CRM for Extension

Another area of inquiry has been CRM (or customer relationship management) for extension.  The college has made the decision to pursue this and my charge is to consider implementation.  One of the first things we need to do in order to have successful implementation is to make employees aware of why we are asking them to adopt a particular CRM system.  This is explored in this blog.

While you've gathered from my other posts, and already knew if you really know me, I believe that with or without a "technology-based system" the management of customer relationships has long been a strength of strong extension programs.  The idea of focussing on the customer's needs to determine programming directions is nothing new - whether we use one-on-one opportunities, advisory groups, or technology-based surveys to collect this information - the point is we have been collecting this information and using it to drive business decisions.   But we have probably been able to put greater emphasis on the face-to-face methods for gathering input because of our unique structure which provides an office in each county of the state and because in the past a lot of our educational programming has been provided in a face-to-face environment.  However, there are segments of the population we have not been reaching.  For many of these people our office hours and the dates/times we traditionally offer programming are not convenient.  So, we have begun strengthening our on-line delivery which requires mechanisms to gather input in an on-line environment.  So, we're good on this part - what it tells us in terms of what the product looks like that we use is that it needs to provide a way to report both face-to-face input along with information gathered in on-line environments.  The ability to connect and allow for input for our online customers is one of the primary reasons for implementation of the CRM.

Along with all of higher education, extension programs are being asked to provide greater evidence of impact and success to support accountability to stakeholders and funding organizations.  Data is generally gathered throughout the various levels of the state organization.  States are at different levels in reporting - ranging from providing basic participation data to providing data that indicates personal or governmental savings related to long term impacts.  The latter is the goal.  This could be another factor driving towards implementation of a CRM system - for data collection to be used for reporting.  A CRM system would need to provide a great deal of flexibility and ease in reporting to be successful in this realm.  State systems have varied success in building and implementing extension-specific models for this purpose.  CRM's tend to be more business-focused - units sold over time - so this adaptation may prove challenging.

Has your state extension program adopted a CRM?  If so, how is it proving beneficial to your organization and customers?  I'd appreciate your input.