Customer Relationship Management Emerging Practice, Process, and Discipline.pdfVIP

Journal of Economic and Social Research 3(2) 2001, 1-34 Customer Relationship Management: Emerging Practice, Process, and Discipline Atul Parvatiyar1 Jagdish N. Sheth2 Abstract. Customer relationship management (CRM) has once again gained prominence amongst academics and practitioners. However, there is a tremendous amount of confusion regarding its domain and meaning. In this paper, the authors explore the conceptual foundations of CRM by examining the literature on relationship marketing and other disciplines that contribute to the knowledge of CRM. A CRM process framework is proposed that builds on other relationship development process models. CRM implementation challenges as well as CRMs potential to become a distinct discipline of marketing are also discussed in this paper. JEL Classification Codes: M31. Key Words: Customer Relationship Management; Relationship Marketing; CRM Process; CRM Definition; CRM Strategy; CRM Programs; CRM Implementation; CRM and Relationship Marketing Discipline. 1. Introduction Customer relationship management (CRM) has attracted the expanded attention of practitioners and scholars. More and more companies are adopting customer-centric strategies, programs, tools, and technology for efficient and effective customer relationship management. They are realizing the need for in-depth and integrated customer knowledge in order to build close cooperative and partnering relationships with their customers. The emergence of new channels and technologies is significantly altering how companies interface with their customers, a development bringing about a greater degree of integration between marketing, sales, and customer service functions in organizations. For practitioners, CRM represents an enterprise approach to developing full-knowledge about customer behavior 1 Robinson Research Fellow Associate Professor of Marketing ,