Abstract This study examines communication through the mobile medium in customer relationship management (hereafter mCRM). Although the academic research on mCRM is gradually evolving, there is still a lack of empirical research on this topical issue. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to begin to fill this gap by enhancing the theoretical and practical understanding of mCRM. The empirical part of the study is conducted as a qualitative case study. Seven Finnish companies utilizing the mobile medium as a communication channel in CRM were selected for the empirical analysis. Interviews, observations and personal experiences gained within those companies form the main sources of data. The main theoretical contributions of the present study to existing academic literature are as follows. First, the study proposes the conceptualization of the focal phenomenon of the study, mCRM, and further elicits the salient characteristics of it. Second, following the conceptualization, the study focuses on communication as the core of the interaction between the company and the customer via the mobile medium. Accordingly, the study sheds light on the key elements of the communication process within mCRM and its various phases. Third, the study founds a theoretical framework for mCRM; identifying the customer relationship management, mobile commerce and communication literature streams that define mCRM theoretically. Fourth, the study elaborates on the specific role of the mobile medium as a channel within CRM and highlights the ways in which it differs from all other channels within the multichannel CRM environment. Although mCRM communication has an inherent potential to benefit both company and customer, it has been utilized quite cautiously to date. This is rather surprising given that, compared to other channels, the mobile medium has an exceptional ability to reach people. In addition, greater utilization of the mobile medium could save time and money. This is because many face-to-face encounters could easily be replaced by communication through the mobile medium. The study offers guidelines on aspects ranging from the initiation of mCRM to actual communication through mCRM. Hopefully, the findings of this study will encourage managers, regardless of industry, to consider whether their company could provide added-value of any kind through the use of the mobile medium to benefit their customer relationships.

Titel: Den mobila bankkunden - En kvalitativ studie om kundrelationer och värdeskapande inom den svenska banksektorn.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur svenska storbanker arbetar med kundrelationer. Detta för att vi vill få kunskap om hur relationer har förändrats i och med digitalisering inom banksektorn samt för att kunna förstå hur banken måste anpassa sig och skapa värde för dagens mobila kund.  Forskningsfrågor: Hur upprätthåller banker relationen till den mobila kunden? Hur arbetar banker med att skapa värde för den mobila kunden?  Metod: En induktiv ansats har tillämpats i denna studie och genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer har empiri samlats in. Ett hermeneutiskt synsätt har legat till grund för uppsatsen, för att vi vill förstå samt tolka hur banker upprätthåller kundrelationer och skapa värde för sina kunder.  Slutsats: Vi fann i vår studie att oavsett hur samhället påverkas av digitaliseringen är det allra viktigaste för bankerna att ha kunden i fokus. Kunden är en medverkande aktör i tjänsten och det centrala är kundens nöjdhet samt bekvämlighet i tjänsten. Kundens värde skapas genom att banken bidrar med trygghet, tillit, omtanke, kommunikation och utveckling. / Title:The mobile bank customer - A qualitative study about customer relations and value creation in the Swedish banking sector.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships between large commercial banks and their customers in Sweden. This will allow us to examine the changes that have occurred as a result of the digitalization of commercial banking. In addition, it will give an insight into how banks can adapt and be of value for today’s increasingly mobile customer.  Research questions: How do commercial banks maintain relations with their increasingly mobile customers? How do banks try to make value for their mobile customers?  Method:An inductive approach has been applied in this study, and through qualitative semi structured interviews data has been gathered. A hermeneutical approach has given rise to the study, since we want to understand and depict how banks maintain customer relations and create value for their customers. Conclusion: No matter how society is affected by digitalization, we found that it is very important for the banks to focus on the customer. The customer is a participant in the service and the central focus is the customer's satisfaction and convenience in the service. The customer's value is created by the bank contributing with security, trust, consideration, communication and development.

Master of Technology Marketing Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2013 / The advent of IT technology in particular, mobile technology has forced most of the private sector to re-evaluate how they interact and communicate with their intermediaries. Since the early 1990s most businesses have put the intermediary at the centre of their business by means of business strategies like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. However, the speed at which technology is evolving is forcing businesses to evaluate new and alternative means of managing intermediary relationships, as intermediaries now drive the economy, not businesses. The very essence of a good CRM programme is its reliance on an IT system which is advanced enough to analyse the captured intermediary data, transform that data into usable knowledge, which is then stored in a centralised, crossfunctional database or data warehouse. Most businesses agree that the goal of CRM solutions is to maximise business profits by maximising the value of interaction with intermediaries. Successful CRM businesses have strong, clearly defined business strategies that focus on the intermediary and generate a process-orientated view of the organisation. CRM functionality therefore creates a single view of the intermediary and the business as well as support to the Marketing, Sales, Order, Production and Service processes. This dissertation investigated the CRM functionality within the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) wholesale and retail liquor sector of the City of Cape Town, paying particular attention to the three channels that the liquor industry operate in. These three channels are segmented as the formal Off-premise consumption, formal On-premise consumption and the Informal Main market. The formal Off-premise consumption channel consist of the mainstream convenience and self-service liquor retailers where stock is purchased and consumed at another location by the end user. The formal On-premise consumption channel consists of venues where patrons purchase and consume liquor on the spot. The informal Main market, which is dominated by shebeens and taverns, is a combination of the Off- and On-premise consumption channels where bottle purchases and consumption occur on site together. This dissertation investigates one primary and four secondary questions within these channels. The primary question will establish whether a mobile CRM programme can be used as a marketing instrument to create a competitive advantage within the B2B licensed liquor industry of South Africa. The secondary questions establish whether intermediaries are willing to adopt CRM technology, what barriers exist, what the benefits are for both intermediary and company and whether there will be a reduction in communication costs for both parties. The South African government regulates the South African liquor industry in that only licensed outlets may trade in liquor. Within the Western Cape region, there are approximately 4,000 licensed outlets of which approximately 2,000 licences (data obtained from a leading liquor wholesalers company database) fall within the boundaries of Cape Town. A leading liquor wholesaler has legal contracts with each one of these accounts, providing a defined database from which primary research was conducted. Primary researches, in the form of quantitative interviews with a random sample of 150 intermediaries, across the three identified channels were conducted for this study. Questionnaires were used to establish how a competitive B2B mobile CRM programme can be implemented, while possible barriers and facilitators to mobile CRM were also considered. The findings produced two results: one result was expected but the second result was not expected by the researcher. The first results were that 57.5% of respondents, across all business channels, indicated their willingness to receiving a mCRM programme on their mobile devices. The unexpected finding was that 57.3% of respondents across all business channels had no idea or did not know what a CRM programme was. From these findings several recommendations are discussed namely: the implementation of a six month tactical marketing campaign which would expose intermediaries to the concepts and ideas of a CRM programme; the establishment of a comprehensively updated intermediary database; welltrained field sales staff who would support the CRM programme once implemented; a simple, easy to use and navigate mCRM programme to begin with. This programme would have to have the ability and capability to progress in the future as intermediaries become more familiar with the system; and a complete company philosophy, with a clear, holistic and coherent business strategy, that would embrace the mCRM concept to drive future growth opportunities. Key Words: business-to-business; customer relationship management; electronic customer relationship management; Information Technology and mobile customer relationship management.