CRM Isn’t Just a Tool; It’s a Strategy for Managing Relationships That Drive Growth
In traditional industries, Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) are often treated like glorified contact lists or sales trackers. But when designed with intention, they become something much more powerful: a system for managing the relationships that fuel the business, and for measuring how well you’re actually doing it.
I’ve worked across sectors — from consumer goods to pharma to insurance — and I’ve seen firsthand that business growth rarely stalls due to lack of effort. It stalls from lack of visibility. Companies don’t just need to know who they serve. They need to understand how relationships form, where they flourish, and where they break down. That’s the insight required to design meaningful actions and monitor their impact. Much of my early career in customer research and experience design was focused on helping companies gather insights and design action, while my recent work focuses more on monitoring the impact of this work.
While both are equally important for strategy that fuels results, most companies still don’t measure design performance.
IF YOU’RE NOT MEASURING DESIGN, YOU’RE NOT MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS
CRM is a mirror. It reflects not just your customer data, but the quality of your relationships. But for it to be valuable to your growth, it must be designed intentionally and monitored with the same rigor as revenue, costs, or compliance.
McKinsey’s research shows that companies in the top quartile of design maturity outperform their peers by 32 percentage points in revenue growth and 56 points in shareholder returns over five years.
And they do it, not by just investing in design, but by embedding it into strategy, operations, and measurement. That means treating CRM like a nervous system for your customer relationships and a dashboard for trust.
CRM IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP NERVOUS SYSTEM
If your business relies on human or digital service channels — agents, advisors, call centers, apps — your CRM must reflect three critical relationship dynamics:
Customer ↔ Provider Are customers getting the right help, at the right time, in the right way?
Provider ↔ Company Are providers aligned with expectations, supported by resources and relevant data, and accountable to outcomes?
Customer ↔ Company Is your value proposition being reinforced or eroded with every interaction? Can you track the movement from onboarding to loyalty to advocacy?
A well-designed CRM doesn’t just track these relationships. It visualizes them. It turns activity into insight so you can take strategic action, supporting people and fueling organic growth.
THE DATA YOU TRACK SHAPES THE BUSINESS YOU BUILD
In regulated industries, it’s tempting to treat CRM data as infrastructure: necessary but uninspiring. That mindset limits impact and blinds decision-makers to early warning signs and emerging opportunities.
But when design is embedded in the strategy, CRM becomes a strategic growth engine:
Track and improve high-stakes interactions with surgical precision
Understand not just what happened, but why it happened
Spot early signals of churn, trust erosion, missed expectations, or unmet needs
Connect data directly to real-time research and design efforts
Tie design roadmaps – from research to ideation to concept development – to measurable relationship dynamics
As McKinsey put it in The Business Value of Design: “Design is more than a feeling. It’s a CEO-level priority for growth and long-term performance.” But to lead with design, you have to measure it like you mean it.
DESIGN FIRST. CONFIGURE LATER. MEASURE ALWAYS.
I’ve seen too many CRM rebuilds start with a list of feature requests and outdated reporting metrics. That’s not strategy, it’s box checking.
The better path is to start with clarity:
What relationships matter most to your business?
What behaviors signal trust, value, or advocacy?
What breakdowns cost you the most?
What do people need to see to act with confidence?
Then, design a system that reflects those truths. And once it’s built, measure the hell out of it. Treat them with the same discipline and priority you give financial KPIs.
CRM isn’t just an operational tool; it’s a platform that can fuel your strategy. And if you’re not using it to design, measure, and evolve your customer, employee, and partner relationships, you’re not getting its full value.
FINAL THOUGHT: IF YOU CAN’T SEE IT, YOU CAN’T SHAPE IT.
CRM isn’t about logging activity. The strategy is in the name: Customer Relationship Management. That means managing the exchange of value over time and monitoring changes to that exchange, just like you monitor revenue.
The strongest relationships are the ones you care enough to design for. But care is ongoing, and measurements should be as well.
If your CRM isn’t helping you deliver on your value proposition — or evolve it as customer needs shift — it’s not a software issue. It’s a strategic blind spot. And ignoring it doesn’t just stall growth. It erodes trust.
In business, trust doesn’t just happen. It’s built through reciprocal value offered consistently and reinforced at every touchpoint. That’s why design matters. It’s how you align what customers need with what the business needs to grow.
So, it’s time to treat relationship data with the same rigor we give to the balance sheet. Because in the age of intelligent systems, how you design for people is how you grow.
