Effective CRM places the customer’s needs first in all dealings with the brand. However, there is a vast difference between a customer-centric organisation and a customer-driven one.
Placing the customer at the centre of an organisation’s business planning and execution is different to having customers drive the direction of a business. Many new, web-based businesses rely on the latter, and actively encourage customers to take the lead and add value to the business.
Services such as Flickr (www.flickr.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) are user-driven rather than user-centric. They provide tools that enable users to make the service their own, often by allowing outside developers to create supplementary services. So, Flickr users can export their images and use them to make custom business cards on Moo (www.moo.com). There are many auxiliary services
based on Twitter such as analysis services (www.klout.com) and access services (www.twhirl.org).
Savvy organisations can also provide tools to customers to drive their business, passing on tasks to customers that might ordinarily have been performed by the organisation. For example, many airlines now allow travellers to check in online prior to arriving at the airport. As more travellers elect to check themselves in, staff costs for airlines can be reduced. The travellers are doing the job for free (and are getting a better experience too).
Customer-centric strategy, on the other hand, uses data to present the best possible experience to the customer. Amazon’s collaborative filtering is an example of a customer-centric approach. Using customer data, Amazon will share products that you are more likely to prefer.
