Managing Customer Relationships

Dr. Maraj Rahman Sofi is Assistant Professor in the School of Business Studies, IUST, India. His research areas include customer relationship management and services marketing. Dr. Irfan Bashir is Assistant Professor in the School of Business Studies, IUST, India. His research interests include customer relations, consumer behavior.

Managing customer relations is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining, and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer. It involves the integration of marketing, sales, customer service, and the supply-chain functions of the organization to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering customer value. Customer relationship Management (CRM) appears to be a simple and straightforward concept, at present there are many different conceptual understanding of CRM. The understanding range from IT driven programs designed to optimize customer contact to comprehensive approaches for the establishment and design of long-term relationships. The effort to establish a meaningful relationship with the customer is characteristic of this last understanding. CRM is a holistic process of acquiring, retaining and growing customers. It includes all in-line and off-line relationship management.