<p>To have a strategic advantage, companies have been encouraged to adopt customer-centric, value-added processes and capabilities. However, it remains unclear how organizational training initiatives can support employees in developing these competencies to positively impact firm performance. We assess the effect of different types of training on profitability and how it may vary across stages of the customer-firm relationship. We also investigate how long the effectiveness of training efforts is sustained before additional learning is required. Using data from two natural field experiments, we find support for the effect of all types of training on firm performance, but the effect varies across stages of the customer-firm relationship. A key finding of our research is that not only do CRM training programs positively affect customer-retention efforts, but also the benefits of CRM training decayed faster than any other training programs, suggesting continuous learning efforts are required of front-line employees in customer-centric organizations.</p>