The Effect of the Adoption of Customer Relatioship Management on Service Quality in the Kenyan Freight Forwarding Industry

Abstract

This research looks at customer relationship management (CRM) and examines the extent of its adoption within the Kenyan freight forwarding industry and its effect on service quality. A descriptive survey was conducted on a sample of fifty freight forwarding firms in Kenya to gauge the application of CRM in the industry, determine its impact on service quality and investigate the factors impeding CRM adoption if any. The results supported that the attributes of innovation proposed by Rogers’ (1995), attitude towards change, marketing orientation, innovation orientation, perceived accessibility of IT solutions, competition intensity and desire of customer intimacy were the antecedents of CRM adoption. The results also showed that CRM dimensions like CRM as a Competitive advantage, Organizational structure designed around customers, Customer-centric performance standards, IT and resources geared at managing customer relationships, actually have radically positive effects on the service quality and the organizational performance aspects of growth rate and profit. This report provides a detailed exploration of relationships between CRM implementation and service quality and this will consequently provide clues as to how freight forwarding companies can accommodate customer relationship creation to improve their overall performance. Limitations of the research study have been reported together with recommendations for future research.