Gearing Up for Second-Wave CRM: 3 Principles for Building the Right Foundation

For example, we're not at a point yet where people are refinancing their mortgages on their smartphones while standing in line at a movie theater, so there probably isn't a strong need for launching a mobile mortgage refinancing app and uniting it with a CRM application.

2. Make goal-oriented growth plans. Once you've confirmed that a new customer-facing channel would give your current CRM solution a valuable boost, be prepared to properly integrate the requisite data. Work backwards from the desired outcome (e.g., whether it's putting a mobile strategy in place that focuses on collecting data from smartphone customers rather than both smartphone and tablet users) and decide what kind of data your business needs to make sound decisions.