CEM software: How does it compare to CRM software?
What is the difference between customer experience management (CEM) systems and customer relationship management (CRM) systems? Should they be used together, or separately?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register, you'll begin receiving targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers on the latest customer relationship management (CRM)and call center technology issues today. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest issues facing this fast-changing industry.

    Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchCRM.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchCRM.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

From a software standpoint there is plenty of confusion out there. For clarification, let's agree on these definitions:

CRM – tools geared to manage and analyze customer information
CEM – tools geared to enable and enhance customer interactions

If we agree on those definitions (although I am sure that most vendors will claim that their products contain a bit of both), then CEM systems and CRM systems serve different, although complimentary, purposes. While CEM is about creating the best customer experience, CRM is about managing relationships while focusing on maximizing revenues. For example, a customer feedback system enables customer dialogue and falls in the CEM definition. A customer database or analysis tool will fall in the CRM definition.

Gartner recently announced that they believe the term CRM will be phased out and CEM will be used in the future. Many vendors use both terms to describe their products. The best advice I can give you is to first determine what you are trying to achieve as part of your customer-centric strategy and then select the tool you need to reach these goals.

This was first published in November 2007