Title: Customer relationship management: advances, dark sides, exploitation and unfairness

Authors: Bang Nguyen; Dilip S. Mutum

Addresses: Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley Campus, Oxford, OX33 1HX, UK ' Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Rd, Coventry, West Midlands CV4 7AJ, UK

Abstract: As CRM schemes are getting increasingly sophisticated at personalising offers, there are both great benefits, but at the same time, also disadvantages that firms must consider. In this paper, CRM research is extensively reviewed with a particular focus on the advancements and their inherent dark sides. The danger of implementing CRM in a way that leads customers to believe that they are worse off requires more research. The risks of depleting customer trust are discussed and pose a significant threat to CRM. This is evident when customers perceive themselves as being exploited by firm's CRM schemes if it is overly used and misused. Thus, advances in CRM must consider these issues of fairness and trust. Eight propositions are made about CRM's, advances, dark sides, exploitation and unfairness.

Keywords: customer relationship management; CRM advances; dark side; pitfalls; exploitation; fairness; customer trust; personalisation; unfairness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2012.046467

International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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