Customer relationship management mechanisms: A systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research

In the information systems, customer relationship management (CRM) is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction with the goal of improving the business relationships with customers. Also, it is the strongest and the most efficient approach to maintaining and creating the relationships with customers. However, to the best of our knowledge and despite its importance, there is not any comprehensive and systematic study about reviewing and analyzing its important techniques. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive study and survey on the state of the art mechanisms in the scope of the CRM are done. It follows this goal by looking at five categories in which CRM plays a significant role: E-CRM, knowledge management, data mining, data quality and, social CRM. In each category, a couple of studies are presented and determinants of CRM are described and discussed. The major development in these five categories is reviewed and the new challenges are outlined. Also, a systematic literature review (SLR) in each of these five categories is provided. Furthermore, insights into the identification of open issues and guidelines for future research are provided. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.