A Million Segments of One — How Personal Should Customer Relationship Management Get?

The foundation upon which customer relationship management (CRM) stands is a single, definitive view of customers which spans functions, channels, products and customer types and drives every customer interaction. CRM purports to recreate the ‘traditional corner shop’ experience to millions of clients. However, as techniques for data mining and pattern matching allow companies to build a relationship with customers, customers are questioning whether they actually want to have a relationship with companies. As CRM becomes more personalised, is it providing the experience that customers want? Are companies spending on personalised CRM only to reap limited benefits?This paper considers the different ways that companies such as Capital One, First Direct, Amazon and Tesco are personalising a CRM experience and examines the resulting relationship that they develop with their customers.Ultimately, the future of personalised CRM is dependent on non-intrusive, mutually beneficial and cost-effective strategies delivered through the appropriate medium for the customer. This requires recognition that CRM is more than just deployment of technology. It is a fusion of strategy, process and technology. Companies need to consider what customers want from them and whether the personalised solution that is being proposed reaps financial benefits. Building a million segments of one may work for some companies but others need to consider what kind of relationship their customers want from them and what they (and their customers) can gain from the data that they gather.