engleski

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) IN LEADING CROATIAN COMPANIES

The aim of this research was to investigate the understanding of customer relationship management (CRM) in leading Croatian companies. Many papers in the field of CRM emphasise implementation problems, whereby two contradictory approaches are usually presented. The first approach is related to IT support (or IT tool) and the other approach to CRM as a strategy. Problems in implementation are usually associated with understanding CRM and the large financial investments it requires. Taking the above mentioned into consideration, the aim of the research was to check whether leading Croatian managers understand CRM. The research was conducted from April until July 2010 and included 268 leading Croatian managers. The instrument of survey that was used was a semi-structured questionnaire. These questionnaires were sent via e-mail and fax, and by mail if so requested by the respondents. Of 268 companies, 92 (34.3%) have implemented CRM and 176 (65.7%) have not. It is important to say that 49.3% of the respondents disagreed with the idea that CRM represents a business strategy. Moreover, 65% of the respondents did not support the idea that CRM represents an IT tool (IT support). The majority of the respondents did not agree that CRM does not meet expectations due to implementation problems. It is interesting that 85% of the respondents believe that CRM implementation should be approached in a strategic way. Finally, the majority of the respondents (52%) did not agree that CRM does not meet expectations due to large investments (costs).

Customer relationship management; Understanding CRM; Business strategy; IT

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