The Effect of the New Consumer Protection Act in Addressing "dark-Side" Customer Relationship Management Behaviours of South African Service Companies

World-wide, suppliers of products and services sometimes have a poor understanding of CRM and as a result, and through malicious intentions, they employ deliberate behaviour in order to exploit and take advantage of their customers in unfair ways (Frow et al, 2011).

The consumer cannot directly influence the behaviour of companies or dictate their philosophies and strategies. They also do not always have access to sufficient information in order to make informed choices according to their needs. There is also no effective redress for consumers who have had negative experiences with suppliers of goods and services. The CPA seeks to place more power in the hands of the South African consumer when falling victim to the "dark side" CRM behaviour of companies.

The problem can therefore be stated as:

There is no structured and proven mechanism available for organisations using eCRM and sCRM to determine compliance with the CPA.

There are various IT tools that can form part of a CRM deployment. Many of these tools provide the functionality to support "dark side" CRM behaviour. These functions could be used knowingly or unknowingly leading to non-compliance with the CPA. An understanding of what is technologically possible is therefore fundamental to determining compliance with the act.

The overall purpose of the proposed research will be to determine how the new Consumer Protection Act can assist companies to formulate and implement IT, eCRM and sCRM strategies in order to successfully overcome and limit their legal exposure.

The result will be a framework for South African service companies to apply to their IT, eCRM and sCRM strategies in order to eliminate or at least minimise the so-called "dark side" CRM behavior. We will place special emphasis on the problems customers experience with the mobile communications industry in South Africa.