Developing business-to-business customer relationship management : case company X

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how to develop business-to-business customer relationship management, with specific focus on strategic and collaborative perspectives. By identifying the best practices, the goal is to gain valuable insights and concrete development ideas for the commissioning company. In addition to an extensive literature review, semi-structured interviews were conducted throughout the case company to establish a solid basis of the current customer relationship management approaches within the case company, and the findings were reflected against literature findings to present development suggestions.

CRM brings many benefits when implemented properly, however it also calls for significant commitment and efforts from the committed company. Major threats against success of CRM are absence of employee commitment, silo-based organizational myopia limiting information sharing and lack of clear customer-centric processes. By overcoming these challenges and shifting the focus to supporting the customer value creation by acting as a trustable, it is possible to achieve long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.