‘The practice of identifying , attracting and retaining the most valuable customer to generate profitable growth. It is the process by which companies manage relationships with their existing customers and prospects’.
Stone and Woodcock (2001) highlight the way in which modern technology lies at the heart of much of Customer Relationship Management which they define as
‘A term for methodologies and e-commerce capabilities used by companies to manage customer relationships’.
What other descriptions of Customer Relationship Management have in common is explicit or implicit implication of recognizing the significance of all customer contact points in that these are the bases upon which customers experience the organization and develop their relationships. The Hewson Consulting Group (2000) emphasizes that Customer Relationship Management embraces all sale partners up and down the supply chain and all channels and media from the internet to field sales. The Gartner Group (2000) highlight the importance and relevance of everyone in the business working at the customer interface. For these reasons , another alternative term use in place of Customer Relationship Management by some is that of customer contact management , which we define in such a way as to differentiate it from image and brand management which involves non-personal marketing communications such as television advertising (see later). What are customer/audience relationship management and customer contact management.