Marketing Plans, 9th Edition

CHAPTER 10THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PLAN

SUMMARY

• The case for customer relationship management (CRM)
• A stage model for CRM adoption
• Integration maturity: organizing around the customer
• Interaction maturity: the art of relevant conversation
• Planning for CRM: the benefits dependency network (BDN)
• Exercises to turn the theory into practice

INTRODUCTION

In the last chapter, we discussed channel strategy: what channel combinations are used for the customer journey across marketing, sales and customer service. Once these channels and the marketing technology is in place to support them, we then have the challenge of developing relationships with individual customers through these channels.

We have already discussed how these relationships begin in Chapter 7 on integrated marketing communications. In the great majority of businesses, though, most profits come from repeat purchases or relationships.

This is not easy in an omnichannel world. In a single-channel business such as a café bookshop, the ‘CRM’ is done in the heads of the staff. Here is what happened when one of the authors (Hugh) walked into a university café bookshop on the day of writing this introduction.

Amy (one of the owners) greeted me by name, asked how the book revision was going, presented me with a double-shot cappuccino without asking, and told me about the lunchtime specials that were likely to appeal to me, including my favourite parsnip and coconut soup. Somewhere within this one-minute ...