ARTICLE IN PRESS

Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363

www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman

Customer relationship management in small–medium enterprises:

The case of Turkish tourism industry
S- evki Özgenera,, Rifat İrazb
a
Department of Business Administration, Nevs- ehir Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Erciyes, Nevs- ehir, Turkey,
b
Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Selcuk, Konya, Turkey,
Received 7 February 2005; accepted 15 June 2005

Abstract

In this study, the factors influencing the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) at small and medium-sized
tourism enterprises in Cappadocia were analyzed. The findings of the research indicate that communication-distribution
infrastructure, business dynamics, customer relations and innovation-quality factors affect CRM. Business dynamics plays an
especially critical role in customer relations. It was also determined that the most important barriers to small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector are inadequate supporting budgets, lack of senior management commitment to CRM and
poor communication.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Customer relationship management (CRM); SMEs; Tourism sector; Factor analysis

1. Introduction small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Cappa-

Globalization, increasing competition and advances
in information and communication technology has
forced companies to focus on managing customer
relationships in order to efficiently maximize revenues.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the key
competitive strategy businesses need to stay focused on
the needs of the customers and to integrate a customer-
facing approach throughout the organization. By using
information and communication technology, businesses
are trying to get closer to the customer so that they can
create long-term relationships. Thus, deploying CRM
initiatives has become very common. This study aims to
define the main factors influencing the implementation
of CRM and to identify factors which prevent CRM
from being implemented by using data collected from
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 384 2152016 x127;
fax: +90 384 2152010.
E-mail addresses: sozgener@eunev.edu.tr (S- . Özgener),
rifatiraz@hotmail.com (R. İraz).
docia. Initially a theoretical outline of CRM will be
discussed. Then, based on empirical research results,
various aspects of CRM implementation in SMEs in the
tourism sector will be analyzed.
2. A framework for CRM
2.1. The definition and the scope of CRM
Increasing competition and decreasing customer
loyalty have led to the emergence of concepts that focus
on the nurturing of relationships to customers. There-
fore, there is a major change in the way companies
organize themselves, as businesses switch from product-
based to customer-based structures. A key driver of this
change is the advent of CRM which is underpinned by
information and communication technologies (Ryals &
Knox, 2001).
Day and Van Den Bulte (2002) define CRM as a
cross-functional process for achieving a continuing

0261-5177/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2005.06.011
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S- . Özgener, R. İraz / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363
dialogue with customers, across all their contact and
access points, with personalized treatment of the most
valuable customers, to increase customer retention and
the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.
CRM refers to all business activities directed towards
initiating, establishing, maintaining, and developing
successful long-term relational exchanges. CRM is the
set of methodologies and tools that help an enterprise
manage customer relationships in an organized way
(Lawson-Body & Limayem, 2004). In other words,
CRM can be defined as an interactive process achieving
the optimum balance between corporate investments
and the satisfaction of customer needs to generate the
maximum profit. It involves (Gebert, Geib, Kolbe, &
Riempp, 2002):

Measuring both inputs across all functions including
marketing, sales and service costs and outputs in
terms of customer revenue, profit and value.

Acquiring and continuously updating knowledge
about customer needs, motivations and behavior
over the lifetime of the relationship.

Applying customer knowledge to continuously im-
prove performance through a process of learning
from successes and failures.

Integrating the activities of marketing, sales and
service to achieve a common goal.

Implementing appropriate systems to support custo-
mer knowledge acquisition, sharing and measuring
CRM effectiveness.

Constantly flexing the balance between marketing,
sales and service inputs against changing customer
needs to maximize profit.
CRM is an active, participatory and interactive
relationship between business and customer. The
objective is to achieve a comprehensive view of
customers, and be able to consistently anticipate and
react to their needs with targeted and effective activities
at every customer touch point (Piccoli, O’connor,
Capaccioli, & Alvarez, 2003).
CRM is essentially a two-stage process. The task of
the first stage is to master the basics of building
customer focus. This means moving from a product
orientation to a customer orientation and defining
market strategy from outside-in and not from inside-
out. The focus should be on customer needs rather than
product features. Businesses in the second stage are
moving beyond the basics; they do not rest on their
laurels but push their development of customer orienta-
tion by integrating CRM across the entire customer
experience chain, by leveraging technology to achieve
real-time customer management, and by constantly
innovating their value proposition to customers (Ry-
gielski, Wang, & Yen, 2002).
1357
2.2. The importance of CRM
Customer focus and attention to customer service is
not a new concept. It is certainly a business dynamic
that has been recognized for a long time by more people
than the management gurus such as Peter F. Drucker.
CRM is more evolution than revolution. Thus, achiev-
ing the full potential of each customer relationship
should be the major goal of every business (Boxwell,
2000). Particularly, customer relationships play a major
role in the competence development of SMEs (Skaates &
Seppanen, 2002). SMEs are embracing CRM as a major
element of business strategy, because technological
applications permit a precise segmentation, profiling
and targeting of customers and competitive pressures
require a customer-centric culture (Gurau, Ranchhod, &
Hackney, 2003).
To survive in the global markets, focusing on the
customer is becoming a key factor for SMEs. It is
known that it takes up to five times more money to
acquire a new customer than to get an existing customer
to make a new purchase. Hence, customer retention is in
particular important to SMEs because of their limited
resources (Baumeister, 2002). Moreover, a dissatisfied
customer causes market damage because they are
more likely to defect to competition and more
likely to persuade others to defect. It is therefore no
surprise that CRM is an important topic of conversation
in business world (Feinberg, Kadam, Hokam, & Kim,
2002).
CRM is the strategic application of people, processes
and technology to improve and sustain profitable
relationships with customers and partners. CRM
provides transform organizations into customer-centric
enterprises that maximize the value of every customer
(Skaates & Seppanen, 2002). CRM is based on the
ability to facilitate communication and decision-making
to provide consistent, high-quality, and cost-effective
services to all stakeholders (Andrade, 2003). CRM can
help businesses enhance their customer relationships by
attracting more profitable customers and establishing
stronger and more durable customer relationships (Falk,
2004). CRM gives sales force more time to sell, improves
customer response times and quality of customer
service, and allows marketing to better understand
customer issues and trends. At businesses, CRM
philosophy leverages best practices that value customer
information as a corporate asset. It is committed to
helping businesses implement strategies and solutions
improving the way they sell, communicate service and
analyze customers (Skaates & Seppanen, 2002).
CRM is currently one of the hottest topics in the fields
of business strategy, marketing management and
information technology. CRM differs from traditional
marketing initiatives (see Table 1). CRM is also a cross-
functional philosophy that calls for substantial business
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1358 S- . Özgener, R. İraz / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363
Table 1
Traditional marketing versus CRM approach
Traditional marketing Customer relationship
management
Transaction focus Customer focus
Short term focus Lifetime focus
One transaction Multiple transactions
Broadcast approach Sniper approach
One way, one time communications Two way, continuous
dialogue
Segment of many Segment of one
Source: Piccoli et al. (2003, p. 62).
integration. Thus, to implement CRM successfully, a
very different mindset is needed (Piccoli et al., 2003).
Substantial investments in CRM are not right for
everyone. In a small business, for example, it is relatively
easy to keep in touch with customers’ preferences. But,
because of the significant increase in the amount of
information that must be managed as the firm’s scale
and scope increase, successful CRM requires significant
investments in technology, process redesign, and people.
As customers and businesses interact more frequently,
businesses will have to leverage CRM and related
technologies to capture and analyze massive amounts
of customer information. Because, information and
communication technology allows customer data to be
collected, consolidated, manipulated, and analyzed on
an unprecedented scale. However, CRM demands more
than information and communication technology. The
customer must become the focal point of the organiza-
tion. All members of the organization must understand
and support the shared values required for CRM
(Rygielski et al., 2002; Piccoli et al., 2003).
2.3. Business benefits of CRM
CRM focus on managing the relationship between a
business and its current and prospective customer base
as a key to success (Gebert et al., 2002; Falk, 2004). To
be effective, a CRM strategy must encompass and
integrate all customer-facing activities. It should ensure
that no matter where, when, or how a customer interacts
with the company, the contact is personalized, consis-
tent, and demonstrates that the company knows and
values that customer. Business benefits include (Özge-
ner, 2001; Andrade, 2003):

Gathering and integrating information on customers.

Nurturing and maintaining company’s customer
base.

Developing a closer relationship with customers.

Increasing customer satisfaction.

Declining customer acquisition costs.

Ensuring sustainable competitive advantage.

Maximizing profitability due to increased sales.

Increasing customer loyalty as a result of more
personal and efficient service.

Enabling micro-segmentation of markets according
to customers’ needs and wants.

Collaborating with customers for joint value-crea-
tion.

Acquiring well-accepted outcomes of data-mining
activities.

Supporting effective sales efforts through better
management of the sales process.
Consequently, rapid changes on the competitive
environment have forced enterprises to fundamentally
rethink the way they do business. Therefore, CRM,
which is of largely strategically character, is considered
an effective option (Feinberg et al., 2002). But, because
of globalization and developments in information
technologies, CRM applications are becoming more
multifunction (Karimi, Somers, & Gupta, 2001). Many
major businesses use softwares to support CRM
implementations. But many types of software designed
for CRM largely neglect SMEs.
3. A literature review
Eriksson and Löfmarck Vaghult (2000) conducted
empirical studies on customer retention in professional
services, while Karimi et al. (2001) focused on the
impact of electronic commerce CRM on corporate
success. Özgener (2001) executed a survey on CRM at
SMEs. Feinberg et al. (2002) analyzed the state of
electronic customer relationship management in retail-
ing, and Campbell (2003) studied internal processes
involved in creating customer knowledge competence,
which allow financial firms to strategically manage their
CRM programs. Madeja and Schoder (2003) investi-
gated the impact of electronic commerce CRM on
corporate success. Another study of CRM in SMEs was
conducted by Lau (2003). Piccoli et al. (2003) addressed
CRM in the lodging industry. Karakostas, Kardaras, &
Papathanassiou (2005) studied the state of CRM
adoption by the financial services sector and Sigala
(2005) discussed the integration of CRM in hotel
operations.
4. Methodology
In this study, factors affecting CRM implementations
based on data collected from small and medium-sized
tourism enterprises in Cappadocia were analyzed.
Moreover, this study included information about
CRM applications and about the factors which pre-
vented the implementation of CRM in these enterprises.
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S- . Özgener, R. İraz / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363
Many studies were used to design the questionnaire
for the tourism enterprises (Peppard, 2000; Ryals &
Knox, 2001; Kim & Kim, 2005). A questionnaire was
structured to gather information about the managerial
areas of CRM as well as characteristics of the hotels,
restaurants and travel agents. It consisted of 25 items
(see Appendix), scored on a 5-point Likert scale with an
agree/disagree continuum (1 ¼ strongly disagree,
2 ¼ disagree, 3 ¼ neither agree nor disagree, 4 ¼ agree,
5 ¼ strongly agree). The 25 item CRM instrument had
reliability (Cronbach’s a) of 0.934. In addition, multiple
choices questions were designed related to the objectives
of CRM.
The sampling is from small- and medium-sized
tourism enterprises in the Cappadocia region. The data
for sampling was gathered with the help of the Tourism
Ministry and eight municipalities in the region
(Nevs- ehir, Ürgüp, Avanos, Göreme, Uc- hisar, Ortahisar,
Derinkuyu and Kozakh). The enterprises were categor-
ized into two groups, those licensed by the Tourism
Ministry and those licensed by a municipality. Ques-
tionnaires were sent to 318 enterprises.
Cappadocia has an important place in Turkey’s
tourism sector. Based on 2003 data, the area has 41
hotels licensed by the Tourism Ministry, with a bed
capacity of 7698. There are also 51 Group A travel
agencies and 4 tourism enterprises licensed by the
Tourism Ministry. In addition, there are 237 tourism
enterprises (89 restaurants, 82 hotels-motels and 66
pensions) licensed by municipalities. The total bed
capacity of these hotels, motels and pensions is 4420.
E-mail and interviewers were used to distribute
questionnaires to 318 enterprises. The response rate
was 27.6% (88 usable questionnaires), an acceptable
response rate for this kind of study (Lewin, Sakano,
Stephens, & Victor, 1995; Pierce & Henry, 1996).
In this study, factor analysis was used to analyze the
relationships among variables. The basic idea of factor
analysis is to combine several variables into a smaller set
of independent variables without loosing the essential
information from the original dataset (Kurtulus-, 1998).
When factor analysis is conducted, the first step is to
examine whether the dataset is appropriate for factor-
ing. The following steps can be undertaken (Andersen &
Herbertsson, 2003):
Examine the correlation matrix: High correlations
indicate that variables can be grouped into homogenous
sets of variables, and they are thus appropriate for
factor analysis.
Examine Kaiser– Meyer– Olkin measure of overall
sampling adequacy (KMO)1 for each variable: The
KMO measure provides a means to assess the extent
1
No statistical tests exist for the KMO measure, but Kaiser and Rice
(1974) suggest the following guidelines in the interpretation: A KMO
measure larger than 0.9 is marvelous, larger than 0.8 is meritorious,
1359
to which the indicators of a construct belong together,
i.e. a measure of the homogeneity of variables.
A regression analysis is used to examine the relation-
ship between variables obtained by factor analysis.
Furthermore, we calculated means and standard devia-
tions for each variable and a correlation matrix to test
the relationships between variables.
5. Results
5.1. Characteristics of the sample
The rate of enterprises that responded to the
questionnaire was 35.3% hotel, 21.6% pension, 3.4%
motel, 17% travel agency and 22.7% restaurant. Those
enterprises were located in Ürgüp (28.4%), Göreme
(21.6%), Avanos (14.8%), Nevs-ehir (13.6%), Uc- hisar
(10.3%), Ortahisar (6.8%), Kozaklı (2.3%), Derinkuyu
(1.1%) and Güls- ehir (1.1%).
Five point nine percent of the respondents were
female and 94.1% were male. In terms of education
levels, 15.9% of the responders had graduated from
primary school, 31.8% from high school, 48.9% held
Bachelor of Science degrees, and 3.4% had Master’s
degrees.
Respondents held a variety of positions in the
businesses. They included owners (52.3%), senior
managers (15.9%), customer relations managers
(5.7%), information processing managers (3.4%), public
relations managers (2.3%) and other positions (20.5%).
More than 50% of those responding had BS degrees,
and 54.3% had more than 5 years of job experience.
5.2. Business approaches to CRM
Forty six point six percent of SMEs invested in CRM
while 53.4% did not. In 78.4% of the enterprises, CRM
was included in general activities, while in 6.5% of the
enterprises CRM was in the public relations department.
3.7% of the enterprises had separate CRM departments;
11.4% had a CRM department under the top manage-
ment.
In terms of the customer relations perspective, it was
determined that 79.5% of SMEs were customer
oriented, 9.1% were production or service oriented,
and 11.4% were enterprise oriented. The goals of
tourism enterprises for CRM are shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 illustrates that the main goals of CRM imple-
mentations were acquiring new customers (40.9%),
sustaining a competitive advantage (38.8%), customer
(footnote continued)
larger than 0.7 is middling, larger than 0.6 is mediocre, larger than 0.5
is miserable, and below 0.5 unacceptable.
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1360 S- . Özgener, R. İraz / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363

retention (26.1%), improving customer services (25%) was 0.719, in the acceptable range (well above 0.60).
and decreasing costs (14.8%). Therefore the assumptions for carrying out factor
analysis are met. The sample data of 88 responses was
5.3. Factor analysis of CRM at tourism enterprises examined using factor analysis with principal compo-
nents as the extraction technique and varimax as the
Before indicating the factors influencing the customer rotation method.
relations by using factor analysis, (a) a p2 value of Six factors were extracted in the unrotated factor
431.931 and significance level of 0.000 were obtained solution with eigenvalues over 1. These six factors
using Bartlett’s sphericity test, which suggests that the explain 76.2% of the variance. However, interpretation
intercorrelation matrix contains sufficient common of the factors that are not subject to rotation is rarely
variance to make factor analysis worthwhile, (b) significant. Two of the items were rejected due to their
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy low communalities in the first rotated solution to
improve the factor analysis. A more parsimonious
solution was then sought by inspecting the factor scree
45 plot. Then after the content analysis, 9 non-significant
40 variables that have low loading values were not included
35
in factor analysis. After analyzing the remaining 16
Percentage (%)

30
factors, 4 factors having a factor loading of 0.50 and
25
20
eigenvalue greater than 1 were obtained. These four
15
factors explain 74.5% of the variance, which is an
10 acceptable percentage. The compromise is worthwhile
5 because the factor solution is easier to interpret.
0 A varimax rotation was applied which converged in 8
Improving
competitive

Customer

customers
Decreasing

Acquiring

Increasing
retention
Sustaining

advantage

customer

iterations. According to the accepted guidelines for

services

profits
new
costs

identifying significant factor loadings, 0.30 was accepted

as the cut-off point for interpretation purposes. The
Fig. 1. The goals of CRM. factors with the highest loadings were first taken into

Table 2
Results of factor analysis to CRM

Factors Factor loadings Initial eigenvalues Variance explained (%) Cronbach’s a

Communication-distribution infrastructure 6.684 44.559 0.950

Q2. Distribution channels’ effectiveness 0.686
Q20. Database, data mining 0.790
Q21. Sales force automation 0.778
Q23. Utilizing travel agencies and tour operators 0.840
Q24. Designing CRM oriented web sites
0.902
Business dynamics 1.733 11.550 0.844
Q5. Business image 0.786
Q6. Business activity quality 0.841
Q7. Intent of gaining competitive advantage 0.697
Customer relations 1.634 10.893 0.789
Q1. Staff training and behaviors 0.767
Q15. Long-term customer relations 0.648
Q19. Acquainting customers with utilizing products and services 0.749
Q9. Idea of customer retention 0.606
Innovation and quality 1.131 7.539 0.747
Q12. Globalization and recent advances in information technology 0.590
Q16. Idea of gaining new customers 0.644
Q17. Product and service quality 0.863

Total variance explained 74.541

Extraction method: Principal component analysis.

Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization.

Rotation converged in 8 iterations.
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Table 3
Means, standard deviations and correlations of scales

Mean Std. Communication- Business dynamics Customer Innovation and

deviation distribution relations quality
infrastructure

Communication–distribution 2.792 1.023 1.000

infrastructure
Business dynamics 3.572 0.781 0.224* 1.000
Customer relations 3.128 0.641 0.311** 0.477** 1.000
Innovation and quality 3.931 0.518 0.212* 0.239* 0.253* 1.000
**
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 4
The results of regression analysis for customer relations

Variable Standardized regression Std. error t-values Sig. Tolerance value

coefficients (Beta)

Communication-distribution infrastructure 0.196** 0.060 2.040** 0.045 0.923

Business dynamics 0.406* 0.079 4.199* 0.000 0.911
Innovation and quality 0.114 0.119 1.187 0.239 0.916
Adjusted R2 0.258
R2 Square 0.284
F 11.103
Std. error of the estimate 0.552
Significance level 0.000
Durbin–Watson 1.790
Constant 1.045

Dependent variable: Customer relations.

*
po 0.01.
**
po 0.05.

account when naming the factors (Table 2). Four factors
were therefore identified as the main dimensions under-
lying CRM in the tourism sector. Reliability was
evaluated by assessing the internal consistency of the
items representing each factor using Cronbach’s a. The
reliabilities of factors are shown in Table 2. Cronbach’s
a values were high, ranging from 0.75 to 0.95 for the
four factors. The factors are
FACTOR 1: Communication-distribution infrastructure.
FACTOR 2: Business dynamics.
FACTOR 3: Customer relations.
FACTOR 4: Innovation and quality.
Table 2 shows each factor loadings, initial eigenva-
lues, variance and Cronbach’s a.
Descriptive statistics related to variables and the
correlations between the four factors are shown in
Table 3. The analysis of the correlation results showed
that there was a significant relation between customer
relations and other two variables (communication-
distribution infrastructure and business dynamics) at
the 0.05 level. There was also a significant relation
between customer relations and, innovation and quality
(po0:01). Finally, a significant relation was observed
between innovation and quality, and other three variables
(communication-distribution infrastructure, business dy-
namics and customer relations) at the 0.05 level.
A regression analysis was used to examine the
relationship between the other three factors (commu-
nication-distribution infrastructure, business dynamics,
innovation and quality) and customer relations. When
considering communication-distribution infrastructure,
business dynamics, innovation and quality in its entirety
as independent variables, the results show that business
dynamics and communication-distribution infrastruc-
ture have a significant positive relationship with
customer relations in tourism sector (R2 ¼ 0:284). The
results from regression analyses in Table 4 suggest that
the overall model was significant (R2 ¼ 0:284;
F ð3;84Þ ¼ 11:103; po0:001). The interrelation of the three
independent variables was taken into account, and the
R2 (0.284) was significant at the 0.000 level (F ð3;84Þ ¼
11:103). That means that 28.4% of the variance in
customer relations was significantly explained by the
independent variables. Among three independent vari-
ables, business dynamics is the most important in
explaining the variance in customer relations as the
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Table 5
The barriers to CRM

The barriers to CRM Strongly Disagree Neither Agree (%) Strongly Mean Std.
disagree (%) (%) agree nor agree (%) deviation
disagree (%)

Inadequate supporting budgets 0.0 8.0 15.9 33.0 35.2 4.03 0.95
Lack of senior management 6.8 5.7 13.6 36.4 31.8 3.85 1.17
commitment to CRM
Poor communication 1.1 6.8 22.7 37.5 22.7 3.81 0.94
An absence of complementary 4.5 9.1 20.5 33.0 23.9 3.68 1.12
customer management skills
Inefficiencies in business process 2.3 17.0 15.9 39.8 17.0 3.56 1.07
Lack of end-user input at service 1.1 17.0 26.1 28.4 20.5 3.53 1.06
stage
A lack of standardization 0.0 13.6 36.4 25.0 12.5 3.41 0.92
Inter-departmental conflicts 9.1 10.2 21.6 40.9 10.2 3.37 1.15
Lack of cultural readiness 22.7 23.9 27.3 14.8 1.1 2.41 1.08

highest beta (b) value was 0.406. Namely, business
dynamics were found to significantly predict customer
relations (t ¼ 4:199; p ¼ 0:00). This result supports our
prior assertion that business dynamics can be a critical
factor for customer relations in small- and medium-sized
tourism enterprises. The second-ranked variable was
communication-distribution infrastructure, with a beta
(b) of 0.196.
In order to detect the presence of multicollinearity,
the tolerance value is calculated (Table 4). Tolerance is
the variability of selected independent variables not
explained by the other independent variables. Thus, very
small values denote high collinearity. A common cutoff
threshold is a tolerance value of 0.10 (Kim & Kim,
2005). Since all significant variables in Table 4 have
much higher tolerance values than 0.10, there is no
significant collinearity.
5.4. The barriers to CRM
When analyzing Table 5, it is seen that the most
important barriers to CRM for SMEs in the tourism
sector were inadequate supporting budgets, lack of
senior management commitment to CRM, and poor
communication. Furthermore, there were other impor-
tant barriers including an absence of complementary
customer management skills, inefficiencies in business
process, lack of end-user input at the service/design
stage, a lack of standardization, and inter-departmental
conflicts, apart from the lack of cultural readiness.
Besides, it is a fact that for these enterprises, human
behaviors have a very important role in customer relations.
When the factors influencing CRM implementations at
small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Cappado-
cia were analyzed, it was determined that almost half
of SMEs in the tourism sector invested in CRM. The
major factors influencing CRM in those enterprises
were communication-distribution infrastructure, business
dynamics, customer relations and innovation quality.
The analysis of the correlation results showed that
there was a significant relation between customer
relations and other three variables (communication-
distribution infrastructure, business dynamics and,
innovation and quality).
From analyzing the regression results, it was seen that
business dynamics and communication-distribution
infrastructure had an important impact on customer
relations in the tourism sector. Business dynamics was a
crucial factor for customer relations in small- and
medium-sized tourism enterprises.
According to the findings of study, the most
important barriers faced by SMEs in the tourism sector
were inadequate supporting budgets, lack of senior
management commitment to CRM, and poor commu-
nication. As a result, information and communication
technologies, customer participation, internal business
dynamics, ease of use, innovation and quality, security
and flexibility need to be taken into consideration to
improve CRM for SMEs.

6. Conclusion Acknowledgements

Small- and medium-sized enterprises generally have The authors wish to thank Mehmet Yıldız (Selc- uk
limited sources and channels for reaching customers; University), Orhan C - oban and S- efik Kartal (University
consequently they are concerned about keeping customers. of Erciyes) for their assistance.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S- . Özgener, R. İraz / Tourism Management 27 (2006) 1356–1363
Appendix
Factors influencing CRM implementations in businesses
Q1. Staff training and behaviors
Q2. Distribution channels’ effectiveness
Q3. The cleanliness and design of the office
Q4. Flexibility in payment options
Q5. Business image
Q6. Business activity quality
Q7. Intent of gaining competitive advantage
Q8. The request of cost reductions
Q9. Idea of customer retention
Q10. Determination of future customer expectations
Q11. Effective service management
Q12. Globalization and recent advances in informa-
tion technology
Q13. Honest and frequent communications
Q14. Idea of increasing revenues
Q15. Long-term customer relations
Q16. Idea of gaining new customers
Q17. Product and service quality
Q18. Successful resolution of customer complaints
Q19. Acquainting customers with utilizing products
and services
Q20. Database, data warehousing and data mining
Q21. Sales force automation
Q22. New product development
Q23. Utilizing travel agencies and tour operators
Q24. Designing CRM oriented web sites
Q25. Others
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