مدیریت ارتباط با مشتری در شرکت های کوچک و متوسط​​: مورد صنعت گردشگری ترکیه

In this study, the factors influencing the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) at small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Cappadocia were analyzed. The findings of the research indicate that communication-distribution infrastructure, business dynamics, customer relations and innovation-quality factors affect CRM. Business dynamics plays an especially critical role in customer relations. It was also determined that the most important barriers to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector are inadequate supporting budgets, lack of senior management commitment to CRM and poor communication.

Globalization, increasing competition and advances in information and communication technology has forced companies to focus on managing customer relationships in order to efficiently maximize revenues. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the key competitive strategy businesses need to stay focused on the needs of the customers and to integrate a customer-facing approach throughout the organization. By using information and communication technology, businesses are trying to get closer to the customer so that they can create long-term relationships. Thus, deploying CRM initiatives has become very common. This study aims to define the main factors influencing the implementation of CRM and to identify factors which prevent CRM from being implemented by using data collected from small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Cappadocia. Initially a theoretical outline of CRM will be discussed. Then, based on empirical research results, various aspects of CRM implementation in SMEs in the tourism sector will be analyzed.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises generally have limited sources and channels for reaching customers; consequently they are concerned about keeping customers. Besides, it is a fact that for these enterprises, human behaviors have a very important role in customer relations. When the factors influencing CRM implementations at small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Cappadocia were analyzed, it was determined that almost half of SMEs in the tourism sector invested in CRM. The major factors influencing CRM in those enterprises were communication-distribution infrastructure, business dynamics, customer relations and innovation quality. The analysis of the correlation results showed that there was a significant relation between customer relations and other three variables (communication-distribution infrastructure, business dynamics and, innovation and quality). From analyzing the regression results, it was seen that business dynamics and communication-distribution infrastructure had an important impact on customer relations in the tourism sector. Business dynamics was a crucial factor for customer relations in small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises. According to the findings of study, the most important barriers faced by SMEs in the tourism sector were inadequate supporting budgets, lack of senior management commitment to CRM, and poor communication. As a result, information and communication technologies, customer participation, internal business dynamics, ease of use, innovation and quality, security and flexibility need to be taken into consideration to improve CRM for SMEs.