Stakeholder Perceptions Regarding eCRM: A Franchise Case Study

Introduction In many ways, the Internet has changed the way we conduct our daily activities. Online shopping, social networking, and 'googling' for information are just a few examples of a new door that has been opened through the use of the Internet as the electronic portal to the world. For customers, easier availability of new products, access to more options, and the greatly expanded competitive landscape brought about by the Internet can all work together in a positive manner to provide greater choice, value, and pricing flexibility in many cases. For merchants, this same access to a world of new customers is of great potential benefit, but with it comes a world of new competitors. To survive and prosper in such a competitive environment, many marketers have recognized that, while vast opportunity may exist to attract new customers to their offerings, real value rests in keeping existing customers loyal to a brand. For many, the idea of "get there first and don't give them a reason to switch" is as true today as it was in the 1960s when more sophisticated models of marketing and brand management began to emerge. The idea that the value of existing customers is greater than that of new customers is not new since it is well understood and recognized that the cost of acquiring new customers far exceeds the cost of keeping existing ones (Berry, 1995; Crafton, 2002; Cuthbertson & Bridson, 2006; Gronoos, 1994; Gummesson, 1994; Kennedy, 2006; Li, Browne, & Wetherbe, 2007). Over the past decade or so, the idea of managing customer relationships has been a top priority for marketers worldwide. Customer relationship management (CRM), the idea of fine-tuning the ways in which firms interact with customers, has required energy, focus, and investment in new tools and software to aid in the development of CRM systems. With the advent of the Internet, this idea has been extended into a Web-based business model and relies on e-business technologies to interact with, communicate to, and collect information from customers. This new evolved model is aptly termed electronic customer relationship management (eCRM). While eCRM is considered by many to hold even greater promise for business due to its digital foundation that enables greater data mining potential, it has yet to consistently deliver on its promise of facilitating better understanding of customer behavior (Adamson, Jones, & Tapp, 2005; Bentum & Stone, 2005; Q. Chen & Chen, 2004; Fjermestad & Romano, 2003; Jang, Hu, & Bai, 2006; Li et al., 2007; Lin & Huang, 2007). The very nature of eCRM, with its many stakeholders, helps to illuminate the layers of complexity and their meaning with regard to what is intended by the idea of "informing" (Cohen, 2009). This complexity can be best understood by comparing eCRM to more "routine" informing systems which "tend to be driven by the skills of the designer" (Gill, 2009, p. 743). In contrast, the eCRM system central to this exploratory case study appears to be ever-changing as the interactions and needs of the varying stakeholder groups emerge. For example, "eCRM is too complex a concept to be comprehensively researched and efficiently classified merely by usual procedure and simple criteria" (Kevork & Vrechopoulos, 2009, p. 62). Yet, research in this area rarely considers the views of all stakeholders involved in the phenomenon thereby rendering the complexity of eCRM into a seemingly routine construct. To effectively bridge this research divide requires consideration for all players involved in the phenomenon. It is the intent to inform all players that guides this research. Therefore, we embarked on an exploratory case study focused on a van-based service franchise and motivated by the need to understand the perceptions and attitudes of all key stakeholders regarding the objectives of and motivations for implementing an eCRM program. The results of this study reveal important implications for the informing sciences including the need to balance human and computer interaction, issues related to control, the impact that "electronic" systems may have on marketing relationships, and the importance of balancing the interests and expectations of all stakeholders. …