Customer Relationship Management as A Strategic Marketing Issue in Small Businesses

The expression Customer Relationship Management (CRM) became a standard terminology, replacing what was widely perceived to be a misleadingly narrow term, relationship marketing (RM). CRM acknowledged that talents other than those of the marketer were necessary to create and deliver value to customers. CRM’s objective was the development and maintenance of mutually beneficial long-term relationships with strategically significant customers. Today’s businesses compete with multi-product offerings created and delivered by networks, alliances and partnerships of many kinds. Both retaining customers and building relationships with other value-adding allies become critical to corporate performance