GRA 6417 Customer Relationship Management

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

GRA 6417 Customer Relationship Management

Responsible for the course
Tor W Andreassen

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Customer relationship management (CRM) is about developing a customer centric organization and an effective customer strategy in order to obtain a profitable and valuable customer portfolio. Through better insight in how customer value is created and appreciated, companies learn to improve which customers to attract, how to attract them, retain them, and which customers to develop into more collaborative relationships. The portfolio of customers is managed through differentiated value creation, differentiated service design across multiple contact channels, and through a set of differentiated and targeted customer activities across customer segments. Customer relationship management is also about allocation of resources to the most potential customers, and through monitoring of behavior and learning about customers and segments. Most marketers understand the value of collecting customer data, but also realize the challenges of leveraging this to customer insight and to a more valuable customer portfolio.

Learning outcome
The objective of the course is to provide students with a deeper understanding of how companies can gain competitive advantage and improve financial performance through crafting and implementing better customer strategies.

Skill objectives:
- How to analyze a customer portfolio?
- How to develop an effective segmentation model?
- How to analyze creation of value in different segments?
- How to design a principal approach multichannel customer contact?
- How to analyze and develop an effective customer relationship- and loyalty program?
- How to analyze and develop an effective sales program?
- How to analyze and develop an effective customer acquisition program?
- How to analyze and develop a plan for a customer centric organization?

Knowledge objectives:
- Customer portfolio
- CRM systems (overview)
- Customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Customer segmentation
- Loyalty programs
- Customer service and multichannel design
- Sales organization principles
- Customer centric organization
- CRM metrics
- CRM analytics

Attitude objectives:
- Appreciation of the challenges involved in developing and implementing a customer strategy
- Appreciation of customer privacy

Prerequisites
Introductory Marketing Management

Compulsory reading

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.
Scientific and practical oriented articles will constitute the curriculum for the course. In addition there will be a number cases of the HBS type. A list of compulsory readings will be provided on It's learning or in class.



Recommended reading
Books:
Berry, Michael. J. A., Gordon Linoff. 2000. Mastering data mining : the art and science of customer relationship management. John Wiley
Peppers, Don and Martha Rogers. 2011. Managing customer relationships : a strategic framework. 2nd ed. Wiley
Rust, Roland T., Katherine N. Lemon, Das Narayandas. 2004. Customer equity management. Pearson Education/Prentice Hall


Course outline
The class will be organized around discussing selected topics illustrated by theoretical articles and cases. The students are expected to be well prepared and highly involved in the discussions. Major topics to be covered include:
- Customer strategy and customer portfolio value
- Customer segmentation
- Customer loyalty programs
- Multichannel customer contact design
- Sales and sales programs
- Customer centric organizations

Computer-based tools
It's learning

Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

The class will be organized around discussing selected topics illustrated by theoretical articles and cases.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class



Examination
Your course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:

60% - Case write-ups and class participation (individual or in groups of 2-3)
40% - Two hours written exam

Six cases will be handled during the course. Case write-ups are done individually or in groups of 2-3. Participation in class discussion of cases are evaluated individually.

All parts of the evaluation need to be passed in order to get a grade in the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course.


Examination code(s)
GRA 64174 accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course GRA 6417.

Examination support materials
A bilingual dictionary.
Exam aids at written examinations are explained under exam information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. http://www.bi.edu/studenthandbook/examaids


Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.


Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask