The customer plays a major role in the development of new trends, as do his perception, attitude and also his expectations concerning the mobile operator, insurance provider, bank service provider or travel agent. Ideally, the customer therefore shapes his or her service provider’s behavior and choice of products.

The goal of this article is to provide a preview of the future of CRM. Findings from expert interviews and secondary research within the scope of the Detecon study “CRM 2015” are employed to provide an initial insight into the future development of ICT and CRM. This article will outline – with the aid of five theories – where CRM is headed.

Theory 1: The customer’s role will develop from conventional service recipient to a service designer – the Integrated Customer.

Let’s first determine that, in order to be successful in the future, companies still must continue to intensify valuable customer relations through a targeted cooperation. However, customer satisfaction is largely turned into a basic requirement in this type of relationship. This, in turn, makes the implementation of consistent Customer Experience Management (CEM) even more important: CEM primarily means the creation of positive experience on the part of the customer to establish an emotional bond between the latter and the product and/or the service or the provider. Therefore the goal is to make the interaction between customer and company a positive experience. This can be achieved by not only fulfilling customer expectations but – in certain cases – surpassing them, because only then does the customer feel that the performed services and approach provided by the company are truly exceptional and remarkable. This unique characteristic ensures sustained strengthening and improvement of the relationship with the customer.

In terms of surpassing customer expectations, the obvious solution is to furhter integrate the customer into the company processes more and more, thus making him part of the value chain.