New directions in customer research and the issue of ownership: A marketing research viewpoint

Abstract

The growth of customer relationship management (CRM) has been dramatic, yet the CRM opportunity is rarely fully exploited. Reasons for this are described with, in particular, an emphasis on opportunities for marketing researchers to become more involved and help implement CRM effectively. The possibility of marketing researchers becoming marginalised is discussed and the need for marketing researchers to consider the role of principal guardian of all customer research is proposed. The importance of understanding the CRM mind-set is emphasised and the ways in which marketing researchers can contribute to CRM are discussed. These include significant contributions in conceptual and operational definitions, quality fieldwork, model building and holistic customer and employee research.