Application of TQM for Customer Service in Relationship Marketing

Abstract

One of the contributions of TQM is the consideration of customers as integral part of the business. Meanwhile, modern marketing practices call for greater focus on relationship marketing. Although research shows that TQM plays a mediating role in marketing, clear mediating role has not been established. This research tries to investigate the areas where TQM plays the mediating role in relationship marketing. To achieve this, an inductive exploratory research is done by taking 10 different companies that have applied TQM for customer service operations. The result shows that TQM is used to address different customer base needs in equal and satisfactory manner by developing appropriate strategies aligned to the different customer needs. The main mediating role played by TQM was the consideration of different customer spans in revolutionizing traditional marketing approaches to more customized and differentiated relationship marketing strategies. TQM is applied to strategically incorporate different customer needs into one marketing spectrum by strategizing the relationship marketing platform.