Importance Of Consumer Relationship Management For Holiday Inn Growth Strategy

3.2 Importance of consumer relationship management (CRM) for Holiday inn growth strategy

Payne and Frow (2005 :168) defines customer relationship management(CRM) as strategic approach concerned with creating improved shareholder value through the development of appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments. According to Agrawal (2003 :109) CRM can be defined as a concept that keeps tracking customers, once attracted, retains them in the business and makes profit from their growth. Iriana and Buttle (2006) has the following main reasons most organisations embark on CRM practices:

 Some companies can boost profits by almost 100% by retaining just 5% more of their customers.

 It typically costs 5-10 times more to acquire

It is argued by some researchers that CRM can be seen as the organizational implementation of a relationship management philosophy (Ryals and Knox, 2001, Ryals and Payne, 2001). Through delivering more responsive and customized services to customers, CRM increases customer satisfaction and this, in turn, improves customer loyalty. The importance of relationship management is increasingly being recognized. Kotler (1992) wrote that companies must move from short-term transaction-oriented goals to long-term relationship-building

Through delivering more responsive and customized services to customers, CRM increases customer satisfaction and this, in turn, improves customer loyalty. Ndubisi (2003) argued that the only real sustainable business growth strategy is through autoplastic symbiotic relationship with customers, which enables a business to understand their needs more clearly and to create and deliver superior