Title: Strategic and operational issues in implementing a CRM tool

Authors: Sandra Rothenberger

Addresses: Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, Innsbruck University School of Management, Universitaetsstrasse 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Abstract: If recently published articles and opinions can be trusted, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is still very popular and important to any kind of company. As an integrated approach, it helps to identify, acquire and retain customers and enables organisations to manage and coordinate customer interactions. CRM therefore supports organisations in their efforts to maximise the value of every customer interaction and to drive superior corporate performance. Yet in many cases, the strategic CRM goals are not reached to the fullest extent and so even fail. Roughly 70% of all CRM implementations do not live up to the expectations of managers (Lamberti, 2003). This paper tries therefore to identify the success factors, as well as the most important thoughts and relations to be taken into consideration, if CRM is to be successfully implemented as a tool for enhancing and supporting overall business success and customer relationship efficiency.

Keywords: customer relationship management; CRM implementation; strategic tools; success factors; business environment; customer relationship efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2007.014602

International Journal of Business Environment, 2007 Vol.1 No.4, pp.462 - 475

Published online: 17 Jul 2007 *

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