The blacksmith always had up-to-date information about his customers as he was the only point of contact for the customer. As such, the blacksmith collected real time data and stored it in his mind. In the past, with a large customer base it was impossible for companies to maintain real time data about their customers. Even though, plenty of data was available but it was dated. That is, the data was not current. I remember when I was in the US (1984-94), businesses used to update some data everyday at night while some data used to be updated after days. This created problems for businesses in their quest to acquire, develop and retain customers. For instance, by the time businesses analyzed data and took action, the situation would change resulting in customer dissatisfaction and loss of business.

For instance, in my book Customer Icebergs, I have discussed the example of my experience as a customer with Spectranet, an Internet service provider. We had terminated our Internet connection but we kept receiving their invoices. Also, one part of their customer service team was calling us to find out why we had deserted them and another part was reminding us to pay the outstanding invoices. Spectranet’s data about its customer was not up-to-date and it was not presenting a unified view of the status of the customer to whoever was interacting with the customer. This was resulting in further dissatisfaction of the customer. Today, technology allows you to collect data in real time, that is, the data is recorded as the event occurs and the customer’s records are updated throughout the organization. In addition, the same updated record is available to everyone in the organization all across the world. Today, CRM and its related technologies not only allows businesses to capture real time data but also to act on it quickly to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction. If Spectranet would have implemented the CRM solution properly, I would not have been harassed by Spectranet’s accounts and customer service departments for payment of invoices.

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