What does CRM mean in the customer experience age? - Marketing Week

Marketers' relentless focus on customer experience has pushed customer relationship management (CRM) into the background. At its most basic level, CRM is a customer database but it should be the glue that holds everything to do with the customer journey together. So before embarking on a mission to overhaul the customer experience with shiny new things like chatbots and augmented reality marketers have got to get the basics right and that means getting legacy technology like customer relationship management fit for purpose. According to Gartner, $40bn was spent worldwide on CRM software in 2017 and it is predicted to be the fastest growing software market in 2018 at a rate of 16%. However, CRM is perceived as a key business driver for only a third of businesses, according to figures from this year's CRM Barometer by Wiraya, which also reveal that in the UK only 35% of companies have fully integrated CRM systems.