مسائل عملکرد متقابل در اجرای بازاریابی رابطه ای از طریق مدیریت ارتباط با مشتری

There is a major change in the way companies organise themselves as firms switch from product-based to customer-based structures. A key driver of this change is the advent of Customer Relationship Management which, underpinned by information systems convergence and the development of supporting software, promises to significantly improve the implementation of Relationship Marketing principles. In this paper we explore the three main issues that can enable (or hinder) the development of Customer Relationship Management in the service sector; the organisational issues of culture and communication, management metrics and cross-functional integration — especially between marketing and information technology.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has its roots in relationship marketing which is based in turn on the formative work by Berry (1983), the IMP Group (see e.g. Ford, 1990) and Christopher et al. (1991). Seminal contributions to the relationship marketing debate were made by Reichheld and Sasser (1990) reporting on the customer retention work of Bain and Co. These findings indicated that a 5 per cent increase in customer retention resulted in an increase in average customer lifetime value of between 35 and 95 per cent, leading to significant improvements in company profitability (Reichheld, p. 36) (Figure 1).Reichheld (1996) concluded that there are six underlying reasons why retained customers are more profitable (p. 39): • Customer acquisition costs may be high, so customers may not become profitable unless they are retained for one or more years; • There will be a stream of profits from the customer in each year after acquisition costs are covered; • Customers buy more over time, so revenues go up; companies become more efficient at serving them (there is a learning curve to the relationship), so costs go down; • Retained and satisfied customers may refer other potential customers; • The relationship has a value to the customer too, so that retained customers tend to become less price-sensitive. The purpose of relationship marketing is to improve long run profitability by shifting from transaction-based marketing, with its emphasis on winning new customers, to customer retention through effective management of customer relationships (Christopher et al., 1991, p. 19). While the development of theory in relationship marketing continues unabated, the key question facing practitioners is, how can this shift in management focus be implemented in practice? This paper sets out to address issues concerning relationship marketing implementation through the application of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and related technologies.

IT has the potential to transform relationship marketing by generating market knowledge, supporting group decision-making, and facilitating customer transactions. The financial services industry has taken an early lead in CRM implementation (Codington and Wilson, 1994) because its transactions are essentially IT-based, and these firms already hold a wealth of information about individual customers. However, the use of technology on its own is not sufficient. Although most financial services companies now have at least some form of customer marketing database, they do not always perform well in supporting customer development (Naval, 1998 and Anon, 1993). Developments in IT must be combined with a relationship marketing philosophy that calls for the re-organisation of the firm around its customers. Re-organisation of the firm around its customers has some immediate implications for managers: • A culture change that recognises that customers, not just products, drive profits. Marketing actions must, therefore, focus on long-term customer relationships, not just the short-term campaigns. • A change in business measurement and incentives so that they reflect this new culture. For marketing, this might mean setting targets for customer retention as well as for new customer acquisition; for IT, this might mean measuring the success of a CRM technology project in terms of its contribution to building relationships with customers rather than its architecture and functionality. • A change in working practices so that information is shared between departments to build up a picture of the firm's total relationship with the customer. This may also entail a change in organisational structure from traditional functional silos to cross-functional teams. Two technology issues are critical: a strategic view of investment in properly managed IT, and an enterprise-wide approach to the use and integration of IT systems (McDonald and Wilson, 1999, Haapaniemi, 1996 and Tavinen, 1995). The importance of technology in CRM implementation is such that these issues of strategic investment in IT and integrated IT systems may have to be addressed directly through: • A clearer view about the business case for CRM investments which needs to be built around the longer-term impact of such investments on the firm's relationship with its customers, and not the short-term tactical benefits. • Acceptance that CRM technology investments should be an enterprise-wide decision, heralding an end to small-scale projects that fail when their success in one business unit leads to ill-judged and hurried attempts to scale them across the organisation, often against the better judgement of the IT managers. • Board support for the decision to invest in CRM, with board-level representation for the project. Top management buy-in must be seen to be taking place. • Commitment to providing customer information to the ‘front line’ of staff who interface with customers, and breaking down the barriers of ownership associated with customer information. In summary, successful implementation of CRM will require more effective management of functional interdependencies through process teams (Parsons et al., 1996), and revisions in the ways that employee performance is measured and rewarded. Such a radical shift in expectations and behaviour towards CRM can only be achieved with the full commitment and support of the board and senior management (Fletcher and Wright, 1996 and Perrien et al., 1993).