From CRM to CARE: The AI-Driven Evolution of Customer Relationships
We’ve all been there: “Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support.” You call a company and get bounced between departments and we’re all annoyed by it, but also so used to it. Think about that. Why are we used to navigating the company’s org structure to do business with them? Why is there so much friction in just being able to get in touch with the business and “talk” to them? Imagine grabbing a coffee with a friend was this hard?
After the call, an unrelated email survey arrives from a different system. Later, another team reaches out with a marketing offer unaware of the issue you just had. Each interaction lives in a separate silo – one for sales, another for support, yet another for feedback or marketing. From the customer’s perspective, it feels like talking to a broken robot, repeating yourself at every turn. This fragmentation isn’t just frustrating, (33% of customers say having to repeat themselves to multiple reps is their top annoyance); it’s a symptom of how companies have long managed customer information in disjointed SaaS tools.
The Fragmented Customer Experience Today
Most companies never intended to give customers a fragmented journey – it happened as business functions adopted specialized tools. Marketing has its email platform, customer service has a ticketing system, sales has a CRM, and so on. Each tool might work well on its own, but together they often don’t share a “single view” of the customer. In practice, this means the left hand of sales doesn’t know what the right hand of support is doing.
Consider a restaurant guest who dines in, encounters a problem with their order, and fills out a feedback form afterward. The next day, they get a promotional SMS asking them to return—completely unaware of their negative experience. It’s no surprise that while 80% of businesses believe they deliver superior service, only 8% of customers agree.
Why Traditional CRM Falls Short
CRM—Customer Relationship Management—was supposed to solve this. And it did help companies centralize customer data. But traditional CRMs were designed for internal tracking, not external experience. They log transactions. They categorize tickets. But they don't listen. They don't adapt. And they certainly don't act autonomously on the customer's behalf.
A CRM might help your team know a guest’s last order, but it won't catch a frustrated Yelp review and respond empathetically in the moment. It won’t connect the dots between that review, a delayed order, and a broken internal process. In other words: it records relationships, but it doesn’t build them.
Introducing CARE: Customer Action & Relationship Engine
Today, we’re excited to share our vision for an evolved CRM that we call CARE—Customer Action & Relationship Engine—an AI-native platform that replaces the old paradigm of CRM. CARE isn’t just a smarter database. It’s an orchestration layer that listens, understands, and acts across every customer touchpoint in real time. And it’s built with the customer at the center of it all.
CARE flips the CRM model on its head: instead of departments logging data for themselves, the system is built around the customer, with AI at the center—deciding what the next best action is for that individual.
What CARE Makes Possible
Let’s go back to that restaurant. A guest flags an issue at the counter: "You guys never have high chairs—this is the third time I’ve been here and had to hold my baby while eating."
With CARE, the AI hears that feedback and springs into action:
It checks past feedback data: this is a recurring complaint.
It gets auto-approval from the Area GM to purchase baby seats for that location.
It alerts the ops team with context and urgency.
It texts the guest a note of apology and confirms they’ll be available next visit.
Same restaurant, different moment. A diner is upset about their overcooked meal. Instead of handing them a card to contact support, CARE:
Empathizes in the moment.
Pulls up their guest profile.
Applies a comped credit or offer within policy.
Notifies the kitchen manager to check quality across that menu item.
Follows up a few days later with a personalized thank-you message and discount to return.
None of this required a ticket. Or a handoff. Or a survey tool. Or a marketing platform. CARE becomes the connective tissue between feedback, fulfillment, and follow-up.
Why AI Changes the Game
Historically, we needed different software for every function: Zendesk for tickets, Medallia or Qualtrics for surveys, Salesforce for CRM, Klaviyo for email, etc. And companies—especially in hospitality—started "shipping their org chart" to the customer:
Press 1 for this team.
Go to this URL to leave a review.
Wait 5–7 days for someone to follow up.
With AI, we no longer have to mirror org structure in the customer journey. One system can listen, understand, and act horizontally—across use cases, channels, and departments because AI can handle unstructured data between systems, while keeping the core issue in focus. The customer doesn't care which team handles what. They just want to be heard, helped, and remembered.
As Howard Schultz once said, "We’re not in the coffee business serving people—we’re in the people business serving coffee." CARE brings that ethos into modern, AI-powered operations.
CARE in Action = Better Business
CARE doesn't just improve experience—it drives real outcomes:
Higher retention: guests return when they feel seen and valued.
Lower friction: no more tickets or form fatigue.
Faster resolution: CARE can act in milliseconds.
Smarter decisions: CARE learns what nudges work per user.
AI gives us the ability to listen at scale and act instantly—not someday, not with five tools stitched together, but now.
The Big Picture: From Static Systems to Adaptive Intelligence
CRM was built for record-keeping. CARE is built for action. For adapting in real time to what each customer needs.
Companies like Apple have long known this: design the experience first, then build the system around it. With CARE, we can now design relationships, not just manage them.
This is a call to rethink how we serve our customers—not by department, but by need. CARE is our answer to that challenge. It’s not a product. It’s a principle: Put the customer at the center. Act on their behalf. Build trust at every touchpoint.
At BeHeard, we’re proud to be playing a role in defining this new category—and even prouder to help great brands lead the way.
