The Impact of Operational Customer Relationship Management on Customer Loyalty

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of operational customer relationship management (OCRM) on customer loyalty with special reference to the mobile telephone industry in Zimbabwe. Motivation for the research was generated by the need to find out how customer loyalty can be created through OCRM. The research was conducted by reviewing various streams of literature and interviews with 7 representatives from the 3 dominant companies in the industry and 15 sampled customers from these three competing companies in the mobile telephone industry (MTI). A semi-structured questionnaire was used. All qualitative responses were grouped into themes for coding purposes. The data gathered was coded and captured to form panel data for further analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS0. Results of the research showed that because of the highly dynamic market environment, consumers have become highly demanding calling for the strategic significance of the intelligent network in OCRM for the creation of customer satisfaction. The research also revealed that increasing organizational performance through operational CRM implementation can increase customer perceived value which results in customer loyalty and competitiveness. Our current research focused on operational CRM’s influence on customer loyalty. Future research should assess the impact of analytical CRM on customer loyalty. The measurement and critical analysis of customer life time value against company investments in building loyalty should redirect future research towards this area