Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management

Rating:
Summary: CRM or customer service?
Review: I bought this book willing to find essentials about CRM as a Philosophy as a System not by pieces. I cannot qualify this as a coherent book about CRM but as a compilation of eight articles of eight valuable authors writing about Relations with Customers not CRM as an integrated system of Human Resources, Technology and Philosophy into an organization's life. If you see this book as a group of articles gathered to give you different points of view about customers and service (not CRM) this is a good book, if you buy it considering the title "Customer Relationship Management" and "Harvard Business Review" it will not full your expectations.

Nevertheless I have to recommend the article written by Fournier, Dobscha and Mick about preventing the premature death of Relationship Marketing. Very interesting point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Customer service, not CRM
Review: This Harvard Business Review title is not about Customer Relationship Management, but about customer service. If you are interested in Customer Service I must say there are at leat 3 articles very useful and interesting. If you are searching for CRM, this is not going to fulfill your expetations

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Eloquent Delineation of Basics
Review: This is one in a series of several dozen volumes which comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. An Executive Summary introduces each selection. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section which usually includes suggestions of other sources which some readers may wish to explore.

Some of the most valuable benefits in this volume are provided by comprehensive charts which, all by themselves, are worth far more than the cost of the book. Here are a few examples.

• The Evolution and Transformation of Customers (page 4) and The Shifting Locus of Core Competencies (page 7): both are provided by C.K. Prahalad and Venkatram Ramaswamy.

• Are Your Retail Pillars Solid -- or Crumbling? (page 52): Leonard L. Berry identifies the major differences between inferior retailers from superior retailers.

• The Three Dimensions of Synchronization (page 90): Mohanbir Sawhney explains how any organization can present a single, unified face to the customer -- one that can change as market conditions warrant -- without imposing homogeneity on its people.

• One Destination, Five Roads (page 111) and Teams and Work Groups: It Pays to Know the Difference (page 123): Jon R. Katzenbach and Jason A. Santamaria explain how five practices followed by the U.S. Marine Corps enable it to outperform all other organizations in terms of "engaging the hearts and minds of the front line."

These and other charts are especially helpful whenever a reader wishes to review the key points in any of the eight essays, each of which provides cutting edge thinking and eminently practical advice. Although no bibliography is provided, those who wish to consult other sources need only read the About the Contributors section which will direct them to those sources.