Customer Reviews

Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book willing to find essentials about CRM as a Philosophy as a System not by pieces. I cannot qualify this as a coherent book about CRM but as a compilation of eight articles of eight valuable authors writing about Relations with Customers not CRM as an integrated system of Human Resources, Technology and Philosophy into an organization's life. If you see this book as a group of articles gathered to give you different points of view about customers and service (not CRM) this is a good book, if you buy it considering the title "Customer Relationship Management" and "Harvard Business Review" it will not full your expectations.

Nevertheless I have to recommend the article written by Fournier, Dobscha and Mick about preventing the premature death of Relationship Marketing. Very interesting point of view.

This Harvard Business Review title is not about Customer Relationship Management, but about customer service. If you are interested in Customer Service I must say there are at least 3 articles very useful and interesting. If you are searching for CRM, this is not going to fulfill your expetations

This is one in a series of several dozen volumes which comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. An Executive Summary introduces each selection. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section which usually includes suggestions of other sources which some readers may wish to explore.

Some of the most valuable benefits in this volume are provided by comprehensive charts which, all by themselves, are worth far more than the cost of the book. Here are a few examples.

* The Evolution and Transformation of Customers (page 4) and The Shifting Locus of Core Competencies (page 7): both are provided by C.K. Prahalad and Venkatram Ramaswamy.

* Are Your Retail Pillars Solid -- or Crumbling? (page 52): Leonard L. Berry identifies the major differences between inferior retailers from superior retailers.

* The Three Dimensions of Synchronization (page 90): Mohanbir Sawhney explains how any organization can present a single, unified face to the customer -- one that can change as market conditions warrant -- without imposing homogeneity on its people.

* One Destination, Five Roads (page 111) and Teams and Work Groups: It Pays to Know the Difference (page 123): Jon R. Katzenbach and Jason A. Santamaria explain how five practices followed by the U.S. Marine Corps enable it to outperform all other organizations in terms of "engaging the hearts and minds of the front line."

These and other charts are especially helpful whenever a reader wishes to review the key points in any of the eight essays, each of which provides cutting edge thinking and eminently practical advice. Although no bibliography is provided, those who wish to consult other sources need only read the About the Contributors section which will direct them to those sources.

I ordered 5 books including this one, and all of them are so very shallow, low level and boring.
Some of the chapters were actually copied in several books! Unbelivable.
I would probably recommend this series to school children interested in management - nothing more than that.

Following is my personal opionion of the books I bought:
I bought five books from the Harvard Business Review series and was terribly surprised to see how shallow they are;
I can't think of a single point discussed in the entire collection (which cost me more than $120) that wasn't obvious to me or added anything to my general knowledge. For me they were very boring and meaningless.
Very disappointing!

The book is compilation of several decent articles or essays on CRM but one thing that it obviously misses out is the technology and IT section which would be a nice and helpful content to have for newbie or people in general who would like to know quite a bit of everything about CRM.

It is a very short book that touches the essentials of CRM from the most wise prespective I have seen. Shows that the success in CRM depends only on the concepts described in this book and not on any IT system.