Dissertation to receive a master's degree in the field of management
Abstract
Today, companies and organizations operate in the era of customer-oriented economy, in which the customer is the real ruler of the market, and this approach is the result of excess production capacity. Therefore, companies should learn how to focus on the quality of the introductory service, which is actually the primary principle for these people to gain customer trust. They know the customer's need and meet that need quickly and professionally with their products or services. In the meantime, creativity and innovation are factors that they always consider, and they always have a solid and customer-friendly reason for everything they do. In fact, creating confidence in the customer and gaining his trust is the most difficult task for those who offer goods or services for sale in the market. They should consider customers as a financial asset that needs to be managed and maximized like any other asset. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between CRM and the quality of services provided in all Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province, Rasht city. The statistical population of this research is Bank Mellat employees in Rasht city and using the sample size formula, the sample size is 110 people. In this research, the research method is based on the purpose, applied, and based on the method of data collection, descriptive-survey. Also, a questionnaire has been used to collect data, and Cronbach's alpha has been used to evaluate its validity using experts' opinions and for the reliability of its questions. Descriptive statistics have also been used to check the demographic variables of the questionnaire, as well as structural equations using LISREL software to check the correctness of the hypotheses. In the results of our research, we found that there is a significant relationship between customer relationship management with employee responsibility, employee reliability, and service assurance from employees.
Key words: employee responsibility, reliability, service assurance, customer relationship management
Introduction
Nowadays, companies and organizations operate in a customer-oriented economy, in which the customer is the real ruler of the market, and this approach is the result of excess production capacity. Therefore, companies must learn how to move from a focus on product production to a focus on customer ownership. They should consider customers as a financial asset that needs to be managed and maximized like any other asset. In addition to formulating strategies to attract new customers and do business with them, companies are also trying to maintain current customers and create a permanent relationship with them. They have realized that the loss of a customer is more than the loss of a sales item, and it means the loss of the entire flow of purchases that the customer can make during his life or the period when he is a buyer of the company's products. Therefore, customer relationship management should be used in order to maintain current customers and meet their needs, and win their trust. Differentiating competitors is to constantly provide superior quality services to customers, and many service organizations and companies have realized the important point that providing quality services can bring them a strong competitive advantage and provide a suitable response to customers' expectations of the quality of services provided. In service organizations, one of the most important factors in maintaining and attracting new customers is service quality. In fact, in service organizations, providing better and appropriate quality is one of the basic strategies for the survival of the organization (Payne, 2004). It is a quality service that can meet the needs and expectations of the customer and is consistent with the level of customer expectations, customer expectations are also related to what customers want and what they feel the service provider should offer them. If the customer relationship management system in service organizations is well designed and implemented, it will lead to a complete and comprehensive understanding of the customer (Pour Heydari et al., 2019). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows companies to easily identify profitable customers and focus marketing efforts on customers who buy from the company.A better understanding of the current customer allows businesses to interact, respond and effectively communicate with them in order to maintain customer trust and significantly increase customer retention rate (Plessis, 2004). In other words, service quality is evaluated based on three dimensions including reliability, responsibility, and responsiveness of employees. The implementation of CRM in many organizations has increased competitiveness, increased revenue and reduced operating costs. Efficient and effective customer relationship management leads to increased customer satisfaction, creating loyal customers and increasing customer retention rates (kevork, 2006). Customer relationship management helps the service organization to evaluate customer loyalty and profitability in the form of repeated purchases, purchase amounts, and purchase period (Amiri, 2018). Establishing good relationships with customers is the key to success in business. In other words, customer relationship management is another way to identify customers and keep them satisfied and turn them into regular customers. Therefore, considering that organizations have recognized that customers are considered their most important assets, they finally view relationships with customers as beneficial interactions that require proper management. Customer relationship management consists of methodology and software, processes and tools that help in the management of the organization to communicate with customers. Finally, due to the importance of the customer as one of the pillars of an organization's life and the emphasis on customer relationship management, it can be mentioned as one of the effective factors in improving service quality (Amiran, 2018). In this research, we intend to examine the relationship between customer relationship management and the quality of services provided by the employees and managers of all Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province, so as to create a basis for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty by creating more effective communications, attracting and retaining customers.
1-3) The importance and necessity of conducting research
According to the emergence of bank companies and the number of institutions providing banking services, the institutions active in this industry are witnessing an increase in competition in order to gain a higher position than the country's bank market share. On the one hand, due to the large number of private and public banks, customers have the choice of multiple banks to do their financial affairs. In such conditions, there has been an extensive competition between banks and credit institutions in the direction of attracting new customers, keeping current customers and making customers loyal, and success in such a competitive market requires increasing the quality of banking services. Increasing the level of satisfaction and attracting and retaining customers. Considering the importance of customer relationship management in attracting and retaining customers and also considering the banking competition in Iran, this study aims to investigate the relationship between customer relationship management and service quality. In this way, a platform can be created to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by creating more effective communication, attracting and retaining customers, and in this way, the stakeholders of the banks will witness an increase in their market share and more profitability in be compared with competitors (Salarzahi, 2019). With the correct implementation of customer relationship management in this bank, they will improve the quality of service provided by the employees and satisfy their customers as much as possible, and in this way lead to more progress and success of the bank.
1-4) Research objectives
A) The main objective of the research:
To examine the relationship between customer relationship management and the quality of services provided by employees in Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province
B) Sub-objectives of the research:
Investigating the relationship between customer relationship management and employee accountability in Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province
Investigating the relationship between customer relationship management and service reliability from employees in Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province
Investigating the relationship between customer relationship management and employee responsiveness in Bank Mellat branches in Gilan province
1-5) Research conceptual model
According to the research background and hypotheses, the conceptual model of the present study is presented:
Dimensions of service quality
Service reliability
Employee accountability
Employee responsibility
Figure (1-1): Conceptual research model
According to the research literature, the conceptual model of the research is shown in the figure above, and in this model, the independent variable is the dimensions of customer relationship management.