Categorizing South African SMEs according to customer relationship building practices

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly important for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to build relationships with their customers. Relationship building is supported by collecting up to date information on the customer, the service rendered and the satisfaction with the product. Recent previous literature on customer relationship management seem to focus on how technology can assist with relationship building but there is a gap in the knowledge as to how South African SMEs go about building relationships and collecting feedback from customers. Quantitative self-administered online survey was sent to small business owners that are registered with an official state institution for SME’s in South Africa. Based on the results SMEs can be categorised as average presumers, passive respectors ordo-it-all-right’ers based on how they build relationships and collect feedback from customers.