Failure Analysis: Customer Relationship Management

Failure Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship management (CRM) is “an information system that combines methodologies, software, and the Internet to help an organization establish stronger customer relations with customers” (Awad, 2007, p. 296, para. 1). Through human involvement and information technology, CRM allows organizations to gain insight into customer demographics and market trends. Additionally, CRM helps organizations enhance their customer service, improve call center efficiency, allow more effective cross selling, simplify sales transactions, and personalize customer relationships (Awad, 2007). Despite CRM’s potential benefits, CRM implementation can fail for various reasons. This paper will provide an example of a failed CRM implementation at Citizens National Bank, the causes for the CRM’s failure, and the lessons Citizens National Bank learned from this failure. Citizens National Bank is a small community bank outside of Dallas, Texas. In 2001, Citizens National installed a CRM system from Siebel Systems. Prior to installing the CRM system, the bank tracked its customer contact activities on paper. Mark Singleton, president and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens National, hoped that the CRM system would increase sales and improve customer information tracking (Bartholomew, 2007).
Causes for Failure Citizens National experienced problems with the CRM system from inception. The system offered features that the bank did not need. For example, the CRM system offered a feature to set up customer support cases with complaint and resolution tracking. Citizens National did not need this feature because its service complaints were immediately handled by the call center. As a result, employees spent too much time disabling functions they did not need (Bartholomew, 2007). Another issue with the CRM system was its complexity. The system was difficult for employees to navigate. For example,

References: Awad, E. M. (2007). Electronic Commerce: From Vision to Fulfillment (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bartholomew, D. (2007). A BANKER 'S $500,000 LESSON IN CRM. Baseline, (69), 68. Retrieved July 17, 2011 from EBSCOhost.