Product Description

(Pearson education) Discusses crucial factors in the use of Customer Relationship Management to compete in today's marketplace. Features case studies of companies that have successfully implemented CRM, and coverage of the context of the popular CRM buzzwords used today. Softcover. DLC: Customer relations--Management.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106956 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
As the thinkers have said, you should strive in all situations to know yourself and know your enemy. Most of history's great thinkers, however, were not in business. In business, you have to know your customer and understand how your company interacts with him or her. The current term for this is customer relationship management (CRM), and The CRM Handbook is the best textbook for managers on the mechanics of CRM. It's a standout in a field that's filled with squishy books that go on at length about how important CRM is, but which lack details. Jill Dyché provides lots of factual information, real case studies, carefully considered commentary, and reasoned criteria with which to evaluate CRM products and strategies. Though you'll certainly want to supplement Dyché's work with vendors' product literature and implementation proposals, you'll get a lot from her carefully researched book.

Dyché devotes some of her (fairly slender) volume to CRM background information but quickly gets to the issues that managers confronted with CRM decisions need to consider. She makes great use of bulleted lists, scorable quizzes, and checklists (sections about what questions to ask vendors, and why, are particularly good) that you can use right now to gauge any organization's suitability to CRM and determine how they need to change in order to get the most out of their systems. --David Wall

Topics covered: Customer relationship management (CRM)--as a business practice and as a set of technologies--explained for managers and corporate planners. CRM fundamentals, CRM product selection, and internal promotion of CRM are all covered well.

Review
Praise for The CRM Handbook~"Want to avoid being one of the estimated 70 percent of companies who have tried implementing standalone CRM systems and failed? Confused by what your IT suppliers are telling you about CRM? Then you need to read this book! Jill provides a comprehensive, practical, and easy to understand view of CRM and shows you how to successfully implement an enterprise customer-focused solution." - Kevin Bubeck Director, North America Information Strategy, Coca-Cola~"CRM could be viewed as the ERP of the 2000s. As such, there will be multiple winners and losers as the marketplace places some large and strategic bets on this technology. In any case, Jill Dyche has captured the importance of the concepts and value derived through CRM solutions. Those needs will evolve, of course, but companies will always need the basics that have been discussed." - Brian Berliner Co-founder & EVP, Product Development, Acies Networks~"The CRM Handbook provides information for the business person who is trying to understand CRM and how it can effect his/her business. It goes beyond the hype of the acronym and dives into the real issues that a company needs to consider before implementing a CRM solution." - Joy Blake Scott Director, Marketing and Communications, Fastwater, LLP"I haven't read anything that has such a practical approach. I view the book as having multiple benefits. It gives a good definition of CRM functionality but also gives detailed guidance of how to approach CRM in your organization." - Francine Frazer Principal Consultant, Net Perceptions~"Even better than defining CRM, Jill took on all of the hyperlanguage around CRM and clearly differentiated the various incarnations of CRM. It's also usefulto know what can go wrong and the potential affects of such missteps. Too few authors level with readers about pitfalls!" - Linda McHugh Director, Professional Services, Cygent Inc."~The guides based on the business tools that Jill uses with her own clients are fabulous." - Robin Neidorf President, Electric Muse/Clio's, Pen Research & Interpretation, Inc.~"The language is easy to read and easy to understand. Terms were well explained so that someone with no prior CRM experience could easily understand the text." - Marcia Robinson President, e-Business Strategies~"An excellent study into what defines today's best practices in the CRM industry." - Gareth Herschel Senior Research Analyst, Gartner Research"Jill writes very well. Her writing communicates subjects and topics in a very easy to understand way. At times, I felt like I was listening to her speak or discussing a subject. She is a good communicator! Jill did a very good job of covering all subject areas on the different topics of CRM. I am most impressed with Jill on pointing out all the possible mistakes and creating 'lessons learned' advice which most authors frequently omit." - Mary Chan Information Management Consultant, Kagiso Inc. ~"Jill Dych's The CRM Handbook is a good read for CRM novices and seasoned practitioners alike. Dych's well-written, pragmatic approach to understanding CRM's evolution and purpose is a map to a successful CRM program. Dyché uncovers the truth behind the CRM software vendor hype, highlights some common roadblocks to CRM project development, and describes how to delineate and prioritize CRM initiatives." - Don Peppers Partner, Peppers and Rogers Group

From the Back Cover

"Jill Dyché's The CRM Handbook is a good read for CRM novices and seasoned practitioners alike. Dyché's well-written, pragmatic approach to understanding CRM's evolution and purpose is a map to a successful CRM program. Dyché uncovers the truth behind the CRM software vendor hype, highlights some common roadblocks to CRM project development, and describes how to delineate and prioritize CRM initiatives." —Don Peppers, Partner, Peppers and Rogers Group

To compete in today's competitive marketplace, customer focus is no longer simply nice to have—it's a fundamental mandate. This book is a manager's best friend, providing both a primer and a how-to guide to defining and implementing Customer Relationship Management. It shows you:

• The various roles CRM plays in business, and why it's more important than ever
• The range of CRM applications and uses, from sales force automation to campaign management to e-CRM and beyond
• The context of some of the popular CRM buzzwords
• The differences between CRM and business intelligence, and why they're symbiotic
• Why the customer-relationship failure rate is so high, and how to avoid becoming another CRM statistic
• Case studies of visionary companies who've done CRM the right way

"We read this book at a time when we were relooking at our customer information strategy. One of the first things I had to do was ban the term 'CRM' from the project because of the vendor and industry hype and the confusion it created within the team. Jill's book provides a strategic look at the topic from both a business and IT perspective. The insights she provides allowed me to focus on the strategic issues planning an enterprise-wide, customer-focused solution. And yes we are once again using the term 'CRM'." —Kevin Bubeck, Director, North America Information Strategy, Coca-Cola

"Jill is one of the few people who has been at the forefront of every stage of CRM development, from the early days of data warehousing, through business re-engineering, to sales force automation and e-CRM. This makes her uniquely qualified to write about how it should all come together. The reader will be rewarded with advice drawn from real-world experience—both successes and failures. I shudder to think at the dollars that have been wasted over the years on CRM projects and how much will be wasted in the future by executives who won't read The CRM Handbook." —Brian Hoover, President, TouchScape™ Corporation

"The CRM Handbook provides an outstanding roadmap for putting human contact—relevant, accurate, informed human contact—back at the heart of the business-customer relationship. That's the challenge and the sole goal of Customer Relationship Management." —Charles D. Morgan, CEO and Company Leader, Acxiom Corporation

"Jill Dyché has produced a wide-screen, comprehensive picture of CRM that also focuses on key issues that matter to CRM users. This book is written for those who are time-constrained and quick on the uptake—everyone from the CEO to the marketers and technologists who will evaluate, implement, and benefit from CRM initiatives." —Peter Heffring, President, CRM Division, NCR Teradata

"Jill has masterfully compiled scenarios, resources, references, definitions, and insightful recommendations about how to remain customer-focused across the enterprise functions. The book can be used as an educational tool, reference guide, and resource for short-listing technologies to evaluate." —John Earle, President, Chant Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Bridges business and technical - best book on the subject
This book is thorough, clear and filled with useful information. It's organized in two parts. Part 1 defines CRM in chapter 1 and in the next six chapters covers the reasons and issues for implementing CRM from five perspectives: (1) Marketing, (2) Customer Service/Call Centers, (3) Sales Force Automation, (4) E-business and (5) Data Analysis. The case studies, all based on real clients and situations, add life to the well written chapters on marketing, customer service and sales force automation. In addition each chapter contains nuggets of insight, clear discussion of the topic and numerous checklists and tables that you can use for your own projects.

Part 2 covers delivering CRM and is structured in the logical sequence of planning, tool selection and CRM project management. Like the first part of the book the four chapters in Part 2 contain case studies, checklists and excellent advice. It is in this part of the book where you'll benefit from Jill's experience because she reveals common traps and pitfalls, and gives advice on how to deal with them or bypass them altogether.

What I like about this book is that it covers the business and technical parameters, requirements and issues. Jill's writing style makes it not only readable, but engrossing as well. She goes into considerable detail about how and why CRM is important to meeting business requirements and gives business metrics, explains differences between CRM and business intelligence, and the pro's and con's of all issues and factors. Because she covers the subject from the five perspectives I listed above this book is valuable to all possible stakeholders in a CRM project. I especially liked her use of the Porter value chain and how she leads you through the development of a business case for CRM.

If you're involved in CRM, or are in a company that is implementing ISO9001:2000 (which requires that organizations have an effective method of measuring customer satisfaction to achieve ISO certification), then this book will be your most valuable source of information. If you want to see the dark side of CRM I recomment that you also read World Without Secrets by Richard Hunter, and for more information about CRM's underlying data I strongly recommend reading Jill's first book, e-Data: Turning Data into Information with Data Warehousing.

The CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to CRM by Jill Dyche
As a former business unit president of a premier internet software company, I've experienced the CRM hype and misinformation in the marketplace as well as the Board room. Jill's book is the first unbiased look at CRM complete with facts, case studies, definition of terms, checklists to rate vendors, etc. Reading this book could save you millions, literally, in your CRM efforts. I recommend it highly to executives who are thinking about CRM as well as the IT professionals in charge of implementing these strategic projects. In a perfect world, all of the CRM gurus at vendor organizations and analyst firms would read this book prior to saying another word about CRM!

Right on the Money
As a former Gartner Group analyst, I am sensitive to publications which "tell it like it is" Vs. those which have some ulterior motive, such as hyping a particular approach or product. Ms Dyche has followed up her success in de-mystifying the world of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence in her first book, "E-Data", with a second triumph. This is the only book I've read that consolidates the discussion of CRM in marketing, call center, and sales, along with e-commerce and BI/DW, to provide a complete view of the CRM market opportunities. Her BI chapter in particular is the best discussion yet on the differences (and synergies) between BI/DW and CRM, and her future predictions at the end of the book are, well, right on the money. As a bonus, readers get to enjoy her delightful prose in the bargain. A must read if you work anywhere in the rapidly expanding world of CRM