Customer relationship management software has come a long way in a short time.
From its roots as an organizer of customer and contact data, the software has grown to cover sales force automation, marketing campaigns, call center and customer service tools, sophisticated e-commerce applications, and an analytics layer that helps bring perspective to all those activities.
Now the industry is in the throes of another functional upgrade.
In short, customer relations are getting much more social. Among the traditional CRM software providers, as well as a growing contingent of social media specialists that have muscled into the space, there is growing recognition that the path to greater sales and customer satisfaction is a much more connected one.