CRM Software vs. Customer Experience Management (CEM) Software

CRM and CEM may seem similar, but CRM software has many shortcomings that can hurt you when you try to evaluate the customer experience. Here are a number of reasons why:

• CRM software is more functional than process- centric in nature. CRM systems are designed to provide specific point solutions to support customer relationship management functions. Alone, CRM software will not help to manage the entire customer experience process.
• CRM software is limited by the reach and funcitonality of its features, and cannot always hit every touch point of the customer experience. Activities such as employee interactions, aspects of direct marketing, and third-party touch points have a significant impact on the customer experience but are sometimes not supported by CRM software.
• Another issue with CRM software is that it lacks the ability to provide a true 360 degree view of the customer. This results from an improper capture and analysis of customer behaviors, interactions, and preferences. CRM software does not often track key customer interactions such as inbound and outbound communications, customer care, and campaigns. In order to solve this problem, businesses need to engrain customer experience management solutions into their processes.
• CRM software is also limited by a small set of customer experience metrics. CRM metrics tend to be transactional in nature and don’t provide insight into the end to end customer experience.

CRM software is good for any organization looking to improve their customer relationships. However, because of its limitiations, CRM software will not be able to compleley improve the customer experience. Businesses will need to seek out a CEM software solution to boost their existing capablities to provide a top notch customer experience. CEM software capabilities include complete visibility into customer interactions that span the entire customer experience, sophisticated analytics, and business process management.

Tags: cem, crm software, customer experience management