Changes in CRM Approach: Refined Functional Blocks for Customer Creative Engagement in Services

Relationship marketing principles shifted with the emergence of the social Web. The firm-centric, traditional closed doors approach is no longer assuring the survival in a global market with demanding and informed customers. Customer touch points are replaced by an open mentality where customer experience and creative collaboration with prosumers has changed even CRM techniques. The present paper analyses the journey from traditional CRM, to social CRM and PoRM (Prosumer-oriented Relationship Management) in response to consumer creative engagement desires. Thus, four PoRM processes are conceptualized by taking into consideration the necessities for prosumer management: the creation of a community, creativity enablement for open innovation, knowledge management and communication channels. In the end general functional blocks with several patterns are presented for efficient services and innovative ideas. This research constitutes one of the first steps into the conceptualization and explanation of the PoRM theory with implications in the design of future relationship management technologies.