Ten years after the term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was coined, it still amazes me how many organisations just don’t get what it really means. Whether you are a commercial organisation with traditional customers, a not-for-profit with donors, or a government department serving constituents, CRM is about having the right attitude towards the individuals and organisations that support your organisation by providing your revenue.

Regardless of the terminology, they are your customers. CRM is about providing those customers with due respect in order to develop an ongoing and productive relationship with them. Why do so many organisations think of CRM simply as a software product, or as a means to developing short term venue gains?

Yes, software has an important role to play. With the right software in your organisation’s hands it can act as a tremendous facilitator in developing and maintaining those relationships. Just as we all rely on calendars and automated reminders to remember our friend’s birthdays and other special events, CRM is a facilitator to support our inherent good will towards our clients. Without that good will CRM, regardless of your software, is useless.

These days too many corporate policies, procedures, and yes, even software products, are developed only with short term gains in mind. Focus has been lost in the long term objective of the relationship. But many organisations are starting to learn that in this modern, well connected world this is not always conducive to the best business outcome. These days, organisations have to be very careful about how they manage their customer relationships. Here is an example of the type of repercussions that an organisation’s short-sightedness can produce.

In 2008, a guy by the name of Dave Carroll flew United Airlines from Nova Scotia to Nebraska with his band. Along the way his $3,500 guitar was broken. In fact, when they were on the ground at Chicago’s O’Hare airport Carroll, one of his band mates and other passengers saw baggage handlers throwing guitars around the tarmac.

Carroll says he immediately raised the issue with the three flight attendants on the plane, but his concerns were disregarded. When they arrived at the destination, sure enough, his beloved Tailor acoustic guitar was smashed.

Carroll complained but United Airlines’ policies left their customer speechless and unsatisfied. That is until he found a new voice by vowing to write not one, but three songs about his saga. The first song “United Breaks Guitars” has already received over 5 million hits on YouTube and has quickly spread virally around the world. Recently the second song was added YouTube and iTunes as well.

United Airline has since tried to repair the damage by offering to pay for the repairs to his guitar, but Carroll has refused their belated offer. Needless to say this whole costly exercise, which is no doubt affecting not just their relationship with Carroll and his band but now probably tens of thousands of other current and potential clients as well, could have been so easily avoided if United had their customers in their best interests at heart.

So when you are thinking about your CRM system yes, selecting the right software and vendor is most important but so too is having the right mind set and corporate adjectives. These of course will play a significant role in dictating both, your software and vendor choice as well as your own business processes and policies. Indeed every part of the character of your organisation should be directed by these decisions. Only organisations that truly understand this will truly get the most out of Customer Relationship Management.

So here for you viewing pleasure are Dave’s first two songs. I will come back and add the third when it has been released.