Daryl K. Tabor
C
ustomer relation- ship management (CRM) systems in
2012 offer auto dealers more technology than it took to land man on the moon 43 years ago. Since that time, e-evolution has com- pletely
transformed the way cars are sold, rocketing dealerships into cyberspace. A sales manager can today hold in the palm of his hand a link to the world more powerful than the machine Neil Armstrong stepped from to take his "giant leap for mankind."
Continued leaps in the science of electronics are made, leaving dealers and programmers of CRM software running to catch up. "It's evolving very, very quickly," Ed Braunbeck, mobile product manager for Dominion Dealer Solutions (DDS), said of technology. "It's scary."
In the last couple of years alone, producers of CRM systems have been forced to revamp their prod- ucts to include emerging tools like social networking and mobility. "There's definitely been an acceler- ation in
(CRM) technology over the last 24 months," said Tom Harsha of Hunt Valley, Md.-based iMagicLab.
(R)evolutionary Changes The concept of managing customer relationships has been around for years, though on a relatively stagnant evolutionary scale until the end of the 20th century when electronic systems were developed to enhance businesses-to-consumer rapport. This software was aimed at reducing costs and increasing profitability through maximizing interactions with consumers. Prior to that time, you could call the approach to cultivating those relationships "CRM Unplugged." In fact, a Rolodex was about as high-tech as CRMs reached before silicon chips made leather-bound ledgers and typewriters obsolete.
During the first half of the 20th century, with demand over- matching supply, the extent of American business marketing was, effectively, "Here it is. Come and get it." Customer satisfaction was not a primary concern with such mass marketing, as fa- mously exampled by Ford Motor Co. offering its Model T from 1914 to 1925 in any color … so long as it was black. But as supply caught up with demand in the middle of the 1900s, the chang- ing market pushed business to adopt data collection and analysis of customer demo- graphics. The