Maintaining relationship with profitable customers has become a primary concern for the business houses. Even the Public Sector Units (PSUs) in India have taken several initiatives to evince their commitment towards one of the major stakeholders, customers, in business. Of late, they have realized that to keep abreast of the market trends, focusing on their most valuable asset—customers, is the smart way to stay ahead in the industry. The article unfolds how and why PSUs have started adopting customer-centric approach.

In this hyper competitive world, marketers are not only acquiring but are also retaining the customers. Several studies have indicated that retaining customer is less expensive and offers a more sustainable competitive advantage than acquiring new ones (Rosenberg and Czepield, 1984). In addition, "several marketers are also concerned with keeping customers for life, rather than making a one-time sale". Moreover, customer expectations have increased over the last two decades. "What used to delight customers a year ago is only likely to satisfy them today. What was once a motivator is now only a hygiene factor". They are not ready to compromise on product or service quality. When performance does not meet expectations, they start churning. At the same time, marketers are trying hard to provide better products than their competitors.

Relationship in business is an age-old concept but modern marketers took fancy to it only recently. Though relationship marketing was introduced in the services marketing to establish long-term profitable relationship with all stakeholders of the business (suppliers, investors, vendors, customers, etc), its presence was noticeable elsewhere also. Since the customers are the major stakeholders of the business, the marketers have coined the new term Customer Relationship Management (CRM), to evince special interest in customers. It is established that building closer relationship with customers results in better returns to companies.

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