Important notice: Please read the syllabus carefully before enrolling and/or contacting the instructors. E-mails that can be answered by reading the syllabus will not receive a response.

For many companies, the growing importance of "customer relationship management" (CRM) entailed a shift from a product-centric firm strategy towards focusing on the individual customer as the most critical unit of marketing decision making. Such customer-centric view sees customers as intangible assets of a firm, which need to be valued and managed carefully. CRM has therefore become a crucial focus for many companies as it promises to be a key determinant of future profitability.

In this course we address the strategic and operational principles that are at the heart of every successful CRM implementation. We will develop an understanding of concepts such as customer centricity, customer lifetime value, customer equity, or customer retention, and discuss how data-rich environments and data science (will) impact marketing practice. CRM strategy implementation in the areas of loyalty programs, services, and complaint management will be examined. The course will expose participants to an integrated view of CRM theory and practice, with case study analyses and corporate experience constituting a major course element.

When discussing marketing metrics relevant for customer valuation, some of the course content will be rigorous but not excessively analytic. Throughout the course we will focus on “real world” practical examples covering a broad range of industries/applications, but also tie them back to relevant academic work.

The aim of this course is to develop an understanding of a customer-centric view of the firm and implications for CRM applications. More specifically, the course will provide students with insights on:

• What are the fundamental differences between product- and customer-centricity?
• What is the idea and the specific managerial value of building and sustaining long term customer relationships?
• How can CRM enhance organizational performance?
• What is the role of measuring and managing customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer profitability, and lifetime value?
• What is the strategic importance of CRM, and how are CRM strategies implemented?

80% attendance is required. In addition, due to the blocked structure of the course, students should attend every session. Presence is monitored by small quizzes in class and included in the grade accordingly.  

The course integrates various teaching methods such as interactive lectures, class discussions, case analyses, and group work. Substantial classroom discussion is encouraged and expected. Attendance and participation in class discussions is critical to the success of the course and will be part of your grading. Classes will begin on time so do not arrive late. Students are required to turn in assignments at their scheduled times.

Course materials:

• To get prepared for in-class case discussions a case study package will be provided.

• Daily student packages including reading assignments, course slides, datasets, case questions for the respective day will be provided via the learn@wu platform in due course. 

Grading will be based on a ranking approach. For each and every component, the best student(s) will be awarded full points and the remaining students will be graded in proportion to their performance in comparison to the best student. Grading will be based on the following components:

• Initial Task
• Case Studies
• Final Project
• In class Quizzes
• Peer Grading and
• Peer Evaluation

Due to the intensive nature of the course, full attendance is highly recommended. Students who do not attend at least 80% of the hours will automatically fail the course. Students who miss large portions of the class, automatically loose points due to not being able to take part in the quizzes.

Students are expected to read all the instructions to the assignments as carefully as possible and to submit the assignments within the indicated deadlines. The instructions provided in the assignment section of LEARN prevail over any other instructions.

Failure to comply with the instructions will result in a deduction of points.

Initial Task (20%)

The students are given an initial task before the course starts (further details will be provided). If the assignment is not submitted at least one week before the start of the course, students will be deregistered. Other students can then move up from the waiting list. 

Case Studies (15% + 15%)

Both case studies should be solved individually. Further details will be provided.

Final project (20%)

The group project will focus on the presentation, analysis, and critical reflection of state of the art examples of contemporary CRM applications in practice.

Peer Grading (5% + 5%)

You act as a "grader" for your colleagues submissions by critically reflecting the quality of their contributions.

For grading your colleagues Case Studies you will be randomly assigned 5 of your colleagues’ assignments  and have to distribute 100 points among them based on the quality of their memos.  (5%)

For grading your colleagues Final Projects you will again have to distribute 100 points among all groups based on the quality of their presentations.  (5%)

Peer Evaluation (5%)

Students will be asked to assess their group-colleagues’ performance by assigning 100 points among all the group members (including themselves) for the activities concerning the final project. The distribution of the points will determine the proportion of the overall-points awarded to the respective group members. This means that the peer evaluation can affect a student’s performance both positively and negatively.
If there is an unequal distribution of the points in a group, the group members will be asked to write an exposé stating their reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the final distribution of the points. If at least one of the members disagrees with the final distribution of the points, all students will be subjected to an individual oral exam which will replace the entire grading on their group performance for that specific task.

Class Quizzes (15%)

Quizzes will be conducted inn class to assess class participation. By not being present, students might miss out onn the quizzes and therefore miss points.

Plagiarism policy

Fraud and plagiarism will be punished by failing the course.

Good analytical skills; some background knowledge in basic concepts of management accounting is of Advantage.

Students should have a basic understanding of at least one analytical tool (Excel, SPSS, R, etc.).

In the interest of transparency and fairness, whenever relevant, answers to questions asked by any student will be shared with the remaining students.