Understanding Adoption of Customer Relationship Management in Small Businesses

The study assesses the adoption of customer relationship management techniques by the small business entities. Interviews are conducted with thirty small retailers on six variables namely, use of digital marketing tools, methods of customer information handling, incentive-based retention practices, feedback mechanism, personal relationship efforts and communication channels. It can be concluded from the analysis that the female participants use e-marketing and formal communication methods more than the males. It is also found that the newer firms use e-marketing tools for promotion. It is seen that participants have used discounts as the most preferred technique to retain profitable customers. The findings confirm that the participants of this study also believe that by offering services to the best of customer’s expectations and taking care of the customer’s welfare have helped the entities in the development of good social bonds.