VRM - Trust Matters

MyCustomer.com publishes the second half of Doc Searls predictions and emerging forms of VRM but I couldn't resist adding a few to his list.

As a long term advocate of VRM (or SRM as I used to call it back in the last century) I fully agree with Doc and the ProjectVRM core principle of ‘user-driven’. However we at PAOGA prefer ‘user’ to ‘customer’ in this context as we provide secure VRM tools and services extending beyond the ‘Vendor Relationship’ to enhance individuals participation in their relationships as a citizen, patient, employee, client, student, et al. Let’s call it XRM.

Whilst Doc provides a number of examples whereby VRM can provide significant mutual benefits to both buyer and seller, I think there are a few more worthy of mention.

Trust matters. If you have any doubts about the significance of trust in relationships, or the murky depths to which it has sunk in recent times, then I would refer you to the book by Anthony Seldon – Trust* How we lost it and how to get it back (ISBN 978-1-84954-001-8). 
He quotes Henry Stimson (1867-1950), the US statesman as saying“The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him”. All relationships, whatever role we are playing, are enhanced by the appropriate level of trust and the principles of VRM, providing the reciprocal to CRM in our digital world, provides the necessary ‘two-way process’.

Because I’m worth it. No matter how high up the economic pyramid an organisation sits it is supported at the base by us as individuals. It is us who, through lack of trust, can bring down a government, cause a run on a bank, or desert a brand. As such it is simply good business to respect and trust your customer, employee, student, patient – and that includes protecting their personal information and relationship data. Trading in personal information without the owners’ permission is both illegal and unethical resulting in SPAM making up over 80% of internet traffic. The internet is too valuable and important to us all to abuse it this way and X-RM can fix this by providing the tools for individuals to manage and take responsibility for their personal information, wants and needs.

Is VRM Green? It could play a significant role as we, as individuals, become less wasteful and more conscious of the financial and environmental costs of unnecessary transportation. But that issue is for another blog.