On the Software Advice Blog, Lauren Carlson, CRM analyst at Software Advice.com, predicts five significant trends in customer relationship management for the next five years. Her forecasts are supported by observations from leading CRM experts, including:

• Paul Greenberg, owner, The 56 Group
• Esteban Kolsky, founder and principal, ThinkJar
• Brent Leary, owner, CRM Essentials
• Denis Pombriant, CEO, Beagle Research Group
• Brian Solis, principal, Altimeter Group
• Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO, Constellation Research

Carlson made these predictions:

1. Context services will sharpen the picture of customers and habits.
   Context services will be able to more accurately describe customers’ characteristics, location, buying habits, interests, social relationships and other factors — based on examination of their social media participation and from location-based services, smartphone applications and mobile-phone usage patterns.
2. Real-time customer intelligence will become available.
   Powerful new analytics programs will allow almost instantaneous gathering, analysis and use of customer data and intelligence These applications will make use of cloud computing and other technologies that can tap an almost limitless source of computer resources to provide the infrastructure for real-time services.
3. Television will assume a major role in customer engagement.
   Television, found in more than 115 million American households, will assume a newfound importance in CRM activities. Companies are likely to interact with customers through Internet-connected TVs that take full advantage of the in-home big-screen experience.
4. Virtual meetings will become more common and will alter business.
   Customers will be able to participate in fully interactive virtual meetings with company representatives or even other customers. This ability can enable the creation of participatory virtual conferences, trade shows, product demonstrations, or other forms of sales and marketing activities.
5. Gamification will become a major component of business strategy.
   Gamification — the process of adding game elements to nongame activities to increase engagement — will allow companies to add educational activities, offer interactive contest and sweepstakes participation, and provide social rewards programs. Companies will be able to identify customer behavior and interest through their participation in these gaming activities.

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