ABSTRACT
Customer relationship management (CRM) is designed to manage customer relationships and achieve long-term profits and value from the lifetime of the customer. Increasingly, companies are expanding traditional CRM to include electronic CRM (E-CRM). The proliferation of social networking sites, third-party review sites and electronic commerce are changing the landscape of E-CRM in terms of the customer experience. Throughout the customer's experience, competitive advantage is attained through engaging customers in co-production and co-creation. Service companies have shifted the emphasis from customer acquisition to creating customer engagement and participation. The interactive and relational properties of online platforms and social media make them perfectly suited to CRM and its underlying relationship marketing principles. Online reviews are a very clear indicator of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Businesses are now tasked with merging existing CRM systems with online applications such as review sites, blogs and social media to develop new capabilities that foster stronger relationships with customers.
