مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد پیاده سازی مدیریت ارتباط با مشتری اجتماعی – امرالد 2018

Purpose – This paper aims to debate the technology-driven transformation of customer relationship management (CRM) into social CRM, which entails a shift from a transactional and automational solution to a customer experience management philosophy, reflecting high levels of customer empowerment. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review provides a critical analysis of the concept, tenets, aims and implementation approaches of social CRM. Arguments are summarised by developing a processbased framework for implementing social CRM. Findings – By adopting a value co-creation approach that recognises the technology-fostered customer empowerment, the social CRM highlights the need to immigrate from relationship management to relationship stewardship. In this vein, social CRM implementation should support and foster dialogue facilitation and customer engagement in co-creating customer experiences. To achieve these, five approaches for implementing social CRM are proposed: collecting, analysing and interpreting customer insight; monitoring and improving the performance of CRM; developing holistic and seamless personalised customer experiences; gamifying CRM and loyalty programmes; and nurturing community relationship management. Research limitations/implications – The five approaches to social CRM implementation are identified and validated based on current industry practices, theoretical arguments and anecdotal evidence of professionals’ perceptions about their outcomes. Future research is required to collect hard evidence showing the business and customer impacts of these approaches. Practical implications – Social CRM immigrates relationship management from a transactional to a customer experience mindset that treats customers as co-creators of value and demands the tourism and hospitality firms to exploit the affordances of information and communication technologies to collect and analyse customer data for better understanding the customer; develop customer touch points that do not only aim to sell but also primarily aim to enhance the customer interactions and experiences; consider and treat the customers and the customer communities as co-creators, brand ambassadors and stewards of relations; and motivate and enable customer participation into value co-creation processes for developing customer experiences and building relationships. Originality/value – Research in social CRM is emerging, but it mainly focusses on defining its scope and identifying the functionality and adoption of social CRM technology. The paper contributes to the literature by proposing five specific approaches and a process framework for implementing social CRM. Various directions for future research are also provided.

Introduction

Customer relationship management (CRM) has become a strategic imperative in tourism and hospitality, as it can address competition, create differentiation and provide enhanced customer value (Sigala, 2005; Sheth, 2017; Debnath et al., 2016). CRM is traditionally seen as a set of philosophies, strategies, systems and technologies that help firms to manage their customers’ transactions and relationships (Greenberg, 2010). Other CRM definitions (Bradshaw and Brash, 2001; Rababah et al., 2010) advocate the importance of CRM in assisting firms to enhance the efficient and effective use of their marketing budgets by allocating marketing expenses to the most profitable customers. Overall, by collecting and integrating customer information for personalising customer transactions, tourism and hospitality firms can exploit CRM for improving their customers’ relationship and satisfaction (Kasim and Minai, 2009; Wongsansukcharoen et al., 2015); identifying and retaining the most profitable customers and improving the profitability of less profitable customers (Wang and Feng, 2012; Wongsansukcharoen et al., 2015; Wu and Lu, 2012); and increasing business performance such as, customer lifetime value, customer satisfaction and retention and business profits (Lin and Su, 2003; Daghfous and Barkhi, 2009; Lo et al., 2010). Hence, a CRM strategy can help firms to maximise the value generated from their customers’ transactions over the customer lifetime duration. By being heavily enabled and supported by technology, CRM should keep up with technological advances and their implications on organisational operations, consumer behaviour and expectations. The CRM scope of technology has progressed from solely providing transactional and automational support to enhancing and transforming the customer experiences. The social media revolution has also empowered the customers to expect and also demand to actively participate, form and even “sell” their own experiences. However, research and practice have failed to provide concrete theoretical underpinnings and practical directions on how technology is transforming CRM.