eCRM Marketing Intelligence in a Manufacturing Environment

This chapter examines the issue of electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) in a manufacturing context. ECRM has been described as the fusion of a process, a strategy, and technology to blend sales, marketing, and service information to identify, attract, and build partnerships with customers (Bettis-Outland & Johnston, 2003; Jaworski & Jocz, 2002). Although some customers still pay a premium for face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction in today’s hightech world, through external (e.g., advertising) and internal (e.g., word-of-mouth) influence, the diffusion of the use of eCRM to build and sustain customer loyalty as a firm’s strategy is on the rise. Manufacturers use the knowledge of their customers’ needs and preferences to manage profitable customer interactions. This increased use of eCRM as a new manifestation (technological consolidation) of firmly established customer relationship management techniques has been shown to improve customer relationships and enhance customizatio