CRM AWARENESS AMONG MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES IN FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

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Customer relationship management (CRM) has gained extreme popularity in the last twenty years. It refers to a business strategy that aims to win, grow and keep the right customers. CRM systems are usually designed to collect information on customers from different channels such as companies’ websites, phones, mail, marketing materials, social media, etc. The aim of this paper was to measure customer relationship management among managers and employees in companies in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). The specific objectives of this research were to explore how present the CRM concept is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and whether there is any significant difference in its usage when it comes to different regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to assess the level of use of the customer relationship tools and software in businesses in FB&H (CRM tools), this research examined the availability of CRM tools and prevailing practices in use of CRM tools, and the perceived level of satisfaction of customers of surveyed organizations. This primary research employed a random quota sampling design with stratification. The geographic stratas (cantons) were selected. Each business’ contact person was contacted, until the preselected sample quotas of businesses per each stratum were reached. The survey instrument contains total of 26 questions. Out of these 26 questions, 20 belonged to descriptive and 6 to inferential statistics. Inferential statistics questions utilized 5 or 7 points Likert’s scale. The questionnaire responses were collected from 347 respondents, (i.e. companies). Survey responses were collected in a cross-sectional data collection time frame manner over the period September, 2015 to February, 2016. These were coded and entered into SPSS 16.00 version software and analyzed, after data cleaning. The research relied on the use of the proprietary sampling frame of registered companies. The sampling frame used in the research reflects the official records (derived from AFIP database) of businesses, the most reliable sample frame available to the researcher at this point in time. This research showed that CRM is a known concept in FB&H, many companies use it, while mid-size companies are most likely to use CRM. Majority of companies recognize the need for active CRM in general and dedicate resources to manage those relationships. Yet, the research is by necessity “one sided.” To get to more reliable results we would have to investigate the opinions and satisfaction of customers of the sampled companies.