Gearing Up For Second-Wave CRM: 3 Principles for Building Foundation

By Scott Kostojohn and Mazen Ghalayini

Customer relationship management (CRM) technology may be booming in terms of sales and its "shiny" new capabilities, but its business impact is less definitive. According to a late 2013 report by Econsultancy, only 28 percent of companies are satisfied with their conversion rates.

What can we glean from this? For one thing, before organizations set their sights on second-wave CRM developments such as using data from mobile and social channels to improve their customer view, they first must master the CRM basics. If companies are still finding their balance with existing CRM functionality, they may struggle to realize the full benefits of new data streams and technology.