QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF TAM
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technology completely changed the scope and potential of marketing and customer engagement,
and Agrawal (2004) emphasizes that CRM was the fallout of this particular era. CRM reduces
the cost to acquire customers, cost to sell, cost to serve, and the time to serve; simultaneously,
CRM enhances customer satisfaction, return on relationships, competitive advantage, number of
consumers and retention rates, and ultimately revenue.
Ngai (2005) examined CRM from a historical perspective and searched a range of online
databases to gain a comprehensive listing of categories related to CRM. Ngai (2005) found that
in the 600 articles identified and reviewed, CRM fell into five broad categories: general
marketing, sales, service, support, and IT. Additionally, there were 34 subcategories, and the
most popular areas covered included CRM management, planning and strategy, concept,
software, tools, and systems, knowledge management, and e-commerce (Ngai, 2005). Ngai
(2005) highlights that interest in CRM began to grow in the 1990s and that although CRM has
become widely recognized as an important business approach, there is no universally accepted
definition.
Stone et al. (1996) explored the use of information technology in managing customer
relationships in the 1990s within the context of relationship marketing. The items analyzed
included customer contacts with company staff, outbound contact management, physical service
environment, brand image, and transactions (Stone et al., 1996). The recommendations from this
research provided some interesting insights into the future of CRM technology and stated that
companies considering stronger relationship marketing approaches need to develop an integrated
CRM position, possibly through the deployment of IT solutions. The recommendations of this
article by Stone et al. (1996) suggest that branding needs to be controlled, customer focus needs
to be maintained, material in digital form needs to be used cost-effectively, and customers can be
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