The aim of this year’s conference on customer relationship management, traditionally organized by the Infoarena group, is to raise awareness of the profitability of investing in CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which can guarantee the necessary market advantage.
In times of crisis, much is said about the profitability of investment because many CRM projects in the past have not yielded the desired results: about 70 percent of investments in CRM IT systems have failed. However, as highlighted by Carmen Majetić Pavić, director of Tagoras, investment is profitable if supported by organizational activities. If there is a shared vision and values, support from management and leadership, and quality change management, which is inevitable and involves a shift in orientation from products to customers, the success achieved by telecommunications companies and banks through the implementation of CRM systems can be replicated by many other companies. The conference featured many positive examples of companies, such as Konzum and Iskon, which have applied CRM systems in the best way and achieved excellent results.
Tomislav Čorak, director of A. T. Kearney, confirmed that faith in CRM is returning. As he stated, spending on CRM is growing by 12 percent annually, and clients and customers increasingly feel the need for such investments. The crisis has significantly contributed to this trend. It has forced companies to think about how to be more flexible in the market, utilize technologies, and increase efficiency. – The added value that investing in CRM brings is cost efficiency. Effective management of customer relationships increases the efficiency of the sales force in the market. CRM allows for a quality response to the question ‘what does the customer need’ and separates marginal customers from the best, loyal customers who can contribute to the development of services or products with their feedback – said Čorak.
