The strategic management of customer relationships is a critical activity for all enterprises. The means of effectively managing relationships with customers is addressed under the headings of relationship marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). Over the last two decades, relationship marketing has become an increasingly important topic. Organisations have learned that building relationships and sustaining them is usually more important than activities focused on customer acquisition. This course first examines the key principles of relationship marketing including: the shift from a functional to a cross functional orientation; the emphasis on business processes; the integration of customer service and quality with marketing; trust, commitment, satisfaction and loyalty as building blocks of relationships; the drivers and scope of relationships, and a focus on multiple stakeholders beyond the enterprise-customer relationship.

The course then addresses customer relationship management, which involves an enterprise-wide customer-centric approach to maximising customer value. It is aimed at creating long-lasting and profitable relationships with individual customers - in both B2B and B2C contexts. Developments in technology have allowed organizations to look at their customers as individuals and to gather, store and analyse customer-based information. An outcome is an increase in the use of direct marketing techniques such as those for designing and managing consumer databases and customer service centres. Topics include: CRM strategy development; value creation through CRM; multichannel integration; information and technology management; and CRM performance assessment. Participants will be exposed to a range of relationship-building strategies and techniques, as well as software and CRM technologies.

Exclusions: MARK5985, MARK6006