JMGT_V1_N4_CS1 Journal on Management 2230 – 715X 1 4 97 98 customer relationship management (CRM), marketing effort, overall thinking, sales person As late as the mid 20th century, businesses relied on personal relationships with their customers to guide their product development, their marketing efforts and their overall thinking. A technology allowed the scope of business to expand far beyond where it had been before, the personal connection began to shrink rapidly. Customer relationship management (CRM) strategies, including the development of online surveys to query customers on their thoughts and opinions, were created to try to reverse this trend. March - May 2007 Copyright © 2007 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3201