The alignment of customer relationship management (CRM) strategies with overall organizational forces and strategies

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are increasingly becoming strategicbusiness imperatives to organizations. This thesis states that many companies do fail to get theintended returns from CRM infrastructures simply because they see CRM as merely technologicalsolutions to attracting and retaining customers while failing to see it as a business strategy andintegrated into the business model or concept.In the first chapter, the review of literature about CRM, the aims, specific objectives, and methodologyused to finalize this paper, problems and challenges surrounding CRM systems are discussed.The second chapter consists of the definition of CRM systems from various multi-disciplinaryperspectives as taken from different authors. Besides, the nature, potential benefits and costs to bothcustomers and organizations, and the different types of CRM programs are discussed in detail.In chapter three, the need to integrate CRM strategies into organizational corporate strategy andcompetitive strategies of various functions of an organization are discussed. Besides, the customersegmentation strategies and market segmentation strategies are explained.In chapter four, the relationships between CRM strategies and the various organizational forces suchas organizational culture, structure, business processes, and measuring process re-engineering arediscussed.In chapter five, the alignment of support technologies with CRM strategies is discussed in detail. Thesections in the chapter include the role of ICTs in CRM systems, the use of Customer KnowledgeManagement (CKM) in CRM strategies, Customer data analysis, the role of data marts in CRMprojects, computer system architecture and data storage management, data sources for CRMpurposes, the role of database management systems in CRM systems, the role of customer contactpoints in CRM systems, database structures for CRM infrastructure, and the use of data mining fordata analysis and information delivery.In Chapter six, the need to establish value-adding processes and the creation of value in CRMsystems to both customers and organizations are mentioned as the main requirements in CRMstrategies. Such sub-topics in this chapter include the customer value proposition, determination ofacquisition and retention strategies and customer net value, customer service excellence, therelationship between value-adding services and personalized treatment of customers, and loyaltyprograms.In Chapter seven, the reasons for customer defection and the mechanisms to prevent the defectionpossibilities are discussed. Then, the thesis is summarized and concluded.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University