A study by F. Hannich, B. Rüeger, C. Scherrer, B. Gehring, R. Seiler, S. Müller, M. Hüttermann, D. Kübler and M. Stadelmann sponsored by the Swiss Post Office

Main sponsor

Industry sponsorsTurning Opportunities into Profit

From Transaction to Relationship.Crossing Borders.

Swiss CRM 2014Application and Trends in SwissCorporations

3Brief Summary of CRM Study

In the context of the eighth “Swiss CRM” Trend Study, the

Institute of Marketing Management of the School of Man-

agement and Law at Zurich University of Applied Sciences

(ZHAW) surveyed a total of 467 decision-makers in Swiss

companies about their customer relationship manage-

ment (CRM).

As in previous years, the first two chapters are an over-

view of the status quo in Swiss companies and of current

developments in CRM. Chapter 3 deals with the current

CRM trend issues in Switzerland, while chapter 4 focus-

es on collaborative CRM as a key subject area. Chapter

5 contains an interview describing the development

steps taken by Poinz, the previous year›s CRM Innova-

tion Award winner.

CURRENT STATUS OF CRM IN SWITZERLAND

As the findings of the 2014 CRM Study indicate, Swiss

companies are well aware of the significance of CRM for

the success of their business ventures and their competi-

tiveness, and that they are committed to CRM. Invest-

ments into CRM are still growing, as is the number of com-

panies using a CRM software solution in their customer

relationship management activities.

Compared to previous years, there has been a slight in-

crease in the importance of the software perspective of

CRM. 22.7% of all the companies surveyed stated that

they use CRM as a company-wide system linking all cus-

tomer data by means of special software packages. In the

previous year, this definition was only selected by 17.2%,

Brief Summary of CRM Study

STRONGER PERCEPTION OF CRM AS LINKING ALL CUSTOMER DATA USING SPECIAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Figure 1: Perspectives of CRM

2012

2013

2014

Frequencies in %

60

50

40

30

20

10

50,9

29,7 3

2,4

29,9

50,4

47,

4

17,2

22,7

19,4

CRM is a company-wide organizational and leadership principle which encompasses

all measures to be taken to achieve improved customer orientation and customer satisfaction

CRM describes process improvements which are designed to increase the efficiency of

operational customer management activities in marketing, sales, and service

CRM is the company-wide linking of all customer data using special

software packages

4

the coming year, the majority of companies (81.5%) wants

to focus on acquisition and on the development of their

customer lifecycle. Only 18.5% of the companies are plan-

ning to expand mainly their activities in the area of cus-

tomer retention in the coming year. Even if attracting new

customers is a key issue, the question that must be raised

in this context is whether companies have actually recog-

nized just how important customer retention is. A possible

explanation may lie with measurability, which on the whole

has not yet been implemented.

CRM TRENDS IN SWITZERLAND

Three data issues, i.e. individual customer care according

to customer value, the personalization or individualization

of services, and the integration of CRM and ERP software

are the top trends emerging from the study. Efficiency, to-

gether with customer communication, constitutes a key

topic for companies and “communication efficiency” is the

biggest newcomer of the 2014 CRM Study.

With regard to CRM trends, it is remarkable how little at-

tention is paid by companies to global CRM trends. This

area has potential for Swiss companies prepared to iden-

tify and downscale useful data and adapt it to their own

needs.

and in the year before that only by 19.4% of the compa-

nies surveyed. This result points to a higher awareness of

the significance of data as a result of the data scandals of

the past year. At the same time, the figures also show that

Swiss companies believe that there is considerable poten-

tial in their customer data, which is why they are interested

in analytical CRM. Process improvements aiming to in-

crease the efficiency of operational customer manage-

ment activities are considered as important by some 30%

of those surveyed. By far the most frequently named item

was the belief in CRM as a company-wide organizational

and leadership principle (47.7%).

With regard to software, there has been a rise in industry-

specific solutions (+11 percentage points). CRM software

providers have been successful: more than half of the

companies surveyed (59%) are quite happy or even very

happy with their CRM solution.

Again, decision-makers consider operational customer re-

lationship management to be a key area to invest in. De-

spite expectations of budget increases, a lack of funds and

the absence of clear processes were identified as the

greatest challenges. Significant room for improvement can

also be said to exist in the area of customer loyalization. In

5Brief Summary of CRM Study

CRM TREND BAROMETER Multiple answers, in %

New

Comparison to 2013, incl. change in placement:

Figure 2: CRM Trends in 2014

36,8 (2013: 44,7)

35,3 (2013: 55,3)

35,1 (2013: 52,7)

34,5 (2013: 34,4)

32,5 (2013: 27,5)

32,3 (2013: 38,1)

14,6 (2013: 25,3)

14,3 (2013: 12,5)

13,1 (2013: 15,0)

12,2 (2013: 19,0)

9,9 (2013: 10,6)

8,8 (neu)

8,4 (2013: 5,1)

2,6 (2013: 5,1)

27,8 (neu)

23,3 (2013: 31,1)

23,1 (2013: 26,7)

22,7 (2013: 30,0)

22,5 (2013: 34,1)

21,0 (2013: 24,9)

21,0 (neu)

20,6 (2013: 39,6)

20,6 (neu)

ì +2

î –1

î –1

ì +2

ì +5

î –1

è 0

è 0

ì +2

î –1

î –4

ì +1

î –10

î –6

î –2

î –4

î –6

î –4

î –4

î –8

Integration of CRM and ERP Systems

Individual customer care according to customer value

Personalization/individualization

Return to personal contact

CRM distribution support

Customer portals

Communication effectiveness

Analytical CRM to analyze potential

Time-to-market / reaction speed

Apps for customers*

Customer dialog management

Recommendation marketing

Measuring marketing efficiency

Internal mobile CRM*

Customer intelligence

Loyality programs

Cross-channel management*

Data protection

Emotionalization of CRM

Social CRM

Backend excellence

Big data

Internet of things

Trend increasing ì Trend decreasing îTrend stable è

0 20 40 60

*new formulation compared to prev. year

6

Cooperation with other companies is common among

Swiss companies. On the other hand, it is no sufficiently

implemented with regard to CRM because companies are

still blocked by their efforts to achieve internal cooperation

(see Figure 3).

Although external collaboration is not yet that common

with regard to CRM compared to internal collaboration, the

customers and their needs are clearly at the focus of com-

panies› efforts: Cooperation drivers are not so much inter-

nal aspects but rather customer-specific benefits such as

more individual and more comprehensive offers to custom-

ers (51.6% and 46.5%, respectively), as well as more cus-

tomer intimacy through integration of channels (46.5%).

Companies are afraid they might become too dependent

on CRM, which impedes their efforts to concentrate on

their core competencies in CRM. Fear of loss of control

also explains why companies (still) hesitate to outsource

customer-related activities: About three fourths (74.8%) of

all companies surveyed define their customer processes

as core processes that are carried out and monitored by

the company itself.

Overall, the study shows that Swiss companies are in-

creasing their CRM measures. On the other hand, many

opportunities still remain untapped. These include, among

others, the utilization of CRM solutions as tools to system-

atically tie customers to the company, the use of global

CRM trends to benefit one›s own company, and collabora-

tive ventures involving CRM across companies. The Insti-

tute of Marketing Management looks forward to following

these developments in future studies.

COLLABORATIVE CRM

The 2014 study focuses on collaborative CRM as a trend

issue. Compared to “collaborative CRM”, which is found

frequently in the literature and which mainly reflects the

technical side, collaborative CRM focuses predominantly

on a comprehensive approach encompassing both the

strategic and the operational perspectives. Collaborative

CRM can be an effective future solution in the face of rising

customer expectations and increasing pressure from com-

petitors. The coordination of channels throughout the

company and sustainable collaboration with other organi-

zational units can offer consistent customer experiences

and address customer’s needs on an individual basis.

THE MAJORITY OF COMPANIES REGARDS COLLABORATIVE CRM AS INTERNAL COOPERATION

Collaborative CRM is understood to mean the customer-oriented and customer-centered coordination of customer contact across several channels

Collaborative CRM is understood to mean the interaction with other organizational units or companies (partners) in customer-related processes

Collaborative CRM is understood to mean the integration of new technologies into CRM systems in order to achieve an improvement of the interaction among all those involved

N=314

58,6

26,8

14,6

%

%

%

Figure 3: The Collaborative CRM Perspective

Exact question: What perspective of collaborative CRM is relevant for your company?

7Brief Summary of CRM Study

COOPERATIVE CRM SHOULD MAINLY CREATE VALUE FOR CUSTOMERS Frequencies in %

0 20 40 60 80

Figure 4: The Benefits of Collaborative CRM

51,6

46,5

46,5

39,1

38,1

36,9

36,5

32,1

27,6

24,7

22,8

21,8

7,7

7,4

6,4

0,6

Individual customer offers

Comprehensive customer offers

More customer intimacy through integration of channels

Cost savings

Higher market presence

Higher flexibility

Focus on core competencies

Improved service

Faster information transmission

Emotionalization/customer loyalty through integation of channels

Knowledge transfer

Increase of transparency within the collaboration processes

Reduction of error rate through outsourcing of specialized CRM providers

Risk reduction

Decreasing need of capital

Others

Zurich University of Applied Sciences

School of Management and LawSt.-Georgen-Platz 2P.O. Box8401 WinterthurSwitzerland

www.sml.zhaw.ch

June

201

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