Some Heavy Thinking On CRM

Joe Patti published a terrific article yesterday over at Butts In The Seats that examines some new thinking going on amid the field of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). What makes the conversation interesting is the school of thought among trend setters in the for profit world is begging to shift toward the thinking that CRM is dying out as the primary source of contact between businesses and customers.

Patti’s article is itself the result of a recent email blast from You’ve Cott Mail on the topic of CRM (if you don’t subscribe, you’re missing out). All of this becomes important when you consider that arts groups are just starting to get into CRM solutions in a big way so if the emerging trends outlined by the authors in Cott’s email blast are even partially accurate, then it is in everyone’s best interest to take a serious look at how things are changing.

In its own odd way, being at the tail end of best practice trends might be an advantage in that arts groups looking to invest in a comprehensive CRM solution for the first time might be able to skip ahead in the curve by internalizing some of the new thinking and consider solutions beyond those from current arts providers.

But before that train of thought leads you too far astray, head over to Patti’s post and see what he has to say.

And be sure to stop by for tomorrow’s post where we’ll take an in-depth look at some of the aspects folks find confusing about how CRM, Box Office, and Website solutions intersect.