Architecture for Customer Relationship Management Approaches in Financial Services

The majority of financial services companies in Germany and Switzerland have, with varying objectives and success, conducted Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementation projects. This paper presents a framework for the analysis of CRM approaches in financial services companies. Building on previous research and using comprehensive literature research, the authors develop a CRM reference architecture that focuses on the process and system level for the description and classification of CRM approaches in companies. Moreover, the authors analyze three CRM case studies in Swiss and German financial services companies and derive different types of CRM approaches in the financial services industry: Customer Satisfaction Management, Customer Contact Management, and Customer Profitability Management.