CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT E AS PEQUENAS E MÉDIAS EMPRESAS: UM ESTUDO DE MÚLTIPLOS CASOS EM EMPRESAS PORTUGUESAS

Abstract

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerges as a response to organizations that choose to adoptstrategies of relationship marketing so as to o er customers a more personalized experience. The need forsignificant investments in the purchase of technological systems and to adapt the internal procedures causesthe Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to remain in a more traditional posture, unlike the largeenterprises. However, increased competition, globalization of markets, technological development and the ephemerality of customer preferences have led many SMEs to rethink their business. This article seeks toanswer the question "how CRM is adopted in the SMEs, for the purpose of analyzing the critical successfactors relevant to the adoption of CRM in the SMEs?" Therefore case studies were made of threePortuguese enterprises. Interviews were conducted and secondary documents were analyzed to collect data.As the main contribution, an analysis was made of those critical success factors for the adoption of CRMwhich should be considered most important by the SMEs. In conclusion it was found that the enterprisesstudied during the project of CRM implementation had attributed greater importance to the followingcritical success factors, integration of information and data, e icient human resource management andsupport of top management. Furthermore, because of limited resources, it is important for these enterprisesto plan the process of CRM in advance to ensure that the best choices in terms of technology are made.