Woodcock and Starkey (2001) defined CRM as a set of methodologies, technologies and e-

commerce capabilities used by companies to manage a customer relationship.

CRM is the act of acquisition, analysis and use of knowledge about customers to sell more goods
and services effectively and efficiently by providing a profitable service for both the firm and its
customers (Bose, 2002). It represents a comprehensive marketing strategy for acquiring,
retaining and partnering with selected customers to create superior value for the company and its
customers (Parvatiyar & Sheth, 2001). For Swift (2001), CRM is an organisational approach
using meaningful communications to improve customer retention, profitability, loyalty,
satisfaction and customer acquisition.

Croteau and Li (2003) lend support to CRM as a customer-oriented strategy targeted at creating
and increasing customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention by offering
specific, responsive and unique services to individual customers. Employees, therefore, are
required to be trained with requisite CRM skills to perform their services efficiently and
effectively by handling customers’ demands and complaints if market retention and enhanced
profitability are to be achieved (Gupta, 2009)

Mueller (2010) characterises customer relationship management aspect of the business as a

highly dynamic, and convincingly argues that businesses have to adopt a proactive approach in
devising relevant programs and initiatives in order to remain competitive in their industries.

Sinkovics and Ghauri (2009) relate the necessity for engaging in customer relationship
management to high cost of direct sales, highly intensifying level of competition in the global
level, and need for information about various aspects of the business in general, and consumer
behaviour in particular, that can be used to increase the levels of sales.

According to Peppers and Rogers (2011), there is global tendency in customer relationship
management that relates to the shift from transactional model towards the relationship model. In
other words, Peppers and Rogers (2011) argue that satisfying customer needs as a result of on-
time transaction is not sufficient today in order to ensure the long-term growth of the businesses.

Instead, businesses have to strive to maintain long-term relationships with their customers in
order to maintain flexibility to adopt their increasing expectations and thus achieving their life-
long loyalty. Peppers and Rogers (2011) further stress that, businesses that refuses to
acknowledge this tendency in the global marketplace would be risking their market share and
growth prospects in the future.

One of the most critical sources for the research is the book “Relationship Marketing and
Customer Relationship Management” authored by Brink and Berndt (2009). The book offers an
in-depth discussion of the concept of Customer Touch Map and discusses the role of information
technology in facilitating customer relationship management.

The work of Mathur (2010) represents another significant contribution to the research area to be
used in the study. Namely, the author provides a wide range of specific customer relationship
management techniques and principles that are used by multinational businesses. The findings of
Mathur (2010) can be compared to the primary data findings in the proposed research, thus
enhancing the scope of the study.

Khurana (2010), on the other hand, discusses the concept of customer relationship management
in a great detail, and also addresses advantages and disadvantages associated with a range of
relevant software applications. The third edition of Pradan’s (2009) “Retailing Management” is
another noteworthy source that is going to be used in the study. Specifically, Pradan (2009)
identifies customer relationship management as an emerging aspect of marketing in retail and
discusses its importance for ensuring long-term growth for retail businesses.

A global approach towards the issues of customer relationship management is adopted by Raab
et al (2008) in “Customer relationship management: a global perspective”. The value of this
specific work to the proposed research can be explained in a way that it will allow the
comparison of customer relationship management principles to the similar principles exercised
by other multinational retailers in a global marketplace.

Bhatia’s (2008) work, “Retail Management” is also going to be used in the proposed study due to
the significance of the contribution of the work to the research area. Bhatia (2008) offers in-
depth discussions related to the use of loyalty cards by retailers, and this represents a
comprehensive analysis of the issue in the secondary data.

Moreover, Cox’s (2011) “Retail Analytics: The Secret Weapon” deserves also to be mentioned
in here thanks to the most modern and fresh perspective the author adopts in order to approach
the research issues. The most valuable part of this specific article is that it provides highly
practical recommendations to retailers of various sizes in terms of increasing the levels of
revenues through adopting a range of customer relationship management principles.

A range of academic models and writings relate to this research in direct and indirect ways and
some of the most relevant models are going to be explored in the study. One of the most models
to be used in the study is The Gap Model of Service Quality. “A model of service quality called
the gap model identifies five gaps that can cause problems in service delivery and influence
customer evaluations of service quality” (Lamb et al, 2011, p.189).

These five gaps are a) the gap between customer wants and the management perceptions about
customer wants; b) the gap between the management perceptions about customer wants and the
specifications of service developed; c) the gap between the service specifications and the actual
service provided; d) the gap between the quality of service promised and the quality of service
provided, and e) the gap between expected service and perceived service on behalf of customer.

Another relevant model to be tested during the study constitutes Relationship Model of customer
relationship management proposed by Peppers and Rogers (2011). Specifically, the model
advocates adopting a pro-active approach in sustaining customer relationships and proposes a set
of specific principles that would assist to accomplish this task.
References

Bhatia, S.C. (2008) “Retail Management” John Wiley & Sons

Brink, A. & Berndt, A. (2009) “Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship

Management” Juta Publications

Goldenberg, B.J. (2008) “CRM in Real Time: Empowering Customer Relationships”

Information Today, Inc.

Cox, E. (2011) “Retail Analytics: The Secret Weapon” John Wiley & Sons

Khurana, M. (2010) “Information Technology for Retailing” Tata McGraw-Hill Education

Lamb, C.W., Hair, J.F. & McDaniel, C. (2011) “Marketing: Student Edition” Cengage Learning

Mathur, U.C. (2010) “Retail Management: Text and Cases” I.K. International Pvt Ltd

Mueller, B. (2010) “Dynamics of International Advertising: Theoretical and Practical

Perspectives” Peter Lang

Peppers, D. & Rogers, M. (2011) “Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework”

John Miley & Sons

Pradan, S. (2009) “Retailing Management: Text & Cases”, 3rd edition, Tata McGraw-Hill
Education

Raab, G., Ajami, R.A., Gargeya V. & Goddard, G.J. (2008) “Customer relationship
management: a global perspective” Gower Publishing

Sinkovics, R.R & Ghauri, P.N. (2009) “New Challenges to International Marketing” Emerald
Group Publishing