Abstract

Customers are known as a brilliant source of knowledge for the companies, because they gain knowledge and expertise while selecting and using products or services. Customer knowledge management is a new stage of relationship management between organizations and the customers. Most of the models in the literature are focused on human resources to set up a framework to exchange knowledge with the customers. In this paper, the applicability of agent-based systems to the customer knowledge management was investigated. As a feasibility study, characteristics of the agents and their role in knowledge management systems were reviewed in advance. Then, the requirements of customer knowledge management systems were described. Finally, using an introductory model, the applicability of the intelligent agents in customer knowledge management systems were shown and discussed.

Key words: Customer knowledge management, agent based knowledge management, customer relationship management, agent mediated customer knowledge management.