IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spd/journl/v71y2021i3-4p68-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing the Challenge of Customer Management for SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Christopoulou

    (ClientIQ Client Management Agency PC)

  • Panos Gialelis

    (Intelli Solutions S.A)

Abstract

Customer Management Softwares have become a critical strategy in business, since it became prominent that they improve a company’s probability to achieve superior business results. Yet, for a company to be able to deliver superior portfolio management solutions, Technology, Data Analysis and Commercialization should smoothly work together. This study aims to create a solution that better serves the goals of SMEs while satisfying the end consumers’ needs. SMEs in Greece and worldwide, due to lack in resources and access on the required expertise, are lacking significantly in the implementation of Customer Relationship Management technologies and Data Analysis in their operating model. As a result, they face a genuine competitive disadvantage in the race of knowing and effectively managing their customer base. As a preliminary stage, qualitative research was conducted through personal interviews with 30 SME managers from ten different market sectors, around their understanding and proper handling of data analytics, as well as the extent of the financial investment they are would be willing to make. At a following stage quantitative research was conducted to a representative sample of 600 residential area inhabitants utilizing the Computer Assisted Web Interview methodology. The research focused on identifying the consumers’ expectations around the provision of personalized services and rewards through the capitalization of knowledge derived by loyalty programs. AmplifyTM Customer Management Platform was developed to help specifically SMEs to address the challenge of Customer Management, consolidating in one application the 3 fundamental pillars for database management that drives business results: customer data collection, customer analytics and personalized marketing, building upon SMEs existing resources, skillset and infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Christopoulou & Panos Gialelis, 2021. "Addressing the Challenge of Customer Management for SMEs," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 71(3-4), pages 68-85, July-Dece.
    • Handle: RePEc:spd:journl:v:71:y:2021:i:3-4:p:68-85
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://spoudai.unipi.gr/index.php/spoudai/article/download/2913/2733/2913-3869-1-SM
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guerola-Navarro, Vicente & Gil-Gomez, Hermenegildo & Oltra-Badenes, Raul & Sendra-García, Javier, 2021. "Customer relationship management and its impact on innovation: A literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 83-87.
    2. Wahyu Agus Winarno & Bambang Tjahjadi, 2017. "The Moderating Effect of Industry Environments on the Relationship between IT Asset Portfolios, Efficiency and Innovation in the ERP Context," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2A), pages 3-15.
    3. Thakur, Ramendra & Workman, Letty, 2016. "Customer portfolio management (CPM) for improved customer relationship management (CRM): Are your customers platinum, gold, silver, or bronze?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4095-4102.
    4. Verhoef, Peter C. & Kannan, P.K. & Inman, J. Jeffrey, 2015. "From Multi-Channel Retailing to Omni-Channel Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 174-181.
    5. Suoniemi, Samppa & Terho, Harri & Zablah, Alex & Olkkonen, Rami & Straub, Detmar W., 2021. "The impact of firm-level and project-level it capabilities on CRM system quality and organizational productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 108-122.
    6. Keiningham, Timothy & Aksoy, Lerzan & Bruce, Helen L. & Cadet, Fabienne & Clennell, Natasha & Hodgkinson, Ian R. & Kearney, Treasa, 2020. "Customer experience driven business model innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 431-440.
    7. Dalla Pozza, Ilaria & Goetz, Oliver & Sahut, Jean Michel, 2018. "Implementation effects in the relationship between CRM and its performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 391-403.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pekovic, Sanja & Rolland, Sylvie, 2020. "Recipes for achieving customer loyalty: A qualitative comparative analysis of the dimensions of customer experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    2. Deszczyński, Bartosz & Beręsewicz, Maciej, 2021. "The maturity of relationship management and firm performance – A step toward relationship management middle-range theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 358-372.
    3. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Chaudhuri, Ranjan & Vrontis, Demetris, 2022. "AI and digitalization in relationship management: Impact of adopting AI-embedded CRM system," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 437-450.
    4. Li, Xi & Dahana, Wirawan Dony & Ye, Qiongwei & Peng, Luluo & Zhou, Jiaying, 2021. "How does shopping duration evolve and influence buying behavior? The role of marketing and shopping environment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Maraj Rahman Sofi & Iqbal Ahmad Hakim, 2018. "Customer Relationship Management as Tool to Enhance Competitive Effectiveness: Model Revisited," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 7(3), pages 201-215, September.
    6. Muneer M. Abbad & Ibrahim Hussien Musa Magboul & Faten Jaber & Wasfi Alrawabdeh, 2022. "User Antecedents, CRM Implementation, and Impact on Customer Outcomes in the Jordanian Service Industry," International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management (IJCRMM), IGI Global, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, January.
    7. März, Armin & Lachner, Michael & Heumann, Christian G. & Schumann, Jan H. & von Wangenheim, Florian, 2021. "How You Remind Me! The Influence of Mobile Push Notifications on Success Rates in Last-Minute Bidding," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 11-24.
    8. Jochen Wulf, 2020. "Development of an AHP hierarchy for managing omnichannel capabilities: a design science research approach," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(1), pages 39-68, April.
    9. Neslin, Scott A., 2022. "The omnichannel continuum: Integrating online and offline channels along the customer journey," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 111-132.
    10. Salmani, Yasamin & Partovi, Fariborz Y., 2021. "Channel-level resource allocation decision in multichannel retailing: A U.S. multichannel company application," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Cai, Ya-Jun & Lo, Chris K.Y., 2020. "Omni-channel management in the new retailing era: A systematic review and future research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    12. Wang, Siqi & Cheah, Jun-Hwa & Lim, Xin-Jean & Leong, Yee Choy & Choo, Wei Chong, 2022. "Thanks COVID-19, I'll reconsider my purchase: Can fear appeal reduce online shopping cart abandonment?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Baoliang Hu & Wei Huang & Shuai Yan & Guang Liu & Tao Zhang, 2020. "Business Model Design and Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Customer Citizenship Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez, 2023. "Attributes influencing responsible tourism consumer choices: Sustainable local food and drink, health-related services, and entertainment," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 14(2), pages 645-686, June.
    15. Antonio Farías & Christian A. Cancino, 2021. "Digital Transformation in the Chilean Lodging Sector: Opportunities for Sustainable Businesses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    16. Wei, Jie & Chang, Meijing, 2023. "Are price matching and logistics service enhancement always effective strategies for improving profitability?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 103-115.
    17. Qiu, Chun & Zhao, Ping, 2019. "Mobile coupon acquisition and redemption for restaurants: The effects of store clusters as a double-edged sword," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 163-172.
    18. Perez-Vega, Rodrigo & Hopkinson, Paul & Singhal, Aishwarya & Mariani, Marcello M., 2022. "From CRM to social CRM: A bibliometric review and research agenda for consumer research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1-16.
    19. Gasparin, Isadora & Panina, Ekaterina & Becker, Larissa & Yrjölä, Mika & Jaakkola, Elina & Pizzutti, Cristiane, 2022. "Challenging the "integration imperative": A customer perspective on omnichannel journeys," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Willems, Kim & Smolders, Annelien & Brengman, Malaika & Luyten, Kris & Schöning, Johannes, 2017. "The path-to-purchase is paved with digital opportunities: An inventory of shopper-oriented retail technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 228-242.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Customer management; SMEs innovation; customer retention; multi-channel marketing; marketing technology; personalization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spd:journl:v:71:y:2021:i:3-4:p:68-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/depirgr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.