Eight Gartner Building Blocks

On the eighth day of Christmas, my truelove gave to me... Information on how Charities Could Use Gartner's 8 Building Blocks of CRM Framework

For larger (and probably also mid-size) charities looking to implement a new CRM system, and who want to understand the implications of CRM other than technology on their organisation, then you could certainly take a look at Gartner's "Eight Building Blocks of CRM" framework.

This is a toolkit which forms a framework that contains the elements which Gartner define as necessary for a successful CRM initiative: vision, strategy, customer experience, organisational collaboration, processes, information/insight, technology and metrics.They emphasise that all eight building blocks are essential for successful CRM but key is the fact that only one of the eight blocks involves technology, which underlines the importance of viewing CRM as a business strategy.

I also like Gartner’s Definition of CRM: "CRM is a business strategy with outcomes that optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing around customer segments, fostering customer-satisfying behaviours and implementing customer-centric processes. CRM technologies should enable greater customer insight, increased customer access, more-effective interactions, and integration throughout all customer channels and back-office enterprise functions." Replace 'customer' with 'supporter' and remove profitability and that's a good definition for charities too.

I won't go into each building block here - far better for you to read their approach yourself if you are interested. But I will quote one more thing from their report which I also agree with: "True CRM isn’t easy. It requires board-level vision and leadership to drive a “relentless focus on the customer”; otherwise, it will remain fragmented. It involves potentially difficult changes to processes, culture and organization that can make the technology support seem easy." Well said.

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The original Gartner paper is available on Gartner's website, but you can also find the report as a download on various websites as part of other reports. One example is the CustomerThink website.