Role of Marketing

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What Is The Role Of Marketing In Managing Customer Relations For A Marketing Oriented Business

Relationship marketing scholars have long advocated that pursuing long-tem relationships with customers instead of a transaction-oriented approach is more profitable for firms (e .g , Morgan and Hunt

. 20-38 Customer relationship management (CRM ) is a core organizational process that focuses on establishing , maintaining , and enhancing long-term associations with customers (Srivastava , Shervani , and Fahey

. 168-80 The rapid advance in information technology (IT ) has presented

firms with new technology-based solutions--namely , CRM technology--to manage customer relationships . Such technology is a suite of IT solutions designed to support the CRM process (Rigby , Reichheld , and Schefter

br 101-109 . Many firms have invested in CRM technology (Day

. 34-53 hoping to discriminate between profitable and unprofitable customers provide customized service , and obtain greater customer retention (Peppers , Rogers , and Dorf

. 151-61 . However , the results of using CRM technology have been mixed (e .g , Reinartz , Krafft , and Hoyer

br 293-305 , and this has created substantial concern about its viability and effectiveness (Rigby , Reichheld , and Schefter

. 101-109 . The business press also gives conflicting accounts about the efficacy of CRM technology (e .g , Whiting

. 79-80 , and research on this issue has been limited (Winer

. 89-108

The unease with CRM technology use is similar to the disillusionment that firms encountered in the late 1980s with the use of IT to automate business activities . The frustration with IT systems led to a focus on information process redesign in organizations to take advantage of the technology (see El-Sawy

. 45-65 . Akin to the situation with the use of IT systems in organizations , disappointing outcomes from CRM technology use could be the result of inappropriate information processes Therefore , research exploring organizational information processes relevant to CRM (hereafter , relational information processes ) could help shed light on the role of CRM technology in firms

The Need for Relational Information Processes

Relationship marketing is based on the generation of a foundation of shared interest , in which firms and customers are committed to each other . Firms strive to use interactions with customers to generate commitment , a lasting desire in customers to maintain a valued relationship , and trust , a readiness to rely on the exchange partner Trust is considered especially critical for relational exchanges because it is a crucial determinant of commitment . An important antecedent of trust is communication (Morgan and Hunt

. 20-38 . Communication in the CRM context involves the sharing of information between a firm and its customers (De Wulf , Odeken-Schrtzder , and Iacobucci

. 33-51 . To establish and maintain relationships , it is also imperative that organizations use the information to shape appropriate responses to customer needs . In effect , information plays a key role in building and maintaining customer relationships

Relationship marketing follows different precepts from those of transactional marketing in the firm--customer interaction . Compared with transactional marketing , relationship marketing requires a much greater degree of firm--customer information sharing and differs in terms of the type of learning involved...