Developing customer relationship management (CRM) pre-implementation: A multilevel small business enterprise (SBE) case study in Finland

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

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Date

2024

Department

Tieto- ja palvelujohtamisen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Information and Service Management (ISM)

Language

en

Pages

47+13

Series

Abstract

Research problem and objectives of the study The research subject firm is a small business enterprise (SBE), defined by the European Union as having between 10 to 49 people and below 10 Me annual turnover (El-Gohary et al., 2011). It offers sales and marketing solutions to companies in traditional sectors in Finland. Stakeholders include both local and global organizations. The research problem is to study the use of customer information in a customer relationship management (CRM) pre-implementation process in the case company. That will be answered by one main research question: what is the most suitable set of actions for developing CRM pre-implementation in the case study SBE? (RQ1). It is supported by two other research questions (RQ2 and RQ3). Studying customer information will encounter different customer experiences as a result and thus, I added customer experience as another main theme of research. Furthermore, the research will be focusing on the process of developing CRM from a multilevel viewpoint -as system, process, and strategy. The objective of the study is to reflect the study results in an ongoing way, in a significant business environment. The evaluation of the results of a CRM pre-implementation will be followed by reflecting the potential future CRM-implementation. Methodology Research approaches in Information Systems can be divided into two: reactive approaches (predicting and understanding) and proactive (design research and action research). In this research I tend to use both. The case study method was complemented by action research method by Lewin, 1947. After selecting the methodology for my thesis, I began studying fundamental issues in it – customer information, customer experience and CRM pre-implementation. In that process it is essential to focus on those information system (customer relationship management), process (customer relationships) or strategy (customer strategy) enablers, that help building value to case company’s customers. Data collection was conducted by semi-structured interviews with 14 customers and one industry specialist interview. Findings Key results of the research were that more than half (57%) of customers were willing to provide more customer information for better value or customer experience. The bottom line is that the research subject firms’ stakeholders did appreciate the deployment of a CRM system to enhance customer relationship management and customer experience. The development of customer relationships in case company can also be done in an incremental way so that a CRM pre-implementation phase is first carried out. A first step of that is already the making of this study as results were communicated and action-oriented in a significant business environment. One-half of case company’s interviewed customers already saw that salesperson’s expertise confirmed their buying decision. A vast majority of responders underlined the importance of information security in the process of data gathering. The case company can help data privacy implementation by choosing a Finnish company with data warehouses and servers in EU. A key privacy related question remains to be the one of coping with data warehouses or hubs that are not located in the EU.

Description

Thesis advisor

Rossi, Matti

Keywords

asiakastieto, asiakaskokemus, asiakassuhteiden hallintajärjestelmä, tapaustutkimus

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202408185525

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ