2.2 Customer relationship management effectiveness
It is strongly argued that measuring the effectiveness of relational efforts is imperative
for determining future financial performance; however, metrics for assessing CRME
are inadequate. For the purpose of this research, we defined CRM as:
[...] a set of customer-oriented activities supported by organizational strategy and
technology, and is designed to improve customer interaction in order to build customer
loyalty and increase profits over time.
This definition is consistent with the conceptualization of CRM from the customer
perspective. Thus, measuring the effectiveness of customer relationship will, in turn,
“measure the relational efforts or activities that impact customer and business
performance variables”. Furthermore, operationalizing and measuring customer
relationship management and linking it with business performance variables will
provide a complete picture of CRME. Despite its practical relevance, only few studies
have investigated and measured CRME.
Chen et al. (2009) proposed a metric system for measuring CRME f