Client relationship marketing practices: an exploratory study of SMEs business.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare and contrast activities during client relationship process between different types of SMEs business in Thailand. A conceptual framework is proposed to analyze two case studies in this research. The relationship marketing practices of B2B and B2C businesses were examined through ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with key authority persons in both companies also all selected participants had to engage with the customer and used client relationship marketing practices. Six client relationship marketing practices were identified in this study. Whereas B2B and B2C Company found service recovery, social bond and other small little gestures similar to activities with Claycomb and Martin (2002) and K.M. Woo & Kannika (2014). On the other hand, B2B found different marketing practices: engagement & introducing and trustworthy & consistency while B2C found attractive & service impression that was different from Claycomb and Martin (2002) and K.M. Woo & Kannika (2014). Although, the ten participants presented client relationship as contributing success to the business but the study remains limited and further researches are needed to examine the effects of each practice, activities in different business area, quality of the client relationship and also the number of participants. This study demonstrates that in order to succeed in the highly competitive market, SMEs need to understand not only potential outcomes of each relationship marketing practice but also how to practice it systematically and effectively. A new relationship development process model incorporating the essence of the customer relationship life cycle was developed and its practicality was confirmed by the research findings.