Selection of CRM software for the event sector (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: A- (1,5), University of Birmingham (University College Birmingham), language: English, abstract: This study was undertaken to recommend a suitable customer relationship management (CRM) software for the German event agency XYZ. For this reason three different CRM software products were evaluated.

Four research objectives were established to achieve the aim. They were the principles of customer relationship management; the benefits and problems connected with the implementation of CRM; the importance of measures to get loyal customers and a comparison of different software products with regard to different criteria. Using the case study strategy including secondary research methods the researcher was able to answer the research objectives and the aim. The main sources used in this investigation were secondary sources due to the large number of information available in these sources. Prior the development of an assessment schematic was necessary to evaluate the credibility of these sources. Personal experience with CRM, the current importance of this topic and the gap in the event based literature motivated the researcher to undertake this study.

The findings indicated that the competitive environment in which small and medium enterprises operate make it necessary to implement a good working CRM system to identify potential customers who might become loyal. Indeed, a universal definition of terms such as CRM, customer satisfaction and loyalty is missing or the terms are not clearly defined. Findings also revealed that there is still a gap in literature concerning CRM within the event industry, especially within event management companies. The number of data concerning aspects such as competition and customer orientation regarding to event management companies is also rare or missing.
Beside these limitations, research indicates that the market of CRM software products is growing. Especially web based CRM solutions such as on-demand software have become more popular in the last few years, due to the mostly unproblematic implementation and the lower price of these products compared to traditional software packages.

Recommendations for further research include a deeper analysis of CRM within the events industry and a clear definition of terms which are connected with CRM such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. More information on customer orientation, customer loyalty and competitiveness especially within event management companies would help to establish a more precise catalogue of software selection criteria.