Customers today have more choices and more power than ever, making strong customer relationships a competitive necessity. This module defines customer relationship management as a customer-focused strategy, not just a technology, and explores how organizations use customer touch points and data consolidation to build a 360-degree view of each customer. You will examine operational CRM systems, including customer-facing applications such as sales force automation and customer-touching applications such as FAQs, personalization tools, and loyalty programs. You will also explore analytical CRM systems that turn customer data into business intelligence. Finally, you will compare emerging CRM approaches, including on-demand, mobile, open-source, social, and real-time CRM systems, using examples such as Salesforce, SugarCRM, and Southwest Airlines. 💡Tip for Success: Think about a company whose loyalty program or app you use often. Identify the touch points they use to reach you, such as email, an app, a website, or an in-store visit, and consider how that data likely shapes the offers and experiences you receive.

Behind every product a customer receives is a supply chain: a network of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers working together. This module examines the upstream, internal, and downstream components of a supply chain, along with the material, information, and financial flows that connect them. You will compare push and pull production models, explore why the bullwhip effect causes erratic ordering swings across the supply chain, and evaluate solutions such as just-in-time inventory, information sharing, and vendor-managed inventory. You will also see how companies such as Walmart and Procter & Gamble use supply chain coordination to reduce friction and improve performance. The module closes with the technologies that make interorganizational collaboration possible, including electronic data interchange, extranets, and portals. 💡 Tip for Success: Next time you order something online, trace the journey your package takes from supplier to warehouse to your door. Consider which flows, materials, information, and payment, had to work together to get it to you on time.

Summative assessment for the course