Managing the customer relationship from a single source.

In my recent blog, I wrote about the business opportunity that exists for brands exploring “Loyalty in Web3”. In today’s post, I’m going to talk about a key software tool, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which will help to enable new forms of loyalty.

Very quickly for those that don’t know, a CRM tool is how companies manage customer data and their interactions with customers; i.e., very simply, the software a company uses to store your relationship data, garner insights on you, and send you emails/offers.

When people say web2 CRM, they typically are referring to a company using your off-chain actions and data (e.g., email address) to interact with you (often via email).

When people say web3 CRM, they typically are referring to a company using your on-chain actions and data (e.g., wallet address) to interact with you (often via tokens).

In both instances, the goal of the CRM remains the same: effectively build and sustain a relationship with the customer.

So, why the distinction?

Well, my theory is that given the nascent state of the industry, most traditional web2 CRM providers do not have blockchain-based offerings, while most web3 CRM providers are simply focused on the web3 space. In the market, this has led to a distinction in products.

While it’s understandable, and maybe healthy to help us understand the different features that are required, I don’t believe this should be the end goal. If you ask any marketer, they’d probably say that having a single CRM be the source of truth for your end-to-end customer lifecycle is preferred vs. having multiple CRMs and having to reconcile between them.

Therefore, it’s not about having a web2 CRM and a web3 CRM. Rather, it’s about having a single, unified product that is the central repository for both off-chain and on-chain data and interactions. Simply, a product that can truly bridge the gap between web2 and web3 to increase operational efficiency, providing one view of the customer across both paradigms.

As a brand, having a flexible solution to this problem will be key as the usage of tokens proliferates. Being able to garner insights on both off-chain and on-chain data, and action on that data on both web2 platforms and web3 platforms to create a wholistic customer relationship will be powerful.

As a brand, ask yourself, what’s your CRM strategy for web3?

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