CRM Adoption in a Higher Education Institution

Guy-Emmanuel Rigo,Cristiane Drebes Pedron,Cíntia Cristina Silva De Araújo,Mário Caldeira

doi:10.4301/s1807-17752016000100003

Guy-Emmanuel Rigo, Cristiane Drebes Pedron + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4301/s1807-17752016000100003

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Abstract

More and more organisations, from private to public sectors, are pursuing higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. With this intent, higher education institutions (HEI) have adopted CRM – Customer Relationship Management. In order to analyse some of the interesting aspects of this phenomenon n, we conducted an action research in a European Institute. The main research question we answered is “how to adopt a CRM strategy in a Higher Education Institution?” Some of the main findings of this study are (1) even though HEI’s main customer is the student, there are others stakeholders that a CRM project must consider; (2) universities can use their internal resources to implement a CRM project successfully; and (3) using Agile software methodology is an effective way to define clearer, more objective and more assertive technical requirements which result in a CRM software that meet send user’s expectations and organizational strategic goals. These findings can help other HEIs planning to adopt CRM as a strategic tool to improve their relationship with the stakeholders´ community and expand their student body.

Highlights

European Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are starting to adopt CRM (Customer Relationship Management) initiatives (Santiago et al, 2006; Hilbert et al, 2007)
Higher Education Institutions are constantly in transformation, to try to follow and adapt themselves to the tendencies of market orientations and behaviour. Their management style is evolving through the adoption of new management practices, as Customer Relationship Management strategy
There are a set of questions related to CRM adoption in a HEI to be highlighted as: how to develop and build CRM values in a HEI environment; how the organizational culture can be effectively modified, how to win the commitment of the collaborators of the organization, etc

Summary

Introduction

European Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are starting to adopt CRM (Customer Relationship Management) initiatives (Santiago et al, 2006; Hilbert et al, 2007). The specific aim of a SRM is to offer capabilities to develop a 360o vision of the student life and needs, where HEI’s will increase the retention and loyalty of their customers. To reach such objectives, HEI have to increase and develop strong CRM strategies where the Information System (IS) solution can fit into

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Conclusion