CRM (customer relationship management) can fundamentally change how a business deals and manages everything they deal with from internal organisation to how the business is seen by the customer. The purpose of this research is to draw recommendations and ascertain the impact a CRM system can have on a medium sized service based business like August Recognition and how the results of this research can help shape an organisations attitude and approach to CRM, while also assessing the surrounding factors to CRM like the customer base and supporting systems.
Based on a combination of 6 interviews from August Recognition employees, data taken from Augusts internal systems, literature around CRM and further secondary research on the nature of customers all utilised to understand every effect positive and negative a CRM system can bring.
The research helped conclude that while CRM systems can provide multitudes of opportunities for businesses, its problems and natural attributes in automation and efficiency can remove the human spark that a lot of service based businesses need to appeal to customers. However the research also highlighted the continued need and importance of humanity when dealing with CRM systems, from the human customers who will be dealing with the systems in place, to the humans who will be managing and improving the system. This in turn reveals a crucial final point in the research, CRM systems will always require a human influence to keep the systems suitable for those it is mean to serve, other human beings.