ABSTRACT Customer relationship marketing or CRM is a fundamental strategy in retaining and attracting new customer.

In the Hotel industry interacting with the customer is most essential job of the management. To do this CRM strategy is very much effective and helpful. With the exploration of the information technology many organizations are focusing E-CRM instead of traditional CRM. This study will explore the benefits and competitive advantage of the E-CRM and also examine using E-CRM instead of CRM is how much cost effective. In the literature review a theoretical framework about CRM and E-CRM will be developed. How way this research will be conducted will be explained in the research methodology. Finally research findings and analysis will be provided in the last chapter.

Research Title: Effect of E-Customer relationship marketing on chain Hotel Accor group in Central London

Table of Contents Contents CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH 1.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.5 RATIONALE BEHIND THE CHOSEN RESEARCH TOPIC Page No. 4 4 4 5 5 6

1.6 PROPOSED STUDY STRUCTURE

1.7 BACKGROUND OF THE CASE COMPANY CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 CRM AND E-CRM 2.2.1 FUNCTIONALITY OF CRM 2.2.2 E-CRM STRATEGY COMPONENTS 2.3 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRM AND E-CRM 2.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CRM 2.4.1 ADVANTAGES: 2.4.2 DISADVANTAGES OF CRM: 2.5 CRM IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 2.6 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH CRM: 2.7IT (INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY) ROLE IN CRM: CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY 3.1 OVERVIEW 3.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY 3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH 3.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY

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7 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 15 15 15 15 15

3.5 CASE SELECTION 3.6 DATA COLLECTION METHOD & TOOL

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS & PRESENTATION METHOD

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3.8 ANTICIPATED LIMITATIONS

3.9 VALIDITY 3.10 RELIABILITY CONCLUSION

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16 16 17

REFERENCES

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH Today business organizations are imposing their attention on customer-focused business strategy instead of product-focused business strategy. The technological development further boosts this idea. Many companies mostly Hotel companies are investing greatly in technologies which enable a customer-focused relationship marketing strategy. Accor Hotel in UK is not beyond of this. All of their hotel brands are following CRM and with the trend of time & exploration of information system they are using Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing (ECRM). The main purpose of this research is to evaluate whether using E-CRM is advantageous, cost effective, offering competitive advantages compare to traditional CRM. CRM is a customer relationship marketing strategy. When information technology is used with this strategy it is called E-CRM. To smooth the progress of the implementation of CRM researchers developed E-CRM from the Internet and web technology.

In the context of Internet distribution and marketing in the hospitality and travel verticals, Electronic customer relationship marketing (E-CRM) is a business strategy supported by Web technologies, which allow travel services suppliers to engage customers in strong, personalized and mutually beneficial interactive relationships, increase conversions and sell more efficiently. The implication of the www for electronic customer relationship marketing (E-CRM) is well recognized. This research will examine the use of the internet with the CRM in the Accor hotel groups in the UK to attain competitive advantage on- line, at the same time as others only use their websites for information and reservation purposes.

1.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE The purpose of this research is to evaluate the E-CRM strategy of the Accor hotel in the Hospitality industry. How E-CRM is offering different benefits and competitive advantages to the Accor hotel. The purpose of this research is also to identify any problem facing Accor hotel in using E-CRM.

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: The researcher will achieve following objectives throughout the research 1. To link various theories with the E-CRM; 2. To identify what type of benefits and competitive advantages are available to the Accor hotel group using E-CRM in London; 3. To evaluate how information technology can be by used Accor hotel in customer relationship marketing; 4. To examine the cost effectiveness of E-CRM; 5. To identify the problems facing Accor hotel in using E-CRM.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS: Information technology is exploring day by day. Thereby hotel companies have the opportunities to integrate this with the CRM. To investigate the overall performance of E-CRM in the hotel industry following questions needed to be answered: 1. What are the benefits and opportunities of E-CRM over the traditional CRM in London hotels? 2. How information technology can be by used Accor hotel in customer relationship marketing

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

in London? Is it cost effective to use E-CRM? Are the satisfaction levels of the hotel customers increasing because of using E-CRM? Is the hotel facing problem by using e-CRM other than traditional CRM? How E-CRM brings competitive advantage? How E-CRM strategies strengthen the customer-business relationship?

1.5 RATIONALE BEHIND THE CHOSEN RESEARCH TOPIC

Today is the age of information technology. Organizations can take the benefits of using such technology effectively in their business activities. Customer relationship marketing is imperative to make an effective and profitable relation with the customer. Using information technology organization specifically hotel companies can strengthen CRM. Now a hotel has to know how technology will differentiate its traditional CRM and brings competitive advantages. For this a study on the usage of E-CRM is very essential and contemporary. Thereby this research topic is very much logical.

1.6 PROPOSED STUDY STRUCTURE

Chapter 1: introduction-research background, purpose, objectives, rationale of the research topic, and background of the case company. Chapter 2: literature review-introduction, CRM and E-CRM, functionality of CRM, E-CRM strategy components, difference between CRM and E-CRM, advantages and disadvantages of CRM, CRM in hospitality industry, competitive advantage through E-CRM: IT (information technology) role in CRM Chapter 3: research methodology- overview, research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, data collection method, data analysis tools, case selection, validity, reliability. Chapter 4: findings and analysis Chapter 5: conclusion

1.7 BACKGROUND OF THE CASE COMPANY Accor group in Central London Accor hotel, a global player and European leader in hotels, is doing hotel business in 100 countries. Accor has been operated business in this industry for over 40 years and it has more than 150000 employees across the world Accor has entered as the pioneer in prepaid programs with the formation of PrePay Solutions, born of an alliance with MasterCard Europe in near the beginning of 2009. Accor did this when it acquired Prepay Technologies Ltd. Being the UK market leader in prepaid cards allowing realtime payment, Accor Services became the only company in the market capable of providing an integrated solution across all links in the value chain, from the marketing and technological design of prepaid electronic services to their distribution. Accor today is able to provide services; such asHand out a wide array of products by leveraging the platforms flexibility; Access an widespread range of sales outlets, thanks to PrePay Technologies certification as a MasterCard Member Service provider; Issue e-money in 17 European countries.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

E-CRM is resulting from E-commerce. Growing from a simple form, E-CRM is the electronic form of CRM that is used to collect and integrate the customer related information. It is high costly and needed effective employee to prepare it. Usually consequence of E-CRM is different to different organizations. IBM Business Consulting Services called E-CRM as right E-CRM and ways successful CRM. Actually the meaning of E-CRM is not same to all the people.

E-CRM is an important marketing business strategy that is prepares to connect the customer in a commonly effective relationship with management which is the online or internet application of Customer Relationship Management.

According to Lauren Keller Johnson, since the internet is flattering more and more important in business life, many companies consider internet as an opportunity to reduce customer-service costs, squeeze customer relationships and additional personalize marketing messages and enable mass customization. E-CRM is the process of utilizing the information technology for the combination of all the resources of organization both internal and external to identify and fulfill the needs of customers. To reduce customer service cost some businesspersons use internet. In E-CRM different types of electronic methods are used to gather data and analyze customer information.

2.2 CRM AND E-CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is made for getting information about all the customers of their organization. Different definitions of different author are needed to clarify CRM. CRM always helps in continuing and gradual improvement of relationship of the customers and management and it also maximize the revenue of the organization with excellent employees and consumers alert program. According to Bose, 2002 CRM is an enterprise wide incorporation of technologies and functions such as data warehouse, websites, intranet or extranet, telephone support system, accounting, sales, marketing and production. Swift, 2001 said that, CRM is an enterprise approach for accepting and influencing customer behavior through meaningful communications to improve customer acquisition, customer retention, customer loyalty and customer profitability. According to Bergeron, 2004, E-CRM is customer relationship management on the web and includes the use of e-mail, e-commerce activity and any other internet based touch points. E-CRM is the form of CRM that use web, e-mail, e-commerce and internet based activities to gather and analyze the customer related information.

2.2.1 FUNCTIONALITY OF CRM

CRM is very important marketing tool for the organization. The availability of information depends on the instruments which are used for E-CRM of the organization and purposes of CRM. Normally Functionality of this CRM instruments is as follows:

1. Assigning actions for the users of different levels. 2. Keeping evidence and rank for every task and transactions of the organization and all the receipt and token should be kept. 3. Classifying the communicational level and keep it until the actions is finished.

Any employee within the organization can easily get the communication information any time they needed to update the current status to improve the quality of CRM. Customers feel that they are VIP and important customers because of the caring and sharing attitude of the employees of the organization. Employees always remain conscious about all the matter of the customers. By using E-CRM system organizations get some benefits. For example any employee within the organization can access the record of information any time and if it is necessary they can update this information.

2.2.2 E-CRM STRATEGY COMPONENTS

According to Reponen & Tapio, 2003, there are three E-CRM strategy components, while enterprises put together information of their customers.

1. Operational strategy: For sharing information, E-CRM of the organization at first need to realize the need of the customers and then fulfill the demands. For this reason operational strategy is needed. 2. Logical strategy: Normally analysis assists organization to continue better customer management relationship for their organization. 3. Mutual strategy: For the better communication technology different departments of the organization need to maintain a collaborative strategy. For the sharing information mutual strategy is needed. Different departments of the company maintain collaboration between intraorganizational and inter-organizational relationship.

2.3 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRM AND E-CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) integrates information about customers for the organization. E-CRM also integrates information about customers by usin internet, email, web and modern technologies.

Criterion CRM E-CRM To remain Close In CRM employees collect information In E-CRM employees collect to Customers about customers by using phone, fax and information about customer by personal relationship. using internet and website. In E-CRM customers dont In CRM customers need various software need any software and and application to maintain relationship application to maintain with organization. relationship with organization. Customization of Customization of information of customers In E-CRM Customization of information of is not always available in the CRM information of customers is customers system. always available. Various Application Design of system is made on the basis of demand of customers. In E-CRM preservation and preservation and In CRM preservation and adaption of the adaption of the system takes adaption of the system takes more time and money and it minimum time and money and system needs various servers to maintain it. it needs one server to maintain it. Design of system In CRM system is made on the basis of products.

These are the differences between CRM and E-CRM. These differences are constant but very significant.

2.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CRM 2.4.1 Advantages: The main objective of an organization is to maximization of profit. To earn more profit organizations need to know about the customers. So CRM is very essential part of the organization. CRM has different advantages and disadvantages. Advantages can be classified by three ways. These are as follows:

Impact of CRM to the revenue and profitability of the organization:

1. CRM helps organization to acquire and hold customer for long time. Gray and Byun, 2001) 2. For fractious promotion CRM play a great role (Gray and Byun, 2001) 3. CRM Maximize the lifetime value of customer for the organization (Gray and Byun, 2001)

CRM reduce and save the cost:

1. CRM improve the quality of products according to the needs of customers. ( Gray and Byun, 2001) 2. To increases cost effectiveness marketing consultations help greatly. ( Gray and Byun, 2001) 3. CRM increases cost effectiveness for serving consumers. ( Gray and Byun, 2001)

Organizational impact for CRM:

1. Effectively managing organizational customers relationship (Jiang,2003) 2. CRM Increases brand loyalty (Jiang,2003) 3. To attain competitive advantages ( Thompson, 2004)

2.4.2 Disadvantages of CRM: CRM also has some disadvantages. For these disadvantages many organizations are not interested about CRM.

1. The main disadvantage of CRM is more expenses and more time. Obtaining software as well as hardware instruments is very costly and time needed. (Paul Gillin, 2007); 2. Customers cannot expect having control over customization and upgrades analogous to onsite installation. (Paul Gillin, 2007); 3. Sometimes customers expect the control over customization and not interested to provide the actual information.

2.5 CRM IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Normally CRM is implemented in some parts specifically in Hospitality Industry, Hotel Industry and Tourism. Now, in this study they are studied in detail. Tourism Organization basically defines the tourists or the people who travel and stay in different places for the purpose of business or leisure. Now a days hotel industries become more complex. Main reasons are- 1. Numbers of categories are very large in hotel industry. 2. Association and management is very complex in hotel industry. 3. Normally hotel industries are maintained and operated by individuals. Chon and Sparrowe, 2000 said that, Tourism is prolonged to a very large extent claiming that it has become a huge provider for jobs. Normally hospitality industry comes from tourism industry. It is usually think that restaurant and hotel are established for the entertainment of the visitors. Powers and Barrows, 1999, said that, hospitality not only includes hotels and restaurants it also refers to the institutes that provide food and shelter to the people. Hotel industry contains enterprises ranging as of small to large firms which provides an efficient contribution to national and international economy.

The main sectors of a Tourism Industry (Olsen, 1996)

2.6 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF CRM:

Many organizations of Europe are not fast in the application of CRM. For maintaining proper relationship with customers many of non-European organizations become successful in their tasks. The impact of CRM in the success of the organization is very important. To compete with the competitors employees must know about the customers and anticipate them at the very beginning of the business. To attain the lead position European organizations now try to adopt the opportunities of CRM. They use internet and other technologies to maintain a connection with their customers. Certainly E-CRM provides an optimum opportunity to improve the marketing opportunities and customer management relationship. E-CRM always keeps the updated information about the customers. Manufacturers also use internet and other technologies to maintain E-CRM. For the overall customer satisfaction employees keep the information and use it for the production, marketing and selling purposes. Now organizations use different types of modern technologies of the E-CRM. Traditional technologies and knowledge become less unproductive so people are now use E-CRM. Now a days many Asian organizations are also use E-CRM for maintaining and integrating information about actual and potential customers. Many of them are becoming successful in their work then others are motivated to maintain the ECRM in their organizations. Excluding value of E-CRM goes way further than cutting cost. For the most effective E-CRM investment is necessary to make complete scenery of an individual customer.

2.7IT (INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY) ROLE IN CRM:

IT (information technology) plays an important role for effective CRM. Data warehousing and data mining are most established and extremely required systems for providing CRM capabilities. As well as this, it is used for defining, increasing and organizing the segment of one. This is for the reason that serving to wade through the volumes of the progression and it is used for decoding the information. According to Chaffey, 2003, Patterns and associations from dissimilar data in the form of bits, they are essential and precious tools for the consumer demographics, trade patterns,

advertise segments, involvement restrictions, consumer lifetime, etc.

ICT (information and communication technology) is a tool used for storing consumer data. The communication could be done in many ways like call center, website etc. ICT also facilitates in creation of secure client record. Like many technologies, CRM has been talented by merchant advertise and stories of realization collapse.

A latest ICT infrastructure is obligatory for the organization. It is also helps to secure the records of the customers. The success of customer relationship management relies on the collection and analysis of customer related information. For the large organizations ICT is very important than small organizations. Both the customers and management get benefits from CRM because customers get better services and products and management can reduce the costs.

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 OVERVIEW In research methodology generally a technical framework is explained through which research is conducted. Research philosophy, research approach and research strategy have been explained in this chapter. Based on this research framework a research will be conducted on the Accor hotel. 3.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY According to Saunders et al (2008) research philosophy may be positivism, realism and interpretivism. As the researcher is conducting a study in which he will evaluate how E-CRM affects hotel business the interpretivism philosophy will be used by the researcher. 3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH There are two research approaches - deductive or quantitative approach and the inductive or qualitative approach (Saunders et al., 2007). The deductive or quantitative approach is suitable for quantitative data analysis (Saunders et al., 2007). To get an apparent understanding on the usage of Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing in the hotel industry qualitative research approach will be used. According to Saunders et al., (2007) qualitative approach is very much effective for qualitative data. 3.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY According to Yin (1994) there are mainly five types of research strategies; such as Surveys, Case studies, Experiments, Histories, and Archival analysis. In this study the researcher will use the case study strategy.

3.5 CASE SELECTION To conduct the study on usage of E-CRM in the hotel industry the researcher has chosen Accor Hotel Group in the central London. 3.6 DATA COLLECTION METHOD & TOOL
In conducting a research data can be collected from the secondary source and the primary source.

Secondary Data When the data has been already collected by other party it is called secondary data. In this research secondary data will be collected from-internet, journals, articles, text books etc. Primary Data Primary data will be collected through an online questioner. 3.7 DATA ANALYSIS & PRESENTATION METHOD As this study is based on the qualitative data the researcher will analyze the collected data using his or her subjective judgment to identify whether E-CRM in hotel industry is effective and beneficial.

3.8 ANTICIPATED LIMITATIONS

The limitation of this study is that analysing the E-CRM performance of only one hotel is not sufficient to evaluate the usage of E-CRM in the hotel industry in the central London. 3.9 VALIDITY Validity is the concerned about whether the findings of the research are consistent with what they are. Validity of this study will be achieved by conducting an effective interview with respective authority. 3.10 RELIABILITY Reliability is the assurance that if a same study will be conducted by other party the result will support the earlier study. To increase the reliability of this study the researcher will himself conduct the interview. CONCLUSION: Customer relationship marketing or CRM is a fundamental strategy in retaining and attracting new customer. In the Hotel industry interacting with the customer is most essential job of the management. To do this CRM strategy is very much effective and helpful. The technological development further boosts this idea. Many companies mostly Hotel companies are investing greatly in technologies enabling a customer-focused relationship marketing strategy. Accor Hotel in UK is not beyond of this. All of their hotel brands are following CRM and with the trend of time & exploration of information system they are using Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing (E-CRM). The main purpose of this research is to evaluate whether using E-CRM is advantageous, cost effective, offering competitive advantages compare to traditional CRM.

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