Electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM): Customers’ perception of value from eCRM features on airline e-ticketing Websites

Abstract: Companies can observe increase in profit, if the customers are in stronger
relationship with them due to the very well known fact that cost of
getting a customer is five to eight times of maintaining an existing
customer. Traditional marketers have been using Customer Relationship
Management techniques to address these issues. To address this issue in an
online environment the latest technique which the companies are using is
Electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM). It is emphasized by
researchers that every organization should educate themselves about eCRM.
All the eCRM features are not important to be presented on the websites
for customer satisfaction and profitability of the company due to the fact
that implementation of these features may be very costly for the company.
Therefore successful implementation of eCRM applications (webbased
applications) is important and beneficial for both customers and
companies. Problem discussion derives the need of determining customer
value online from different features of eCRM. For our research travel
industry was chosen due to its attractiveness in the online business
environment. The number of customers who buy online airline tickets is
increasing day by day making it one of the strongest performing sectors of
e-Commerce. Major challenge for online travel firms is to retain customers
by building effective relationship strategies. Due to the competitive
nature of the online travel industry and for the successful implementation
of eCRM applications it was necessary to know the customers’ value
perceptions about the different features of eCRM. Findings of the study
shows that all the features were not important for customer satisfaction,
at the same time, websites were not providing all the features discussed
by theory where as customers’ showed their willingness to use those fea-
tures if provided. It is also discovered that after sale services, which
can cause customer retention, were not provided efficiently. Customer in
our study was chosen as students. Students have been the subject matter
consumer behavior research in many studies.