Customer Reviews

Customer Relationship Management, Second Edition

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Hello! I'm the author of the book, and would like to explain how the second edition has been expanded, updated and enhanced.

The publishers contacted adopters and readers of the first edition and asked them what changes they'd like to see incorporated into the new edition. Thanks to everyone who took part. This resulted in a number of important improvements to this edition.

The book is significantly expanded. At seventeen chapters, the second edition is seven chapters longer than the first edition. There are three new chapters dedicated to operational CRM applications - sales force automation, marketing automation and service automation. The chapters define important terms, identify the main vendors and actors, and set out the benefits CRM users can expect to experience and the functionality that is available.

There is a new chapter entitled `understanding relationships'. If CRM is about developing and maintaining relationships with customers, it is important to have clear understanding of what a relationship looks like, and how, if at all, it can be managed. This chapter defines the term `relationship', examines whether customers want relationships with suppliers and vice versa, identifies attributes of successful relationships and reviews five different schools of thought that have influenced relationship management in a business context.

There is a new chapter on planning and implementing CRM projects. This takes readers through a disciplined 5-stage process designed to promote successful CRM outcomes.

There is a new chapter on `customer experience'. Customer experience has become something of a buzzword in the last few years. This chapter explores the concept of customer experience, and addresses the question of whether CRM can or does enhance customer experience.

Many new case illustrations have been added to every chapter, and all other content has been revised and updated. An added feature of this edition is the inclusion of a large number screenshots from CRM software applications. This is designed to give readers a sense of the CRM user's experience.

A final enhancement to this edition is the provision of an array of enriching online content, targeted at meeting the needs of readers and adopters. Adopters have access to a comprehensive set of PowerPoint materials, case studies, learning exercises, and links to CRM vendors, ASP's and analysts.

Buttle's book is a comprehensive coverage of CRM, without the bias of a particular "magic bullet" solution to push. The author covers several models of CRM, each with relative strengths and weaknesses, then explores important related topics such as customer experience and the role of systems in CRM programs. This book provides the best overall treatment of the subject for anyone interested in understanding and applying customer relationship management concepts in the real world.

This without a doubt the worst book Ive ever used in College. It's all over the place and difficult to follow. Everyone in class agress even the teacher agrees. This book is bad!

The book explains how Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) can be used throughout the customer life cycle stage of customer acquisition, retention and development. The author introduces the four types of Customer Relationship Management and the seven-step process to develop a CRM strategy for any organization.
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Summary
Overall, the book explains how CRM can be used in every stage of the customer life-cycle and the four types of Customer Relationship Management; Strategic CRM,Operational CRM, Analytical CRM,Collaborative CRM.
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The book provides a very good overview of CRM; it is well organized and easy to understand. CRM Strategy is a new topic in this new version of the book. I think the author did well in the organization of the topics and explaining the concepts and steps to develop strategies that will help companies to acquire new customers and develop a long-term relationship with them.
Buttle explained a seven step process to develop a CRM strategy for a specific project. He said that organizations interested in developing a CRM strategy must start with the step 1, `situation analysis'; which describes, understand and evaluate the current customer strategy. A couple of tools to help in this step are the comprehensive model of CRM and the customer strategy cube. This step answers the questions "Where are we now?", "why are we where we are now?" The main purpose of this audit is get information about the strength and weaknesses of the company's customer strategy. The step 2 of developing the strategy is to `educate the employees' to avoid misunderstandings. Employee education and involvement will be important as they will be motivated to participate and will help identify opportunities for improvement in the workplace. The step 3 is related to the `vision'; this should be a well written statement of how CRM will change the business as it relates to customers. Step 4, is about `priorities'. What are the company's priorities at this specific moment? Step 5 is related to `establishing goals and objectives' from the vision and the priorities. A goal could be to acquire new customers and an objective could to generate 200 additional leads in a period of time. Step 6 is about `identifying people, process and technology' requirements for the goals and objectives to be achieved. The last step, step 7 is about `developing the business case', which is built based on the cost and the benefits of the CRM implementation. This step answers the question: why should we invest in this CRM project? Managers will need to review the cost, the revenues and all those other benefits difficult to value like improve customer service or improve understanding to market changes.
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I believe that this book could be a great help to CRM personnel, student, managers and any one that works directly or indirectly with customers. The way the author explains the topics is very simple and every step to develop a CRM strategy just makes sense. In addition, the book includes examples of CRM in practice so the readers can learn how CRM is implemented.
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I think this is a great book that offers valuable information, techniques and tools on Customer Relationship Management. Developing a CRM strategy was very well explained and included a lot of details, examples and graphs to better understand the subject. I recommend this book to professionals but also to anyone that works with customers to help them understand the entire strategic planning required to acquire customers and develop a long term relationship with them and why this is so important for the success of the business.