APPLICATION OF A CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR A LARGE INDEPENDENT TRAVEL AGENT

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a popular catchphrase and is perceived by many companies to be an important factor in achieving competitive advantage. CRM is considered to be one of the four key areas of emerging digital firms, seamlessly linking manufacturing plants, offices and marketing in a global economy. CRM has unfortunately been characterized with over 60% failure during 2001. The paper describes the successful implementation of a pilot CRM project for a large independent travel agent operating in the UK with a turnover of £500 million and a work force of over 2,000. The paper describes the CRM trial, supported by a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which showed an increase in sales of £150,000 which, if implemented across the business, would have increased sales by £1.2 million. The paper provides an example of a successful implementation in an area which is categorized with a high failure rate of CRM implementations.