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Still, although a reorientation toward retention and long-term customer relationships may theoretically diminish traditional marketing problems, there are many hurdles to be faced when applying CRM. Many companies have jumped on the relationship marketing bandwagon in hopes of quick profits, only to conclude that relationships as a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) are merely an illusion.
The Journey: Why Emotion in Relationship Development Matters
The marketing crisis is a symptom of a larger malady that mere relationship marketing dollars cannot fix. In the $40 billion customer relationship management and services market, more than half of all customer relationship programs fail (Robinson, 2000; Fox, 2001). Not only has marketing become financially unaccountable, but many marketers are also relationally, emotionally, and spiritually vacant. What is wrong is that marketers are not being partners in real relationships. Until marketers can consistently develop intrapersonal and interpersonal trustworthy relationships, building meaningful relationships with customers is impossible, no matter what technology is employed.
Marketers are “perverting” relationship marketing (Fournier, Dobscha, & Mick, 1998, p. 42) by not fully taking customer emotional-relational stages into account. Marketing has a bad reputation. The public’s perception of marketing is that marketing is not to be trusted (MIT OpenCourseWare, 2002). The problem with CRM is not a lack of understanding about customer retention benefits; rather, the problem may lie in misunderstanding and disregarding how customer relationships develop and how they hinge on emotions.