ABSTRACT
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) needs data, and traditional CRM systems were built upon organizations’ operational databases: customer records, sales data, and service contact histories. However, technology has pushed on and marketing clouds are the leading edge of CRM technology; where technology leads, practice will follow. Some marketing clouds label CRM in a limited way, essentially as a form of database marketing to customers. CRM strategies are better informed, more effective, when managers understand customer satisfaction, experience and engagement; CRM should never become a managerial process machine untethered from its roots in understanding how value is created for customers. One of particular relevance to CRM is “additive” or 3D printing, giving the ability to produce physical objects from a relatively small printer. In a world where all the CRM analytics are removed from line marketing, the function will be redefined in very limited terms to concerns such as graphic design and advertising.
