Product Description

Customer Relationship Management is structured around the author's own 'CRM Value Chain' model, and addresses what it sees as the core issues of CRM:

* Who should companies serve?
* How can they get to know these customers better?
* What value should be offered to these customers

The book embraces both the theoretical background and the practical implementation of CRM strategy. It is also cross-functional - comprising elements of marketing, accounting, human resources, information technology and strategic management - to ensure that it provides a comprehensive and fully developed introductory text which is equally relevant for students and practitioners of CRM.

There is a Tutor Resource pack available to lecturers who adopt this text.

* Integrative structure organized around the author's 'CRM Value Chain' model.
* Theoretically sound and managerially relevant - a useful text from both student and practitioner's perspectives.
* Standardized chapter contents and features for ease of navigation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198601 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 522 pages

Review
"In the second edition of 'Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies', Francis Buttle has written the definitive CRM text book. Highly recommended for those seeking an unbiased and comprehensive understanding of CRM from strategy to technology. Buy it, read it, and refer to it often to stay on track for a successful CRM endeavor!" Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corp. "Francis Buttle's book is a comprehensive, rigorously researched, contemporary overview of CRM that is generously illuminated with many case illustrations. He shows how CRM technologies in support of a well-tuned customer management strategy can deliver outstanding benefits throughout the customer life-cycle." Sampson Lee, President, GCCRM (Greater China CRM). "This lucid and content-packed book reads and informs like a charm. Buttle's refreshing treatment of CRM as a core business strategy is destined to become a classic. Highly recommended!" Fred Wiersema, business strategist, educator and author, The Discipline of Market Leaders. "This book is crisp, practical and stimulating. It combines Professor Buttle's considerable insights with practical examples and provides a step-by-step pragmatic approach to the application of CRM in business. The inclusion of an equally pragmatic understanding of CRM technology is an enhancing feature of the book. All senior management would benefit from reading it, particularly those who realise that profitable customers are the company's greatest asset and require foolproof guidance to retain them. Because of its sound academic basis, this book is equally beneficial for management students. Overall it represents a comprehensive reference/guide to business success." Professor John A Murphy, Manchester Business School, UK. "Absolutely the best exposition of Customer Relationship Management. Can't think of a better guide to increasing your performance and profits. This book belongs on the desk of every company that is serious about CRM. The wealth of information and insight is astonishing." Professor Philip Kotler, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. --Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corp

"In the second edition of 'Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies', Francis Buttle has written the definitive CRM text book. Highly recommended for those seeking an unbiased and comprehensive understanding of CRM from strategy to technology. Buy it, read it, and refer to it often to stay on track for a successful CRM endeavor!"
Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corp.

"Francis Buttle's book is a comprehensive, rigorously researched, contemporary overview of CRM that is generously illuminated with many case illustrations. He shows how CRM technologies in support of a well-tuned customer management strategy can deliver outstanding benefits throughout the customer life-cycle."
Sampson Lee, President, GCCRM (Greater China CRM).

"This lucid and content-packed book reads and informs like a charm. Buttle's refreshing treatment of CRM as a core
business strategy is destined to become a classic. Highly recommended!"
Fred Wiersema, business strategist, educator and author, The Discipline of Market Leaders.

"This book is crisp, practical and stimulating. It combines Professor Buttle's considerable insights with practical examples and provides a step-by-step pragmatic approach to the application of CRM in business. The inclusion of an equally pragmatic understanding of CRM technology is an enhancing feature of the book. All senior management would benefit from reading it, particularly those who realise that profitable customers are the company's greatest asset and require foolproof guidance to retain them. Because of its sound academic basis, this book is equally beneficial for management students. Overall it represents a comprehensive reference/guide to business success."
Professor John A Murphy, Manchester Business School, UK.

"Absolutely the best exposition of Customer Relationship Management. Can't think of a better guide to increasing your performance and profits. This book belongs on the desk of every company that is serious about CRM. The wealth of information and insight is astonishing."
Professor Philip Kotler, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. --Sampson Lee, President, GCCRM (Greater China CRM)

Review
"In the second edition of 'Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies', Francis Buttle has written the definitive CRM text book. Highly recommended for those seeking an unbiased and comprehensive understanding of CRM from strategy to technology. Buy it, read it, and refer to it often to stay on track for a successful CRM endeavor!"
Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corp.

"Francis Buttle's book is a comprehensive, rigorously researched, contemporary overview of CRM that is generously illuminated with many case illustrations. He shows how CRM technologies in support of a well-tuned customer management strategy can deliver outstanding benefits throughout the customer life-cycle."
Sampson Lee, President, GCCRM (Greater China CRM).

"This lucid and content-packed book reads and informs like a charm. Buttle's refreshing treatment of CRM as a core
business strategy is destined to become a classic. Highly recommended!"
Fred Wiersema, business strategist, educator and author, The Discipline of Market Leaders.

"This book is crisp, practical and stimulating. It combines Professor Buttle's considerable insights with practical examples and provides a step-by-step pragmatic approach to the application of CRM in business. The inclusion of an equally pragmatic understanding of CRM technology is an enhancing feature of the book. All senior management would benefit from reading it, particularly those who realise that profitable customers are the company's greatest asset and require foolproof guidance to retain them. Because of its sound academic basis, this book is equally beneficial for management students. Overall it represents a comprehensive reference/guide to business success."
Professor John A Murphy, Manchester Business School, UK.

"Absolutely the best exposition of Customer Relationship Management. Can't think of a better guide to increasing your performance and profits. This book belongs on the desk of every company that is serious about CRM. The wealth of information and insight is astonishing."
Professor Philip Kotler, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA.

About the Author
Francis Buttle, PhD, is founder and principal consultant of Francis Buttle & Associates,a Sydney, Australia-based business that helps organizations become more skilled and successful at customer acquisition, retention and development. Francis has spent most of the last 30 years in various academic roles around the world. He has been a Professor of Customer Relationship Management, Professor of Marketing,Professor of Relationship Marketing, and Professor of Management at a number of leading graduate schools of management, including Manchester Business School (UK), Cranfield School of Management (UK) and Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Australia). He was appointed as the world's first Professor of CRM in 1995, and remains an Adjunct Professor at MGSM.
Francis has authored, co-authored or edited 7 books, and over 100 peer-reviewed academic journal articles or conference papers. In addition, he is a frequent contributor to practitioner magazines, presenter at business conferences, and a serial blogger.
Francis has developed, run or contributed to many management development programs, and has advised or consulted to numerous for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the UK, Australia, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.
Although he quit full-time academic life in 2006, he still supervises doctoral candidates, and conducts customer-related research. Francis lives on Sydney's North Shore, is a qualified but reluctantly retired rugby union referee, enjoys cycling and kayaking, and rides a Suzuki.
Francis has degrees in management science, marketing and communication. His PhD was earned at the University of Massachusetts. He is an elected Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He can be contacted at francis@buttleassociates.com. Find out more at www.buttleassociates.com

Customer Reviews

A sensible technical and conceptual overview but sadly misses the online space!
This is a solid readable reasonably well-balanced account of the CRM concepts, and probably the most recently published textbook on CRM (2009). I think I would give it anything from 3* to almost 5* depending on what was wanted from it.
Sadly it has advanced only a little over where we were at the beginning of the century. It's got almost no inclusion on the online space, websites, social media and Web 2.0, surely a significant opportunity to get ahead of the rest of the market, given that there really doesn't seem to be any really excellent book covering everything today. However you can address that by getting a specialist book on the side. Try something like Chaffey and his partners' book on Internet Marketing There are also few in-depth case studies, although there are plenty of short snippets. Like other CRM books it is weak on the brand, both the perspective of brand building and alignment with the brand, and also fails to consider integration with IMC.
Those are the caveats, and they should be understood in the context that there is no perfect book on CRM. Although it has not advanced much over where we were 6 to 8 years ago, what it does cover it covers reasonably well, and also describes a number of the key models that have been developed and reflects their learning. As the subtitle suggests, it focuses on the ideas and technologies involved in CRM.
It has a sensible if basic section on creating value for customers and covers customer service and the customer life cycle. It also focuses on the profitability of customers, covering segmentation from the perspective of customer portfolio management, which takes more of a financial than attitudes or needs-based approach, an area that could be improved. It does address and mention such interesting subjects (albeit briefly) as activity based costing. Its related description of data mining and analytics is introductory and never attempts to get too technical. While it is not as good as Adrian Payne on service development and process improvement, it does cover these areas in a broad and relatively uncontentious way. It also deals with marketing and service automation and addresses organisational issues such as organisational roles, customer management structures and stakeholder relationships. Naturally it also covers the technology, with chapters on both marketing and customer related databases and the enterprise approach.
The book has a clear readable business oriented style suitable for a manager or student studying the topic and also benefits from one spot colour to improve the appearance of graphics and headings. Figures have been thoughtfully and professionally prepared.
Francis Buttle is an Australian consultant and his particular range of practical experiences is reflected in a sensible approach.

Really good
I bought this book when my boss asked me to look into CRM databases... but I was not sure what it was all about. This book is really clear in its explanations and examples, and it's easy to read. It really helped me to understand the full function of a CRM database, what it should do, when should we need one, why should we need one, what will it do for me and my company and how to make it work for my company. I found the book gave me enough confidence and ideas to actually create my own CRM. That saved my employer a few thousand pounds!

Expanded, updated and improved second edition
Hello! I'm the author of the book, and would like to explain how the second edition has been expanded, updated and enhanced.

The publishers contacted adopters and readers of the first edition and asked them what changes they'd like to see incorporated into the new edition. Thanks to everyone who took part. This resulted in a number of important improvements to this edition.

The book is significantly expanded. At seventeen chapters, the second edition is seven chapters longer than the first edition. There are three new chapters dedicated to operational CRM applications - sales force automation, marketing automation and service automation. The chapters define important terms, identify the main vendors and actors, and set out the benefits CRM users can expect to experience and the functionality that is available.

There is a new chapter entitled `understanding relationships'. If CRM is about developing and maintaining relationships with customers, it is important to have clear understanding of what a relationship looks like, and how, if at all, it can be managed. This chapter defines the term `relationship', examines whether customers want relationships with suppliers and vice versa, identifies attributes of successful relationships and reviews five different schools of thought that have influenced relationship management in a business context.

There is a new chapter on planning and implementing CRM projects. This takes readers through a disciplined 5-stage process designed to promote successful CRM outcomes.

There is a new chapter on `customer experience'. Customer experience has become something of a buzzword in the last few years. This chapter explores the concept of customer experience, and addresses the question of whether CRM can or does enhance customer experience.

Many new case illustrations have been added to every chapter, and all other content has been revised and updated. An added feature of this edition is the inclusion of a large number screenshots from CRM software applications. This is designed to give readers a sense of the CRM user's experience.

A final enhancement to this edition is the provision of an array of enriching online content, targeted at meeting the needs of readers and adopters. Adopters have access to a comprehensive set of PowerPoint materials, case studies, learning exercises, and links to CRM vendors, ASP's and analysts.