Customer Relationship Management: A Database Approach
It is accepted today that failure of several CRM implementations in the 1990s were due to exclusion of organisational culture and lack of staff commitment. In Customer Relationship Management – A Database Approach, the authors Kumar and Reinartz identify that a customer-centric philosophy defines a successful CRM programme.
Each customer should be treated as an asset and a source of wealth generation and the product alone should not be the key focus. The goal of strategic CRM is to shape the interactions with its customers to maximize the lifetime value of each customer.
To leverage the full potential of their CRM strategies, Kumar and Reinartz advise firms to adopt new metrics, implement new techniques and undergo organisational reorientation. A firm can measure and optimise its marketing efforts by incorporating the concept of customer value at the core of its decision making process, they explain.
The book is an in depth treatise; defining CRM, designing and implementing a CRM strategy, explaining concepts of database management and data mining. Along with reviewing traditional CRM practices, the book illustrates new metrics like past customer value and customer lifetime value. The book goes on to analyse the implementation of CRM strategies through loyalty programs, marketing campaigns and channel management projects. Despite the rigorous analysis, the simple lucid style of the text, interspaced with real life examples cutting across a spectrum of industries, adds depth and credibility to the analysis.
In the introduction, the authors identify the objective of this book to be a useful learning companion to teachers, students and practitioners of CRM. The book achieves all that and so much more!
Rekha Menon
Research and Contributing Editor
FinacleConnect