This study with international students in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector adopts a qualitative research approach to examine the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) and service quality. From the literature six construct themes for measuring customer relationship management were suggested and the interview data with focus groups from a university in the north of Britain were analysed using a thematic template analysis technique. The study showed that an effective CRM programme to improve service quality has the ability of inducing positive advocacy behaviour from its international students. The paper makes a recommendation for policy makers in the higher education sector to embrace investment in CRM.

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This article examines a comparative consumer study into the influence of firms’ customer relationship management (CRM) practices on their marketing effectiveness (ME) in the Nigeria and UK mobile telecommunications (MT) sectors. The qualitative multi-methods (focus groups [FGs] and secondary documents) were employed for data collection. The study involved six consumer FGs, three in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and three in Huddersfield, UK. The author employed thematic and content analysis techniques to analyse the study data using NVivo 10 software. As per Nigerian study, it was revealed that firms’ CRM practices were not customer-friendly and had negative impacts on their ME, and these were motivated by external factors. Six themes showed support for improving consumers’ experiences. The UK study revealed that firms’ CRM practices were consumer-friendly and had positive influence on their ME and these were motivated by internal factors. Seven themes found support for continuously service improvement. The study contributes to institutional theory and consumer utility theory.