Purdue News

April 19, 2002 Seminar helps agribusinesses improve customer relationships WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's Center for Food and Agricultural Business is offering its sixth annual Strategic Customer Relationship Management seminar May 6-7. The co-leaders of the seminar are Jay Akridge, Purdue professor and director of the center, and Paul Wang, associate professor in the integrated marketing communications program at Northwestern University. "The current economic situation has forced businesses to be more cautious," Wang said. "A focused approach to customer relationship management is even more important than in the past, as is the value of retaining core customers." A variety of customer relationship management topics will be covered, including the importance of understanding key accounts and serving them profitably; communicating the uniqueness of the product offering; and incorporating organizational commitment, quality measurement and reward in the CRM effort. The seminar, which will be on Purdue's West Lafayette campus, is designed for agribusiness managers in both manufacturing and dealer organizations with direct responsibility for managing customer relationships. In the past, the event has attracted marketing, sales and customer support managers as well as communications professionals, information systems managers and database managers. The registration fee is $895. For more information on the seminar agenda or speakers, contact Sharon Wall at swall@purdue.edu, or call the center at (765) 494-4247. Additional details about the seminar and an online registration form are available. CONTACT: Paul Wang, (765) 494-4327, p-wang@northwestern.edu; Vickie Maris, (765) 494-8151, vjmaris@purdue.edu. Writer: Mindy Reef, (765) 494-8402, news_students@aes.purdue.edu Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722; Beth Forbes, bforbes@aes.purdue.edu; https://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/AgComm/public/agnews/ Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page