Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

[Pages:126]

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A multiple case study: analysing the critical factors of CRM implementation

Authors: Jacqueline Gruber, International Sales & Marketing

Tutor: Dan Halvarsson

Mei Hong Svensson,

Examiner: Dr. Pejvak Oghazi

International Sales & Marketing

Subject: Relationship Management

Level and semester: Bachelor's Thesis,

Spring 2012

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"No business can survive without understanding its customers and having a positive relationship with them" (Motiwalla and Tompson, 2009, p. 309)

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Acknowledgement

This thesis is the final part of the Bachelor program in International Sales and Marketing at Linnaeus University, V?xj?, Sweden. The graduation work was conducted during the spring term 2012.

We wish to thank everyone who contributed constructive information to our work. Our gratitude goes to Electrolux Professional Laundry Systems, Cargotec, Konecranes Lifting Businesses, LasermaxRoll Systems, Str?lfors and Svetruck for allowing us to interview their employee's for our research. Moreover, we would like to thank our interviewees who gave us valuable information for this thesis.

Additionally, we would like to thank our tutor Dan Halvarsson and our examiner Dr. Pejvak Oghazi for their guidance and support during our project.

V?xj?, 23rd May 2012

Jacqueline Gruber jacqueline.gruber1@

Mei Hong Svensson hongwww0365@

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Abstract

Nowadays a company's focus has shifted from a product-centric view to a more customer-centric view. Customers play a major role for doing business with companies. That leads to the purpose of this research, which is to identify critical factors of CRM implementation and to gain a deeper understanding of how companies deal with those critical factors. This was done with the help of a qualitative method, where six case companies were taken under the research. These six case companies are operating in different industries (1) laundry system industry, (2) printing industry and (3) heavy industry. In addition, the aim of this thesis was to find out how CRM implementation is influenced by critical factors in terms of CRM process and CRM system, interaction of sales force, information / communication flow and organizational structure / culture. The main points which influence the critical factors of CRM implementation were (1) customer-focused, (2) create trust, (3) sharing information and knowledge and (4) decisionmaking. To overcome these points at first companies need to be customer-focused their sales force need to be able to create trust with customers. Also it is important that companies have a well-implemented information / communication flow to optimise the decision-making process. Within the research more points for how an international organization can manage these critical factors are described.

The collected data was analysed with the help of the theoretical framework. The conclusion could be drawn that, a well implemented CRM would help companies to build a better customer relationship and to be able to know as much about customers as possible.

Key words: CRM, CRM implementation, CRM process and CRM system, interaction of sales force, information / communication flow, organizational structure / culture

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Abbreviations

B2B CRM CSS

GCRM

IT KPI ROI SAP SE

Business to Business Customer Relationship Management Customer Satisfaction Survey Global Customer Relationship Management Information Technology Key Performance Indicator Return On Investment System Application Programming Sweden

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................1 1.1. Background ..........................................................................................................................1 1.2. Problem discussion.............................................................................................................3 1.3. Purpose.................................................................................................................................4

2. Theoretical framework ..............................................................................................................5 2.1. Customer Relationship Management...............................................................................5 2.2. Critical factors of CRM implementation.........................................................................6 2.2.1. CRM process and CRM system.................................................................................6 2.2.2. Interaction of sales force ..........................................................................................13 2.2.3. Information / communication flow .......................................................................19 2.2.4. Organization structure / culture .............................................................................25 2.3. Theory framework discussion.........................................................................................28 2.4. Summary of the theoretical framework.........................................................................29 2.5. Research questions............................................................................................................30

3. Methodology .............................................................................................................................31 3.1. Research approach............................................................................................................31 3.1.1. Inductive vs. deductive research .............................................................................31 3.1.2. Qualitative vs. quantitative research .......................................................................32 3.2. Research Design................................................................................................................33 3.3. Data sources ......................................................................................................................35 3.4. Research strategy...............................................................................................................36 3.5. Data collection method....................................................................................................39 3.6. Data collection instrument ..............................................................................................42 3.6.1. Operationalisation and measurement of variables ...............................................43 3.6.2. Interview guide...........................................................................................................45 3.7. Sampling .............................................................................................................................50

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3.7.1. Sampling frame ..........................................................................................................50 3.7.2. Sample selection.........................................................................................................54 3.8. Data analysis method - qualitative approach ................................................................56 3.9. Quality Criteria ..................................................................................................................58 3.9.1. Validity and Reliability ..............................................................................................58 3.10. Methodology framework summary..............................................................................60 4. Empirical investigation............................................................................................................62 4.1. Case 1 ? Electrolux...........................................................................................................62 4.2. Case 2 ? Cargotec .............................................................................................................67 4.3. Case 3 ? Konecranes ........................................................................................................71 4.4. Case 4 ? LasermaxRoll.....................................................................................................76 4.5. Case 5 ? Str?lfors ..............................................................................................................81 4.6. Case 6 - Svetruck...............................................................................................................86 4.7. Empirical framework summary ......................................................................................89 5. Analysis ......................................................................................................................................92 5.1. CRM process and CRM system......................................................................................92 5.2. Interaction of sales force .................................................................................................94 5.3. Information/communication flow.................................................................................96 5.4. Organization structure/culture.......................................................................................98 5.5. Analysis summary .......................................................................................................... 101 6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 103 7. Implications............................................................................................................................ 104 7.1. Theoretical implication.................................................................................................. 104 7.2. Managerial implication .................................................................................................. 105 8. Limitations and further research......................................................................................... 106 8.1. Limitation ........................................................................................................................ 106 8.2. Further research ............................................................................................................. 107

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List of Reference........................................................................................................................ 109

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Theoretical framework overview.................................................................................5 Figure 2: CRM core cycle ............................................................................................................11 Figure 3: The communication cycle...........................................................................................18 Figure 4: Theoretical framework summary ..............................................................................30 Figure 5: Methodological overview............................................................................................31 Figure 6: Research design............................................................................................................33 Figure 7: Guideline for an interview..........................................................................................46 Figure 8: Sample frame of six companies .................................................................................52 Figure 9: Two level of sample selection....................................................................................54 Figure 10: Methodology framework summary.........................................................................61 Figure 11: Empirical framework ................................................................................................62 Figure 12: Implementation process of Electrolux...................................................................64 Figure 13: Matrix organization of Electrolux...........................................................................66 Figure 14: Matrix organization of Cargotec .............................................................................70 Figure 15: Benefits of CRM of Konecranes.............................................................................72 Figure 16: Matrix organization of Konecranes .......................................................................75 Figure 17: Business model of LasermaxRoll ............................................................................77 Figure 18: Operational organization of LasermaxRoll ...........................................................80 Figure 19: Why do organizations invest in CRM?...................................................................82 Figure 20: Collaboration model of Str?lfors.............................................................................84 Figure 21: Matrix organization of Str?lfors ..............................................................................85 Figure 22: Hierarchy organization of Svetruck ........................................................................89 Figure 23: Analysis framework ...................................................................................................92 Figure 24: CRM process and CRM system...............................................................................93

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