Keywords
Citation
Crosby, L.A. (2008), "Weather the storms (customer management programmes)", Strategic Direction, Vol. 24 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2008.05624gad.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Weather the storms (customer management programmes)
Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 24, Issue 7.
Crosby L.A., Carroll J. Marketing Management, January/February 2008, Vol. 17 Start page: 14, No. of pages: 2
Purpose - To argue that a strong customer management system will dramatically reduce the risk of failure, speed time to real performance improvement and improve overall business returns, relating to customer management. Design/methodology/approach - Identifies the four cornerstones that form the basis for a storm-proofed customer management system. Findings - The four cornerstones are having a stated customer goal, clear customer strategy, defined customer governance and customer roadmap. States that leaders must broadly communicate a desired destination, including an external goal and a linked internal goal, and that healthy organizations emphasize one of three sources of competitive advantage, namely product leadership, customer intimacy or operational excellence, while maintaining industry par performance in the areas they do not stress. Adds that the right governance structure will get key players in the game, with their participation being an indicator of their commitment, but creating a high-level customer roadmap does not have to be a complicated process: all that is required are the external and internal customer goals, supported by a set of basic strategies that might be used as guideposts to define more specific tactics for the execution of the customer management program. Originality/value - Asserts that, with goals set, strategy clear, governance in place, and a roadmap agreed upon, an organization has the foundation necessary to weather storms in peace and serenity. ISSN: 1061-3846 Reference: 37AE071
Keywords: Customer relations, Marketing strategy, Relationship marketing