Editorial
In this issue of Retail Insights we focus on customer relationship management (CRM). The first article by Kracklauer et al. looks at the concept of collaborative customer relationship management (CCRM). This is a new strategic approach in the consumer goods sector which represents a significant advance in the joint effort between supplier and retailer to meet and exceed customer expectations. The article reports some positive results from initial implementation of this concept.
The second piece by Bradshaw and Brash comes as result of some independent research carried out by Ovum. The research which took place in 2000 investigated 114 leading UK businesses – some dot com companies and some "bricks and clicks". The aim being to consider how well those companies are addressing the need to support multiple channels and where improvements can be made. The authors note some disappointing results. For example: only 33 per cent of companies who invited customers to submit enquiries by e-mail or filling in a form on the Web responded to the customer at all. The authors come to some key conclusions for companies, namely: that building CRM in the front office is just a beginning; correct technical infrastructure is a "must" for conducting relationships across multiple media; and companies need a strategy for deciding which customers they are to deal with and also when and where they are to deal with them.
Finally we provide the usual selection of abstracts taken from a range of around 400 of the world's top management publications. The abstracts in this issue are aimed at further adding to the reader's awareness of CRM and related topics.
John FernieHeriot-Watt University
