Customer Relationship Management & Satisfaction at Amazon.com

This report investigates the role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in maximizing customer satisfaction, using Amazon.com as a case study. It explores how CRM strategies, including data collection, personalized recommendations, and efficient customer service, contribute to customer loyalty and business growth. The research employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, guided by an interpretivism philosophy. It examines Amazon's CRM practices, such as its personalized recommendation system and customer data management, highlighting their impact on customer satisfaction and retention. The report concludes that effective CRM implementation is crucial for success in the e-commerce industry, as demonstrated by Amazon's long-standing customer relationships and market leadership. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and research materials for students.

Running Head: Amazon 1
Business Research Methodology
The role of Customer Relationship management in maximizing the customer
satisfaction: The case of Amazon.com

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Abstract
The major confront the management has to handle in today’s globalized world is to serve and
uphold good bonding with the king- the customer. The customers were taken for granted in past
years because they were not so much demanding nor had any optional way of supply. Radical
transformation has taken place in today’s world because the dynamic business environment is
featured by increasing in competition, high customer choice and economic liberalization. The
good relations with customers is considered as the essence of the successful business and the
major objective of CRM is to gather the data regarding every contact a company has with
consumer through entire channels and store it in the customer relationship management system
to help the company to understand the action of the customer. The case study of Amazon has
been taken in this research to evaluate the importance of CRM in e-commerce industry. The
research methodology has been considered to demonstrate the way of collecting the data
regarding the research topic.

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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Research question and research objectives......................................................................................5
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Methods...........................................................................................................................................8
Research philosophies..............................................................................................................8
Research approaches................................................................................................................8
Research strategies...................................................................................................................8
Choices.....................................................................................................................................9
Data collection.............................................................................................................................9
Data analysis................................................................................................................................9
Ethical consideration....................................................................................................................9
Validity and reliability issues.......................................................................................................9
Resource requirements.................................................................................................................9
Time plan.........................................................................................................................................9
Gantt chart..................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Research Proposal Title: the role of Customer Relationship management in maximizing the
customer satisfaction: the case of Amazon.com
Introduction
Customer satisfaction is essential element in the business to increase the revenues of the
company that is why it is vital for the customer relationship management of the organization to
maximize it for attaining the goals of the company. It is considered as the strategy which is taken
in use to learn more regarding the needs of the customers so as to create a strong bonding with
them (Han and Ryu, 2009). There is software of CRM that facilitates the organization to create a
database regarding its customer that all stakeholders such as customer service provider,
salespeople and management can assess the information to find out the needs of the customer
with product and offering (Battor and Battor, 2010). The entire concept of customer relationship
management in satisfying the customers of Amazon will be elaborated under this research with
taking help of journals articles, books and online sources to make relevant and authentic
arguments and discussion. Research methodology will be described with showing different
approaches, collection method, data analysis and research design, along with that, action plan
will be made to define each activity in a systematic manner so that research can be implemented
in more significant way.

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Research question and research objectives
The research questions are emphasized below to show the importance of the research:
 What is the role of customer relationship management in satisfying the customer of
Amazon?
 How can customer relationship management reduce the conflicts situation within the
organization?
 Why is it essential to make the customer satisfied in e-commerce industry?
Research objectives
 To analyze the role of customer relationship management in satisfying the customers of
Amazon.
 To evaluate the importance of customer satisfaction in increasing the growth of the
company.

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Literature review
According to Purnama, (2015), customer relationship management is inclusive approach to build,
sustain and improve the relationship with customers. The profitable customer of the company
can be retained with the help of customer relationship management because it is the process of
adapting customers’ behavior over time and learning from each interface and change to
strengthen ties with them. it has been stated by Verhoef, Reinartz, and Krafft, (2010), that having
good understanding of the customer relationship management can be deemed as an activity that
includes the whole human resources to preserve existing customers, along with that, it is the
strategy to develop and sustain relationships with customers and it can be found as an attempt to
decide the needs of the customers. It has been analyzed that the role of technology has significant
role in customer relationship management, initially, it is creating a database of customers
arraying from the operating system up to the transaction. After that, to evaluate that the
consumer is efficient, what things would be preferred by them, how often. Third, execute the
activities of marketing, customer service, and sales by integrating various channels of
communication (Linoff and Berry, 2011).
According to Heller and Parasnis, (2011), the loyalty of customer has a noteworthy function in a
company, the longer the company maintain the loyal customers, the greater the income
developed. It is considered as the major reason for a company to retain the customers. It has been
found they when companies spend less on attaining the new customers, the company can also
invest its money in improving the products and services of the company. It would be helpful in
facilitating customers to be more loyal. The execution of the customer relationship management
in the business can change the entire process of the business that has been placed for a long time.

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The customer can be satisfied with the products and services of the company due to the effective
implementation of CRM. Satisfied customers are deemed as profitable to an organization not
only due to they are likely to make repeat purchases but also they initiate to promote the
organization by using word of mouth. Hence, it is apparent the CRM has the potential to improve
the market share of the organization for bringing in more consumers (Zhao, Huo, Flynn, and
Yeung, 2008).
According to it will not be an overstatement if it is said that Amazon has an effective policy of
CRM to make satisfy customers and it has been developed for over the span of 20 years now.
According to Casaló, Flavián, and Guinalíu, (2008), Amazon has millions of customers that are
loyal towards the company due to most trustworthy and preferred online shopping portal. It is
well managed because of the effectual and properly framed CRM policy within the organization.
Amazon is a well reputed company that provide a number of products and services to the
customers all in one place (Kassim and Abdullah, 2010). The most amazing thing with Amazon
is that it has maintained the good bonding with the customer for a long time without having face
to face interaction with them. The company provide recommendations which are reflected to the
customer based on their last purchase facilitates the customer in opting the products and makes
shopping convenient and easy which is probable with a click of a button. The company CRM
system is effective as it offers its customers to utilize interface for storing the details of their
purchase or desire to purchase in future by which they can smoothly purchase in future (Phan
and Vogel, 2010). It has been analyzed that the clever use of data make the customer feel special
and valued and the customer can be attracted in a significant manner by applying this kind of
innovating strategy within the business. It has been found that the reason behind the success of
CRM in Amazon have their own in-built software. The CRM system of the company is the major

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cause behind all the effective features offered by them to the customers. The software of the
company has the ability to capture the information of each customer regarding to their personal
data like past purchase, location and as per the visiting time of customer on different sites, the
company customized the need. According to Mudambi and Schuff, (2010), CRM assists the
customer to get the responses of their issues or concerns even before the level of human
intervention comes. Customers of Amazon have access to entire information regarding to the
ordered product, time of delivery, stage of the delivery, and mode of payment, return policy and
many more. The CRM policy of Amazon definitely decreases the requirement and cost of having
customer service staff.
It has been found that CRM is used by Amazon for the purpose of collection of Data, personal
data storage, and recommendations. In the context of a collection of data, it has been found that
the customers have to make an account on the portal of Amazon to do shopping which makes it
convenient for them to make potential purchases. It has been analyzed that this account
facilitates in developing an opportunity for target marketing that is customers of Amazon can be
emailed with promotions and offers which is relied on their last purchases (Ryu and Han, 2010).
Along with that, it has been found that the when a customer makes an account, they have to fill
their personal information such as address, account information, contact and personal details
which are stored by Amazon to approach them. In the context of recommendations, Amazon is
leading the way to recommend product features. At the time of logging by the customer in the
account of Amazon, it has been recommended by Amazon to the customers a variety of products
to the customer in which he may be interested to buy. These recommendations are made by the
company as per the evaluation of the past purchasing behavior of the customers. The most
interesting thing with the company is that the return policy of the company is entirely based on

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the online and in case of any concerns regarding the products; the customer can call the customer
service executive to get a refund (Chua and Banerjee, 2013).

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Methods
There are two methods of collecting the data such as qualitative method and quantitative method.
For this research, both methods are taken as a combination for gathering the information (Grove,
2011).
Research philosophies
The role of research philosophy in the research is huge as it develops the better understanding
and knowledge of the research regarding the concern of the research. The choice of effective
research philosophy is helpful in guiding the research to recognize the process of information
gathering, evaluating and utilization of the research process. There are three types of research
philosophies like positivism philosophy, realism philosophy and interpretivism philosophy.
Positivism philosophy shows the factual knowledge regarding the observation and measurements
that is helpful for the researcher to uncover the truth based on information of statistical data
(Yusuf, Adams and Dingley, 2014). Interpretivism philosophy is being used in this research
because it helps the researcher to access the perception and views of participants. This
philosophy will be helpful for the researcher to make a valid conclusion regarding the customer
relationship management on Amazon. On the other hand, the realism and positivism are not
related to the philosophy of the research to resolve the issue of the research due to no a
requirement of using a highly structured methodology like hypothesis creating and proving and
examination of the outcomes regarding the generalization.
Research approaches
Research approach is essential for the research to justify the opted research design and methods.
There are two kinds of research approaches such as inductive and deductive that facilitates

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researcher to rationalize the use of specific data collection method for research project. The use
of deductive approach is effective with the philosophy of positivism; on the other hand, inductive
approach is suitable with the interpretivism philosophy. The hypothesis is created with the help
of deductive approach with the help of theories. It is necessary for the researcher to gather the
various kinds of information as well as data to adopt or eliminate the hypothesis regarding the
research issues. The inductive approach will be considered by the researcher to expand
subjective knowledge regarding the research issues (Donner, 2008). The reliability, as well as
validity of the research, will be increased with the help of this deductive approach.
Research strategies
The researcher will use interview and survey to gather the information regarding the research
topic. It is because with the help of these strategies researcher would be enabled to gather an
adequate amount of information and data regarding customer relationship management in
increasing the customer satisfaction. Survey strategy enables the researcher to accumulate the
data in less time or cost that increased the reliability of the research among the stakeholders (Van
Doorn, et. al., 2010). While the use of interview strategy facilitates the researcher to meet with
person personally who participate in the interview to get their perceptions and views regarding
the research issues.
Choices
There are various alternatives available which can be used by the researcher to complete the
research program. The selection of alternative will be done after evaluating the requirement of
the research program.