AUVSI has recently started to tackle REAL customer relationship management. We are instituting SOPs on how to enter customers, what their relationship is to the organization they belong to, and how that relationship is used in our system. We've been inputting records into netforum for years, but how often have we really mined the data? Not very often.
Our BD staff is also starting to use the assignments functionality when we enter new contacts to let internal staff know someone is interested in membership, exhibiting, etc. It will work great, as long as everyone uses it, which is easier said than done.
I came across this article today and was amazed that 47% of organizations consider their CRM systems to have failed in 2009. I guess we were one of them since we weren't concerned about it until now. The expectation I have by putting faith in a real CRM procedure set is that all the relevant numbers (members, revenue, prospects, etc) will go up. But, only time will tell.
http://goitec.com/connect/2010/08/five-questions-it-must-ask-to-ensure-crm-success/