Introduction to CRM

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INTRODUCTION
e expression “Customer Relationship Management (CRM)” has been in use from the early
1990s. Since then, there have been many competing attempts to define the domain of CRM, a
number of which appear in Table1.1.
ere are two main clusters of CRM definitions– those of the information technology
(IT) industry and those taking a broader strategic or managerial perspective.
IT perspective on CRM
IT companies have tended to use the term CRM to describe the soware tools that are used
to support the marketing, selling and service functions of businesses. is equates CRM with
technology. Although the market for CRM soware is now populated with many players, its
commercialization was greatly boosted in 1993 when Tom Siebel founded Siebel Systems Inc.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
TO CRM
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
By the end of the chapter, you will be aware of:
1. Three major types of CRM: strategic, operational and analytical.
2. Where social CRM fits in the CRM landscape.
3. The changing character of CRM.
4. Several common misunderstandings about CRM.
5. A definition of CRM.
6. Constituencies having an interest in CRM.
7. How CRM is deployed in a number of industries and the not- for-
profit context.
8. Four models of CRM.
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Table 1.1 Definitions of CRM
CRM is an information industry term for methodologies, software and usually Internet
capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way.1
CRM is the process of managing all aspects of interaction a company has with its
customers, including prospecting, sales, and service. CRM applications attempt to provide
insight into and improve the company/ customer relationship by combining all these views
of customer interaction into one picture.2
CRM is an integrated approach to identifying, acquiring and retaining customers. By
enabling organizations to manage and coordinate customer interactions across multiple
channels, departments, lines of business, and geographies, CRM helps organizations
maximize the value of every customer interaction and drive superior corporate
performance.3
CRM is an integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the
pre-
sales and post-
sales activities in an organization. CRM embraces all aspects of dealing
with prospects and customers, including the call center, sales force, marketing, technical
support and field service. The primary goal of CRM is to improve long-
term growth and
profitability through a better understanding of customer behavior. CRM aims to provide
more effective feedback and improved integration to better gauge the return on investment
(ROI) in these areas.4
CRM is a business strategy that maximizes profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction
by organizing around customer segments, fostering behavior that satisfies customers, and
implementing customer- centric processes.5
(now part of Oracle). Use of the term CRM can be traced back to that period. Gartner, Inc.,
the information technology research and advisory firm, reported that annual spending on
CRM soware reached US$26.3billion in 2015, up 12.3% from $US$23.4billion in 2014, and
forecast growth to US$80billion by 2025.6 CRM spending includes both soware licenses
and subscriptions, and fees for cloud services including data storage. Large businesses, for
example banks, telecommunications firms and retailers, were early adopters of CRM, but the
current growth in CRM spending is fueled by adoptions in other sectors of developed econo-
mies, such as small and medium- sized businesses and not- for- profit organizations. Spending
is also boosted by corporate investment in new IT capabilities that enable them to exploit
new forms of customer data (particularly that collected in social media) and allow them to
interact with customers in technology- enabled ways such as the use of chatbots.7 Additional
growth comes from adoptions in developing economies.
Strategic or managerial perspective on CRM
Others take a more strategic or managerial approach to CRM. Rather than emphasizing IT
applications, they take the view that CRM is a disciplined approach to managing the cus-
tomer journey from the initial acquisition of a customer, to that customer becoming a high-
spending, profitable advocate, and that technology may or may not have a role in journey
management. is equates CRM with customer management strategy, where questions
such as the following are answered: which customers should we serve, what sorts of value
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propositions should we present to them, and which channels should we use to serve them?
Even though technology is not front- and- center in this perspective on CRM, no large orga-
nization with millions of customers interacting across multiple channels can implement a
customer management strategy cost- effectively without the use of IT support, customer intel-
ligence and carefully designed business processes.
CRM and customer experience management
is managerial perspective on CRM is closely associated with the customer experience (CX)
movement.8 is movement is an approach to customer management that aims to under-
stand and improve the experience of customers as they interact with business. When a com-
pany introduces new technology, new processes or new people into customer- facing roles,
customer experience is oen affected. CRM technologies can fundamentally change CX for
the better because it reinvents what happens at customer touchpoints.
Imagine a sales rep who has always carried hard- copy brochures. He is sitting in front
of a qualified prospect with a product query, but who otherwise is ready to buy. e rep
goes to his briefcase. e brochure he needs is missing, and he cannot answer the query.
“I’ll get back to you,” he says. But he doesn’t. He forgets, and the opportunity is lost. Sup-
ported by CRM technology, the interaction is very different. e rep carries a tablet with
a current, searchable, product database and the customer’s record. He answers the query
successfully. e prospect asks for a firm quote. e rep activates the quotation engine.
Aquote is prepared interactively with the customer. e rep requests the order. He wins
the order. e rep converts the quote to an order by checking a box on a quotation engine
screen. e rep shares the screen information with the customer. An electronic signature
is obtained. e order is submitted immediately, confirmation is sent to the buyer’s email
address and fulfilment process begins.
However, it needs to be said that CX, following a CRM technology implementation, is
not always received favorably. Customers who are usedto face- to- face calls from sales reps
might find they are expected to place orders and pay through a sales portal. Self- service
through portals deliver a completely different customer experience. Resistance, resentment
and customer churn may result. Weary workers arriving home aer a hard day’s labor are
confronted with cold calls selling products that aren’t of the slightest interest. Customers
of a multi- channel retailing firm find they receive conflicting or duplicated offers from
different channels– a clear indication that customer data are held in silos. e avoidance
of negative customer experience from ineptly implemented CRM is an important reason
for ensuring the voice- of- the- customer is heard during CRM project planning and imple-
mentation. It also signals the importance of monitoring customer response aer a CRM
implementation.
THREE FORMS OF CRM
We can resolve the debate between managerial and technological schools by conceiving of
CRM as taking three main forms: strategic, operational, and analytical, as summarized in
Table1.2 and described below.
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Table 1.2 Types of CRM
Type of CRM Dominant characteristic
Strategic Strategic CRM is the customer-
centric business strategy that aims at
winning, developing and keeping profitable customers.
Operational Operational CRM focuses on the integration and automation of customer-
facing processes such as selling, marketing and customer service.
Analytical Analytical CRM is the process through which organizations transform
customer- related data into actionable insight for use in either strategic or
operational CRM.
STRATEGIC CRM
Strategic CRM is focused upon the development of a customer- centric business culture dedi-
cated to winning, developing and keeping profitable customers by creating and delivering better
value propositions and customer experiences than competitors. e culture is reflected in lead-
ership behaviors, the design of formal systems of the company and the myths and stories that are
created within the firm. In a customer- centric culture you would expect resources to be allocated
where they would best enhance customer value, reward systems to promote employee behaviors
that enhance customer engagement, satisfaction and retention, and customer information to
be collected, shared and applied across the business. e heroes of customer- centric businesses
deliver outstanding value or service to customers. Many businesses claim to be customer- centric,
customer- led, customer- focused, or customer- oriented but few are. Indeed, there can be very few
companies of any size that do not claim that they are on a mission to satisfy customer require-
ments profitably. Customer- centricity competes with other business logics. Philip Kotler identi-
fies three other major business logics or orientations: product, production, and selling.9
Product- oriented businesses believe that customers choose products with the best qual-
ity, performance, design or features. We use the term product in a very broad sense to include
anything that is offered to a customer for purchase. Products, in this sense, extend beyond
tangible goods (like a cabbage or an automobile) to also include intangible- dominant services
(like massage or accountancy services), experiences (like a kayak tour or a team- building
weekend) and bundles of tangibles and intangibles (like a packaged vacation). In short, a
product is any offer (or offering) that delivers value to customers.10 Many new business start-
ups are also product- oriented. In product- oriented firms, it is common for the customer’s
voice to be missing when important marketing, selling or service decisions are made. Little or
no customer research is conducted, sometimes because the offering is so innovative it is very
tricky for customers to evaluate the offer. Management therefore makes assumptions about
what customers want and/ or provides visionary leadership for the market. Perhaps the most
iconic example of product- orientation is Apple. Apple has created huge demand for products
that customers did not know they needed. Leading fashion houses also tend to be product-
oriented and try to establish new fashion trends or a distinctive look rather than respond to
consumer research. Also known for product- orientation is the design- led consumer elec-
tronics firm Bang& Olufsen, and engineering firms GE and Rolls- Royce. However, these
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are exceptional. Product- oriented companies risk over- specifying, or over- engineering for
the requirements of the market, and therefore risk being too costly for many customer seg-
ments. e subset of relatively price- insensitive customers who marketers dub “innovators,”
are more likely to respond positively to company claims about product excellence, but they
are a relatively small segment, perhaps 2.5% of the potential market.11
Production- oriented businesses focus on operational excellence.12 ey seek to offer
the customers the best value for money, time and or effort. Consequently, they strive to keep
operating costs low, and develop standardized offers and routes to market. Complexity, cus-
tomization and innovation are very costly and unappealing to production- oriented busi-
nesses. Production- oriented firms rarely are first to market with truly innovative products.
ey focus their innovation on supply chain optimization and simplification. ey tend to
serve customers who want “good- enough,” low- priced products and services. Production-
oriented businesses choose not to believe that customers have unique needs or wants. It
is possible to be highly profitable by being the lowest cost market participant, for example
Wal*mart. ere is a price and convenience segment in most markets, but the majority of
customers have other requirements. Moreover, an excessive focus on operational efficiency
might make a business blind to disruptive changes just over the horizon; making cheap prod-
ucts that no one wants to buy is not a sustainable strategy.
Sales- oriented businesses make the assumption that if they invest enough in advertising,
selling, public relations (PR) and sales promotion, customers will be persuaded to buy. Very
oen, a sales orientation follows a production- orientation. e company produces low- cost
products and then has to promote them heavily to shi inventory– a “make and sell” approach.
e deal- maker and persuader is king in such firms. In markets that are growing rapidly, such
an approach can promote strong market share growth and attendant economies of scale. Here
the risk is that the firm finds its offer is overtaken by more innovative competitors and it spends
increasing amounts pushing products that fewer and fewer customers find desirable.
e business orientation that is most compatible with strategic CRM is customer or
market- orientation. Such companies share a set of beliefs about putting the customer first.
ey collect, disseminate and use customer and competitive information to develop bet-
ter value propositions for customers. Acustomer- centric firm is a learning firm that con-
stantly adapts to customer requirements and competitive conditions. ere is evidence that
customer- centricity correlates strongly with business performance.13
Many managers would argue that customer orientation must be right for all companies.
However, at different stages of market or economic development, other orientations may
have stronger appeal.
OPERATIONAL CRM
Operational CRM uses technologies to automate customer- facing business processes. CRM
soware applications that automate marketing, selling and service processes result not only
in efficiency and effectiveness gains, but may also improve customer experience and engage-
ment. Some of the major forms of operational CRM appear in Table1.3.
Although we cover the technological aspects of operational CRM in Chapters8, 9 and
10, it is worth making a few observations at this point.
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Marketing automation
Marketing automation (MA) applies technology to marketing processes.
Campaign management (CM) modules allow marketers to use customer- related data
in order to develop, execute and evaluate targeted communications and offers. CM applica-
tions generally aim to li customer engagement with the brand– be that a product brand or
an organizational brand. ese campaigns are predominantly digital and range from simple
SMS or email campaign messaging to more sophisticated multi- or omni- channel programs
that encourage engagement at various stages of the customer journey. We have more to say
about customer engagement in Chapter4.
Customer segmentation for campaigning purposes is, in some cases, possible at the level
of the individual customer, enabling unique communications to be designed.
In multi- channel environments, campaign management is particularly challenging. Some
fashion retailers, for example, have multiple transactional channels including free- standing
stores, department store concessions, one or more branded websites, home shopping catalogs,
catalog stores and perhaps even a TV shopping channel. Some customers may be unique to a
single channel, but many will be multi- channel prospects, if not already customers of several
channels. Integration of communication and offer strategies, and evaluation of performance,
requires a substantial amount of technology- aided coordination across these channels. We
STRATEGIC CRM AT HONDA AUSTRALIA14
Honda manufactures and markets a range of motorcycle, power equipment and marine products.
The Honda brand has a reputation for quality, technology and performance. Honda Australia rec-
ognized that while it was diligently nurturing individual relationships with partners, dealers and
customers, each segment was closed off from the others. Inevitably, this meant valuable customer
data being trapped in pockets within the organization and not available to potential users. Honda
realized that consolidating and freeing up the flow of data could have a huge positive impact on
the effectiveness and efficiency of the business. Honda developed a strategy themed Customers For
Life, based on data integration and a whole-
of-
customer view. Honda found customer-
related data in
numerous spreadsheets and databases across the business. These were integrated into a single CRM
platform, supplied by Salesforce.com, and hosted in the cloud. This was enriched with customer
information from Honda Australia Rider Training (HART), Automobile Association memberships, and
several other sources to create a single comprehensive data source and reporting system. Honda
then removed responsibility for managing customer relationships from individual departments, and
moved it to a newly formed CRM unit. An integrated view of the customer has allowed Honda to stop
different operating units from bombarding customers with multiple communications. Instead, Honda
now consolidates outbound customer contact into meaningful and relevant communications, and
accurately measures communications effectiveness. Honda has built workflows into customer touch-
points, for example customer satisfaction surveys, guaranteeing follow-
up of any negative comments.
The immediate effect was a reduction in complaint resolution time from months to minutes. Honda has
shifted closer to becoming a unified brand that really knows and understands its customers.
CASE ILLUSTRATION 1.1
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discuss how modern marketing clouds provide such coordination across online channels in
the introduction to Section C that precedes Chapter8.
Event- based, or trigger, marketing is the term used to describe messaging and offer
development to customers at particular points- in- time. An event triggers the communication
and offer. Event- based campaigns can be initiated by customer behaviors, or contextual con-
ditions. Acall to a contact center is an example of a customer- initiated event. When a credit-
card customer calls a contact center to enquire about the current rate of interest, this can be
taken as indication that the customer is comparing alternatives and may switch to a different
provider. is event may trigger an offer designed to retain the customer. Examples of contex-
tual events are the birth of a child or a public holiday. Both of these indicate potential changes
in buyer behavior, initiating a marketing response. Event- based marketing also occurs in the
business- to- business context. e event may be a change of personnel on the customer- side,
the approaching expiry of a contract, or a request for information (RFI).
Real- time marketing combines predictive modeling and work flow automation enabling
companies to make relevant offers to customers as they interact with different touchpoints
such as website and retail outlet. As consumers share more data with companies, and as the
company’s ability to analyze that data improves, online and mobile marketing increasingly
occurs in real- time. Customer behavior online is married to their profiles, and the profiles of
similar people, to enable firms to predict which communication and offers are most likely to
Table 1.3 Operational CRM – some applications
Marketing automation
Campaign management
Event-
based (trigger) marketing
Marketing optimization
Sales force automation
Account management
Lead management
Opportunity management
Pipeline management
Contact management
Product configuration
Quotation and proposal generation
Service automation
Case (incident or issue) management
Customer communications management
Queuing and routing
Service level management
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lead to a desired outcome: this is oen called the NBO or Next Best Offer and is refreshed
in real- time. E- retailers such as Amazon continually refresh recommendations as a result of
customer searches, and Google changes the advertising it pushes to searchers as a function of
their location and search behaviors.
More information about marketing automation appears in chapter8.
Sales force automation
Sales force automation (SFA) was the original form of operational CRM. SFA systems are now
widely adopted in B2B environments and are seen as an “imperative”15 that offers “competi-
tive parity.”16
SFA applies technology to the management of a company’s selling activities. e selling
process can be decomposed into a number of stages such as lead generation, lead qualifica-
tion, lead nurturing, needs discovery, proposition development, proposal presentation, nego-
tiation and closing the sale. SFA soware can be configured so that it is modeled on the selling
process of any industry or organization.
Automation of selling activities is oen linked to efforts to improve and standardize the
selling process. is involves the implementation of a sales methodology. Sales methodolo-
gies allow sales team members and management to adopt a standardized view of the sales
cycle, and a common language for discussion of sales issues.
SFA soware enables companies to assign leads automatically and track opportunities as
they progress through the sales pipeline towards closure. Opportunity management lets users
identify and progress opportunities- to- sell from lead status through to closure and beyond,
into aer- sales support. Opportunity management soware usually contains lead manage-
ment and sales forecasting applications. Lead management applications enable users to qualify
leads and assign them to the appropriate salesperson. Sales forecasting applications may use
transactional histories and salesperson estimates to produce estimates of future sales.
Contact management lets users manage their communications program with custom-
ers. Customer records contain customer contact histories. Contact management applications
oen have features such as automatic customer dialing, the salesperson’s personal calendar
and email functionality.
Product configuration applications enable salespeople, or customers themselves, auto-
matically to design and price customized products, services or solutions. Configurators are
useful when the product is particularly complex, such as IT solutions. Configurators are typ-
ically based on an “if … then” rules structure. e general case of this rule is “If X is chosen,
then Y is required or prohibited or legitimated or unaffected.” For example, if the customer
chooses a particular feature (say, a particular hard drive for a computer), then this rules out
certain other choices or related features that are technologically incompatible or too costly or
complex to manufacture.
Quotation and proposal generation allow the salesperson to automate the production of
prices and proposals for customers. e salesperson enters details such as product codes, vol-
umes, customer name and delivery requirements, and the soware automatically generates a
priced quotation. is functionality is oen bundled together with product configuration in
what is known as CPQ– Configure, Price, Quote.
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More information about sales force automation appears in Chapter9.
Service automation
Service automation involves the application of technology to customer service operations.
Service automation helps companies to manage their service operations, whether deliv-
ered through call center, contact center, field- service, web, chatbot or face- to- face with
high levels of efficiency, reliability and effectiveness.17 Service automation soware enables
companies to handle in- bound and out- bound communications across all channels.
Soware vendors claim that this enables users to become more efficient and effective by
reducing service costs, improving service quality, liing productivity, enhancing customer
experience and liing customer satisfaction.
Service automation differs significantly across contexts. e first point of contact for
service of consumer products is usually a retail outlet or call center. People working at these
touchpoints oen use online diagnostic tools that help identify and resolve customers’ prob-
lems. Anumber of technologies are common to service automation. Call routing soware
can be used to direct inbound calls to the most appropriate handler. Technologies such as
interactive voice response (IVR) enable customers to interact with company computers. Cus-
tomers can input to an IVR system aer listening to menu instructions either by telephone
keypad (key 1 for option A, key 2 for option B), or by voice. If first contact problem resolution
is not possible, the service process may then involve authorizing a return of goods, or a repair
cycle involving a third- party service provider. Increasingly, firms are integrating artificial
intelligence to this process and ever- improving chatbots– robots capable of conversation
with customers– are being deployed to reduce costs and ensure consistent service quality
standards.
SALES FORCE AUTOMATION AT ROCHE
Roche is one of the world’s leading research- based healthcare organizations, active in the dis-
covery, development and manufacture of pharmaceuticals and diagnostic systems. The organiza-
tion has traditionally been product- centric and quite poor in the area of customer management.
Roche’s customers are medical practitioners prescribing products to patients. Customer informa-
tion was previously collected through several mutually exclusive sources, ranging from personal
visits to handwritten correspondence, and not integrated into a database, giving incomplete
views of the customer. Roche identified the need to adopt a more customer- centric approach to
better understand their customers, improve services offered to them and to increase sales effec-
tiveness. Roche implemented a sales force automation system where all data and interactions
with customers are stored in a central database, which can be accessed throughout the organi-
zation. This has resulted in Roche being able to create customer profiles, segment customers and
communicate with existing and potential customers. Since implementation Roche has been more
successful in identifying, winning and retaining customers.
CASE ILLUSTRATION 1.2
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Most large organizations now respond to customer complaints in social media such as
Facebook and Twitter in close to real- time. Social media have greatly increased the risks of
consumer complaints remaining unanswered. Real- time engagement in the social conversa-
tion enables companies to intervene immediately and resolve an issue before a social media
storm erupts. Some companies employ people and/ or technologies to monitor and respond
to tweets and other social media content. Other participants in the conversation, for example
other users of Twitter, might also be able to contribute to the resolution of a consumer’s prob-
lem, through what is known as crowd- sourced customer service.
Service automation for large capital equipment is quite different. is normally involves
diagnostic and corrective action taken in the field, at the location of the equipment. Examples
of this type of service include industrial air conditioning and refrigeration. In these cases,
service automation may involve providing the service technician with diagnostics, repair
manuals, inventory management and job information on a tablet or other mobile device.
is information is then synchronized at regular intervals to update the central CRM sys-
tem. An alternative is for diagnostics to be built into the equipment, and back- to- base issue
reporting to be automated. Rolls- Royce aero- engines, for example, are offered with a service
contract that involves Rolls- Royce engineers monitoring engines in flight to help airlines
maximize efficiencies, reduce service cost and most importantly, reduce downtime of the air-
cra through preventative service interventions. Rolls- Royce calls this “Power- by- Hour.” GE,
its chief competitor in aircra engines, offers a similar service. e Internet of ings (IoT)
is accelerating this trend by providing remote diagnostics into items such as locomotives
and industrial tires. In addition to diagnostics for aer sales service, IoT provides real- time
location data. Firms can therefore use smart systems, powered by IoT data, to enhance their
offers. We have more to say about the IoT in Chapters12 and 15.
CUSTOMER SERVICE AT JETBLUE
JetBlue is a US low- cost airline known not only for its prices, but for friendly and helpful cus-
tomer service, winning multiple JD Power customer service awards. It created its first Twitter
account in 2007.18 Initially, like so many new technology users, the company felt that Twitter
would be a sales promotion channel. Indeed, JetBlue has been imaginative in building its
following and promoting ticket sales over the new channel. As its competence grew, JetBlue
was able to use Twitter for real-
time customer service. One story is about a customer who’d
tweeted that he had left sunglasses at one of the stages before boarding. The head office
team monitoring the Twitterfeed arranged for them to be found and returned to the passenger
prior to boarding the aircraft. JetBlue’s active engagement with customers over Twitter has
improved its ability to feel the experience as a customer does and make necessary improve-
ments quickly.
CASE ILLUSTRATION 1.3
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Turning products into services, or developing combined “product- service systems,”19 is
known as “servitization.” is is not a new strategy; indeed, IBM famously made a transition
from selling computers to providing solutions and systems. In all such cases, the nature of
the customer relationship changes. Modern operational CRM systems permit the delivery of
such solutions in a cost- effective manner.
Service automation is equally prominent in the services sector and is oen built on the
principle of “zero touch” or no human interaction. Indeed, the core service offer may be deliv-
ered by automation. e Google search engine, and the in- cloud data storage service Drop-
box are examples. Service automation is also used to enhance core offers. e mobile apps for
retail banks were initially created to reduce the cost of servicing customers; however, many
customers now use apps as their prime interface with the bank. When app use becomes a
highly valued part of the customer’s relationship with a bank, it becomes less of an enhance-
ment for the customer and more part of the core offer.
Many companies use a combination of direct and indirect channels especially for sales
and service functions. When indirect channels are employed, operational CRM supports this
function through partner relationship management (PRM). is technology allows partners
to communicate with the supplier through a portal, to manage leads, sales orders, product
information and incentives.
More information about service automation appears in Chapter10.
ANALYTICAL (OR ANALYTIC) CRM
Analytical CRM, also called analytic CRM, is concerned with capturing, storing, extracting,
integrating, processing, interpreting, distributing, using and reporting customer- related data
to enhance both customer and company value.
Analytical CRM depends on customer- related information. Customer- related data may
be found in several enterprise- wide repositories: sales data (purchase history), financial data
(payment history, credit score), marketing data (campaign response, loyalty scheme data) and
service data. To these internal data can be added data from external sources including business
partners with whom companies have data sharing agreements (subject to customer accep-
tance) and third party organizations such as research firms that provide geo- demographic
and life- style data. ese are typically structured datasets held in relational databases. Arela-
tional database is like an Excel spreadsheet where all the data in any row is about a particular
customer, and the columns report a particular variable such as name, postcode and so on. See
Chapter11 for more detail. With the application of data mining tools, a company can inter-
rogate the data and advance their customer relationship objectives.
Although most companies depend on these conventional forms of customer- related data
to support strategic and operational CRM, there has been a recent revolution in customer
insight spawned by companies’ use of “big data”. e expression “big data” has been around
since 2000, but it’s only since 2010 that businesses have been able to manage the large volumes
of ever- changing big data. According to IBM, big “data comes from everywhere: from sensors
used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos
posted online, transaction records of online purchases, and from cell phone GPS signals to
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name a few.”20 Big data thus extends beyond structured data, including unstructured data
of all varieties: text, audio, video, click streams, log files and more. e tools for searching,
making sense of, and acting on unstructured data differ from those available for data- mining
structured datasets. Some technology firms offer what are called “social CRM” solutions that
are designed to help users understand and exploit big data. We discuss this further below.
Analytical CRM delivers insights that support intelligent strategic and operational CRM
decisions, including answers to questions such as “which customers should we serve?” and
“what offer should we make?” From the customer’s point of view, analytical CRM can deliver
timely, customized, and appropriate solutions to the customer’s problems, thereby enhancing
customer satisfaction and loyalty. From the company’s point of view, analytical CRM offers
the prospect of more powerful cross- selling and up- selling programs, and more effective cus-
tomer retention and customer acquisition programs.
WHERE DOES SOCIAL CRM FIT?
We have identified three different types of CRM– strategic, operational and analytical. Another
expression that has recently found widespread traction is “social CRM.” is term was first used
by technology firms to describe tools they had developed to identify, capture, interpret and
exploit data found in social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. More recently, these
social CRM tools have become integrated into more comprehensive cloud- based solutions.
ANALYTICAL CRM AT AXA SEGUROS E INVERSIONES (AXA)21
Spanish insurer AXA Seguros e Inversiones (AXA) has revenues of over €1.8 billion (US$2.3 bil-
lion), 2 million customers and is a member of global giant The AXA Group.
AXA runs marketing campaigns in Spain for its many products and services. The company wanted
a better understanding of its customers, in order to be able to make more personalized offers and
promote customer loyalty.
AXA used CRM vendor, SAS’s, data-
mining solution to build a predictive policy cancellation
model. The solution creates profiles and predictive models from customer data that enable more
finely targeted campaign management, call center management, sales force automation and
other activities involved in customer relationship management.
The model was applied to current and cancelled policies in various offices, so as to validate
it before deploying it across Spain. Moreover, the model was used to create two control groups
(subdivided into high and low probability) that were not targeted in any way, while other groups,
similarly divided into high and low probability, were targeted by various marketing actions. The
outcome was that the auto insurance policy cancellation rate was cut by up to nine percentage
points in specific targeted segments.
With the customer insight obtained from the model, AXA is now able to design and execute
personalized actions and customer loyalty campaigns tailored to the needs and expectations of
high- value customers.
CASE ILLUSTRATION 1.4
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CRM as a management practice was popularized by advances in database technology
that allowed companies to create a single view of the customer by integrating data from var-
ious organizational silos. e data that originally fueled CRM was largely generated and held
within organizations’ operational systems: sales, call centers, customer service, etc. Now, data
about customers is as likely to be found in customers’ Facebook or Twitter activities and user-
generated content posted to YouTube. ere is, therefore, a desire to integrate organization-
owned data with that generated socially to create a more comprehensive view of the customer.
e customer- related data residing in social media can be used by companies to help
them manage customer relationships. It is a relatively simple matter to establish a corporate
Facebook page and use it to acquire new customers (for example, by viral distribution of
content), sell product, and service customer queries. It is an altogether different matter to
select and use social CRM tools that enable a business to detect sentiment in unstructured
data such as Twitter feeds and YouTube video content, and take appropriate strategic actions.
We do not regard social CRM as a fundamental type of CRM, equivalent to strategic,
operational and analytical. Social CRM focusses on different forms of customer- related data,
but that data are used for the same strategic and operational customer management purposes
as conventional siloed organizational data.
We discuss social CRM in more detail in Chapter8.
THE CHANGING FACE OF CRM
CRM today has evolved dramatically from the early systems discussed above. We can think of
this earlier form of CRM as CRM 1.0. In the early years, the customer data that provided the
foundation for strategic CRM decisions, and the insights for campaigns and events delivered
by operational CRM, were mostly sourced from corporate silos– sales, marketing, service and
finance. ere was some enrichment of data from third parties such as market research firms
and government sources. e data, which were typically structured, were stored in corporate
databases behind firewalls, and CRM functionality was delivered through soware applications
that were licensed from vendors and loaded onto company servers. is type of CRM imple-
mentation is called on- premise CRM. Analytics included established statistical procedures such
as cluster analysis (for market segmentation), and logistic regression (to predict buy/ not buy).
Today, the quantity and character of customer data has changed significantly. Although
businesses still rely on a solid foundation of internal data to underpin their customer man-
agement strategies, there is also a massive amount of potentially valuable additional data in
big data sources. Asignificant portion of that data is unstructured, and contemporary users
of CRM are beginning to find ways to exploit that data for customer management purposes.
Analytics for unstructured data such as natural language processing and video analytics are
available, and machine learning applications such as neural networks and artificial intelligence
are available to find meaning in large and apparently amorphous datasets. Nowadays, customer
data is typically stored in the cloud– in global or regional data centers– and accessed through
CRM soware that is delivered as a service though the Internet. We can think of this form of
CRM as CRM 2.0. is soware as a service (SaaS), or cloud, model is the dominant form of
CRM now, particularly in small- and medium- sized businesses and not- for- profits. SaaS adopt-
ers generally pay a monthly fee per user instead of buying an outright soware license.
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Some of the differences between CRM 1.0 and CRM 2.0 are summarized in Table1.4.
ese will be explored further in future chapters.
MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT CRM
As with all major management initiatives, there are a number of common misunderstandings
about the nature of CRM. Four of these are outlined below.
1 CRM is about making sales teams more effective and efficient. is is certainly a goal
of many sales force automation implementations, particularly in B2B contexts, but oper-
ational CRM is much wider in scope and includes automation of marketing and sales
functions. During the early years of CRM, sales force automation modules were oen the
first to be adopted.
2 CRM is a new term for database marketing. Database marketing is concerned with
building and exploiting high- quality customer databases for marketing purposes. Com-
panies collect data from a number of sources. ese data are verified, cleaned, integrated
and stored on computers, oen in data warehouses or data marts. ey are then used for
marketing purposes such as customer segmentation, running campaigns and events, and
conducting market research. CRM is much wider in scope than database marketing.
3 CRM is about loyalty schemes. Loyalty schemes are but one part of a wide range of
customer management initiatives. ey are common in many industries: car hire, air-
lines, food retail and hotels, for example. Customers accumulate credits such as points
from purchases. ese are then redeemed at some future time. Many loyalty schemes
require new members to complete an application form when they join the program.
is demographic information is typically used together with purchasing data to help
companies become more effective at customer communication and offer development.
Whereas some CRM implementations are linked to loyalty schemes, not all are. Loyalty
schemes may play two roles in CRM. First, they generate data that can be used to guide
customer acquisition, retention and development. Second, loyalty schemes may serve as
Table 1.4 How CRM has changed over time
CRM 1.0 CRM 2.0
Period 1990 > 2010 >
Customer data sources Mostly internal corporate
silos Internal silos plus external big
data sources
Data character Structured Structured and unstructured
Data storage Corporate servers Cloud
Analytics Standard multivariate statistics Standard multivariate statistics
plus artificial intelligence
Mobile CRM access Rare Common
Customer interactions Pre- planned Real- time
Dominant CRM model On- premise Software as a service
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an exit barrier. Customers who have accumulated credits in a scheme may be reluctant
to exit the relationship. e credits accumulated reflect the value of the investment that
the customer has made in the scheme, and therefore in the relationship.
4 CRM is an IT issue. In the authors’ experience, this is the most serious of the misun-
derstandings. ere is no doubt that IT is a necessary enabler of CRM in most organi-
zations given the need to store, analyze and distribute huge amounts of data quickly
throughout the organization and its business partners. CRM technology keeps advanc-
ing and can be costly. It is therefore too easy for senior management to look to the IT
function for CRM leadership. Too many CRM implementations are framed at the outset
as IT initiatives, rather than broader strategic initiatives. It is critical for businesses to be
clear about what they are trying to achieve with CRM– those business goals will deter-
mine which parts of the business are involved in CRM’s acquisition and deployment.
CRM technology provides tools that can be used to generate better value for customers
and company alike. However, two other important parts of most CRM projects are peo-
ple and process. People develop and implement the processes that are enabled by the
IT. IT cannot compensate for bad processes and inept people. However, not all CRM
initiatives involve IT investments. An overarching goal of many CRM projects is the
development of relationships with, and retention of, highly valued customers. is may
involve behavioral changes in customer contact employees, education of call center staff,
and a focus on empathy and reliability from salespeople. IT may play no role at all.
DEFINING CRM
Against this background of three types of CRM, and the misunderstandings about CRM, it is
no easy matter to settle on a single definition of CRM. However, we can identify a number of
core CRM attributes, and integrate them into a definition that underpins the rest of this book.
CRM is the core business strategy that aims to create and maintain profitable
relationships with customers, by designing and delivering superior value
propositions. It is grounded on high- quality customer- related data and enabled
by information technology.
CRM is a “core business strategy.” is clearly denotes that CRM is not just about IT. CRM
is a basic business discipline focused on managing the firm’s relationships with customers.
CRM “aims to create and maintain profitable relationships with customers.” is implies
that customers go through a series of stages in their relationship with a supplier; CRM practi-
tioners call this a customer life cycle or customer journey. e “create” phase means that CRM
is used to acquire or on- board a new customer. e “maintain” phase means that CRM is used
to retain the customer. e qualification that the relationship should be “profitable” indicates
that not all potential customers may be worth acquiring or retaining. Some customers may
be so costly to acquire that they have no prospect of turning a profit; equally, the costs of
maintaining a relationship may prove to be too heavy, meaning that customer managers may
implement strategies for delisting or sacking customers. e definition suggests that the basic
strategy for building and maintaining relationships is “designing and delivering superior value
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propositions.” Businesses develop value propositions (offers or offerings) and present and pro-
mote them to customers through communication and distribution channels. When customers
own or use these offers they experience value. Businesses that succeed ensure that the value
customers experience from use and ownership is superior to what they experience from com-
petitive offerings.
CRM is “grounded on high quality customer- related data and enabled by information
technology.” “High quality customer- related data” underpins strategic CRM decisions (for
example, which customers should we serve?) and operational CRM decisions (for example,
what offer should we make in what channel to which customer?) We emphasize the words
“high quality.” Quality is always relative to purpose. For example, when a customer contacts a
call- center with a specific query, the agent must have access to that particular customer’s record.
However, if operational CRM is being used to run a campaign into a cohort of customers, it is
desirable but not essential that the message be customized for each particular customer. Access
to “customer- related data” allows selling, marketing and service functions to be aware of each
other’s interactions with customers. Furthermore, back office functions such as operations and
finance can learn from and contribute to customer- related data. “Customer- related data” allows
suppliers and other members of a business’s network of partners, for example distributors,
value- added resellers, and agents to align their efforts with those of the focal company.
Historically, most companies were located close to the markets they served and knew
their customers intimately. Very oen there would be face- to- face, even day- to- day, interac-
tion with customers in which knowledge of customer requirements and preferences grew.
However, as companies have grown larger, they have become more remote from the custom-
ers they serve. e remoteness is not only geographic; it may be cultural also. Even some of
the most widely admired American companies have not always understood the markets they
served. Disney’s development of a theme park near to the French capital, Paris, was not an
initial success because they failed to deliver to the value expectations of European customers.
For example, Disney failed to offer visitors alcohol on- site. Many Europeans, however, are
accustomed to enjoying a glass or two of wine with their food.
Geographic and cultural remoteness, together with business owner and management
separation from customer contact, means that many companies, even small companies, do
not have the intuitive knowledge and understanding of their customers so oen found in
micro- businesses such as neighborhood stores and hairdressing salons. is has given rise to
demand for better customer- related data, a cornerstone of effective CRM.
Underpinning this “core business strategy” in the majority of cases is IT– soware appli-
cations and hardware. Soware provides analytical capability and operational support for
marketing, sales and service functions. Hardware is also important to CRM. Sales people and
field service technicians are heavy users of mobile devices; contact center agents interact with
customers using telephony and desktop hardware. Customers may also be using desktop and
portable devices to contact companies.
In summary, we take the view that CRM is a technology- enabled approach to manage-
ment of the customer journey. Most CRM initiatives expect to have impact on the costs- to-
serve and revenue streams from customers. e use of technology also changes the customer’s
experience of transacting and communicating with a supplier. For that reason, the customer’s
perspective on CRM is an important consideration in this book. CRM influences customer
experience, and that is of fundamental strategic significance.
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INTRODUCTION TO CRM
CRM CONSTITUENCIES
ere are several important constituencies having an interest in CRM:
1 Companies implementing CRM. Early adopters were larger companies in financial ser-
vices, telecommunications and manufacturing, in the US and Europe. Medium- sized
businesses have followed. e CRM message is reaching smaller companies, other
worldwide markets, not- for- profits and new business start- ups.
2 Customers and partners of those companies. e customers and partners of companies
that implement CRM are a particularly important constituency. Because CRM influ-
ences customer experience, it can impact on customer satisfaction, customer engage-
ment and customer loyalty.
3 CRM soware houses. Major CRM brands at the time of writing include Oracle, Sales-
force.com, Microso Dynamics and Adobe. However, there are hundreds of other play-
ers, some of which specialize in particular sub- disciplines of CRM such as analytics,
social CRM, marketing automation and lead management. ere has been considerable
consolidation of CRM soware developers over the years. IBM has acquired analytics
specialists as it built a comprehensive analytical CRM capability. IBM now offers Watson
Campaign Automation. Oracle acquired and integrated many solutions providers into
its customer experience cloud.
4 Social media players. Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are
building enormous communities that generate huge amounts of potentially valu-
able data about people’s preferences, activities, friends and wants. Technology firms
developing social CRM applications are competing to offer clients functionality that
enables them to learn from and use social media data for customer management
purposes.
5 Vendors of CRM hardware and infrastructure. Hardware and infrastructure vendors
provide the technological foundations for CRM implementations. ey supply technol-
ogies such as servers, computers, hand held and mobile devices, call center hardware,
and telephony systems.
6 Management consultants. Consultancies offer clients a diverse range of CRM- related
capabilities such as strategy, business, application and technical consulting. Consultants
can help companies implementing CRM in several ways: choosing between different
vendors, or developing implementation plans and project management as the
implementation is rolled out. Most CRM implementations are composed of a large
number of smaller projects, for example: systems integration, data quality improvement,
process engineering and culture change. Major consultancies such as McKinsey,
Bearing Point, and CGEY (Cap Gemini Ernst and Young) all offer CRM consultancy.
Accenture has bought some advertising companies and is building a comprehensive
one-stop shop for customer management, mixing agency, CRM systems and analytics
capabilities. Smaller companies sometimes offer specialized expertise. Peppers and
Rogers provide strategy consulting. Dunnhumby is known for its expertise in data
science in fast- moving consumer goods.
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COMMERCIAL CONTEXTS OF CRM
CRM is practiced in a wide variety of commercial contexts, which present a range of different
customer relationship management problems. We’ll consider four contexts: banks, automo-
bile manufacturers, technology solution vendors and consumer goods manufacturers.
• Banks deal with a large number of individual retail customers. ey want CRM for its analyt-
ical capability to help them manage customer defection (churn) rates and to enhance cross-
sell performance. Data- mining techniques can be used to identify which customers are likely
to defect, what can be done to win them back, which customers are hot prospects for cross-
sell offers, and how best to communicate those offers. Data mining can also improve predic-
tions of payment default. Banks oen want to win a greater share of customer spend (share
of wallet) on financial services. In terms of operational CRM, most banks initially transferred
service out of branches into contact centers and online; a second wave of CRM innovation
have involved banks in delivering service by mobile applications (apps). is is proving pop-
ular with some customer segments but banks are finding they now compete against new
players from outside the traditional banking industry including Apple Pay, Google Wallet,
PayPal, Simple, Moven, T- Mobile and WeChat. Banks have been slow to introduce innovative
technologies that digitize the mobile customer experience, allowing these nonbanking com-
petitors to gain significant share of the fee stream associated with retail payments.
• Auto manufacturers sell through distributor/ dealer networks. ey have little contact
with the end- user owner or driver. ey use CRM for its ability to help them develop
better and more profitable relationships with their distribution networks and to help
their dealers improve their customer management. Being physically disconnected from
drivers, they have built websites that enable them to interact with these end- users and
generate qualified sales leads for the dealer network. is has improved their knowledge
of customer requirements and builds capability throughout their distribution network.
Ultimately, they hope CRM will enable them to win a greater share of end- user spend
across the car purchase, maintenance and replacement cycle.
• Technology solution vendors manufacture or assemble complex bundles of hardware, so-
ware and implementation that are generally sold by partner organizations. Historically, small
innovative soware developers have traditionally partnered with established companies to
obtain distribution and sales. Dell’s direct- to- customer (DTC) channel strategy for PCs and
Apple’s for smartphones have bypassed this practice. is process of avoiding established
channels and going DTC is called disintermediation. CRM helps these DTC companies to
collect customer information, segment their customer base, automate their sales processes
with product configurator soware and deliver their customer service online. Modern solu-
tions are oen entirely web / soware based so the DTC model is increasingly popular.
• Consumer goods manufacturers deal with the retail trade. ey use CRM to help them
develop profitable relationships with retailers. CRM helps them understand costs- to-
serve and customer profitability. Key account management practices are applied to stra-
tegically significant customers. IT- enabled purchasing processes deliver higher levels of
accuracy in stock replenishment. Manufacturers can run CRM- enabled marketing cam-
paigns that are highly cost- effective.
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INTRODUCTION TO CRM
THE NOT- FOR- PROFIT CONTEXT – THE “THIRD SECTOR”
Most of this chapter has been concerned with CRM in the for- profit context. However, CRM
is also found in the not- for- profit context. e “third sector,” the not- for- profit community
(charity, non- government organization (NGO), education and government), is very active
in implementing CRM. Universities wish to maintain relationships with alumni, charities
campaign to raise income and government increasingly is interested in changing citizens’
behavior gently, through “nudges” (behavioral economics). It is sometimes difficult to trans-
late concepts developed for commercial, profit- centric organizations to the third sector. One
key element of strategic CRM is the customer selection and targeting process: there are some
customers for whom a business does more, and some customers for whom it does less. Gov-
ernments interact with citizens, not customers. Governments provide services to all citizens,
but typically provide more services to the most vulnerable. Operational CRM solutions are
oen used to improve government service delivery. For example, the UK’s annual licensing
THE UK DVLA
The UK’s Department of Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) organizes the annual licensing of road
vehicles. It has radically overhauled this process twice in the past 15 years or so. Traditionally, car
owners had to buy a physical “tax disc” to display on the windscreen. Before the disc was issued,
owners had to prove that they were insured and that their vehicle was roadworthy by passing a test
at an authorized service point. The process for most citizens then consisted of waiting for hard- copy
papers to be mailed from the DVLA as the tax disc reached its expiry, and taking a certificate of
insurance, and roadworthiness certificate to a post office, where other forms would be completed,
evidence presented and payment made. The physical disc would then be supplied. A call center in
Wales managed a large volume of calls to support car owners as they engaged this process. The
center was frequently overwhelmed by call volumes and customer experience suffered.
In the first wave of change, the DVLA re- engineered the process by building an online data-
base comprising roadworthiness certificates generated at the testing centers and data supplied
by all car insurers to verify that a vehicle is insured. The about- to- lapse notification was still sent to
the car owner, who went online and entered the reference number on the notification; computer
systems verified that the vehicle was insured and roadworthy, the owner was asked to pay online
and the tax disc came via the post in a few days. For government, compliance was improved, and
costs reduced. For car owners, time, effort and errors are taken out of the process.
The second wave of change omits the issuing of a physical disc altogether. The citizen still
completes the annual licensing process as described in wave one above, but police and other
authorities can enter a vehicle registration number into a database to ensure compliance. This
type of online self- service is an example of how operational CRM (citizen relationship manage-
ment, rather than customer relationship management) systems can improve outcomes for both
parties in a not- for- profit context.
CASE ILLUSTRATION 1.5
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of private road vehicles is online, and charities segment donors by regularity and size of gi,
trying to migrate small donors up the value ladder to major bequests.
MODELS OF CRM
A number of comprehensive CRM models have been developed. We introduce four of them here.
The IDIC model
e IDIC model was developed by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, of the Peppers& Rogers
Group and has featured in a number of their books.22 e IDIC model suggests that compa-
nies should take four actions in order to build closer one- to- one relationships with customers:
•Identify who the customers are and build a deep understanding of them.
•Differentiate customers to identify which customers have most value now and which
offer most for the future.
•Interact with customers to ensure that a deep understanding of customer expectations
and customers’ relationships with other suppliers or brands.
•Customize the offer and communications to ensure that the expectations of customers
are met.
The CRM value chain
Francis Buttle’s model of CRM, shown in Figure1.1, consists of five primary stages and four
supporting conditions leading towards the end goal of enhanced customer profitability. 23
e primary stages of customer portfolio analysis, customer intimacy, network development,
Customer
Portfolio
Analysis
Primary
stages
Supporting
conditions
Leadership and culture
Data and information technology
People
Processes
Customer
Intimacy
Network
Development
(SCOPE)
Value
Proposition
Development
Manage
The
Customer
Lifecycle
Customer
Profitability
Figure 1.1 The CRM value chain
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INTRODUCTION TO CRM
value proposition development and managing the customer lifecycle, are sequenced to ensure
that a company, with the support of its network of suppliers, partners and employees (SCOPE
in Figure1.1), creates and delivers value propositions that acquire and retain profitable cus-
tomers. e supporting conditions of leadership and culture, data and IT, people, and pro-
cesses enable the CRM strategy to function effectively and efficiently.
The five- process model
Adrian Payne and Pennie Frow developed the five- process model of CRM.24 is model (Fig-
ure1.2) clearly identifies five core processes in CRM: the strategy development process, the
value creation process, the multi- channel integration process, the performance assessment
process and the information management process. e first two represent strategic CRM;
the multi- channel integration process represents operational CRM; the information manage-
ment process is analytical CRM.
The SCHEMA model
e SCHEMA model is a commercial property developed as a benchmarking tool by TCF
(e Customer Framework, www.thecustomerframework.com). e model, as shown in Fig-
ure1.3, aims to help companies strike an optimal balance between customer engagement
and profitability.25 e model proposes a key financial goal for customer management– the
Strategy
Development
Process:
Business
Strategy
•Business
Vision
•Industry and
Competitive
Characteristics
Value Creation
Process:
Value
Customer
Receives
• Value
proposition
• Value
assessment
Sales Force
Performance
Assessment
Process:
Shareholder
Results
• Employee value
• Customer value
• Shareholder
value
• Cost reduction
Virtual Physical
Performance
Monitoring
• Standards
• Satisfaction
measurement
• Results and
K.P.I.s
Value
Organisation
Receives
• Acquisition
economics
• Retention
economics
Co-creation
Customer Segment Lifetime Value Analysis
Multi-Channel
Integration Process:
Data Repository (‘the corporate memory’)
Outlets
Direct Marketing
Call Centres/
Telephony
Electronic/Mobile
Commerce
Social Media
IT
Systems
Integrated channel management
Customer
Strategy
•Customer
Choice and
Characteristics
•Segment
Granularity Analysis
Tools
Front Office
Applications
Back Office
Applications
Figure 1.2 Payne and Frow’s model of CRM
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UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
achievement of sustainable incremental profitability. is goal is achieved when the identified
foundations enable the successful execution of strategies designed to win, keep and develop
customers cost- effectively. e model identifies four key foundationsthat underpin success-
ful customer engagement: direction and leadership (e.g. clarity of strategy, cross- functional
ownership, budgets, measurement); IT and data management capabilities; organizational cul-
ture (ways of working); and competencies of people. e model identifies five enablersof
good customer management, including the deep customer insight that is necessary for
well-targeted marketing, selling and service; the alignment of brand positioning with cus-
tomer experience, and the integration of channels and media and the way content is created
and used.e agility and workflow required to support real- time engagement (including
compliance and decision making) is a critical enabler as are the activities that get measured,
as they will drive action by management and front- line staff.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, you have learned that the expression CRM has a variety of meanings. ree
major types of CRM have been identified: strategic, operational and analytical. ere are
many misunderstandings about CRM. For example, some people wrongly equate CRM with
Sustainable
Incremental
Profitability
Foundations
Enablers
Execution
K
E
E
P
W
I
N
D
E
V
E
L
O
P
C
O
S
T
S
I
n
s
i
g
h
t
&
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a
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a
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o
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Figure 1.3 The SCHEMA model of customer management
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INTRODUCTION TO CRM
loyalty programs whereas others think of CRM as an IT issue. Although CRM is gener-
ally associated with for- profit organizations, it is also applied in the not- for- profit context.
Different industries such as automobile manufacturing, consumer goods firms, banks and
technology firms use CRM for different purposes. Anumber of different constituencies have
an interest in CRM, including CRM consultancies, CRM soware houses, CRM hardware
and infrastructure vendors, companies that are implementing CRM, and their customers.
We have produced a definition that underpins the rest of this book. CRM is the core
business strategy that aims to create and maintain profitable relationships with customers,
by designing and delivering superior value propositions. It is grounded on high- quality
customer- related data and enabled by information technology.
Finally, we have introduced four models of CRM that try to scope the field.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 http:/ / whatis.techtarget.com/ definition/ 0,289893,sid9_gci213567,00.html. Accessed November29,
2005.
2 http:/ / onlinebusiness.about.com/ cs/ marketing/ g/ CRM.htm. Accessed November29, 2005.
3 www.siebel.com/ what- is- crm/ soware- solutions.shtm. Accessed November29, 2005.
4 http:/ / computing- dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ CRM. Accessed November29, 2005
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17 Contact- centres differ from call- centres in that they handle not only phone calls, but communica-
tions in other media such as mail, fax, email and SMS.
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UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
18 Amplifying perceptions: how JetBlue uses Twitter to drive engagement and satisfaction. Case
Clearing House: M- 336 (2010), Stanford Graduate School of Business.
19 Baines, T. S. etal. (2007). State- of- the- art in product- service systems. Proceedings of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers– Part B– Engineering Manufacture (Professional Engineering Publishing),
221(10), 1543–1552.
20 www- 01.ibm.com/ soware/ au/ data/ bigdata/ . Accessed January24, 2014.
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customer at a time. London: Piatkus; Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha (1998). Enterprise 1- to- 1.
London: Piatkus; Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha (1999). e 1- to- 1 fieldbook. London: Piat-
kus; Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha (2000). e 1- to- 1 manager. London: Piatkus; Peppers, Don
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com/ schema- toolset/ the- schema- model/ . Accessed December29, 2017.
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