slm-unit-14-mb0046

Marketing Management Unit 14

Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 287

Unit 14 Customer Relationship Management

and Other Contemporary Issues

Structure:

14.1 Introduction

Learning Objectives

14.2 Relationship Marketing vs. Relationship Management

14.3 Definitions of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

14.4 Forms of Relationship Management

14.5 Managing Customer Loyalty and Development

14.6 Reasons behind Losing Customers by Organizations

14.7 Significance of Customer Relationship Management

14.8 Social Actions Affecting Buyer-Seller Relationships

14.9 Rural marketing

14.10 Services marketing

14.11 E-marketing or online marketing

14.12 Summary

14.13 Terminal Questions

14.14 Answers

14.1 Introduction

In the marketing world managers quite often say „retaining customer is more

important than acquiring one‟. We will examine the importance of this

statement. The organization uses communications tools to make its product

and brand aware among the consumer. It uses its supply chains and human

resources to sell their products. Each stage costs for the company. In this

competitive world, organizations want to reduce the cost and develop the

database which helps in creating loyalty programs. Therefore it is very

essential for the organizations to use software to pile up a big database of

customers. Many Indian companies like Infosys, Wipro and others started

offering CRM software to companies. The benefits of CRM software are

quicker, better quality and timely services to the customers. This increases

the word of mouth communications and reduces the cost of mass media.



Learning Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to

Explain the meaning, need and relevance of CRM.

Mention the forms of relationship management.

Cite reasons for losing customers by organizations.

Bring out the significance of customer relationship management.

Ascertain the latest and recent developments in Marketing Management

14.2 Relationship Marketing Vs. Relationship Management

The relationship marketing approach considers customers as insiders to the

business and aims at building a long term and never-ending relationship

with them. The focus of relationship marketing approach centers on

developing „hard core loyal‟ customers with the idea of retaining them

forever. A high degree of customers‟ contact, commitment and services are

maintained.

The relationship marketing approach has gradually taken the shape of

customer relationship management. Relationship marketing has a narrow

focus on the customers and focuses only on the marketing function of the

organization concerned. On the other hand, customer relationship

management focuses more widely on customers and on the entire functions

connected with value creation and delivery chain of the organization

concerned. The customer relationship management is a process of

acquiring customers by understanding their requirements, retaining

customers by fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations and

attracting new customers through customer specific strategic marketing

approaches. The process invites total commitment on the part of entire

organization in evolving and implementing relationship strategies that would

be rewarding to all concerned.

Organizations have preferred the usage of the term „Customer Relationship

Management‟ rather than „Customer Relationship Marketing‟. However, in

practice, both these terms are used interchangeably.

14.3 Definitions of Customer Relationship Management

Berry defines CRM as “attracting, maintaining and – in multi-service

organizations – enhancing customer relationships.”



Berry and Parasuraman define CRM as “attracting, developing and retaining

customer relationships.”

In Industrial Marketing, Jackson defines CRM as “marketing oriented toward

strong, lasting relationships with individual accounts.”

Doyle and Roth define CRMS as “the goal of relationship selling is to earn

the position of preferred supplier by developing trust in key accounts over a

period of time.”

The sequence of activities for performing relationship marketing would

include developing core services to build customer relationship,

customization of relationship, augmenting core services with extra benefits,

and enhancing customer loyalty and fine-tuning internal marketing to

promote external marketing success.

Christopher considers relationship marketing as “a tool to turn current and

new customers into regularly purchasing clients and then progressively

moving them through being strong supporters of the company and its

products to finally being active and vocal advocates for the company.”

Relationship marketing is in essence “selling by using psychological rather

than economic inducements to attract and retain customers. It seeks to

personalize and appeal to the hearts, minds and purses of the mass

consumers.”- James J. Lynch

Thus, “Customer Relationship Management is about acquiring, developing

and retaining satisfied loyal customers; achieving profitable growth, and

creating economic value in company‟s brand,”

From the above definitions, it could be concluded that Customer

Relationship Management refers to all marketing activities directed towards

establishing, developing, and sustaining long lasting, trusting, win-win,

beneficial and successful relational exchanges between the focal firm and

all its supporting key stakeholders.

CRM is not a new concept but an age-old practice, which is on the rise

because of the benefits it offers, especially in the present marketing

scenario. So, CRM today is a discipline as well as a set of discrete software

and technology which focuses on automating and improving the business

process associated with managing customer relationships in the area of

sales, marketing, customer service and support. CRM helps companies



understand, establish and nurture long-term relationships with clients as well

as in retaining current customers. The most important step that an

organization has to take in the direction of CRM is to create an

interdisciplinary team to review how the organization interacts with each

customer and determine how to improve and extend the relationship.

14.4 Forms of Relationship Management

An extensive review of literature reveals ten different but interrelated forms

of relationship marketing as mentioned below:

1. The partnering involved in relational exchanges between

manufacturers and their external goods suppliers.

2. Relational exchanges involving service providers, as between

advertising or marketing research agencies and their respective

clients.

3. Strategic alliances between firms and their competitors, as in

technology alliances; co-marketing alliances and global strategic

alliances.

4. Alliances between a firm and non-profit organizations, as in public-

purpose partnerships.

5. Partnerships for joint research and development, as between firms and

local, state, or national governments.

6. Long-term exchanges between firms and ultimate customers, as

particularly recommended in the services marketing area.

7. Relational exchanges of working partnerships as in channels of

distribution.

8. Exchanges involving functional departments within a firm.

9. Exchanges between a firm and its employees, as in internal marketing.

10. Within firm, relational exchanges involving such business units as

subsidiaries, divisions or strategic business units.

These different forms of relationship marketing both jointly and severally

influence the emergence and growth of enduring long-term dyadic, triadic

network, and web of relationships between the focal firm and its supporting

key stakeholders.



14.5 Managing Customer Loyalty and Development

Managing customer-development process is one of the critical dimensions

of relationship marketing. Basically it involves a twin focus - customer

catching, and customer keeping. „Customer catching‟ is the process of

attracting new customers (inviting new blood), while the customer keeping

aims at the process of retaining the existing ones (encouraging old blood).

Customer – Development Process:

To understand customer relationship management, we must first examine

the process involved in attracting and keeping the customers. The starting

point is suspects. Suspect is everyone who might conceivably buy the

product or service. The company looks hard at the suspects to determine

who the most likely prospects are. The prospects are those people who

have a strong potential interest in the product and the ability to pay for it.

Disqualified prospects are those whom the company rejects because they

have poor credit or would be unprofitable. The company hopes to convert

many of its qualified prospects into first- time customers, and to then convert

those satisfied first-time customers into repeat customers. Both first-time

and repeat customers may continue to buy from competitors as well. The

company then acts to convert repeat customers into clients. Clients are

those people who buy only from the company in the relevant product

categories. The next challenge is to turn the clients into advocates.

Suspect

Prospects

First time

customer

Repeat

customer Clients Member Advocat

e

Partner



Advocates are those people who praise the company and encourage others

who buy from it. Ultimate challenge is to turn advocates into partners, where

the customer and the company work actively together. At the same time, it

must be recognized that some customers will inevitably become inactive or

drop out for various reasons causing relationships to dissolve. The

company‟s challenge is to reactivate the dissatisfied customers through

customer win-back strategies. It is often easier to re-attract ex-customers

than to find new ones. Unfortunately, the traditional marketing approach with

its emphasis on making sales rather than building relationships fails to

achieve this.

Self Assessment Questions

1. _________is the process of attracting new customers, while

______________aims at the process of retaining the existing ones.

2. CRM involves using set of discrete software and technology which

focuses on automating and improving the business process.

a) True b) False

3. ___________are those people who have a strong potential interest in

the product and the ability to pay for it.

4. ___________are those people who buy only from the company in the

relevant product categories.

5. ___________are those people who praise the company and encourage

others who buy from it.

14.6 Reasons behind Losing Customers by Organizations

It is said that cost of attracting a new customer is estimated to be five times

the cost of keeping a current customer happy. It requires a great deal of

effort to induce satisfied customers to switch away from their current

suppliers. Unfortunately, most marketing theory and practice center on the

art of attracting new customers rather than retaining existing ones. The

emphasis traditionally has been on making sales rather than building

relationships. The focus has been on pre-selling and selling rather than on

caring for the customer afterwards. Today, however, more companies are

recognizing the importance of satisfying and retaining the current

customers.



Today’s companies must pay closer attention to their defection rate

and take steps to reduce it. The possible reasons for customer

defection would include:

14.6.1 Price related reasons: A customer tries to match the price to pay

for acquiring a brand and the value the brand could generate. If the

customer perceives a mismatch between the price and the value, he/she

would opt for a competitor‟s brand. Also, if the price of brand for any reason

goes beyond his/her reach, he/she would switch over to a low priced brand.

Thus, the role of price in customer retention is very significant.

14.6.2 Product related reasons: In view of technological advancement, the

new brand which makes market entry would be capable of offering better

performance as compared to the already existing brand. This would induce

the customers to make a brand switch over.

14.6.3 Services related reasons: The customer‟s concentration is not only

on the brand, but also on the accompanying services offered at three

different stages – pre-sales, during sales and after sales. Any dissatisfaction

as regards to services would cause the customer to move away from the

brand.

14.6.4 Benefit related reasons: The customers may be attracted by

various augmented benefits offered by the competitors. Such benefits may

be more appealing and induce customers towards brand changes.

14.6.5 Competitor related reasons: Technological advancement, attractive

offers, value added services, etc., offered by competitors would also draw

the attention and induce customers towards brand switching.

14.6.6 Personal reasons: On the personal front, a customer would become

a brand defector due to the following reasons:

Moved away from the market area where the brand is sold.

Role changes in life cycle and consequently leading changes in brand

preference.

Anger, disgust, distress developed within the process of product delivery.

Sentimental reasons.

Influence of other members of the family.

The organization must periodically analyze the reasons behind losing

customers and accordingly develop a customer retention plan that would



serve as the basic tool towards building a strong and long lasting

relationship with customers.

Exhibit 1

Improving Customer Relationship

You cannot go about improving customer relationship for the short term

and succeed. It is a continuous process and involves follow ups right

from the time they make their first purchases for you. Primarily, customer

service is something that many business owners think later and

concentrate more on the marketing part. Instead of devising strategies to

retain customers they are more concerned about getting new customers

on board.

If you lose your existing customers due to lack of a proper planning about

servicing them and supporting their needs after they buy products and

services from you, you would be failing in the primary rules of CRM or

customer relations management. Your existing customers matter more as

they have already bought from you and expect hands-on support and

service. They would be the ones who would come once again to buy from

you if they are satisfied. It is far cheaper making them stick around with

you rather than spend money on ads and promos trying to attract new

customers.

In tough economic times it is the old customers that are going to come

back to you if you can maintain a level of satisfactory service and do

everything possible to improve customer relationship. It doesn't take

much to please your existing customers if you have a trained sales

service and support team. If you can look after your experienced staff

well, they would go all out to keep the customers happy.

Having been with you for long, they develop a relationship with their

workplace and have a direct stake in the future of the company. They

know much more than others about the need to keep customers happy

and contented after buying your product or service. They can also train

up and be hands-on guides to the new members of the sales staff and

egg them along.

If you maintain a regular database about customers since the time of

their first purchase, you would have all the necessary information at



hand. You would know the demographics, their interests, hobbies and the

type of occupation they are engaged in. Their special days and events

they cherish would also be known to you and you can always send a card

or small gift.

These small gestures may appear very simple and minor, but can go a

long way in cementing your relationship with your customer. People

always love when they are wished unexpectedly and feted for

achievements and you go several notches up in the eyes of your

customers.

For improving customer relationship, you can form small groups of loyal

customers and hold informal meetings to get to know more about them. It

would be the right place to get feedbacks about your products and

services. The more you can make them talk and express their opinions,

the more likely it would be for you to sense their attitudes and

preferences. You can easily tailor your product and service accordingly

for improving customer relationship more.

Article Source:

http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com

http://customer-relationship-mgt.bestmanagementarticles.com

Author:

Jeff D McQueen

14.7 Significance of Customer Relationship Management

Reduction in customer recruitment cost.

Generation of more loyal customers.

Expansion of customer base.

Reduction in advertisement and other sales promotion expenses.

Increase in the number of profitable customers.

Easy introduction of new products.

Easy business expansion possibilities.

Increase in customer partnering.

The customers are also benefited by relationship marketing in terms of

improved service quality, personalized care, reduction of customer stress,

increased value for money, customer empowerment, etc.

http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com/

http://customer-relationship-mgt.bestmanagementarticles.com/



In today‟s highly competitive business world, CRM is becoming the ultimate

solution for both customers as well as organizations. Any organization must

have a clear idea as to why it loses its customers. This would help informing

proactive and reactive measures to minimize or avoid the same. This

chapter mainly focuses on the causes responsible for losing customers and

deals at length with the various strategies that can be employed to build and

maintain long term relationship with customers, enabling a reader to

consolidate relevant strategies suitable to his business context.

Traditional Organizational Chart Vs Modern Customer – Oriented Company

Organization Chart

Many managers who believe that the customer is the key to profitability

considered the traditional organization chart as in fig. (a) – a pyramid with

the president at the top, management in the middle, and front-line people

(sales and service people, telephone operators, receptionists) and

customers at the bottom – to be obsolete. Master marketing companies

know better; they invert the chart, as shown in fig. (b) above. At the top of

the organization are the customers. Next in importance are the front-line

people who meet, serve, and satisfy the customers. Under them are the

middle managers, whose job is to support the front-line people so they can

serve the customers well. Finally, at the base is top management whose job

is to support the middle managers. We have added customers along the

sides of Fig. (b) to indicate that all the company‟s managers are personally

involved in knowing, meeting, and serving customers.



Broadening the concept of Relationship Marketing Companies should

realize that there are multiple constituencies important to organizational

success other than customers. The stakeholders of an organization would

include: investors, the financial community, vendors and suppliers,

employees, competitors, the media, neighbors and community leaders,

special interest groups, and government agencies. These stakeholders can

affect and be affected by a company‟s marketing programme. Adopting an

integrated view of multiple constituencies has bottom-line implications.

Kotler and Heskett (1992) found that firms that emphasized the interests of

three constituencies--customers, employees and stakeholders

outperformed those that emphasized only one or two.

Figure14.1: Showing Integrated View of Multiple Corporate Constituencies

Integration of Soft and Hard Versions of Relationship Marketing

At this juncture, it is necessary to clarify and elaborate the „soft‟ and „hard‟

versions of relationship marketing. Soft version of relationship marketing is

more reminiscent of „humanistic relationship development‟, whereas the

hard version reflects a „utilitarian instrumentalism‟. The soft version lays

FOCAL FIRM

Employees External goods suppliers

Investors and

Financial

Community

Ultimate Customers

Service provider (ad and marketing research agencies

Functional departments (interfunctional co-

ordination among production, finance,

marketing, R & D, HRM)

Channel of distribution

(distribution and dealers)

Subsidiaries, divisions,

Strategic business units (SBU’s)

Completions (strategic aliances: technology,

co-marketing and global)

Neighbours and Community

leaders

Government agencies

Government-local State, and central

(joint R & D projects)

Special interest Groups in the

society



stress on the term „relationship‟, thus conjuring up echoes of the relationship

management, because it strongly advocates that all management is

basically relationship management and all managers are relationship

managers. It invariably focuses on „developmental humanism‟ as a

foundation to build and nurture enduring relationships in marketing

exchanges. On the other hand, the hard version puts the stress on the idea

of „marketing‟, that is something to be used dispassionately and in a formally

rational manner.

14.8 Social Actions Affecting Buyer-Seller Relationships

Good Things Bad Things

Initiate positive phone calls. Make only callbacks.

Make recommendations. Make justifications.

Candor in language. Accommodative language.

Use “we” problem-solving language. Use “owe-us” legal language.

Get to problems. Only respond to problems.

Use jargon or shorthand. Use long-winded communications.

Accept responsibility. Shift blame.

Plan the future. Rehash the past.

Source: Theodore Levitt, The Marketing Imagination (New York: Free Press, 1983)

p. 119. Reprinted by permission of the Harvard Business Review. An exhibit from

Theodore Levitt, “After the Sale is Over”, Harvard Business Review (September-

October 1983, p. 119). Copyright @ 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard

College.

14.9 Rural Marketing

In a rapidly changing scenario, marketers have to continuously explore new

markets and ways of serving them. In India, enterprises are discovering the

potential of a huge rural population to drive business. Prof C K Prahlad, had

aptly summed up the potential as „fortune at the bottom of the pyramid‟ in a

pathbraking book of the same name. Rural marketing is not something akin

to glocalisation. It is not the modification of urban marketing strategies to

suit the rural market. On the other hand it is developing products to meet the

needs of the rural sector and reaching it across as per the specific

characteristics of the rural environment. In case of a detergent, it is

producing one which will suit the rural environment (considering that the dirt



and grime is different, clothing alternatives are different, availability of water

and number of times of washing is different and so on); packaging and

pricing which will be akin to their requirement and alternative ways for which

the detergent may be put to use. For example Hindustan Lever found that its

detergent was being used for washing the cattle.

14.9.1 Why is the rural market so important today?

The following table will give you some idea about the emergence of the rural

market which marketers may ignore at their own peril.

14.9.2 Why is rural marketing different?

This has to be understood in the light of the 4Ps or 7Ps of marketing.

Imagine that you are trying to establish a Coffee Café Day Outlet in a

remote village in Maharashtra. Will that be viable proposition? Yet there may

be consumers for coffee in the rural sector too. The offering has to suit the

sector. Similarly an ice cream parlor may not be a workable idea in a village

or a cluster of villages if there is no electricity connection there. The ice

cream cart vendor is a better idea. Keeping these situations in perspective,

one can draw some inferences why rural marketing is different.

1. Accessibility and mobility: This applies both for the supplier and the

consumer. The movement of the people is restricted by the lack of

surface roads and the mode of transport. There are restrictions by way

of visibility during night.

2. Average income level of consumers: The average wage earners are

characterized by lower per capita income and disposable income in

comparison to the urban.

3. Geographical distances: The living quarters are separated more than

they are in the urban areas. The cluster of villages is also segregated by

distances.

4. Literacy level: On an average the literacy level in the rural sector is lower

in comparison to the urban sector.

There could be several other issues which are specific to the rural sector.

These may force marketers to take a different approach for the entire

marketing process or at least some of them as against the urban sector.

14.10 Services Marketing

You would have come across the term „services‟ several times during the

course of going through this and other self learning material. You may also



be familiar with the meaning. Till late „the services‟ were generally taken for

granted. Over the last decade or so it assumed importance to be treated as

a field of study as distinct from products. Although a service will have a

product component during the process of service delivery, the service itself

can have a different strategic orientation.

The configuration of the Ps and their strategic implication would be quite

different from those for products. For example a doctor would charge

different fees for the same treatment for different patients. This may not

happen in case of institutionalized health care service providers like

Wockhardt, Apollo etc. Logistics also may take a back seat except for the

courier or similar services. As a service is consumed the instant it is offered,

the offering is to be followed by a pre-offer and post -offer ambience. For

example in a hospital, the environment and facilities before a patient gets

treated is highly important. Once the patient gets treated the actual service

has been consumed. Post the treatment the billing and reports assume

importance. This is contrary to a product offer where the product is most

important, to provide the satisfaction or delight. In the light of these

examples you may be able to appreciate the fact that „services marketing‟

and „services management have become a specialized branch of study.

Exhibit 2

Kerala Tourism and Internet

“Kerala is sitting on a gold mine of tourism opportunities and so far

only the big names have exploited that potential. The internet is now

facilitating smaller constituents in the state’s tourism spectrum to

tap into the global markets at affordable costs” – Narasimha

Jayakumar, Business Head, Google India

Kerala Tourism is already among the leading search words on the

internet, and that web presence is being extended with the state tourism

board, becoming the first among its peers in the country to have a

campaign in association with Google. Mr. Jayakumar also said the pilot

project for the promotion of the state tourism brand had already been

successfully completed by Google and that Kerala tourism was taking a

holistic approach to market itself in a manner the will benefit the state

economy in general.



“The Kerala tourism campaign is not intended to benefit only the tourism

players, but even have a rub off on players like jewelery sellers or other

service providers,” Jayakumar said adding that it was the fist state

tourism brand to take such a leap into global marketing through geo-

targeting.

As part of the campaign, Kerala tourism will aim to promote itself in three

targeted markets – the UK, the US and Canada.

Kerala Tourism director M. Shivshankar said the move for the global

campaign on the net was a logical one, considering that awareness was

already high about the brand. “We don‟t need to tell anyone what Kerala

tourism is about. With such a high awareness level about the brand, we

thought the time was ripe to move in for marketing the brand directly,” he

said.

Shivshankar said Kerala tourism had already been spending roughly 10%

of its annual promotional budget of about Rs.15 crore on new media, and

that this was a conscious decision to use a good chunk of the new media

budget on search-engine based advertising.

The campaign, with an outlay of Rs.95 lakhs, will roll out from the first

week of December, ahead of which the industry partners are being given

an induction into the world of net marketing. Tourism sector players,

particularly the small and medium operators, are being given a training

programme here to upgrade their net marketing skills.

Jayakumar pointed out hotel searches on the new were rising at a

compounded annual growth rate of 55% in India from 2007 and railway

searches were growing at a more robust 92% per annum. He further

added that the travel vertical dominated the search business on the net,

accounting for well over 90% of the e-com business.

(Source: The Economic Times 25th November 2009)

14.11 E-Marketing or Online Marketing

You may be familiar with „Amazon.com‟, „Timesmusic.com‟ and „e-Bay‟. By

visiting these websites you may be able to purchase products and pay

through your debit and credit card. Today you can virtually conduct your

entire shopping online and the products will be delivered to you at your



home. Similarly, you can book your air, bus or rail ticket as per your desire.

Are these merely facilitating availability through the internet medium or are

there marketing elements embedded into these.

If you try to understand a little closely, you will find that these sites have

altered the way we make our buying decisions. The mere fact that these

sites are able to offer a far wider variety from across the globe, at highly

competitive prices, are indications of the differences that e-marketing could

bring to the field/function of marketing. At the same time it may not be able

to provide the same buying experience that physical presence can do.

The challenge for the marketer in this form of marketing lies in making it

comfortable for the customer to „browse‟ through the site and make a

purchase decision. It should be attractive enough for him to forego the

experience of physical shopping.

Exhibit 3

Online Shopping and Consumer confidence

The Visa e-Commerce Consumer Monitor conducted from April to June

2009 found that 33% of Indians are confident about using online modes

of payment. This is higher than the average for Asia-Pacific countries,

which stood at 29%.

However, 30% of the sample size who were not exposed to this mode

showed greater concern about the usage as compared to 16% of the

sample size in the Asia Pacific.

Indian respondents, as per the study, also reported to be more satisfied

with online shopping than other Asia Pacific consumers. Of these

participants, 57% of Indian shoppers shop at both local and overseas

websites. Only 5% of the consumers opt exclusively for overseas

websites, while only 38% stick to the local websites. 51% of the overseas

shoppers said that the main overseas online shopping destination for

them was US sites, while 12% shopped on Chinese websites to find

products that are not locally available. 17% of purchasers claimed that

discounts and inexpensive products were the primary attractions of online

shopping.



The study highlights that 72% of Indians look for security in online

shopping; especially bank guarantee in transactions. Since the mandate

passed by the RBI on August 2009 for VISA verification of all online

transactions, this mode of payment has increased in popularity, VISA

country manager Uttam Nayak said. VISA plans to tie up with 40 Indian

banks to facilitate the process.

(Source: The Times of India 21st November 2009)

Self Assessment Questions

6. Soft version of relationship marketing is more reminiscent of

____________, whereas the hard version reflects a____________.

7. Service needs to be consumed as and when it is offered

a) True b) False

8. Kotler and Heskett found that firms that emphasized the interests of

three constituencies, namely _________________, employees, and

__________ outperformed those that emphasized only one or two.

9. Rural market is different and more challenging than the urban market.

a) True b) False

10. Online shopping or virtual shopping cannot replace the experience of

______________.

14.12 Summary

The focus of relationship marketing approach centers on developing

„hard core loyal‟ customers with the idea of retaining them forever.

The customer relationship management is a process of acquiring

customers by understanding their requirements, retaining customers by

fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations and attracting

new customers through customer specific strategic marketing

approaches.

Customer Relationship Management is about “ acquiring, developing

and retaining satisfied loyal customer; achieving profitable growth, and

creating economic value in company‟s brand,”

CRM is becoming the ultimate solution for both, customers as well as

organizations.



The rural sector has opened up new possibilities for the marketers. Its

characteristics are quite different from that of the urban. Many

companies have adopted special rural focus in their marketing approach.

Services have now become a special business proposition and thus a

separate branch of study – Services Marketing. The pre and post

experience on a service offer are more important than the service itself.

With internet and broadband becoming more accessible to a wide

population base, e-marketing is an inevitable development.

List of Key terms

Customer relationship management

Relationship marketing

Customer development process

Rural marketing

E-marketing

14.13 Terminal Questions

1. Define customer relationship marketing.

2. State the various forms of customer relationship marketing.

3. What are the various reasons for losing customers by organizations?

4. State the significance of customer relationship management.

14.14 Answers

Answers to Self Assessment Questions:

1. Customer catching; Customer keeping

2. True

3. The prospects

4. Clients

5. Advocates

6. Humanistic relationship development; utilitarian instrumentalism

7. True

8. Customers ; stakeholders

9. True

10. Physical shopping



Answers to Terminal Questions:

1. Refer to 7.3

2. Refer to 7.4

3. Refer to 7.6

4. Refer to 7.7

slm-unit-14-mb0046

Documents

sikkim manipal university

special interest groups

achieving profitable growth

relevant product categories

strategic business units

harvard business review

customer relationship management

improving customer relationship