‘CRM…R.I.P.’ Workshop

Academy of Marketing’s Special Interest Group (SIG) in Customer Relationship Management and Services Marketing

Teddington, October 2013

The abundance of digitally-sourced data and the development of ever more sophisticated software allows organisations to monitor customer behaviours at increasing levels of granularity. It is, thus, pertinent to ask whether there is a future for Customer Relationship Management and, if yes, what shape it might take.

The Academy of Marketing’s Special Interest Group (SIG) in Customer Relationship Management and Services Marketing has organised a workshop bringing together experts from the industry and academia to discuss the role of Customer Relationship Management in an increasingly digitalised commercial environment. The event focuses on cutting edge applications of customer insight technology and practice, and will instigate critical discussions of the impact of these developments for the conceptualisation and management of customer relationships. This initiative will form the basis for further research efforts and networking activities, within SIG members and beyond.

Link:
http://www.academyofmarketing.org/services-crm-sig/

Organiser:
Dr Ana Canhoto, Oxford Brookes University.

Community determined group titles:
RED: The Bigger Picture
YELLOW: The Subconscious and Emotional Side of Marketing
BLUE: Back to Basics Business Strategy
PURPLE: Understanding the Importance of Context
GREEN: Talent Demand Outstrips Supply
ORANGE: Collaboration

Meeting Groups

The research groups, as determined by the attendees' sorting

Group Colour	Group Members	Description
Red	Big data and data layering	What do the panel see as the issues around data layering and the impact on decision making when using third party data?
	Database integration	What are the ethical and societal challenges of integrating ever more social data into marketing practices?
	Making CRM data visually appealing	How can Big data visualisation be made practically useful for CRM use
	Combining Structured & unstructured data	How to make true sense of ‘big data’ from a marketing CRM perspective
	Relationship vs. Contextual Data	To what extent does modern CRM depend upon knowing the history of the customer (relationship data), as opposed to the current location, needs and device of the customer (contextual data)?
Blue	Newer generation CRM tools	Are there CRM or newer generation tools economically available to a business of our size?
	CRM Strategies and Supporting Tools	Consumer data plays a significant role in consumer relationship management; I am interested in the strategies that organisations adopt for establishing effective customer services. I am also interested in the types of analytic tools (CRM applications, ...
	Influencing factors on CRM tools	What other factors might influence or moderate the importance of the CRM tool, both in the customers' and organisational perspectives?
	Automated real-time personalisation and CRM	Can a correlation be made between website automated real-time personalisation and an improvement in customer relationship management?
	CRM Performance Metrics	The latest metrics that measure the success of CRM performance in the marketplace. Profitability, Market share, Consumer acquisition costs, Conversion rates, Retention rates, Loyalty measures... anything else?
Green	Talent demand outstrips supply	How do we keep pace with demand and meet business needs in light of the widely reported issues with scale, quality, experience and mature resources and the exponential demand for analytics to underpin a consistent omni channel dialogue?
Orange	Collaboration	In what ways will collaboration or co-creation through social media shift marketing practices?
Purple	Non-commercial applications of CRM	How are CRM principles / systems / applications used in the non-commercial context - e.g., governments or charities?
	If CRM is dead	If CRM in its current guise is dead what form will it take in its re-incarnation and how should businesses adapt?
	CRM vs. Marketing strategy	At what point does ‘CRM’ strategy become indistinguishable from ‘marketing’ strategy?
	Cultural influence on CRM	How does national culture influence the focus (organisation) and acceptance (Customer) of CRM?
	Customer journey planning	How should we present the difference between mapping customer lifecycles in order to serve marketing goals and mapping customer lifecycles in order to represent the customer’s life?
	Relationships are dead, dialogue is king	What is the appropriate strategy and execution model to cope with a consistent Customer dialogue that is not driven by a relationship but a chosen interaction at any location and point in time?
Yellow	Continuous Email and Buyer Fatigue	Whilst we have reasonable web sites, SEO and PPC and use email campaigns regularly, is there buyer fatigue at continuous email solicitation and, if so, how is it best overcome?
	Consequences of CRM for excluded customers	Is there a self-fulfilling effect in CRM whereby customers that are deemed to be less valuable by firms, are given less attention or rewards and, therefore, reduce their spending?
	Accounting for Subconscious Buying Decisions	Neuroscience: Research suggests that 80% of a buying decision is done subconsciously. How do marketers ensure that they are employing methods to take this into account and not only focusing on transactional data captured in CRM systems?
	Has social media had its day?	Have social media had their day, in terms of importance in CRM?

Meeting Pictures

Photos of the attendees and breakout groups