Customer Relationship Management Technology Research Articles

Linking Customization Capability with CRM Technology Adoption and Strategic Alignment

Building on contingency theory and the input–process–output model, this paper investigates the relationships between customer relationship management (CRM) technology adoption, customization capability, CRM effectiveness, and strategic alignment. By surveying senior managers of customized service projects from 288 information technology service firms in Taiwan, we find that CRM technology adoption has a positive relationship with customization capacity, which is, in turn, positively correlated with CRM effectiveness with the correlation being moderated by strategic alignment. This study suggests that CRM marketing and operational technologies can enhance CRM effectiveness via customization capability. This study also uncovers approaches to achieving enhancement.

An Exploration of the Effect of Customer Relationship Management on Organizational Performance in the Banking Sector

The main objective of this paper is to test the linkages among customer relationship management (CRM) practices and organizational performance in Palestinian banking sector. This research relies on an online survey which was designed for gathering the data from several employees who serve in banking sector. A total of 223 responses were considered valid for data analysis using SPSS and partial least square approach (PLS-SEM). Overall, the findings verified that customer orientation and CRM organization have significant positive effects on organizational performance. The outcomes also confirmed that CRM technology and knowledge management play important roles in affecting organizational performance. These findings reveal that the current business environment requires organizations to continuously monitor and manage customer relationships effectively for achieving their long range objectives and responding to emerging challenges.

Customer Relationship Management Performance and Technology Impact among Logistic Operators in SME’s

Today's business environment is facing an unavoidable challenge. Small businesses’ success is, therefore, vital for maintaining the world economy in general and the Malaysian economy in particular. In addition, Entrepreneurship is a driving force in bringing innovation to the market and creating firms that can achieve high growth in the economy. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty in delivery industries.

Investigating the effect of the social customer relationship management (CRM) on customers and financial performance

This research aims to investigate the effect of the social customer relationship management (CRM) process on achieving superior levels of costumers and financial performance. The object of this research is the Iraqi firms at the Iraqi environment market, while the subject is more than 200 respondents. Six variables from the research data were gathered through an instrument model invalid form that structured to be measured through reliable questionnaires. Statistical Analysis of the research data used partial least squares structural equation modeling with the significance in accordance with the output of SPSS 22.0. The findings indicate that the social CRM technologies of the firms improve the innovation activities on Both (services and products). This has a positive effect on the ability to achieve high performance through building customer-linking capabilities by adopting innovations, resulting in higher levels of efficiency. In exchange, higher levels of consumer contribution lead to having positive levels of customer and financial performance.

The Effect of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Capabilities on Marketing Performance in Hospital Business in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to analyze the effect of customer orientation on CRM capabilities; analyze the influence of customer centric organizational systems on CRM capabilities; analyze the effect of CRM technology on CRM capabilities; analyze the effect of CRM capabilities on marketing performance in the Covid-19 pandemic. Samples in this study are 30 of type C and type D hospitals which is in collaboration with BPJS Kesehatan in Malang Raya region with 3 research subjects (marketing team, marketing manager, and top management) from each hospital so that the number of respondents are 90 people. The sampling technique in this study uses saturation sampling. The data analysis technique uses Partial Least Squares. The research results conclude that customer orientation has a positive and significant effect on CRM capabilities; customer centric organizational system has a positive and significant effect on CRM capabilities; CRM technology has a positive and significant effect on CRM capabilities; CRM capabilities have a positive and significant effect on marketing performance.

Guidelines Penerapan Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Untuk Meningkatkan Keberhasilan Organisasi Dengan Metodologi Iris Dan Six Sigma

The business environment requires organizations to have access to important and up-to-date information about their customers. Customers are one of the most important factors in today's business environment. Completeness, accuracy, up-to-date and customer information across all functions and parts of the organization is mandatory. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be an initiative to become a top priority in business, especially in terms of helping organizations identify and adapt to their customer needs, improve customer satisfaction, and retain existing customers.There are several well-known methodologies in implementing CRM, including methodology. Iris and the Six Sigma Methodology. There are several important points on which to base the comparison between the two methodologies including Critical Success Factor, Strength, Weakness and Organization. The Iris methodology emphasizes the integration of strategic aspects and CRM technology as one of the most attractive factors in the use of customer-oriented CRM but has many weaknesses such as limited consideration of Critical Success Factor (CSF), the user is not involved in the design of the CRM system, there is no indication or measures for user acceptance, and limited validation of methodologies for small and medium enterprises. The Six Sigma methodology has strong points in driving CRM implementation but there are many weaknesses such as limited consideration of CSF, limited validation of the methodology, the user is not involved in the design of the CRM system, and no indication or measurement of user acceptance of the methodology. The close link or integration between Iris and Six Sigma methodologies can be an effort to run a CRM system effectively and efficiently. This linkage will enable organizations to implement CRM from both a customer-oriented perspective that focuses on managing customer knowledge to anticipate future customer needs (TO-BE), establishes a clear pathway in CRM implementation that focuses on the successful adoption and implementation of CRM, prepares end users. order to be trained for the implementation of CRM, and determine the readiness of assessment of technology and organization in implementing CRMKeywords : CRM, Iris, Six sigma

The Influences of Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management to Improve Hotels Performance

The motivations for a company to adopt Knowledge Management (KM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can be very varied, which brings an additional complexity to the adoption decision. It is important to understand the main drivers of KM and CRM adoption so that companies can better target their performance indicators. However, the influence of KM on organization performance in hotel industry has received less attention. In addition, the relationship between CRM technology and hotel performance is still ambiguous. In the right context, this paper tends to bring attention to the influences of KM and CRM to improve hotels performance. It presents and discusses the main findings of a study undertaken among a sample of large hotels Algerian, identifying and discussing the main motivations for KM and CRM systems utilization and adoption in order to improve hotels performance. A survey of 80 hotels executives was conducted on hotels operating in the Algeria west territory. In short, the results of this study may help these businesses to effectively use KM and CRM, so as to improve hotels performance and subsequently create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Social media and customer relationship management technologies: Influencing buyer-seller information exchanges

Due to the increasing array of sales technology, salespeople must understand how each application assists them. This study examines how business-to-business salespeople use different forms of sales technology to meet their boundary-spanning roles. Our research draws from social exchange theory and task-technology fit theory to test a model that examines how salespeople use CRM and social media technologies differentially to support competitive information collection, product information communication, and buyer information sharing. Dyadic data from industrial buyers and sellers is used to analyze the technology-behavior relationships. Our study's results reveal social media use and CRM technology both positively influence buyer-seller information exchanges; however, each technology takes a distinct route to enable the information exchange between the buyer and the seller. The results also suggest that managers need to champion the use of both technology applications to their salesforce.

An exploration of sales forecasting: sales manager and salesperson perspectives

An important component of making critical decisions is the ability to accurately predict future performance. This is essential for the sales function of a business, as so many factors hinge on the sales forecast. Accordingly, quantitative data should build projections based on sound data analysis. This study identifies how sales professionals (both sales managers and salespeople) are achieving this, given modern-day tools that are available, as well as the resulting impacts. In addition to some demographics, the study examines the perceptions concerning several forecasting sales force automation components, specifically enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) software. These perceptions have tremendous impacts on the ability to integrate new state-of-the-art predictive analytic tools to help in the allocation of such resources as time, money, and talent. Perceptions indicate a need to better understand how to integrate the power of CRM, ERP, and other technologies to take advantage of the opportunities provided by such tools. Sales professionals, both salespeople and sales managers, need to harness the capabilities of these new analytical tools to improve corporate metrics and outcomes.

Selling in the Digital Age

Advances in technology have revolutionized consumer buying behavior. The internet has provided customers with a cheap source of information that can help them make informed buying decisions. However, many salespeople are still relying on the classic model of selling, which is based on the assumption that customers are uninformed, uncertain, and undecided when they meet a salesperson. This model suggests that salespeople, as knowledgeable gatekeepers of information, should guide customers through the sales process. For example, solution selling suggests that the salesperson should diagnose customer needs and then recommend the right products/services to fulfill those needs. The challenger sales model suggests that a seller should actively teach customers, tailor the sales process to them, and take control of the customer conversation In this report, authors address the question: How does employing the classic sales model with customers with greater and lesser preference certainty affect the sales interaction outcomes of (1) purchase probability, (2) sales revenue, and (3) customer satisfaction? In their first study, the authors collected data from 356 individual sales interactions in 15 different stores of a U.S.-based retailer of durable goods over four months. They show that customers with greater preference certainty have a lower purchase probability when the classic sales model is implemented. (i.e., from more than 80% to 60%). Further, the revenue from a sales interaction is reduced by more than 25% when salespeople use the classic sales model on customers with higher levels of preference certainty. Finally, when faced with customers who have a good idea of what they want to buy, salespeople may decrease customer satisfaction by using the classic sales model technique. A second, scenario-based experiment corroborated and replicated the first study, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. This study found that, under high levels of preference certainty, challenging the customer results in a lower likelihood to purchase during the shopping visit. Further, these findings were found to be unrelated to price. These findings point to a need to transform the way that salespeople interact with customers. The authors offer two ways that managers can benefit from this research, and help their salespeople move beyond the classic sales model. Training. Sales managers can teach their salespeople about the importance of acknowledging the differences among customers along the decision-making process and train them on the appropriate tactic in each stage. Lead generation. Customer relationship management technology now makes it possible to monitor customers’ research behavior and to index prospects depending on their stage in the process; therefore, this technology can assist salespeople in adopting the appropriate sales tactic. Finally, new sales models should revisit and redefine assumptions of the standard paradigm of selling.

DOES ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR AFFECT PERFORMANCE OF AUDITING FIRMS?

The study examines the effect of organizational behaviour on auditing firms’ performance. It investigates the influence of Software Technology and customer relationship management on financial performance of PwC, Deloitte and KPMG testing four hypotheses. The data was from secondary sources of financial reports and statements of PwC, Deloitte and KGPM (2011-2016) and statistica.com. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis and Pearson correlation. SPSS version 17 was used to perform the multiple regression analysis while Smart PLS version 3.2.6 was used to carry out SEM. The first hypothesis revealed that relatively customer relationship negatively predicted financial performance of PwC while software technology positively predicted the financial performance of PwC. Hypothesis two shows that customer relationship and software technology did not jointly and relatively predicted financial performance of Deloitte while in hypothesis three, customer relationship and software technology did not jointly predicted financial performance of KPMG and in hypothesis four, customer relationship management and software technology positively jointly influenced financial performance of both PwC and Deloitte. There have been few studies to made use of Structural Equation Model (SEM) to examine the organizational behaviour in the auditing firms. In this paper, SEM was used to test the effect of Software Technology and Cost on customer relationship on financial performance of the auditing firms. This paper contributes to the impact of organizational behaviour in the auditing firms.

Does CRM technology implementations mitigate employee intention to quit in call centres

In the contemporary business environment technology is vital to an organisation's performance. Therefore, in the context of an inbound call centre; this study examines the effect of technology-based customer relationship management (CRM) on employees' intention to quit. A cross-sectional research approach was used and data was collected from the Malaysian call centre industry. By using survey data, the conceptualised model was tested through structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that the deployment of state-of-the-art technology-based CRM, followed by proper training, could significantly and positively engender employee job satisfaction. Furthermore, qualitative overstretch could be prevented, consequentially resulting in a significant reduction in employees' intention to quit. Moreover, this study confirms that technology-based CRM implementations within the call centre industry can be a powerful initiative toward resolving the problem of employees' low job satisfaction and intentions to quit. This study recommends ways, in which management of call centres might best develop, deploy and assess their technology applications so that employees will be less stressed, more satisfied, and willing to remain with the organisation. Areas for future research were also discussed.

Customer relationship management technology: bridging the gap between marketing education and practice

The recent machine learning and analytics advances in customer relationship management (CRM) technologies place new demands on marketing education and practitioners to develop the skills needed to use the technology. Compounding the issue, research on the use of technology in sales curriculum is underdeveloped. In a comprehensive review of the sales education literature, one study identified that only six articles on sales technology were published in major marketing education journals from 1979 to 2013. In an effort to bridge the gap between critical industry competencies and marketing curriculum, understanding the impact of technology use and training is important for educational planning and student development. Using a survey of 82 salespeople in the United States, the current study empirically evaluates how use of technologically advanced CRM features influences self-perception of CRM knowledge, the perception that additional technology training would be beneficial, and adaptive selling performance of sales practitioners. A majority of survey respondents in the current study cited a need for college students to receive increased exposure to advanced CRM technology training and skill development. We propose an experiential learning approach to teach marketing college students advanced CRM features to help them bolster their effectiveness and value in the workplace.

Enhancing the customer relationship management in public libraries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibilities of implementing the customer relationship management (CRM) concept and smart technologies in public libraries in developing countries. The goal was to explore the level of librarians’ awareness about CRM concept and their willingness to accept the CRM concept in libraries. Also, patrons’ satisfaction with the quality of services and relationships in public libraries is explored. Design/methodology/approach The authors obtained data for this research through two online surveys. The first survey measures librarians’ level of awareness about CRM concept and their perception about CRM and smart technologies concept in public libraries in three developing countries: Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The second survey measures patrons’ satisfaction with services and relationship in public libraries in these three countries. Findings The research results revealed that most surveyed librarians are familiar with the CRM concept. However, libraries in these three developing countries barely use CRM or smart technologies to improve the relationship with stakeholders. Also, most patrons are satisfied with relationships and services. The analysis of data indicates no significant difference in the satisfaction level among patrons between these three developing countries. Research limitations/implications Not all libraries participated in this research. Therefore, the sample is not distributed evenly across different types of libraries or user groups. Future research should include different types of libraries. Practical implications The results can be used by public libraries in developing countries to improve the relationship with stakeholders harnessing CRM concept and smart technologies. Social implications The use of CRM in combination with the smart technologies can help leverage the quality of the relationship between public libraries and stakeholders which in turn would secure their support and loyalty in the future. Originality/value The integration of CRM concept as a component of library business automation process is an idea that has not been discussed widely in the library community and could initiate a positive trend in public libraries in developing countries.

A review of customer relationship (CRM) implications: Benefits and challenges in construction organizations

The management philosophy, namely, Customer relationship management (CRM) has been widely accepted and successfully applied across a range of sectors. However, there has been very little research efforts in the field of CRM in the construction industry. This paper provides a review of the CRM philosophy and technology, and considers the implications; benefits and challenges to construction organizations at a strategic business and operational level. Given the generally unstable economic and highly competitive marketplace, implementation of CRM throughout the lifecycle of assets may provide for more effective management of existing and prospective clients. The CRM approach would seem to be compatible with general trends in the construction industry towards more collaborative working and the paper provides that both the philosophy and technologies can be integrated with current initiatives such as building information modeling (BIM). Construction clients in the public and private sector are diverse in nature, complex in their buying processes and at varying levels of knowledge of the Industry. In addition to seeking value for money from their projects and assets, they have become more concerned about sustainability and environmental impact. It has been recognized that management of a broader range of business and project level stakeholders is necessary.

Customer perception of CRM implementation in banking context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring a customer’s perception of customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives of a bank. Based upon resource-based view, CRM technology capability has been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising of technology, people and business resource (process). This study aims to develop a comprehensive scale for performance measurement of CRM technology capability, customer orientation and co-creation from the customer perspective.Design/methodology/approachA systematic scale development process was adopted consisting of three phases, a qualitative inquiry which included item generation through literature review, expert opinion and focus group study, scale purification and refinement using item analysis and exploratory factor analysis, and scale validation using confirmatory factor analysis. The study sample consisted of 324 respondents, with a usable response rate of 68 percent.FindingsThe findings of the empirical study resulted in a 42-item scale that measures CRM technology capability (technology, people and process), customer orientation, co-creation and relationship quality and outcome (RQO) (satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty). The predictive validity assessment model suggested that CRM technology capability has a higher impact on RQO. The empirical findings also suggest that technology is found to be the most important factor compared to people and process for CRM technology capability. The findings are aligned with literature review and expert opinion that the evolving collaborative-technologies-enabled CRM technology capability has changed the customer relationship paradigm.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focused on a scale specific to the banking sector to avoid conjoint factors, whereas a more generalized scale would have wider applicability across industries. The current study sought to broaden the coverage by including a large number of banks who have implemented CRM.Practical implicationsThis reliable and valid scale can help practitioners in measuring the effectiveness of their CRM implementation from the customer’s perspective, and provide insights that will help them in bridging the gap between their intended objective and actual implementation. They can also use this study to measure pre- and post-CRM implementation to see the effectiveness. This study also provides relevance of customer orientation and offers insight about co-creation which has taken the center stage because of the emergence of collaborative technologies.Social implicationsThis will help in measuring perception of the customer which is an important stakeholder in the engagement. This can help organizations in proactively taking care of customer’s rights and measuring the level of satisfaction proactively, which has become a regulatory requirement in many economies.Originality/valueThis study is possibly one of the first to develop a psychometrically valid scale to measure the customer’s perception of CRM using direct measures. The findings provide insight into the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of CRM practices in the banking sector. This study demonstrates that CRM technology capability, customer orientation and co-creation play a very critical role.

Investigating the Effect of Knowledge Management on the Success of using Customer Relationship Management based on the Mediating Role of Organizational Factors (Case Study: Municipality of Tehran, Region 22)

The present research studies the effect of knowledge management on the success of customer relationship management by considering the effects of organizational factors as a mediating factor. The type of research is applied and the method is descriptive survey. The statistical population of the study is the managers and experts of the municipality of Tehran 22nd district, that 207 of them were studied in the form of a statistical sample. Data analysis was performed using single-variable linear regression and confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that the variables of customer relationship management technology, customer orientation and knowledge management capabilities were significantly influenced by the success of customer relationship management. Also, the variables of customer relationship management experience and organizational factors have a significant effect on the success of customer relationship management.

Scale Development and Construct Validity of Organizational Capital in Customer Relationship Management Context: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

Effective usage and implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) or information technology requires some prerequisite organizational commitments and changes. Improving and deploying the organizational resources, such as top management support and employee training, which are collectively pursued under the umbrella term, that is, organizational capital, appears to be one of the important transformations that organizations need to undertake. Organizational capital is one of the key determinants in improving the results from CRM implementations. This article proposes organizational capital as a multidimensional construct. Further, this article attempts to develop a scale for measuring the organizational capital and test its factorial validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To test the proposed theoretical model, primary data were used which was generated through a survey of some selected pharmaceutical companies in India. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequently CFA. The results demonstrated that CFA of organizational capital showed an acceptable fit to the data and this construct is best represented by three constituent elements, that is, employee training, customer-centric management system (CMS), and customer relationship orientation (CRO) in current research context. This scale may be used in future research for measurement of this construct as a whole with contextual validity check. Further, implications for theory and practitioners are presented.

Implementation effects in the relationship between CRM and its performance

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most frequently adopted management tools and has received much attention in the literature. From a company-wide perspective, CRM is viewed as a complex process requiring interventions in different company areas. Previous research has already highlighted the pitfalls and failures related to a partial and incomplete view of CRM. This study advances research on CRM by investigating the impact of the relative implementation time according to which interventions are implemented in different areas (customer management, CRM technology, organizational alignment, and CRM strategy) on CRM performance. The results of the empirical study reveal that compared to other critical CRM activities, a later implementation of organizational alignment activities has a negative impact on performance. Further, our results show that CRM implementations do not equally address the areas of customer acquisition, growth, and loyalty, since this clearly depends on company objectives and also on geographical differences.

Man vs machine

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the use of technology in customer relationship management (CRM) support capabilities by using an environmental contingency perspective. By examining the moderating effects of micro- and macro-environmental characteristics in which CRM support capabilities are used, the authors seek to extend the literature on CRM technology effectiveness in both customer commitment and overall firm performance. The authors also seek to advance managerial knowledge about CRM support capability technology utilization strategies in various market offering and dynamic market settings.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilized a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 276 small business CRM managers across a wide range of industries. Measures were adapted from the existing literature, and these were largely multiple-item measures of latent variables. The hypotheses were tested using a combination of Ridge regression and a bootstrapping test of mediation. In addition, residual centering was used to reduce multi-collinearity in the interaction analysis.FindingsThe contingency/fit analysis performed in this research highlights the complex nature of the use of technology in CRM support capabilities. The benefits of a man vs a machine CRM support capability depend on the support function (whether marketing, sales, service, data access or data analysis), as well as upon the characteristics of the operating environment. Machine-based marketing support is positively related with customer commitment in turbulent markets, and machine-based service support is preferred in technologically turbulent markets. Sales support, on the other hand, is positively related to customer commitment in technologically turbulent markets when performed by man rather than machine.Practical implicationsCRM support capabilities differ across firms and markets, thus a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate. This research shows under what conditions a machine-based approach to CRM can be effective for small businesses.Originality/valueThis research is the first to consider market offering and turbulence variables as moderators of the relationship between technology use in CRM support capabilities and customer commitment. Taking this contingency approach, the authors find that resource-based competitive advantage is obtainable based on the fit of the resources (e.g. CRM capabilities) to the environmental characteristics of the firm. Through this perspective that is unique to CRM research, the authors are able to provide both general and specific recommendations to managers and researchers.