(Customer Relaitionship in Saudi Arabia

Extent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM ) Adoption in Saudi Arabia

Background of the Study

Establishing and maintaining long-term relations with customers lead to multiple benefits for business firms . Having a sustainable customer base reduces costs in constantly trying to draw a new set of customers . A firm 's customer base also contributes to savings through voluntary advertising or recommendation of the firm to expand its market . A pool of regular customers also ensures sales (Agarwal et al , 2004 ) By implementing strategies aligned with the demands of a particular market segment

, this not only establishes relations with customers but also facilitate customer satisfaction to minimise attrition (Chen Popovich 2003 . Technological developments provided ways of developing and keeping relations with customers . The overwhelming benefits of building customer relationship and technological tools support great potential for achieving competitive advantage by business firms (Sharp , 2004

Business firms in Saudi Arabia appear fragmented when it comes to the importance and effort accorded to building customer relations as well as utilisation of customer relations management strategies to gain the benefits . The large firms in Saudi Arabia , especially those with websites and provide online services manage customer relations . However there are also large firms operating through traditional practices that do not incorporate formal customer relations strategies in their operations . The small firms in Saudi Arabia that engage in technology do not necessarily implement customer relations strategies or experience problems in managing IT-based customer relations while the small firms without online presence are likely not have any formal...