A bit more than a tenner, then. A month later my bank called to ask if I wanted its mortgage. So, from my perspective, the bank's investment in CRM might just as well have been spent on custard pies. This was offered as an inducement to take on the largest financial commitment I'm ever likely to make. It's an old story, but the lesson here is that all the CRM and data warehousing in the world won't help if you don't change the corporate culture.
Cultural change is slow and usually painful.
The only way to speed it up is to recognise that people, like my bank, are generally lazy. Only those systems that make an employee's working life simpler and more straightforward will be willingly used and will actually make a difference. In short, when you think about customer relationships, don't forget about employee relationships. Based on the evidence above, I can only conclude that my bank's CRM systems are about as simple and pleasant to use as a home enema kit.