KM as a Facilitator for CRM in a US Print Company

Abstract

To survive in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive global marketplace it is necessary for organisations to have access to accurate and timely information. The focus of this paper is to present Knowledge Management (KM) as an enabler for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which in turn facilitates customer service excellence. The paper considers a large US print company as a case example of how customer relationship management has successfully been applied with a positive impact on customer service excellence. Understanding CRM to enhance growth and profitability is not only a priority for organisations, but a critical area for academic research. This paper presents empirical data from CRM implementation, which has been attributed to the companys’ success, especially within the customer service department. Adopting KM principles to successfully build and develop core business practices, enhanced customer knowledge is used to deliver a superior service and product range to their customer base. Preliminary findings reveal that at the centre of the business success is the strong focus on their customer. The company identifies how strategically significant each customer is and focuses on knowledge about, for and from customers. Customer data is stored in IT‑based systems and extracted and transformed into customer knowledge (as phase one of the CRM approach). Combining clean and focused data with human expertise (phase 2) has led to good KM practice. Lessons learnt from Company A highlight the never‑ending focus on customers and the importance of having a strategic and operational business focus for CRM implementations.