Invited Commentary—Technology Innovation and Implications for Customer Relationship Management

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Existing research on services and relationship treats customer service as a major operating variable, and focuses on measuring the resulting customer satisfaction, retention, duration, repeat purchases, word-ofmouth (e.g., Boulding et al. 1993). The recent article by Rust and Chung (2006) gives an excellent review of existing marketing models of service and customer relationship management (CRM). The rapid advances in information and communication technology provide greater opportunities for today's firms to establish, nurture, and sustain longterm relationships with their customers than ever before. The ultimate goal is to transform these relationships into greater profitability by reducing customer acquisition costs, increasing repeat purchases, and charging higher prices (Winer 2001). First, CRM is no longer the privilege of the service sector. Realizing the increasing importance of customer orientation, firms of all kinds of industries, ranging from manufacturing to information, are exploring serviceled growth as a promising means of differentiation (Sawhney et al. 2004). Second, service is no longer defined as a stand-alone marketing decision aimed at increasing customer satisfaction. Contemporary practice of CRM has been integrated into every step of the marketing process handling product inquiry, telemarketing, advertising, sales, transaction, service, and survey. Third, current CRM has shifted from static relationship to dynamic learning relationship, from mass-marketing to customer-centric marketing, and from reactive service to proactive relationship building. The challenge faced by today's CRM practice is: How to learn about individual customers and act on