An analysis of customer centricity in customer relationship management (CRM) systems

A growing number of organisations have implemented or are considering implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies for the purpose of becoming more customer focussed. Despite this trend, there remains a relative dearth of academic literature relating to examining the realities of achieving such organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to offer a modest contribution to this area by analysing some of the core concepts of CRM, particularly in respect of customer centricity and contrasting this with case study research of customer-facing systems in two diverse organisations based in the United Kingdom. The first organisation (Logistics Limited) is a small to medium sized manufacturing company that believes that it is failing to compete because of a loss of customer focus. It is widely perceived that Retail Limited is a market leading retailer because of its ability to consistently meet customer needs. This paper reveals that despite their diverse legacies, both organisations are struggling to implement, to varying degrees, some of the principles of customer centricity within their CRM systems