CRM and TQM

It is worth considering in this section another contemporary organizational management
discipline that has a strong connection with and is similar to CRM, that is, Total Quality
Management. TQM is a set of management techniques that became popular in the
1980’s The basic principles provide significant contribution to many CRM fundamental concepts.
The four essential dimensions that comprise the practices and techniques of TQM) are:

1. Establish a customer focus – customer satisfaction behaviours and attitudes must be
inculcated into all areas of the organization.

2. Implement continuous improvement practices – procedures and processes must be in
place to allow and encourage continuous self-assessment and adjustment.


3. Nurture employee fulfillment – there is well established proof that employee
performance is directly correlated to job satisfaction.
4. Treat the organization as a total system – focus on processes and relationships, not
functions, both internally and externally.
All of these TQM dimensions are also essential to CRM. Whilst both TQM and CRM are
management led, the ultimate success of each depends entirely on the involvement of
22
people and, hence, can be identified as cultural issues. Each emphasizes the role of
continual improvement as a method and measure of progression. In the author’s opinion
CRM is not an alternative to TQM; customers are looking for cost reductions and
customer service, but also looking for quality, and so both approaches are necessary.
Both management concepts focus their efforts on recognizing customers and listening to
their needs. According to Copulsky and Wolf (1990), relationship marketing (which is
the same concept as CRM) is a broad approach to customer care. To gain a strategic
advantage, it emphasizes on building a long term, repeat-purchase relationship with
customers along a group of related products and services. To do this, a database of
current and potential customers, with all the data about each customer, has to be
provided. For this to happen there is a need for consistent quality, otherwise loyalty will
be weakened and buying behaviour will change (Clark et al., 1994). This strengthens the
author’s opinion about the strong relationship between TQM and CRM and that both
have the same goals; it is important to implement both at the same time for a business to
gain the benefits of the organizational change initiative. It does not matter whether one
calls it TQM or CRM; the most important of all is implementing the management rules
and principles in the correct manner to achieve the desired results.