More than three quarters of European customer relationship
management (CRM) users are planning to enhance their investments
this year despite the recession, says analyst Gartner.
These projects will focus on improving customer retention and
increasing wallet share, said the analyst.
Gartner
surveyed nearly 90 European business and IT leaders who
influenced the CRM strategy in their organisation.
"The responses indicated that some budgets for CRM initiatives
were negatively impacted, but earlier budget allocations for CRM
initiatives largely remained in place," said Gartner analyst Chris
Pang.
"It was clear that many projects such as implementation of
direct marketing tools, customer analytics, and customer service
and support capabilities are too strategically or tactically
important to be suddenly abandoned."
Gartner estimates that CRM spending in 2009 will not decline as
dramatically as it did after 2000 - the last slump - but that
growth will be more moderate than in previous years.
It forecasts that the European CRM software market will reach
$3.5bn in 2009, an increase of 4% from 2008.
The survey respondents also reported that their primary
objectives for their CRM programmes were first, to enhance
cross-selling or upselling of products and services, second, to
increase customer satisfaction, and third, to increase sales
revenue.
"These objectives take on added importance in a downturn because
the cost and effort needed to sell to existing customers is often
less than that for acquiring new ones," said Pang.
Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis during the
Gartner Customer
Relationship Management Summit 2009, 3-4 March, at the Royal
Lancaster hotel in London.
