The first contact management system was born in 1986. It made it possible to keep track of customer information in a digital form.
In a way, this was the precursor to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that we use today.
Such systems make it possible for staff members to share information about customers more easily. This means that in an ideal world you wouldn’t have to repeat your problem twice as support agents could just check your history with the company and see what you complained about and what your last interaction with the company was about.
Sure, CRM helped make better customer experience but I’m not sure we had arrived at the ideal moment, where information didn’t get lost between the many departments.
Technology can’t solve the way companies are built in silos; this is a fight that the CRMs can’t win but that we humans can.
Going further
This article is part of the book "A Tiny History of Service Design, " a tiny two-hour read that goes through the historical events that created what Service Design is today.