Most customer relationship management (CRM) and customer data platform (CDP) programmes still struggle to improve customer outcomes because they are built as systems of record, not systems of action. In this CX Today roundtable, Ben Robinson, Head of Technology at Fair Finance, Amory Somers Vine, Head of Customer Experience at Expereo, and John Cheney, CEO of Workbooks, unpack why that gap persists and what CX and IT leaders can do to close it.
The conversation starts with a familiar problem: plenty of data, too little momentum. Many organisations still treat CRM as a database for a single department rather than a shared engine that helps teams anticipate needs and remove customer effort. Cheney points to the long tail of partial adoption, where platforms hold information but do not consistently drive next-best actions or proactive service.
“For a lot of customers, when we first started with them, it was just a repository of data and often just a repository of data for one bit of the business.”
Robinson expands on why this happens, arguing that many CRM initiatives are designed around internal reporting and functional requirements first, with customer outcomes bolted on later. That creates silos, distorts priorities, and makes it difficult to prove CX value beyond operational metrics.
