Michael Rodriguez, assistant professor of marketing, and Haya Ajjan, assistant professor of management information systems, recently presented at the Academy of Marketing Science’s annual conference.
Rodriguez and Ajjan presented their paper, “CRM/Social Media Technology: Impact on Customer Orientation Process and Organizational Sales Performance,” which was coauthored by Robert Peterson of Northern Illinois University.
The conference, held May 15-18 in Monteray Bay, Calif., featured refereed paper sessions, research-in-progress sessions, panels, workshops and other special invited sessions.
The importance of technology in managing relationships with customers has grown significantly, especially with the advent of innovations such as cloud computing and web-based technology. One of the more popular topics in both academic research and business discussions has been the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology to increase business and sales productivity through the ongoing development of relationships with buyers. A new phenomenon in understanding buyers’ needs and reaching new customers is social media. Organizations are capturing data from tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs, and attempting to integrate this information into their sales process. In order to extract value from technology, organizations need to build a framework and processes to deliver value to the customer.
The purpose of this research study is to ascertain how customer-oriented technology, CRM and social media, might impact sales performance. In this exploratory paper, we attempt to understand the impact of technology on performance through the use of customer-oriented processes. Customer orientation refers to the extent an organization focuses its efforts in understanding and satisfying its customers’ needs for quality and timeliness and building long-term relationships.