Organizing a Framework for Customer Value Management in Online Media Relationships

Abstract

The study aims at building a basis for customer value management (CRM) for online news channels and encourages managerial focus on customer relationship management to build a long-term vision rather than short-run profits of customer relationships. Today managers wish to consider also non-monetary social rewards for co-creating value and to enhance customer relationships (Vargo & Lusch, 2010). Online relationships have become multi-faceted, and customers create value for the company in online transactions but also in many other ways, which also need consideration in order to understand the full potential of an online customer. Based on academic literature and prior research on CRM, the study deepens understanding of the value creation of online customer relationships and suggests monetary, social as well as visitor value to be gained for the company. The article takes a stand on the wide availability of customer data, which enables companies to have a truly holistic view of customer relationships, including new relational and economic aspects of customer value. Furthermore, the article considers the availability of monetary and relational data on customer relationships as a major asset for the development of customer value management in online environments. The managerial contribution of the paper is in building a holistic view of customer relationship value in the online context, recognising the relational value components as one of the key aspects of online relationship, and in presenting nine manageable value generating components.