11.7 Customer Relationship Marketing
Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment (Greenberg, 2009).
Customer relationship management (CRM) strategies have become increasingly important worldwide due to changes in expectations from customers as well as changes in the nature of markets. Readers can see through measurable examples how the theory is applied with great success by various real-life examples.
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, the way companies interact with their customers has become increasingly important. In this book, we will explore the various aspects of CRM in depth, including the importance of customer centricity, strategies for acquisition and retention, the role of omni-channel marketing, and the pillars that define what CRM is. We will also discuss the leadership and organizational structure required for CRM success, and the future of CRM in business strategy.
So What Is CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a (strategy that combines) people, processes and technology that seeks to understand a company’s customers. It is an integrated approach to managing relationships by focusing on customer retention and relationship development.
CRM has evolved from advances in information technology and organizational changes in customer-centric processes. Companies that successfully implement CRM will reap the rewards in customer loyalty and long run profitability. However, successful implementation is elusive to many companies, mostly because they do not understand that CRM requires company-wide, cross-functional, customer-focused business process re-engineering.
Although a large portion of CRM is technology, viewing CRM as a technology-only solution is likely to fail. Managing a successful CRM implementation requires an integrated and balanced approach to technology, process, and people (Injazz et al, 2003).
“Advances in customer relationship management (pp. 1-12)” from An overview to customer relationship management by Daniel Catalán-Matamoros is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, except where otherwise noted.
