Andersen Study Says CRM is More Important This Year
According to recent Andersen survey, an increasing number of companies are placing more
emphasis on customer relationship management (CRM) this year as compared to last year.
The respondents to the March survey include 110 high-level business executives from large- and
mid-sized companies (defined as US$300 million in annual sales) as well as new entrants.
For both business and consumer customers, 47 percent agree that retention is of the highest priority.
Sixteen percent of business customers believe that acquisition is key, while 27 percent of consumer
customers believe it has a higher importance.
Other important findings include:
- Fifty-three percent of business customers believe that their company is doing an excellent job of
retention. Forty-five percent of consumer customers are confident about their performance. - Thirty-one percent of B2B customers have a reward or incentive program in place compared to 25
percent in the B2C arena. - Telephone and dedicated account teams are the most frequently used customer service
channels for business customers, while telephone and online are the most frequently used for
consumers. The phone is also the top tech support channel for both business and consumer
customers. - In e-business overall, more than 80 percent indicate they currently have or are planning to have a
CRM strategy. - Forty-five percent have integrated or plan to integrate CRM enterprise-wide.
- Cost is most frequently identified as a major barrier to successfully integrating CRM
enterprise-wide. Lack of internal skilled resources and lengthy implementation are also rated as
substantial barriers.
The survey
was conducted by Knowledge Systems & Research Inc.
Robyn Greenspan, an independent researcher and speaker, is interested in innovation, market trends and information technology. She was a participant in the AI Summit and also took part in the IEEE International Conference on Edge Computing, International SOA Symposium series and the International Cloud Symposium series. She graduated from Temple University. She was previously the communications and research manager for the AMS, an internationally recognized professional association that advances knowledge in the IT and business management areas.
