Mapping the re‐engagement of CRM with relationship marketing

Purpose – This paper aims to reframe and enhance the relationship marketing literature through advocating an emphasis on process and a renewed commitment to social and informational exchanges. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is conceptual. It takes as its starting‐point the recognition that customers exist in complex dynamic systems in which they enact multiple roles. However, current implementations of customer relationship management (CRM) typically only view customers through a single lens (as customers) that denies firms a holistic view of those with whom they interact. Moreover, CRM systems typically embed and script actions (i.e. call centre options, offers driven by cross‐selling and segmentation) rather than enabling rich communication and facilitating appropriate responses that emerge from that communication. It is argued here that, as a consequence, both parties to a relationship need to negotiate the nature of systems that connect them, because those systems, in part, determine the content of relationship exchanges. Practical implications – Understanding of the central argument will contribute to better organisational‐customer interactions and more informed relationship management techniques. Originality/value – The paper argues for a renewed emphasis on processes and on social/informational exchanges within those relationships. This initiates a process of frame restructuring that will benefit RM.