Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Strategies Practices in Malaysia Retailers
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Strategies Practices in Malaysia Retailers
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Strategies Practices in Malaysia Retailers
com
ScienceDirect
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 130 (2014) 354 361
INCOMaR 2013
Abstract
The retailer and customer relationship is favourable for organizations to flourish in any economic condition and for customers to
receive quality products and services. Therefore, the right Customer Relationship Management Strategies practiced is able to
create a strong relationship with customers and at the end of the day it will creates loyal customers. This will subsequently
increase companys profitability regardless of economic condition. This study was conducted to examine the CRM strategies
practices among retailers. A total number of 420 questionnaires were distributed to four selected retail companies in Shah Alam
and 304 (72%) questionnaires were returned and used for the analysis. Based on the findings, it was found that Operational
Excellence is the most effective CRM Strategies that led to customer loyalty in retail industry in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Whereby,
product leadership less used by the retailer in CRM strategies. The researcher believes that the customer felt that they need to
trust the company first before they can really commit and be loyal to the company. The findings of this study benefit the
organization in many ways such as by using this study as a guideline to conduct business to achieve organizational goals and at
the end of the day, creating customer loyalty. However, future research should include other the retail companies in Selangor and
other states in Malaysia.
2014
2014 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Publishedby
byElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and
and peer-review
Committee
of of
INCOMaR
2013.
Selection
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underresponsibility
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Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Operational Excellence; Product Leadership; Customer Intimacy; Customer; Trust; Customer
Satisfaction; Customer Loyalty
1877-0428 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of INCOMaR 2013.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.042
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355
1. Introduction
Customer relationship has become the main medium in gaining profits by all kind of business in Malaysia.
Roberts (2005) stated that, the 1980s saw the emergence of database marketing, which was simply a catch phrase to
define the practice of setting up customer service groups to speak individually to all of a companys customers.
Businesses started to see that the importance of having a good relationship their customers in gaining more profits.
Effectively designed customer relationship program gives a lot of benefits to the consumers as well as profits to
the retailing businesses. Roberts (2005) clarified that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those
magnificent concepts that swept the business world in the 1990s with the promise of forever changing the way
businesses small and large interacted with their customer bases. The importance of designing effective customer
relations program should be the first thing in mind of the retailing industry managers., The retailer need to know the
exact stage of any given sales process, they need to know their best prospects and leads, they need to know the
strengths and weaknesses of each member of their mobile sales team, and they need to know all this, or any part of
it, instantly Syed Ali (2007). That's where the importance of CRM comes into its own whether it's offering discounts
or freebies; these are geared towards maintaining continued customer patronage and giving the customers 100%
satisfaction from the purchase of company product or services (Wingard, 2008). In Masterson (2007) study,
managing your customer relationship is important, but is critical for Service Businesses who rely on repeat
customers, ongoing contracts and referrals. While in Anisimova (2007) study, it mentioned that retail companies
need to know the type of customer they have. Retail companies need to know what's important to their customer.
Retail companies also need to know whether your customer is transactional or long term.
It is important to distinguish the differences between long term and transactional customers because if managers
ask a transactional for too much information they will see it as an invasion of the retail companies privacy, whereas
long term customers will see it as creating a more personal relationship. Businesses need to create a balance between
these two customers.
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now more aware of CRM and have a positive view on its market growth.
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they want as their customer. The company is built up based on the knowledge of the individual customers and their
preferences. Firms that pursue customer intimacy strategy will customize solution, install this solution and take
responsibility for the customers success (Zineldin, 2006). Zineldin (2006) also mentioned that, customer-intimate
companies invest in a highly skilled work force and give them great latitude to solve customers problems in the
field.
3. Research Methodologies
Conducting a research involving hundreds or thousands of elements, so it is practically impossible to collect
data from or test or examine every element. The results of the research are more consistent because tiredness is
reduced and less error will therefore result in collecting data, especially when a large number of elements were
involved. According to Sekaran (2006), the sample should be small enough to provide a manageable volume of
data, but the sample must accurately represent the population if any valid inferences are to be drawn from the
sample results. A few phone calls have been made in order to get the population of the study. Due to the strict
policy in giving out customers information, none of these selected retail companies revealed the information needed
by the researcher.
The researcher has decided to use quota sampling. According to Sekaran (2006), quota sampling ensures that
certain groups are adequately represented in the study through the assignment of the quota. Generally, the quota
fixed for each subgroup is based on the total numbers of each group in the population. Table 1 shows the
distribution of the respondents as the 400 respondents were chosen at the retail companies. The 400 respondents
taken are based on the similar previous research conducted by Che Chik, Rosidah, Che Wan Faridah (2005).
Table 1. Number of the respondents
Retail Companies
Tesco Hypermarket
Number of respondents
105
Giant Hypermarket
105
Bintang Supermarket
105
105
TOTAL
420
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359
4. Findings
4.1 Description of sample
The sample of the study involves responses from 420 responses representing four (4) retail companies in Shah
Alam, Selangor. However, only 304 completed surveys was returned which made up 72% from the proposed
number. The participating responses were the customer of respective retail companies involved. The 44 survey
responses collected from Bintang Supermarket which represented 15% of total respondent. Table 2 shows the
distribution of the respondents as 420 respondents was chosen at the retail companies. The 400 respondents taken
were based on the similar previous research conducted by Che Chik, Rosidah, Che Wan Faridah (2005).
Table 2. Summary of the distribution of retail companies in Shah Alam.
Retail Companies
Tesco Hypermarket
Giant Hypermarket
Bintang Supermarket
The Store Supermarket
TOTAL
Returned/
Completed
Number of respondents
105
105
105
105
420
98
101
44
61
304
32
33
15
20
100
SD
Operational Excellence
3.75
.48
Product Leadership
3.68
.43
Customer Intimacy
3.73
.47
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Mohd Azizul Sulaiman et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 130 (2014) 354 361
Table 4 below shows the summary of descriptive statistical analysis for all customer relationship management
strategies (Operational Excellence). For the overall sample, the variable means ranged between 4.09 (The layout of
the products helps me in purchasing the products I wanted) to 3.53 (The speed of service delivery at this store is
very good).
Table 4. Descriptive statistics of operational excellence (n=304)
Operational Excellence
M
SD
4.09
.64
3.80
.75
3.53
.69
3.58
.80
Table 5 shows the overall summary of descriptive statistical analysis for all customer relationship management
strategies (Product Leadership). For the overall sample, the variable means ranged between 4.03 (This store sells
products that meet my necessity and needs) to 3.02 (The products and items sold at this are unique and cannot be
found at anywhere else).
Table 5. Descriptive statistics of Product Leadership (n=304)
Product Leadership
Mean
SD
The products and items sold at this are unique and cannot be found
at anywhere else.
3.02
.77
3.87
.58
3.91
.52
3.91
.62
3.79
.81
Table 6 below shows the overall summary of descriptive statistical analysis for all customer relationship
management strategies (Customer Intimacy). For the overall sample, the variable means ranged between 3.92 (The
store provides customer service center so I can refer to them if I have any problem or inquiry) to 3.51 (The frontline
employees of this store are always willing to help me).
Table 6. Descriptive statistics of Customer Intimacy (n=304)
Customer Intimacy
Mean
SD
3.92
.62
The frontline employees of this store are always willing to help me.
3.51
.73
This store provides timely information when there are new products
and services.
3.83
.69
3.66
.64
5. Conclusion
From the findings, it can be seen that the customer relationship management strategies that most used in retail
companies in Shah Alam as perceived by the customer was operational excellence (M=3.75) and the least practiced
was product leadership (M=3.68). According to Soderlund, 1999, the idea behind the operational excellence is that
the companies focus on the price and convenience where the companies normally fight the lowest price in the
industry. Furthermore, the companies constantly were taking the rewards from that cost-leadership position and
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361
reinvesting them to further drive the costs down or to increase the convenience of doing business with customer.
On the other hand, Soderlund, 1999 also stated that product leadership can be explained as the most innovative
company on the block where the companies are constantly providing the most innovative solutions to your
customers. In order to become product leadership, the needs on technology advancement and financially excellent is
crucially needed. To become product leadership, the investment on the effort has made most companies prefer to go
for other strategy rather than to become product leadership. This idea has supported this study whereby it can be
clearly seen than product leadership is the least practiced strategy in retail companies in Shah Alam.
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