Educating customer relationship management (CRM) specialists through a competency- based training (e-CBT) model with technology-based learning for business education: Competency indicator development

Abstract

From the perspective of technology-based education, the purpose of this study was to adopt the procedures of the competency-based training (e-CBT) model, and to plan and design the necessary competency indicators for customer relationship management (CRM) techniques for newly developed industries. In addition, a course framework and schema were developed, and four teaching strategies for the CRM course were proposed. Using the e-CBT model’s five analytical steps as their guidelines, the authors adopted a literature review and in-depth interviews to collect information from documents and experts. The Fuzzy-Delphi technique was used to establish competency indicators for CRM specialists and, through this method, a consensus about the competency indicators for CRM specialists was established in five dimensions: cognition of CRM, effectiveness of CRM, skills for interactive CRM, skills for operational CRM and skills for analytic CRM. Based on these five dimensions, this study developed 36 professional competency indicators and a course framework for a customer interactive system, customer relationship planning, and customer information management, as well as the establishment of course schema. These 36 items can be utilized for the future development of e-learning modules for lecturing, the establishment of virtual learning platforms and modules for assessments of online practice, and become critical reference materials in terms of the design and practice of the issuing system for CRM certificates. Key words: Customer relationship management (CRM), competency indicator, e-learning, technology-based learning/teaching, competency-based training (e-CBT) model.