Service is becoming perhaps the most important leg of CRM. It’s not just me saying it — it’s many others, including Paul Greenberg, who literally wrote the book on CRM. With the economy in the state it’s in, that makes sense; keeping the customers you already have has never been more important. However, service has some internal cultural hurdles to clear before it gets the respect it deserves. Luckily, technology and the customer landscape are both shifting in ways that will allow more companies to realize the value of service and give it the priority it has long deserved.