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.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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