Customer Relationship Management in the SMB Segment
The art of customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved into a science over the past two decades. With so many technological advancements and CRM solutions, managing customer relationships has literally become automated.
When the CRM market began to saturate, people moved on to social CRM (SCRM). According to industry experts Paul Greenberg, Esteban Kolsky, and the like, no CRM vendor has come up with a full-fledged SCRM yet. Some of them offer CRMs that are integrated with social networking tools. However a lot of ground needs to be covered if they are to be rightfully called SCRM.
The SMB Segment is a vast market that has been left untapped by the CRM industry. The primary reason I see for this negligence is the cost of the traditional on-premise CRMs and the high failure rates. Small businesses can neither afford the money that the biggies charge nor can they afford a failure in the implementation.
With the advent of "software as a service" (SaaS) CRM solutions that are cost effective as well as user friendly, the market is now wide open for the vendors to capitalize on. Not to forget the open source revolution that is fuelling the growth in this industry.
From the customer interactions I have had so far, most of the SMB’s CEOs are aged between 40 to 55 years. It also indicates that most of them did not have formal computer education while they were at school or college. Naturally they are not inclined to computers and technology and do not keep themselves abreast of what is happening in the tech world. Exceptions to this generalization are those CEOs who are in IT or a related field.
When one of my colleagues went in for a CRM demo, an SMB owner told him, “I've been looking for a software like this for the past five years.”
It may sound hilarious to the experts, but this is the reality with the SMB segment. The SMB owner was not from an IT related business and it is understandable that his awareness about technology is poor.
Even worse is the situation when it comes to businesses in the interior parts of the country. Their knowledge and understanding of CRM and technology is negligent.
Though the CRM industry is dwelling upon SCRM, the reality with SMBs is far from the same.
This is my understanding of the CRM landscape specific to the SMB sector. Some people may agree with it and some may not. However, if you think I have missed out something or would like to add to whatever I have put forth, you are always welcome. Do drop in a line.
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