Managing Customer Relationships through Mobile Medium - Underlying Issues and Opportunities

Although customer relationship management (CRM) is currently gaining widespread popularity in several disciplines and industries, mobile medium as an element of CRM is rarely taken into consideration. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to guarantee a coherent discussion about phenomenon, a preliminary conceptualization of mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) is presented. Second, the authors illustrate the underlying issues of the initiation of mCRM. A single case study method is used for the empirical component of the study. In more detail, a major retailer that implemented mCRM and use mobile medium to promote CRM activities is investigated. The main results of the study indicate that while there are a lot of uncertainties related to adopting mCRM, the mobile medium can be an effective complement to traditional CRM. The paper finally presents contributions, limitations and avenues for further research of this emerging topic.