Extending customer relationship management: from empowering firms to empowering customers

Abstract

PurposeThe focus of customer relationship management (CRM) literature has been predominantly on the firm perspective and on IT, not on customer or service orientation and value co‐creation. This paper seeks to explore and analyse contemporary CRM frameworks and suggests future research directions. To achieve this, a thorough literature review on CRM is conducted focusing on recent advances within CRM. This provides a good basis for critically analysing the current status of both CRM theory and practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews CRM literature published 2003‐2011. Based on the literature review, it introduces a conceptual framework of the changing role of customer data in the CRM framework.FindingsLiterature has not adequately addressed the role of the emerging service orientation, value co‐creation and the opportunities provided by new technology and communication channels. Drawing on a thorough CRM literature review, we argue that a fundamental change in CRM thinking is needed to shift the focus of CRM from empowering firms to empowering customers.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is conceptual in nature and presents only a few empirical examples of the changing role of customer data within the CRM framework. The paper calls for more research on the emerging service orientation, value co‐creation and the impact of new media on the contemporary CRM framework.Practical implicationsCustomer data remain, and will remain, a critically important input resource informing a firm's processes. However, using customer data for the benefit of the customer too, to serve customers better, is clearly an emerging phenomenon. Refining and giving customer data back to customers may represent a future mechanism through which companies deepen and develop their customer relationship management to a whole new level.Originality/valueThe study is among the first attempting to critically evaluate the contemporary CRM framework from the perspective of empowering customers.

CRM in the digital age: implementation of CRM in three contemporary B2B firms

“…The empowerment of the customer has naturally generated new challenges for customer relationship management (CRM). As Saarijärvi et al (2013) concluded, 'CRM must adapt to a business environment where new forms of exchange are emerging and where traditional customer and firm roles quickly become out-dated and are recreated ' (p.152).…”

Construction of Customer Relationship Management in Retail Business

“…One criticism of CRM is that study and implementation are too dominated by the perspective of information technology and information systems. Even though it should also take into account service or customer orientation and value co-creation (Saarijarvi, Karjaluoto, & Hannu, 2013) (Steinhoff & Palmatier, 2016)).…”

“…General concepts and fragmented research were caused by domains operating at several levels of analysis: conceptual, empirical, and practical (Lainamngern, 2019). (Saarijarvi et al, 2013) argues that one of the bases of CRM is that customer data is used for the profit of the company, to be exact as main supply for company processes. Through CRM, events such as cross-selling, marketing communications are adjusted or segmented, the potential worth of customer data is processed into data and information for companies to be able to market more products and to manage better customer relationships (Saarijarvi et al, 2013) .…”

“…A comprehensive understanding of crucial dimensions is essential because without this information, it would be sufficient to convince practitioners and researchers that marketing relationship is the critical success in marketing ( (Ernst, Hoyer, Krafft, & Krieger, 2011), (Colbert & Dantas, 2019). A massive purpose of the marketing literature exposes various dimensions of marketing relations that have been proposed and tested, such as faith, commitment, cooperation, communication, shared values, problem solving, power, non-opportunistic behaviour, bonding, empathy, interdependence, satisfaction and much again as a critical variable of successful CRM and relationship marketing (Saarijarvi et al, 2013). However, most of the dimensions of the marketing relationship are validated in the context of mature markets and the possibility that differences in consumer culture will affect their application in dissimilar settings.…”

SoN-KInG: a digital eco-system for innovation in professional and business domains

“…In Saarijärvi et al (2013) starting from the analysis of the literature published from 2003 to 2011on customer relationship management (CRM) frameworks a conceptual framework of the changing role of customer data in the CRM framework is provided.…”