levels about a given product or service, but it is also taking a large part of the customer experience out of a company’s direct control.

As a result, forward thinking organizations are starting to expand the concept of customer relationship beyond a direct feedback system and into the greater ecosystem, anywhere customers or potential customers may have touch-points with brands.

Posted by Jeffrey Feldman on October 20, 2005 at 08:17 PM | Email this post Permalink

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