In a competitive and globalized banking era, customers constitute one of the most important and valuable assets of a bank. Banks' technological developments are interpreted as the intensive use of information technology and facilitating massive collection of information and their direct and integral processing. The aim of this paper is to present Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functions, as applied in the banking sector, examined from a bank marketing point of view. The study was carried out in 2007 on a convenience sample of 300 respondents through the distribution of structured questionnaires to bank customers within the area of Athens, Greece. The main finding of the study reveals that a majority of customers are satisfied with their bank. Most bank customers believe that the use of new technologies helps their communication with banks. They trust the bank employees for obtaining information on the existing banking products and services, while for new programs, they prefer to choose alternative channels, such as the Internet, phone services, brochures and press releases. The Greek banking market has adopted CRM solutions in recent years, as banks have realized the need to maintain their customer base and to better use their resources in order to promote their products and services. In general, there is a positive attitude towards CRM.

Banking is a sector of the world economy in which important changes have taken place in the past few decades. The terms of `operation' and `performance of banking institutions' have changed significantly. Globalization of international markets and the appearance of new leading parties (through strategic financial alliances and bank mergers and acquisitions) are both the result of technological developments and the loosening of administrative and monetary interventions, and have led to stronger competition and the risk of reducing market shares for each banking institution (Kokkomelis, 1995). At the same time, technological developments are interpreted as the intensive use of information technology, which allows for massive collection of information and their direct and integral processing, a fact that has facilitated the development of retail banking activities.

Therefore, in this competitive and globalized banking era, the customers of each bank constitute one of the most important assets that a banking institution should preserve and continuously expand. As customers are of significant importance, it is essential for the banks to satisfy their needs and wants. Target-group marketing segmentation techniques assist to establish and maintain long-term relationships of trust between banks and their customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is globally recognized as one of the most innovative and state-of-the-art means to facilitate the creation of a customers' base in order to meet market competition requirements.

Bank Management Journal, Customer Relationship Management, CRM, Banking Sector, International Markets, Technological Developments, CRM Strategies, Banking Industry, Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Business Strategy, Marketing Analysts, CRM Applications, Risk Assessment, Innovative Products, Correlation Analysis.