Abstract

As the world economy becomes globalized, competition has intensified and the differences in products have faded. Consequently, businesses have become fixated on customer relationship management (CRM) as it has become a central orienting point in academia and business environment with organizations increasingly focusing on managing customer relationships as a strategic capability to achieve market leadership and profits. In spite of the commercial significance of the concept, CRM has been demonized by critics as a marketing or managerial fad destined to failure. The purpose of this article is to examine ways to improve the success and effectiveness of CRM through the conceptualization of a framework known as CRM pyramid and to stimulate debate and research on how to improve the success of the concept as its potency to engage customers and improve business performance has not been in doubt.

Key words: Customer relationship management, strategy, capability, customer retention, resources, pyramid.