Nowadays, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been a competitive edge of many companies. It is critical for companies to get and maintain profitable customers. For the purpose of sustaining this competitive edge, companies should manage the Customer Information (CI) more effectively.
The major goals of this research are 1) to identify the activities of the CIM and the factors affecting on the Customer Information Management (CIM), 2) to show the relationship between the proficiency of the CIM and the CI Quality, and 3) to verify the mediating effects by the proficiency of the CIM process between the affecting factors and the CI Quality.
An empirical study was undertaken to test the hypotheses and data were collected from 65 companies. Multiple regression analysis and ANOVA were employed to test the hypotheses, and Cluster analysis was conducted for further research.
The major findings are as follows: (1) There are 6 activities in the CIM process and 5 factors affecting the CIM. (2) The information sharing inclination, the appraisal and reward system, and the IT support are related to the CIM process. (3) The proficiency of the CIM process is closely related to the CI Quality. (4) The proficiency of the CIM process plays a mediator role between the affecting factors and the CI Quality. (5) The analysis activity and the evaluation activity are significantly related to the CI Quality through the separation of the CIM process. (6) By the criteria as the level of the IT and interactivity embodied in the CIM process, 4 types of group were identified while the cluster analysis. (7) By the criteria as the each CIM process, 5 types of group were identified while the cluster analysis.
The results suggest that companies should increase the proficiency of the CIM process to perform CRM more effectively, especially the proficiency of the analysis activity and evaluation activity.
