Customer Relationship Management

"Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Tools" is a breakthrough book that makes transparent the complexities of customer relationship management. The book views customer relationship management as the core business strategy that integrates internal processes and functions, and external networks, to create and deliver value to targeted customers at a profit. Customer relationship management is grounded on high quality customer data and enabled by information technology. The book is a comprehensive and fully developed textbook on customer relationship management . Although, it shows the roles of customer data and information technology in enabling customer relationship management implementation, it does not accept that customer relationship management is just about IT. Rather it is about an IT- and data-enabled approach to customer acquisition, customer retention and customer development. Because customer relationship management is a core business strategy, the book demonstrates how it has influence across the entire business, in areas such as strategic, marketing, operations, human resource, and IT management. Customer relationship management's influence also extends beyond the company to touch on partner and supplier relationships. An Instructor's PowerPoint pack is available to lecturers who adopt the book. Integrative structure is organized around the author's 'CRM Value Chain' model. Theoretically sound and managerially relevant, it is a useful text from both student and practitioner's perspectives. It includes standardized chapter contents and features for ease of navigation.

Table of Contents:
Making sense of CRM; The CRM Value Chain; IT for CRM; Customer Portfolio Analysis; Customer intimacy; Creating and Managing Networks; Creating Value for Customers; Managing the Customer Lifecycle: Customer Acquisition;Managing the Customer Lifecycle: Customer Retention and Development; Organising for CRM.

About the Author :
Founder and principal consultant of Francis Buttle & Associates, Sydney, Australia. Former Professor of Management (Marketing and CRM) at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney; Professor of Relationship Marketing and CRM at Cranfield School of Management and Manchester Business School, UK.

Review :
"Absolutely the best exposition of Customer Relationship Management. I can't think of a better guide to increasing your performance and profits. This book belongs on the desk of every company that is serious about CRM. The wealth of information and insight is astonishing." - Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, USA. "Here, at last, is a mature account of CRM without the hype and spin. Buttle makes it crystal clear why any program should be business-led. He also shows how rewarding, if demanding, CRM can be. The ideal antidote to the message of the shrink-wrapped software peddlers." - David Harvey, Director, European Centre for Customer Strategies, www.eccs.uk.com. "With great clarity and practical relevance, this book delivers a much-needed, multi-faceted roadmap for treating Customer Relationship Management as a core business strategy. Francis Buttle's rich and well-balanced text offers a refreshing departure from many of the technology-heavy or lop-sided views that surround this important subject." - Fred Wiersema, President The Customer Strategy Group LLC, USA and co-author of "The Discipline of Market Leaders" "The author does a magnificent job of gathering the difference perspectives, categorizing them, and presenting a comprehensive overview. This is an easy-to-use textbook with a pleasant and engaging format. Each chapter begins with a list of "Chapter Objectives" that tells readers just what they will understand by the end of the chapter. There is also a "Summary" at the end of each chapter that neatly ties up the important concepts. Throughout the book, the author includes illustrative mini-cases that put some flesh onto the bare bones of a particular CRM term or concept. The cases are quick and interesting anecdotes. There are also many visuals to enhance the subject matter. I would recommend this text for business students at either the undergraduate or graduate level; and for non CRM practitioners who want an easy to grasp overview of a complex subject. There is enough information here to sell the idea of CRM internally, hire CRM consultants and work intelligently with them." - Marty Landrigan, Landrigan Marketing Research, Sudbury, MA USA