Lack of preparation is every manager's nightmare.

Do you find yourself needing to get up to speed on a particular subject in time for an important meeting or event? Are you struggling to find both the time and the patience to track down the most appropriate material?

Then look no further than Emerald Management Briefings! Management Briefings provide you with a detailed insight into your chosen topic and comprise up to six specially-selected articles from the 40,000-strong Emerald Fulltext article database which is selected by 98% of the world's 100 top business schools as listed by the Financial Times.

Not sure what to expect? Have a look at this sample of an Emerald Fulltext article to find out.

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In August 2000, the tyre industry experienced mass anxiety when Firestone was forced to recall many of its tyres due to a number of fatalities.

This triggered countless customer enquiries and, as a result, the Firestone website crashed, staying down for the next twelve hours. Michelin were also inundated with queries but, thanks to a newly installed CRM model, this did not pose a problem. They were able to successfully answer all questions as well as gather valuable data in order to facilitate future CRM strategies.

Michelin's success story is just one example of the importance attached to CRM. It highlights the move in recent years away from streamlining processes in order to cut costs towards the new strategy of knowing your customers intimately. The three major driving forces behind this initiative are:

• New software technology - collating and utilizing customer data is becoming increasingly easier.
• The Internet - not only is there greater competition on the web, the potential for accessing customer information is enormous.
• The changing customer - consumers today are more confident, sophisticated and, with more choice than ever, more demanding.

In a complete turnaround from a few years ago it is now the customer, not the company, who dictates what appears in the market.

"As customers change, learn, and evolve in response to the pressures they face, businesses that serve them must change with them or lose out."
- Robert E. Wayland & Paul M. Cole

Virtually every organization today recognizes that CRM must play a part in their corporate strategy. Furthermore, it can no longer be seen as an independent entity, set aside from everything else. Paul Cole, national director of the CRM practice at Ernst & Young LLP in Boston, reiterates this view. He believes that "we've been thinking too statically and looking on the customer relationship as a fixed asset rather than a continuous stream of interactions that can build or destroy that asset. It's the relationship and not the customer with an account number that drives your growth."

And of course, there is a huge difference between having a CRM policy and actually practising good CRM. Essentially it comes down to one question; are you really listening to your clients?

This Briefing will help you to recognize the needs of the emerging new consumer of the twenty-first century and reconcile new technologies with a humanistic approach to CRM.

Articles:

Customer relationship management: the case of a European bank
Here you will learn how to convert the principle of customer relationship management (CRM) into practical guidelines for best practice in the implementation of a CRM programme in the real world.

Originally published in Marketing Intelligence & Planning Volume 23 Number 2, 2005

Building brand webs: Customer relationship management through the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme
This article undertakes a case study-based analysis of the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme that seeks to re-conceptualise the role of loyalty schemes by focusing on the role of loyalty schemes in branding and brand webs.

Originally published in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management Volume 33 Number 3, 2005

Quality and customer relationship management (CRM) as competitive strategy in the Swedish banking industry
The purpose of the study is to theoretically and empirically develop a better understanding of quality and customer relationship management (CRM) impact on banking competitiveness.

Originally published in The TQM Magazine Volume 17 Number 4, 2005

E-relationship marketing: changes in traditional marketing as an outcome of electronic customer relationship management
Marketing concepts and definitions have remained relatively unchanged until recently. Electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) has forced marketing managers to reevaluate how, when and to what extent they interact with their customers.

Originally published in The Journal of Enterprise Information Management Volume 17 Number 6, 2004

An integrated framework for customer value and customer-relationship-management performance: a customer-based perspective from China
In the modern customer-centred era, customer value is a strategic weapon in attracting and retaining customers. Delivering superior customer value has become a matter of ongoing concern in building and sustaining competitive advantage by driving customer-relationship-management (CRM) performance.

Originally published in Managing Service Quality Volume 14 Number 2/3, 2004

A critical incident approach to the examination of customer relationship management in a retail chain: an exploratory study
This exploratory study investigates the nature of customer evaluations of their service encounters in a retail chain departmental store setting in Victoria, Australia. The focus of the study is to understand how a customer perceives positive and negative encounters with regard to shopping at the retail chain.

Originally published in Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal Volume 6 Number 4, 2003

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