Abstract
M.Comm.
In the past year or two, there has been a phenomenal interest among
academic and marketing practitioners regarding the concept of Customer
Relationship Management (CRM). With the emphasis that is placed on the
importance of Relationship Marketing, one would expect the existence of a
clear description of the concept, as well as a management framework for
the evaluation, implementation and management of such a concept that
impacts on the total organisation. However, there are only a few valid
theories and learnings to assist Marketing managers and Marketing
directors in their understanding of the concept.
The purpose of this study was to identify the issues that influence CRM
and to assess their importance among South African Marketing managers
(MM) and Marketing directors (MD). The study also attempted to evaluate
the current perception and understanding of the terms Relationship
Marketing (RM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). But the
most important aspect of this study was to attempt to identify the elements
to be included in a possible managerial framework that addresses the
issues related to the development and implementation of a CRM strategy.
The issues that influence CRM and the elements for inclusion in such a
framework were identified by means of:
A literature study of various secondary sources which provided the
identification of international CRM issues and a conceptual
framework for the understanding of Relationship Marketing (RM)
and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
An empirical study to test the identified issues within the South
African environment, to assess the current perception of MM and
MD's regarding the concepts of RM and CRM and to generate and
purify the possible elements for inclusion in a CRM framework. The
methods used to generate the variables were an analysis of
secondary sources and individual input • from CRM experts
(exploratory study) through the use of e-mail discussions. A survey
among MM and MD in various industries, situated mainly in South
African metropolitan areas, quantified the issues.
In the exploratory study, 34 CRM variables were generated. The variables
represented the elements related to the CRM concept. An attempt was
made to summarise the initial information into the most important
dimensions, which also had the most potential for stimulating further
research. Therefore the elements were tested among CRM experts in a QSort
technique and 11 variables were eliminated.
The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the opinion of a larger
sample of respondents in the marketing environment and to gain their
understanding regarding the concepts of RM and CRM as well as to test
the internationally identified issues in the South African environment.
It was necessary to refine the elements for inclusion in a possible CRM
framework by reducing the variables and restructuring the dimensions.
Two techniques, namely factor analysis and coefficient alpha, were used
for this purpose. A computer software programme was used to calculate
the factor analysis and coefficient alpha.
The repetitive procedure of calculating coefficient alpha and the item-tototal
correlation for each factor, followed by the elimination of variables,
and the factor analysis to determine the dimension of a CRM framework,
led to the reduction from the original 23 variables to 3 descriptive factors.
The statistical results and findings indicated that these dimensions had a
high interval consistency and reliability.
The results of the study were satisfactory in terms of the objectives and
confirmed that MM and MD were not completely sure in their
understanding of the terms RM and CRM. They were also not able to
agree on the elements for inclusion in a CRM or RM definition. But the
researcher did gain valuable information regarding the issues that
influence CRM and that should possibly be included in a CRM framework
to assist MM and MD with the development and implementation of CRM
strategies.
The findings of the study indicated that the terms RM and CRM were
encompassing concepts and it was not possible to identify only a few
elements for inclusion into a definition. The study however indicated that a
possible CRM framework holds a large variety of potential implications for
further research and for marketing applications. The framework must be
tested in practice in further studies to verify the reliability, validity and
general acceptability of the issues and, if necessary, to make adjustments
accordingly. The most important implication that the research results hold
for marketing management is that the framework can be used to evaluate
their company's orientation towards a 'customer centric' organisation and
to identify the problem areas regarding the implementation and
management of CRM.